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Speaker 1: Hello, delicious friends, and welcome to Who Did What Now?

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Speaker 1: The history podcast That's not your history class with me

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Speaker 1: your host Katie Charlewood, history Harlotte and reader of books.

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Speaker 1: So a comment on threads today made me cry, like,

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Speaker 1: not in a bad way, well kind of in a

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Speaker 1: bad way, because I don't like to feel human emotions.

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Speaker 1: If I can help it. I'm doing very well at

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Speaker 1: closing myself off to the world. But I made this

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Speaker 1: joke right about how I'll get like dms from like

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Speaker 1: people on like Facebook or whatever, and it goes along

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Speaker 1: the lines of I've searched everywhere for your podcast, help

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Speaker 1: me find your podcast. I've looked everywhere. I've searched and searched,

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Speaker 1: and nowhere across land and sea could have found it.

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Speaker 1: And so I'll always ask them, like what apps, Like

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Speaker 1: what podcasting apps are you looking at? Because like I'm

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Speaker 1: on the major ones, so like is it a distribution issue?

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Speaker 1: Like what do I need to fix here? Like it's

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Speaker 1: something wrong that I'm not searchable, because like, if you

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Speaker 1: can't find me, something's wrong. And so I'll ask them

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Speaker 1: and they'll respond with something like Facebook, oh, which, as

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Speaker 1: I'm sure those of you listening, no is not a

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Speaker 1: podcasting app. So I made that little like joke and

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Speaker 1: someone commented, I think it was like Chicano in Paris.

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Speaker 1: They said that they found I found your podcast and

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Speaker 1: scrolled through it, and when I saw you did an

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Speaker 1: entire episode on the Zoot Riots and then listened to it,

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Speaker 1: I was hooked and felt seen and had to let

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Speaker 1: you know that what you do fucking matters and thank you. Bye. See.

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Speaker 1: I'm kind of emotional now right. I'm not good at

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Speaker 1: taking compliments, even though I joke about how I survive

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Speaker 1: on caffeine in compliments and potatoes. But I'm just you know,

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Speaker 1: a wonderbread mayonnaise sandwich over here, you know a little

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Speaker 1: bit of seasoning. But I'm I'm a historian. I'm a sociologist.

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Speaker 1: I'm a here, friendly neighborhood social scientist. But I specialize

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Speaker 1: in you know, misinformation, propaganda, disinformation, sensationalism, and history. I

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Speaker 1: talk about the stuff that gets overlooked and hidden. And

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Speaker 1: there are so many facets and parts of history which

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Speaker 1: are so often misrepresented and dismissed. And so I try

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Speaker 1: and tell a full story. I try and give full context,

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Speaker 1: and I'll always work hard at doing that, and this

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Speaker 1: is probably the most serious most of you have ever

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Speaker 1: heard me be. But I'll always try. And when a

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Speaker 1: person of a particular group that you have discussed that

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Speaker 1: it's not your group, tells you that you're here doing

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Speaker 1: something right, it matters, and it means something to me.

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Speaker 1: And I I'm glad that I'm doing something right and

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Speaker 1: year in my kitchen rambling into my microphone. But I

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Speaker 1: know what you're thinking. You're thinking, KERRYE, quit your jibbl

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Speaker 1: jabba in fact me, in fact you, I will. But

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Speaker 1: we don't have to get our source on today because

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Speaker 1: again the sources are in the very first episode and

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Speaker 1: there's just so many. So time for a catch up

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Speaker 1: for episode whatever it is, Josephine Baker Part three, Death

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Speaker 1: of a Showgirl. I usual doing comfortably good. Then let's begin.

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Speaker 1: Guess we have to catch up on Josephine Baker and

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Speaker 1: in Hell. Born in Saint Louis, Missouri, to a black

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Speaker 1: mother and quite probably slash possibly slash most likely white father.

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Speaker 1: She grew up in poverty and resented by her mother,

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Speaker 1: and she escaped her home life by marrying two men

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Speaker 1: named Willy All. Before the age of fifteen, she fled

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Speaker 1: to New York, became a chorus girl, moved to Powers,

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Speaker 1: became a sensation, a movie starting actress or less performer,

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Speaker 1: and wrote her memoirs at the age of twenty one.

