In the glittering world of 1920s Paris, where champagne flowed freely and jazz filled the air, one woman captured the imagination of a nation – and later helped save it. Josephine Baker, with her daring performances and magnetic charisma, became the highest-paid entertainer in Europe. But beneath the sequins and feathers lay the heart of a warrior, a woman who would risk everything to protect her adopted homeland during its darkest hours.
Dancing Her Way to Freedom
In 1925, when nineteen-year-old Josephine Baker first stepped onto Parisian soil, she was just another chorus girl fleeing the racial segregation of America. But Paris, with its liberal attitudes and appreciation for Black artists, would transform this St. Louis native into an international sensation. What nobody could have predicted was how this transformation would later serve the Allied cause during World War II.
The Rise of La Baker
The Paris that embraced Josephine was in the midst of its obsession with Art Deco and jazz, perfectly timed for her arrival. Her debut at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in La Revue Nègre created an immediate sensation. When she performed the Danse Sauvage wearing nothing but a skirt of artificial bananas, Paris found its new queen of the avant-garde.
What made Josephine Baker different wasn’t just her provocative performances. She brought something entirely new to European stages – a combination of comedy, sensuality, and athletic dance moves that left audiences spellbound. She would cross her eyes, contort her body, and make outrageous faces while performing complex dance routines. This ability to be both sexy and silly, sophisticated and comic, made her unique among the entertainers of her time.
Beyond the Banana Skirt
By 1927, Josephine Baker was the highest-paid entertainer in Europe. She opened her own nightclub, Chez Josephine, where the elite of Paris would gather. Ernest Hemingway called her the most sensational woman anyone ever saw. She received thousands of marriage proposals and even had a pet cheetah named Chiquita, who wore a diamond collar and occasionally escaped into the orchestra pit during her performances.
But Josephine was more than just a performer. She learned to speak five languages fluently, became a licensed pilot, and was the first Black woman to star in a major motion picture (the 1927 silent film Siren of the Tropics). She used her wealth to buy a castle in the Dordogne region of France, which she called Les Milandes.
The Transition to Spy
When World War II broke out, Josephine Baker was at the height of her fame. The French counterintelligence service approached her with a proposition: Would she be willing to use her status as an entertainer to gather information about Nazi officials? Josephine didn’t hesitate. “France made me what I am,” she said. “I will be grateful forever. The people of Paris have given me everything… I am ready, Captain, to give them my life.”
Operations and Close Calls
Josephine Baker’s espionage work was ingenious in its simplicity. She would perform for Nazi officials and diplomatic gatherings, charming her way into conversations and parties. After these events, she would write down everything she had heard and seen in invisible ink on her sheet music. The notes would then be smuggled out by her band members.
One of her most daring operations involved hosting a party for Japanese officials at her castle. While entertaining them, she managed to overhear crucial information about German submarine bases in French ports. She passed this information to British intelligence through the Resistance network.
The Art of Deception
Josephine Baker’s tours through neutral Portugal and Spain were particularly valuable to the Allied cause. She would pin secret messages to her underwear, knowing that her status as a celebrity would prevent thorough searches at borders. She carried photographs of German military installations hidden in her dress, and official documents were written in invisible ink on her sheet music.
In one particularly tense moment in Lisbon, Josephine was questioned by German officials about some photographs in her possession. She played up her stage persona, flirting and acting ditzy, convincing them that they were merely publicity shots for her shows. In reality, they contained information about German troop movements.
All my life, I have maintained that the people of the world can learn to live together in peace if they are not brought up in prejudice.
Josephine Baker
Beyond Entertainment
Josephine’s contribution to the war effort went beyond gathering intelligence. She performed for Free French troops in North Africa, often without payment. She used her castle as a safehouse for Resistance members and helped Jewish refugees escape occupied France by providing them with visas through her connections in neutral countries.
She was awarded the Croix de Guerre and the Rosette de la Résistance and was made a Chevalier of the Légion d’honneur by General Charles de Gaulle himself. When he presented her with the medals, he said, “France makes you a Knight of the Legion of Honor. This is the first time that a Black woman has received such a distinction.”
The Personal Cost
Her wartime activities took a toll on her health. She suffered a miscarriage after a particularly stressful mission and developed peritonitis that nearly killed her. Yet she continued her work, driven by her love for France and her hatred of fascism.
After the war, Josephine Baker returned to the United States to support the Civil Rights Movement, refusing to perform for segregated audiences. She adopted twelve children from different countries, creating what she called her Rainbow Tribe to prove that people of different races could live together harmoniously.
Legacy of the Black Pearl
Josephine Baker’s legacy is complex and multifaceted. She was a groundbreaking performer who challenged racial and sexual boundaries, a brave resistance fighter who risked her life for her adopted country, and a civil rights activist who fought against discrimination until her death in 1975.
Surely the day will come when color means nothing more than the skin tone, when religion is seen uniquely as a way to speak one’s soul, when birth places have the weight of a throw of the dice and all men are born free, when understanding breeds love and brotherhood.
Josephine Baker
10 Lesser-Known Facts About Josephine Baker
- She had a private zoo at Les Milandes that included a monkey who was addicted to aspirin and had to go through detox.
- During one mission, she hid resistance messages in her child’s diaper bag, knowing that no one would thoroughly search a baby’s belongings.
- She developed a special perfume called Bakair that was sold exclusively at her nightclub.
- Despite her fame, she worked as a cleaning lady in London for several weeks to gather intelligence about German sympathizers.
- She invented a special face cream for Black women and planned to market it before the war interrupted her business plans.
- During her performances for Allied troops, she would sometimes include coded messages in her song choices.
- Her castle had secret passages and hidden rooms specifically designed for hiding refugees and resistance fighters.
- She once smuggled military plans by pinning them inside the elaborate headdresses she was famous for wearing.
- After the war, she received special permission to wear her military uniform for the rest of her life, though she rarely did so.
- She kept a detailed diary of her spy activities written in a code that mixed multiple languages – it wasn’t fully deciphered until the 1990s.
Trivia That Shaped Her Story
- Josephine Baker was actually born Freda Josephine McDonald and took the name Baker from her second husband.
- Her pet cheetah wore a diamond collar and often slept in her bed.
- She could pilot both airplanes and boats, skills that proved useful during her intelligence work.
- Despite her wealth, she always carried a roll of toilet paper in her purse – a habit from her poverty-stricken childhood.
- She preferred to sleep during the day and stay awake at night, even when not performing.
Her story remains a testament to the extraordinary possibilities that arise when talent meets courage, and how entertainment can serve as the perfect cover for resistance. In an era where spies were typically male and white, Josephine Baker proved that the most effective agent might be the one hiding in plain sight, dressed in feathers and rhinestones, dancing across the stages of Europe while fighting for freedom.
