Speaker 1: This episode features some sensitive material about sexual coercion and
Speaker 1: exploitation that may be uncomfortable for some listener. Discretion is advised.
Speaker 1: She was tiny, she was captivating, and she was also very,
Speaker 1: very old. When Johann Vernon plucked her from the Danube
Speaker 1: River soil near the village of villen Dorf in Austria,
Speaker 1: he knew that she was something special. Standing at four
Speaker 1: and a half inches tall, he held her in the
Speaker 1: palm of his hand. She had a ruddy tint to
Speaker 1: her braided hair and a big belly. At tens of
Speaker 1: thousands of years old, she became one of the oldest
Speaker 1: known Paleolithic artifacts, and she's not alone. In fact, she's
Speaker 1: one of dozens of similar figurines that archaeologists have found.
Speaker 1: But who was she really Maybe she was modeled after
Speaker 1: a living woman. Maybe she was a self portrait of
Speaker 1: the artist. Some have even suggested that her wide hips
Speaker 1: and large breasts suggest that she was a fertility fetish.
Speaker 1: It's hard to say. We can never really know. The
Speaker 1: truth is. The archaeology is a discipline of best guesses.
Speaker 1: It has long been the purview of dominating cultures, who
Speaker 1: throughout history have taken their shovels, their dynamite and their
Speaker 1: packing crates, and helped themselves to whatever they wanted. This
Speaker 1: means that the interpretations of the objects and the stories
Speaker 1: we tell about them are always filtered through a contemporary lens.
Speaker 1: So when archaeologists looked at this pint sized woman, they
Speaker 1: just couldn't help but project their ideas and beliefs about
Speaker 1: sexuality and beauty onto her. They gave her a name,
Speaker 1: the Venus of Willendorff, and that name Venus is a
Speaker 1: very specific choice. It was meant to evoke a particular image,
Speaker 1: the goddess of beauty and the white marble bodies so
Speaker 1: favored by the Greco, Roman, Elite and Renaissance painters. But
Speaker 1: our Venus, tiny, red and round, stands in stark relief
Speaker 1: to this more contemporary Western idea of beauty. They are
Speaker 1: total opposites. We have to wonder what the archaeologists were
Speaker 1: hinting at. Because names hold power. They change how we see,
Speaker 1: They create our reality, and sometimes our name is something
Speaker 1: we don't get to choose for ourselves. I'm Aaron Manky,
Speaker 1: and welcome to this side show. Sarki Bartman looked back
Speaker 1: towards table mountain and thought of home. She had lived
Speaker 1: in Cape Town for a decade. By ten it had
Speaker 1: become a booming city, situated at the meeting of two
Speaker 1: different oceans, and for her two different lives. She never
Speaker 1: had much time to herself. Her life as domestic servant
Speaker 1: kept her busy, but her personal life was rich. She
Speaker 1: spoke multiple languages, frequented taverns, laughed with friends, and fell
Speaker 1: in love. Standing on the boat's deck, Sarky took a
Speaker 1: moment to daydream. She touched the tortoise shell necklace around
Speaker 1: her neck, and she closed her eyes. She thought of
Speaker 1: the storms barreling in off the eastern coast, and of
Speaker 1: her handsome father high on horseback. She pictured the faces
Speaker 1: of her family, her friends, all of whose land had
Speaker 1: been encroached upon, fought over, and stolen. The Dutch had
Speaker 1: been greedy, they had wanted everything. She pictured the chaos
Speaker 1: of the colonial frontier, the traders, the missionaries, the farmers,
Speaker 1: the dissidents, the scientists, and the explorers. She thought about
Speaker 1: the gun smoke that lingered over the valleys, and about
Speaker 1: the bloody raids on her home. And then one day,
Speaker 1: amidst all of this, something happened that would forever change
Speaker 1: the course of her life. She met a trader named
Speaker 1: Peter Caesar's and he decided that she would join him.
Speaker 1: Sarki was probably purchased from the Dutch landholders she worked for.