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Speaker 1: She had affairs with men, women, and a stone Mason

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Speaker 1: slash pretend count who got shot on the shoulder during

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Speaker 1: a duel for Josephine's affection. She gets a divorce, her

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Speaker 1: lover dies, She gets remarried and obtains French citizenship and

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Speaker 1: a new agent. She joins the Free French movement and

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Speaker 1: becomes a member of the French Resistance. When the Nazis

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Speaker 1: occupy France, show Girl turns by says people from Nazis

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Speaker 1: and gets divorced again. She fights segregation and almost dies

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Speaker 1: from surgery, and auctions off anuy to support people in need.

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Speaker 1: And that's what you missed on Glee. Oh okay. So

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Speaker 1: France has been liberated post Second World War and Josephine Baker,

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Speaker 1: for her efforts in the resistance, receives the cres de Girl,

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Speaker 1: the Rose de la Resistance, and she was made a

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Speaker 1: Chevalier of the Legions Donna Bachan Dugau. And while the

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Speaker 1: relationship had flourished under wartime pressures, Josephine and Jacques ab

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Speaker 1: Te went their separate ways, but love was never too

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Speaker 1: far out of reach for Josephine because she reconnected with

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Speaker 1: orchestra leader Jean Billion. He was smart, I mean like

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Speaker 1: he went to a music conservatory and he was like

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Speaker 1: chill and quiet, insensible, and he had a good business

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Speaker 1: head on him, which is like something she needs in

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Speaker 1: her life, because Josephine Baker was a diva. Like she

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Speaker 1: was a diva and she was creative and all of

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Speaker 1: the chaos that came with that. So Billion had accompanied

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Speaker 1: her on some of her early wartime shows, and Josephine

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Speaker 1: she was a darling of France and she wanted to

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Speaker 1: use her celebrity to fight racism, but first by doing

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Speaker 1: a few things at home, one of which was buying

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Speaker 1: and renovating the Chateau Lemela, the abode he had been

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Speaker 1: living in when Paris was occupied, because she planned to

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Speaker 1: raise a family there, like not just any family. She

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Speaker 1: wanted to have a multicultural, multi racial, multi religious family,

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Speaker 1: something that she referred to as like the brotherhood. She

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Speaker 1: thought that humankind was a brotherhood that we should all

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Speaker 1: be a part of, Like it's very idealistic. It's very idealistic,

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Speaker 1: but this is something she believed was possible, and she

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Speaker 1: thought that she could display this and bring it into

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Speaker 1: fruition and it would make people realize that, you know,

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Speaker 1: race is a social construct in that religion need not

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Speaker 1: divide us and all that jazz. So while that's been renovated,

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Speaker 1: like while her estate is being sorted, you know, she's

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Speaker 1: touring North Africa performing for troops who were still stationed there.

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Speaker 1: And while she's there, I don't know what it is

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Speaker 1: with Josephine and North Africa, but every time she goes there,

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Speaker 1: she has severe intestinal issues, so she has to have

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Speaker 1: surgery again. Like in the last episode, you know, she

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Speaker 1: said that she had been cut open so many times

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Speaker 1: they may as well have put in a zippa. And

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Speaker 1: when she's feeling, you know, a little bit more recuperated,

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Speaker 1: like after surgery, Josephine marries jo Billion on the third

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Speaker 1: of June nineteen forty seven. What just so happened to

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Speaker 1: be her forty first birthday. There's hope for me yet, lads,

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Speaker 1: there's hope for me yet. Maybe someone will want to

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Speaker 1: marry me, Maybe someone will want access to both the

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Speaker 1: UK and Europe because I got that yell sorry instead

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Speaker 1: of a regular honeymoon. Joe and Josephine performing Mexico with

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Speaker 1: his orchestra, and this is broadcast on the radio, like

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Speaker 1: this was a big deal at the time, like it was.