Speaker 1: Slavery was common in the colonies, although it was against
Speaker 1: the rules to enslave indigenous people. If Sarki was ever
Speaker 1: compensated for her labor, though, that's an unanswered question. She
Speaker 1: thought about the bleached human bones that she passed on
Speaker 1: her five hundred mile trek with Peter toward the colonial capital.
Speaker 1: They belonged to her neighbors in Cape Town. She moved
Speaker 1: from house to house, taking jobs in Peter's small network.
Speaker 1: She was installed in the home of his brother Henrik,
Speaker 1: his wife Anna Catherine, and their baby, all of whom
Speaker 1: worked for a fellow by the name of Alexander Dunlop.
Speaker 1: Alexander was a crusty fifty one year old surgeon at
Speaker 1: a local hospital. He had once traveled the world, but
Speaker 1: today he had a problem. You see, this was the
Speaker 1: end of the line for him and he knew it.
Speaker 1: Retirement was looming and with it imminent poverty. He was
Speaker 1: on the lookout for another way to make money. Another
Speaker 1: hustle if you will, and when he met Sarkee, his
Speaker 1: gears turned as an idea took shape. In that moment, rich,
Speaker 1: powerful countries were growing hungrier for foreign treasures they pillaged, plundered,
Speaker 1: and hoarded, and the general public wanted to see the
Speaker 1: fruits of their conquests and to visit museum's chock full
Speaker 1: of exotic wonders. And sometimes those wonders came in the
Speaker 1: form of people. England's newly acquired Cape Colony was an
Speaker 1: object of much European fascination, and in Alexander's mind, Sarkee
Speaker 1: morphed into a living, breathing artifact in Cape Town. The
Speaker 1: tiny woman looked much like other members of her tribe,
Speaker 1: dubbed the hotten Tots, which was a Dutch slur that
Speaker 1: meant to stammer. But in London she would be an anomaly.
Speaker 1: You see. By the end of the eighteenth century, European
Speaker 1: scientists had become fascinated with her people Careless Linnaeus, famous
Speaker 1: for his system of scientific classifications of genus and species,
Speaker 1: had categorized Sarkee's clan as Homo say Beans monstrous. According
Speaker 1: to him, her tribe, with their clicking language and striking
Speaker 1: physical features might be closer to animals than humans, the
Speaker 1: missing link, he suggested. Alexander wanted to take this idea
Speaker 1: and run with it. He wanted to make Sarky a
Speaker 1: star and make himself money, so he spun up a
Speaker 1: deal with Henrik and sark They would go on tour
Speaker 1: to England for six years and split the profits along
Speaker 1: the way. Now we don't know if Sarkey had any
Speaker 1: say in the matter, but we can hope that this
Speaker 1: new endeavor felt promising to her, although certainly not without
Speaker 1: a complicated power dynamic. She wasn't free, but she knew
Speaker 1: that she was freer than some, and with that they
Speaker 1: had a verbal agreement. The group would set sail in
Speaker 1: April of eighteen ten. The cold salt spray shook her
Speaker 1: from her day dream. The boat rocked beneath her, her
Speaker 1: sea legs held on table mountain. Now a mere speck
Speaker 1: in the distance was gone, dodging a tangle of sales
Speaker 1: and ropes. We can imagine her stretching out over the
Speaker 1: side of the ship and trying to catch a glimpse
Speaker 1: of what may lie ahead. Just out of you. She
Speaker 1: had left her home and poison arrived in Cape Town
Speaker 1: as a hot and tot and was leaving Cape Town
Speaker 1: as Sarkey. But soon she would be something else. Entirely,
Speaker 1: she would become the venus. Sarky could hear the crowd
Speaker 1: murmuring from her place behind the curtains. This, she told herself,
Speaker 1: is what she came for. A pipe clenched between her
Speaker 1: teeth and her head held high. She pulled her shoulders
Speaker 1: back and stepped onto stage, a platform in front of
Speaker 1: a glass hut, and then she struck a pose. It
Speaker 1: was September and the first day of the rest of
Speaker 1: her life. She was illuminated by oil lamps and looked
Speaker 1: like a golden goddess. She was draped in furs, beads,
Speaker 1: and feathers, a pint sized show girl dressed to the nines.