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Speaker 1: And they are so popular that they get invited to

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Speaker 1: perform at the Majestic Theater in Boston and and this

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Speaker 1: this tanks actually, like she doesn't have I'm gonna say,

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Speaker 1: a great amount of luck in the US, like for

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Speaker 1: all most of reasons, but one main one. If you

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Speaker 1: guessed racism, you guessed right. So like when she is

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Speaker 1: invited to speak at the all black UNI in Nashville,

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Speaker 1: so Fisk University, she discusses her experiences without prejudice when

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Speaker 1: she traveled and how she had racial equality in France,

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Speaker 1: so like, legally she had racial equality in France. But

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Speaker 1: let's not pretend there wasn't like microaggressions going on, because

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Speaker 1: you know, you know, we all know what happened at

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Speaker 1: the parade, you know, with the other soldiers. She just

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Speaker 1: happened to be France's darling. And we would be remiss

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Speaker 1: to say if the fact that she was a light

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Speaker 1: skinned black woman, like if colorism didn't come into it,

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Speaker 1: you know, and I think that plays a part in it. Like, now,

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Speaker 1: I wouldn't be the utmost authority on colorism, and I

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Speaker 1: don't think any white person can be. But it would

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Speaker 1: be ignorant if we didn't think that played a part

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Speaker 1: in it. So Josephine, she talks about how black people

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Speaker 1: have talent, but it's ignored by white people in America. Sorry.

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Speaker 1: At the time, what did I do that? Did I

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Speaker 1: do that? Did I do that? So this was the

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Speaker 1: start of her public speaking career, and she goes to

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Speaker 1: return to France, but before she does, she invites her

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Speaker 1: family to come back with her to escape, you know,

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Speaker 1: racial prejudice in the United States. Not like that's a

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Speaker 1: thing that could be happening now. Sorry. So her mother, Carrie,

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Speaker 1: she had remarried again and her latest husband did not

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Speaker 1: want to emigrate, like he flat out refused. But Carrie,

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Speaker 1: who was you know, much older now, she decided to say,

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Speaker 1: fuck that for a game of soldiers, Like, I'm sorry,

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Speaker 1: if your husband doesn't want to go to Paris with you,

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Speaker 1: I feel like that's a hymn problem, okay, And so

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Speaker 1: she says fuck this for gem of Soldiers and she's

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Speaker 1: going right, and Carrie McDonald never returned to the USSA

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Speaker 1: like that was her done. And so she goes over.

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Speaker 1: But then so do like her children, So Josephine's siblings,

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Speaker 1: and so they move over to so they move over

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Speaker 1: to the dilemma and they're doing the estate and they

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Speaker 1: and like it's a big estate. There's stuff on it,

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Speaker 1: there's I think she gives one of her brothers like

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Speaker 1: a petro station, a gas station type thing, and so

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Speaker 1: they're like they're earning keep, but they're they're there, you know.

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Speaker 1: And Josephine this is her way of caring for her family,

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Speaker 1: Like this is what she's trying to do, Like she's

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Speaker 1: got the means to do so at this point. And

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Speaker 1: I think for her this was a way of healing

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Speaker 1: old ones, you know, the way that she was raised,

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Speaker 1: everything that she was brought up with. And not to

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Speaker 1: excuse the behavior or how she was treated at the time,

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Speaker 1: but when you think about the way that society was

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Speaker 1: and the environment that she was growing up in and

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Speaker 1: the way that Carrie was treated too, like this is

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Speaker 1: not exactly the most unprecedented of events, Like it's not

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Speaker 1: surprising that such an environment is created and a time

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Speaker 1: of huge prejudice and an atmosphere of like fear and terror.

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Speaker 1: So this is her way I think of just like

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Speaker 1: bridging that gap and trying to smooth things over and

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Speaker 1: have that piece in her life. And so she and

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Speaker 1: her fourth husband they opened up a cabaret club you know,

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Speaker 1: called Club des Champs de Lise oh Shawsalise oh Shawsalise

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Speaker 1: oh Soles, Soula, Bluis AMEDI wam nude you two scavoo

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Speaker 1: vulet oh Chan's de lise. It is a catchy song.

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Speaker 1: I regret nothing, Okay, So the Chaons de lisee so yeah,

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Speaker 1: the Club Deschamps Dese and all of these celebrities of

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Speaker 1: the era, they come to the opening like it was

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Speaker 1: it was kind of a big deal. So like you

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Speaker 1: have all of these like big just stars or blues

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Speaker 1: rhythm everybody, everybody, the who's who of arts and performing

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Speaker 1: like everybody's there, and so this is sort of running

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Speaker 1: along as well as you know, the building of the estate.