Speaker 1: Looking down from her stage, she met the audience with
Speaker 1: her firm stare. Some of them gocked, some of them winced.
Speaker 1: The crowd today had come to watch Sarkee pose, sing,
Speaker 1: and play her guitar. The room was packed with men
Speaker 1: in top hats and ladies with folded parasols. Human curiosities
Speaker 1: had become all the rage, and at two shillings ahead,
Speaker 1: the price to come see. Sarkey was well within the
Speaker 1: means of many city dwellers, and after all, she was
Speaker 1: the newest show in town. Piccadilly Circus was London's entertainment
Speaker 1: district at the time. It was known for a cultural
Speaker 1: slurry of science and showmanship. Entertainers doled out their latest acts,
Speaker 1: while scientists and explorers enthusiastically shared their new discoveries. The
Speaker 1: general public didn't really care or know how to differentiate.
Speaker 1: They just came to be entertained. Alexander had dubbed Sarkey
Speaker 1: the Hot and Taught venus the moniker, of course, being
Speaker 1: a reference to her figure. It denoted an explicit contradictory
Speaker 1: mixture of the savage ironic and the civilized beauty. Sure
Speaker 1: Londoners had seen Hot and Taught visitors before, but Alexander
Speaker 1: and Henrick were selling dreams of a natural wonder, a
Speaker 1: whole new species. They were playing to the imagination of
Speaker 1: the lowest common denominator. The audience was teased and tantalized.
Speaker 1: What an impeccable specimen, they thought, What an extraordinary body,
Speaker 1: and they whispered? Were the rumors about the size and
Speaker 1: shape of Hot and Taught Genitalia true. Her slick body
Speaker 1: stocking and strategically placed for pelts insinuated that it might be,
Speaker 1: and their plan worked. London descended into a fever pitch.
Speaker 1: The city loved her, and soon she went from being
Speaker 1: an unprotected, undocumented immigrant to a society darling seemingly overnight,
Speaker 1: the city was plastered with posters, cartoons of her, appeared
Speaker 1: in print papers, and published poetry about her. On briskfall
Speaker 1: Sunday afternoons, she began taking long carriage rides around the
Speaker 1: city to see and be seen. And two things happened
Speaker 1: that set a cascade of events in motion. First, a
Speaker 1: few weeks in, Sarky got the flu, and second, someone laughed. Now,
Speaker 1: I can only speak for myself, but I hate working
Speaker 1: when I'm sick, and I don't have to see anyone
Speaker 1: for Sarkee. On the other hand, the show had to
Speaker 1: go on. According to the story, she was in the
Speaker 1: middle of a performance, filling, worn out and feverish when
Speaker 1: someone in the audience heckled her. She swung at him
Speaker 1: with her guitar and can you blame her? But here's
Speaker 1: where it takes a turn. Henrick, who had modeled himself
Speaker 1: as her, agent in all of this seized the moment,
Speaker 1: declaring her to be wild as a beast. In fact,
Speaker 1: he reveled in her displeasure. After that, the audiences began
Speaker 1: watching more closely. She began to protest more, pushing back
Speaker 1: against Henrick and against irritating audience members as well. And
Speaker 1: then a few weeks into the show, a man by
Speaker 1: the name of Zachary Macauley showed up, adding a new
Speaker 1: level of conflict to her situation. Why because he was
Speaker 1: an abolitionist with a bone to pick. You see, he
Speaker 1: had grown up a slaver in Jamaica, but somewhere along
Speaker 1: the way he had a change of heart. Now he
Speaker 1: ran with a very small, very wealthy group of people
Speaker 1: who were trying to do away with slavery in the
Speaker 1: British colonies. As you might imagine, what he saw before
Speaker 1: him on that London stage looked very much like slavery.
Speaker 1: Zachary was furious. He fired off a letter to the press,
Speaker 1: wanting to prove that Sarky was enslaved. Alexander fired one back,
Speaker 1: though he wanted to know didn't she have as much
Speaker 1: right to show herself as an Irish giant or a dwarf.