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Speaker 1: And she's also recording, like like records, like she is

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Speaker 1: recording music, she's singing, and her voice like it matured

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Speaker 1: so beautifully over the years, and I love the fact

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Speaker 1: that we can still listen now, like we can listen

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Speaker 1: to an LP of Josephine Baker like she was alive

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Speaker 1: a century ago and we can hear her voice. And

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Speaker 1: when you talk about modern technology and how technology is

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Speaker 1: like you know, as dangerous parts. But when you can

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Speaker 1: actually like hold on to moments like this and you

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Speaker 1: can listen to someone who was so important, there's just

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Speaker 1: there's also something. This is very pretend of me, but

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Speaker 1: I love that crackle, like that sound when you put

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Speaker 1: that record on, it kind of goes like before it

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Speaker 1: starts like I love that crackly noise, and I like

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Speaker 1: an LP, and I like that they're re releasing LPs now,

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Speaker 1: like that artists are doing it, but like release three guys,

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Speaker 1: Like three is fight like Mummy Bear, Daddy Bear, Baby Bear,

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Speaker 1: Like you got three is fight like everyone is gonna

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Speaker 1: have their baby Bear's porade, you know one that's just

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Speaker 1: right and that's all you need. I say that as

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Speaker 1: someone who doesn't own a record player anymore, but I

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Speaker 1: still have a drawer full of Cap Bush, Lpe's and

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Speaker 1: David Bowie and some rolling Stones and a few other things.

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Speaker 1: That's not the point, Okay, I like them so Josephine.

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Speaker 1: So she's doing this and she's doing all that stuff,

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Speaker 1: but she is still determined to have a family, and

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Speaker 1: she even gets a blessing from Pope Pius the twelfth.

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Speaker 1: Like I'm not sure what her religion was at the time.

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Speaker 1: I know that she does convert to Catholicism at one point,

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Speaker 1: but like what her religion was previously, I'm not entirely sure.

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Speaker 1: But being in France, which is a predominantly Catholic country,

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Speaker 1: at least it was, it does seem likely that that

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Speaker 1: would be that would be the religion to choose, because France,

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Speaker 1: as we know, used to be like super Catholic, like

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Speaker 1: incredibly Catholic, lest we forget the impotence trials. So she's

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Speaker 1: looking for a blessing. She gets a blessing from the

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Speaker 1: Pope because every little helps, I guess. Meanwhile, she is

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Speaker 1: a huge, huge international star, and like I said earlier,

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Speaker 1: she wants to use her celebrity to fight racism and inequality.

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Speaker 1: Like she's supposed to be doing this big Grand Us tour,

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Speaker 1: and she has it in her contracts that she will

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Speaker 1: not play to segregated audiences anywhere POC people of color

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Speaker 1: were denied entry. She refused to play, right, and she

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Speaker 1: is rejected by thirty nine establishments all across like New York,

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Speaker 1: Las Vegas, Miami, like all of these you know, big venues. Oh,

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Speaker 1: like in France. In France she was a decorated war hero.

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Speaker 1: Like in the US, she can't walk through the front door.

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Speaker 1: And as well, like she's turning down buckets and buckets

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Speaker 1: and ducats, right, she is turning down so much money

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Speaker 1: because she will only play because she demands to perform

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Speaker 1: to integrated crowds. And like she could have easily turned

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Speaker 1: around and gone no, no, I will perform to this

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Speaker 1: black crowd and perform to this white crowd, and then

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Speaker 1: you will give me the money and that will be

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Speaker 1: the thing that I do. But no, no, no, no,

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Speaker 1: because she has a moral compass, right, she has a

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Speaker 1: code of ethics. She has what some people call a

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Speaker 1: fucking backbone. Okay, And like it's so weird to see

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Speaker 1: today even the amount of people that are willing to

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Speaker 1: take you know, a handful of cash instead of I

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Speaker 1: don't know, having ethics, having basic empathy for other people

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Speaker 1: and standing up for what's right. But anyway, I digress,

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Speaker 1: Oh sidebar, Actually if you're listening to this time of recording.

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Speaker 1: It's recently been announced that Bad Bunny is going to

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Speaker 1: be playing the Super Bowl halftime show. Now as someone

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Speaker 1: who doesn't really listen to new music or support the sports,

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Speaker 1: I mean, I support people doing the sports, but I'm

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Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't have an American football team

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Speaker 1: to support. I will ask one of my American friends

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Speaker 1: to just tell me who to support, like that's gonna be.