Speaker 1: The ebolitionist Zachary questioned whether she could even consent to
Speaker 1: showing herself. He said that slavery was a matter of kind,
Speaker 1: not degree. So Alexander and Henrick quickly hired a lawyer
Speaker 1: to draft a written contract for Sarkey, and of course
Speaker 1: had it backdated to their departure from Cape Town months earlier.
Speaker 1: But in all of this, if you can believe it,
Speaker 1: no one asked Sarky about the matter. That was until
Speaker 1: the case went to trial on November ten. Picture this cold, drafty,
Speaker 1: dimly lit halls, pale skin, white wigs, and equally white men,
Speaker 1: all fighting over this woman, who, should they ask her,
Speaker 1: might actually have an opinion on the matter. Zachary had
Speaker 1: assumed that Sarki wanted to go home. He had also
Speaker 1: very incorrectly assumed that no one else around could speak
Speaker 1: enough of her language to ask her. But then, of
Speaker 1: course he figured he'd try. Right there in the courtroom,
Speaker 1: Sarki was read a translation of the contract twice. Then
Speaker 1: the prosecutors asked her if she'd preferred to stay in
Speaker 1: England or to return home. We can't know her body language,
Speaker 1: we don't know what sort of x sppression she wore,
Speaker 1: but the records do tell us what she said. She
Speaker 1: simply replied, stay here. Sarki later gave an interview to
Speaker 1: the court. She spoke of life in South Africa, of
Speaker 1: her childhood, and of her situation in London, and it
Speaker 1: is one of the only places that history has committed
Speaker 1: her words to the record. But the interview was conducted
Speaker 1: in her language, then translated to Dutch and finally to English,
Speaker 1: so we can only imagine how with each step in
Speaker 1: the process more and more of the true meaning was lost.
Speaker 1: And we're also left with some questions how openly and
Speaker 1: honestly could she actually speak? Did she live in fear
Speaker 1: of Alexander and Henrick or was she actually annoyed by
Speaker 1: the court for crimping her style during her shine Because remember,
Speaker 1: had she gone back to South Africa, she would have
Speaker 1: been classified as an imbecile, hot and taught by the government.
Speaker 1: There in London, she had the ability to earn money,
Speaker 1: fame and adoration. Clearly, freedom looked a lot different, pending
Speaker 1: on where she lived. By the end of that October,
Speaker 1: sark and her crew had won their right to keep exhibiting.
Speaker 1: Months later, in May of eighteen eleven, they closed their
Speaker 1: show and hit the road, and then suddenly and quietly,
Speaker 1: Alexander passed away in July of eighteen twelve. With him gone,
Speaker 1: Sark's contract was null and void. Any assurance that she
Speaker 1: would be able to return home to South Africa was gone,
Speaker 1: and it's here that history lost track of her and Henrik.
Speaker 1: When they finally resurfaced a while later in Paris, all
Speaker 1: was not well. Because Sarki was headed towards imminent danger.
Speaker 1: George Cuvier had a problem. He may have been a
Speaker 1: brilliant thinker, but he was also deeply flawed, deeply insecure,
Speaker 1: and deeply paranoid. His field was comparative biology, and while
Speaker 1: he may have helped Paris become the world center for
Speaker 1: the study of natural history, he wasn't resting on his laurels.
Speaker 1: He was competitive, and rather than seeing his colleagues as collaborators,
Speaker 1: he often saw them as frenemies. He was always looking
Speaker 1: for the next best thing. So when a poster of
Speaker 1: the Hot and Taught Venus arrived in his mailbox, along
Speaker 1: with an invitation to meet Sarkey in person, well it
Speaker 1: was a surprise that he declined. Sarki and a man
Speaker 1: going by the name Henry Taylor, believed by some historians
Speaker 1: to beat Henrik Caesar's under a false name, shrugged off
Speaker 1: the rejection. Despite the setback, Sarky and Henry went about
Speaker 1: setting up shop. Her appearance was announced in the Spectacles
Speaker 1: section of the newspaper, and in Paris, Sarki was exuberant.
Speaker 1: She initially took on the city with vigor and got
Speaker 1: to work, performing for up to ten hours a day.
Speaker 1: It was a busy schedule too. She performed in the theater,
Speaker 1: but also appeared in debaucherous late night salon's, elegant balls,
Speaker 1: and buzzing cafes and restaurants. But this energy wouldn't last
Speaker 1: for long. Sarki was burning out and she was sick
Speaker 1: again with another bout of flu plus pneumonia. Nothing could
Speaker 1: help her sleep, and no amount of brandy could help
Speaker 1: her exhaustion. By the end of eighteen fourteen, Sarki was
Speaker 1: confined to bed. She was too ill to keep performing,
Speaker 1: and Henry was too cheap to get her medical care
Speaker 1: that she clearly needed. He realized that despite all her
Speaker 1: hard work and hustle, his wallet was growing thin. She
Speaker 1: was becoming a liability, and after all this time, Henry
Speaker 1: realized that he was beholden to no one without Sark's knowledge.
Speaker 1: He sold his rights to the show, and then he
Speaker 1: slipped away, and just like that, her business partner and
Speaker 1: companion had vanished the sark It must have felt like
Speaker 1: a fever dream, a sickness induced hallucination, but it wasn't.
Speaker 1: We don't know much about the man who stepped in,
Speaker 1: but history remembers him as row, part dandy, part animal trainer,
Speaker 1: and part time animal resurrectionist. He was familiar with the
Speaker 1: underground body economy. Roe was well connected to the scientific world,
Speaker 1: and he wanted to make good on something Henry has
Speaker 1: suggested to him. Perhaps he should cut a deal with
Speaker 1: the Natural History Museum and attempt another audience with George Cuvier.
Speaker 1: The scientist and his cronies might be interested in Sarke.
Speaker 1: So Rowe approached him with his pitch, and this time
Speaker 1: George was all ears. We don't know what had changed
Speaker 1: since the first time, but it's clear that he had
Speaker 1: begun to see the possibilities that Sarki offered to the
Speaker 1: science of comparative anatomy, and so George made a visit
Speaker 1: to the newest iteration of her show. On stage, Sarky
Speaker 1: was caged. She appeared to be a held captive and
Speaker 1: was displayed alongside a baby rhino sitting standing lying down
Speaker 1: on command row. It seems had positioned himself as her trainer,
Speaker 1: and clearly he was in charge now that spring, Sarky
Speaker 1: strolled into the Chardon Duplants, passed its maze of gardens,
Speaker 1: squawking flamingos and desert cacti. Roe had signed her up
Speaker 1: to pose for George and his team of scientists, a
Speaker 1: still life made of flesh. They were more accustomed to
Speaker 1: painting plants and animals, but to be honest, Sarki wasn't
Speaker 1: that much different to them. Sarki, accustomed to the eyes
Speaker 1: of men, stood tall. They looked at her, and she
Speaker 1: looked back, but this time their eyes roamed in a
Speaker 1: way that suggested something a bit more sinister. The room
Speaker 1: glowed in that familiar lamplight, and the scratching of their
Speaker 1: charcoal captured her figure. And then they finally asked would
Speaker 1: she take off her clothes? Sarky felt the heat rise
Speaker 1: in her chest. How dare they? She had never once
Speaker 1: posed nude, and she wasn't about to start now. For
Speaker 1: all those years, her body Stocking merely gave the illusion
Speaker 1: of nudity, but that was all it was. But what
Speaker 1: these men were asking for was something completely different. For
Speaker 1: over two hundred fifty years, colonial travelers had old tales
Speaker 1: about female hot and taught bodies think locker room talk
Speaker 1: for sailors. But suddenly scientists wanted to know if they
Speaker 1: could use this lore in search of fact. They wondered
Speaker 1: if her body held the key to finally proving that
Speaker 1: South Africa's indigenous people were a distinctly different species than
Speaker 1: white Europeans. George's mind stirred as Sarky posed for him.