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Speaker 1: That's gonna be the thing. Considering I follow the Boston

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Speaker 1: Celtics now. That is my basketball team because because comedian

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Speaker 1: actor Florida man Ben Reynard told me to, and that

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Speaker 1: is now my team. Okay, so if anyone has any issues,

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Speaker 1: they can blame him. Oh but please don't, please don't

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Speaker 1: annoy Ben. Why are you making it follow this? I

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Speaker 1: don't know. I don't know, but that's that's it. The

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Speaker 1: Boston Celtics are my basketball team because of a comedian.

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Speaker 1: I can't be trusted, really, But so what I think

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Speaker 1: is hilarious is I really want, I really want, more

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Speaker 1: than anything else in the world, for Bad Bunny to

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Speaker 1: perform the halftime show completely Espanol, right, I want it

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Speaker 1: completely in Spanish? I don't speak Spanish. I don't really

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Speaker 1: understand Spanish, and by that I mean I don't under

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Speaker 1: stand it at all, but I can appreciate it. And

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Speaker 1: let me tell you, I would watch that and share

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Speaker 1: that with everybody I have ever met in my entire life,

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Speaker 1: because I like being a petty bitch. Anyway, back to

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Speaker 1: Joseph Phaeton. So she meets this club owner in Cuba

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Speaker 1: and he also has a club in Miami, and he

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Speaker 1: ends up winning a legal battle to allow an integrated

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Speaker 1: crowd at the Copa City Club. Coppa Coppa City Club,

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Speaker 1: Coppa City Club. Coppa sounds better, I'm gonna say Copa.

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Speaker 1: So it had never ever in the history of its

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Speaker 1: existence had a black guest before. So this was fucking massive,

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Speaker 1: like James and the Giant Peach, right massive, or the

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Speaker 1: peach of James and the Giant Peach, I should say.

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Speaker 1: And so like she is selling out night after night

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Speaker 1: to this just like an integrated crowd, like because people

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Speaker 1: just want to see her perform. And so she starts touring.

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Speaker 1: She does like a month long stint in New York

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Speaker 1: performing at night and then fighting for civil rights during

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Speaker 1: the day. And like she is incredibly vocal about the

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Speaker 1: execution of Willie McGee. So, Willie McGee was a thirty

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Speaker 1: five year old black World War Two veteran who was

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Speaker 1: falsely accused of the rape of a white woman and

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Speaker 1: was sentenced to death. Considering the way that rape trials

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Speaker 1: and sexual assault trials go in the all of the countries, now,

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Speaker 1: the fact that someone was sentenced to death over it

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Speaker 1: kind of feels a little bit. But it might have been,

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Speaker 1: I don't know, prejudiced in some way. So there are

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Speaker 1: appeals after appeals. But eventually Willie McGee was executed in

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Speaker 1: Mississippi in nineteen fifty one, and Josephine Baker is not

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Speaker 1: only very loud about this, but she forks up the

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Speaker 1: cash she pays for him to have a proper burial.

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Speaker 1: When she's on tour in San Francisco, she hears that

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Speaker 1: there are no black bus drivers or like any drivers

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Speaker 1: of color at all, right, and so she shows up

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Speaker 1: at the depot, like at the bus depot, and she

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Speaker 1: starts like just hounding, hounding the guy right to the

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Speaker 1: guy that runs it. And she's just like, how come

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Speaker 1: so many black men were qualified to drive trucks in

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Speaker 1: the army and yet somehow not one of them is

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Speaker 1: qualified to drive a bus in San Francisco. Like he

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Speaker 1: gets this, dude, he just gets snippy with her, like

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Speaker 1: like he's just just a racist arse, you know, and

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Speaker 1: she responds with, monsieur, you are a nasty little man.

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Speaker 1: And you know what, gentle listeners, delicious friends, I bet

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Speaker 1: he was a nasty little man. So nasty little man.