Speaker 1: He became obsessed with her, and he wanted to possess
Speaker 1: her body and all the secrets that had held Sarky resisted, though,
Speaker 1: and for three days she stood there still. They kept
Speaker 1: hounding her, hoping to wear her down. It didn't help
Speaker 1: that she was sick again. We can imagine the pressure
Speaker 1: cooker of her situation, the coercion, the fatigue, and the
Speaker 1: obviously disgusting behavior on the part of the men. And
Speaker 1: while I can't speak for women, I have to imagine
Speaker 1: the pressure of just wanting to stop was horrific and sadly,
Speaker 1: Sarky did what most women who feel pressure do. She relented,
Speaker 1: deciding it might be easier to just give the ugly,
Speaker 1: hungry men what they want. She agreed to disrobe, but
Speaker 1: still retained her modesty by using a handkerchief as her
Speaker 1: fig leaf. We don't know if Sarki knew this while
Speaker 1: standing there, but the truth was she was dying. She
Speaker 1: had never recovered from her illnesses that passed winter, and
Speaker 1: she was too worn down. She slipped from life in
Speaker 1: the early days of eighteen fifteen, the exact date unknown
Speaker 1: and the cause still debated by scholars. Like many of
Speaker 1: her stories, she took this one with her too. But
Speaker 1: then something really interesting happened, because although Sarki was gone,
Speaker 1: the venus lived on. You see what happened next was
Speaker 1: nothing short of ghastly. It turns out that Roe and
Speaker 1: Cuvier had cut a deal, so when Sarki died, Roe
Speaker 1: quickly wrapped up her body, put her in a cart,
Speaker 1: and brought her back to the lab, and at his workstation,
Speaker 1: Cuvier and his team got to work. They pressed knives
Speaker 1: into her skin, lopping off the top of her skull
Speaker 1: and excavating her brain, they stripped flesh from muscle. They
Speaker 1: carved out her chest and belly, removing her internal organs.
Speaker 1: And after that, the moment Cuvier had been waiting for arrived.
Speaker 1: He cut out Sark's genitalia. I'll spare you the most
Speaker 1: intimate details of this horrific violation, but when he was finished,
Speaker 1: he pickled her organs in a bell jar. He would
Speaker 1: take these pieces of her body, along with her reassembled skeleton,
Speaker 1: for his own possession. In fact, they would be displayed
Speaker 1: outside the door of his room until he died. Shortly
Speaker 1: after the dissection, he announced to the world that from
Speaker 1: his study of her body, he was able to conclude
Speaker 1: that the hot and toots were indeed closer relatives to
Speaker 1: primates than people. It was simple. He had concocted a
Speaker 1: confirmation to fit his hypothesis. It was all very convenient,
Speaker 1: and with this her body had become the example upon
Speaker 1: which the foundation for scientific racism was built, a theory
Speaker 1: from which eugenics appeared, a principle that fractured a great nation,
Speaker 1: and a rationalization from which the Nazis devised their final
Speaker 1: Lucian a school of thought that the world has never
Speaker 1: recovered from the soul of Sarkee was gone, and there
Speaker 1: are parts of her story that she took with her.
Speaker 1: To sit here in the age of information and still
Speaker 1: have questions about the basics. Well, it feels unfathomable, but
Speaker 1: it does make sense. After all, we have to remember
Speaker 1: who throughout history has largely controlled how the details were
Speaker 1: written down. We may never know her childhood name, or
Speaker 1: her birthday, or for who or what she may have grieved.
Speaker 1: Scholars have spent years trying to put together the missing
Speaker 1: pieces which have been spread across continents and across time,
Speaker 1: but the truth is those things might be gone forever,
Speaker 1: and for a long time after her death, Sarki was
Speaker 1: not allowed to rest. She had many visitors, of course,
Speaker 1: perhaps even more in death than in life. But even
Speaker 1: though the mortal Sarkee Bartman died, the specter of the
Speaker 1: hot and taught Venus lived on. Between eighteen twenty two
Speaker 1: and the nineteen fifties, her skeleton, body, cast brain and
Speaker 1: genitals were all on display at the Parisian Museum of
Speaker 1: Natural History. She went in and out of storage at
Speaker 1: various points after that, but in nineteen two, museum officials
Speaker 1: finally removed her from public viewing. Suddenly her display seemed wrong.
Speaker 1: In nineteen four, South African President Nelson Mandela began his
Speaker 1: efforts to have her repatriated. At first, France was hesitant.
Speaker 1: After all, if they sent Sarkee home, wouldn't it create
Speaker 1: a cascade of more and more repatriation requests. Would their
Speaker 1: museums even have artifacts left after it was all said
Speaker 1: and done. After a drawn out legal battle, the French
Speaker 1: Senate voted in two thousand to finally agree to Mandela's request.
Speaker 1: Her remains were careful, The packed transported back to the
Speaker 1: African continent and handed over to the people who had
Speaker 1: waited nearly one nine years for her return, the descendants
Speaker 1: of her family, her neighbors, and the friends she had
Speaker 1: known in life. Sark had finally come home. Returning home
Speaker 1: is a wonderful thing, and I'm so glad that even
Speaker 1: after all that time, Sarki was welcome back with open arms. Sadly,
Speaker 1: stories like hers aren't as rare as we'd like. And
Speaker 1: if you stick around through this brief sponsor break, my
Speaker 1: co producer Robin Minatur will share one more tale of
Speaker 1: bitter sweet homecoming. You can't please everyone, right, but this, well,
Speaker 1: this wasn't exactly the welcome that she had expected. It
Speaker 1: was Vienna, And as the ostrich pulling her carriage rounded
Speaker 1: the street corner, Josephine Baker knew this was going to
Speaker 1: be one tough audience. The faces waiting for her were
Speaker 1: twisted up and grimaces and sneers. They spatted her. The
Speaker 1: cries of black devil tore through her. Their words rang
Speaker 1: in the air and landed like sucker punches to her gut.
Speaker 1: With the National Socialist Party gaining popularity in parts of Europe,
Speaker 1: the crowd made it clear that there would be no
Speaker 1: room for black beauty in their empire. The Party would
Speaker 1: rise to power on the wings of a new racial
Speaker 1: science that had a place for the people who looked
Speaker 1: like her. She may have been the highest paid performer
Speaker 1: in all of Europe, but in that moment she felt
Speaker 1: like the small, scared servant girl she had once been
Speaker 1: under Jim Crow. And in that moment, in her carriage,
Speaker 1: she turned around and left. She went back to Paris
Speaker 1: and kept on dancing. Josephine had first shimmied onto the
Speaker 1: Parisian entertainment circuit as a nineteen year old, freshly arrived
Speaker 1: from New York City and in the bohemian city of
Speaker 1: Lights of the Roaring twenties. She was magnificent. She shocked
Speaker 1: an odd shrieking audiences with her kinetic energy, and she
Speaker 1: did it all herself too. She booked her own shows,
Speaker 1: She sold out theaters, and she commanded standing ovations. She
Speaker 1: became so popular that it said she received thousands of
Speaker 1: marriage proposals and a mountain of love letters. The tricks
Speaker 1: of her trade were well, let's just say, a bit
Speaker 1: different than most of ours. She had some rhinestones, some
Speaker 1: feather headdresses, a pet cheetah, and one very famous skirt
Speaker 1: made up of sixteen fake bananas. On stage, her body
Speaker 1: convulsed in a dizzying array of thrust and bucks and
Speaker 1: swivels and spins, and sometimes the set behind her was
Speaker 1: decked out as well, like a lush, green jungle paradise.
Speaker 1: It was said that she shook her backside as if
Speaker 1: it were an instrument, and of course to her it was.
Speaker 1: Her costumes and movement were all a celebration of her body,
Speaker 1: a reclamation of all of the hurtful caricatures and judgments
Speaker 1: that had been impressed upon her skin, and it was
Speaker 1: during one of her most famous numbers, called the Donce Savage,
Speaker 1: the Savage dance that she paid homage to her forebearer,
Speaker 1: to a woman who, roughly a century before, had also
Speaker 1: earned the love of Paris. The One and Only Sarki
Speaker 1: Bartman Sideshow was written by Robin Miniter, with production, narration
Speaker 1: and addie editing by me Aaron Mankey research for the
Speaker 1: series was done by Robin Minater, Taylor Haggerdorn, and Sam Alberty.
Speaker 1: Grim and Mild Presents was created in partnership with I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio. You can learn more about this show and
Speaker 1: everything else going on from Grim and mild over at
Speaker 1: grimm and mild dot com and, as always, thanks for listening.