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Speaker 1: So not only is she like on the ground doing

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Speaker 1: this like boots on the ground, she's also meeting with

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Speaker 1: huge corporations to try and get them to hire more

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Speaker 1: black workers. Because when there's times of mass unemployment, it's

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Speaker 1: always sort of minorities of the country that tend to

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Speaker 1: be left at the bottom of the ladder, because, like

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Speaker 1: when an entire nation is built on you know, the

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Speaker 1: bones and blood of people of color, whether it be indigenous, black, Asian,

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Speaker 1: you know, and you know, the oppressive force of that nation,

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Speaker 1: the ruling class, if you will, are white people. When

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Speaker 1: times get tough, the people that are going to get

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Speaker 1: aid and help first are going to be white people. Right.

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Speaker 1: That's it. It's a place of privilege. And some people

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Speaker 1: might be thinking, I don't have privilege. I lived like

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Speaker 1: this or I had that listen, for every opportunity a

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Speaker 1: white person gets, it is going to be thrice is hard,

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Speaker 1: is complicated with more barriers and obstacles for a person

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Speaker 1: of color, And to not say that is it's ignorance

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Speaker 1: at that point, it's ignorance. So like, one of my

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Speaker 1: favorite things Josephine Baker ever does right is she performs

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Speaker 1: a citizens arrest against some dude. He's like harling these

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Speaker 1: like racial slurs at her, and she's like, not today, sir,

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Speaker 1: not today, And so she performs as citizens arrest. So

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Speaker 1: the N Double ACP declares May the twentieth, nineteen fifty

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Speaker 1: one as Josephine Baker Day. She is the N doubleacp's

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Speaker 1: Woman of the Year. And she has a parade in Harlem,

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Speaker 1: New York. She's riding in a cavalcade and she's in

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Speaker 1: this cream convertible. She's in a cavalcade and it's like

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Speaker 1: a mortar care I think they call it in the US.

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Speaker 1: And so she's in this cream convertible traveling down Seventh

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Speaker 1: Avenue and around one hundred thousand people show up to watch.

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Speaker 1: So she has this big parade, after which she has

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Speaker 1: a cocktail party thrown in her honor by the New

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Speaker 1: York City Mayor Vincent and Pillitteri. And after that she

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Speaker 1: attends a ball. So there's a ball. So she's got

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Speaker 1: a parade, a cocktail party, and a ball, and so

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Speaker 1: she's got these three separate events, and so she wears

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Speaker 1: three different Christian do Your outfits throughout this day for

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Speaker 1: those of you who don't know Christian Do Youa's sister

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Speaker 1: was a member of the French Resistance. So because Josephine

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Speaker 1: Baker and she's wearing these beautiful, old, catolic, gorgeous French

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Speaker 1: designer gowns. She ends up being named the best Dressed

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Speaker 1: women in the US, so the best dressed women of

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Speaker 1: nineteen fifty one. And so she's like wearing these gorgeous

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Speaker 1: outfits on tour. She's wearing all of these French designers.

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Speaker 1: She's showing off these beautiful, amazing, very classy, classy designs,

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Speaker 1: a lott of the designers that Jackie Kennedy loved, actually,

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Speaker 1: because she was really a big fan of like French

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Speaker 1: tailoring and design. And there's this whole like pushed towards

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Speaker 1: femininity and everything at this point with like the New

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Speaker 1: Look and all that stuff, and so there's this re

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Speaker 1: emergence of this style and it's something like we even

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Speaker 1: reference today. So anyway, she's at the Copa City Club

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Speaker 1: in Miami. She's in the Roxy New York, but she

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Speaker 1: ends up having to cancel all of her shows in

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Speaker 1: Atlanta because of Jim Crow. So at this time, there

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Speaker 1: was this law in Georgia and it said that a

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Speaker 1: hotel could lose its license if it let a black

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Speaker 1: person stay there. So because she had no where to stay,

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Speaker 1: she couldn't perform because like, she's not going to go

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Speaker 1: sleep in, you know, a truck, like she's in her forties.

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Speaker 1: And also she's Josephine fucking Baker. Okay, she's not doing that.

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Speaker 1: So because of this law, she just has to cancel

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Speaker 1: all her Atlanta shows because Atlanta es in Georgia, which

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Speaker 1: leads me to another story of discrimination. So she goes

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Speaker 1: to a dining establishment, the Stock Club in New York

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Speaker 1: City with some friends. So she's just after her performance,

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Speaker 1: she's been at the Rock Sage. She's tired, she's starving.

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Speaker 1: She can eat a horse. She may have eaten a

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Speaker 1: horse at one point, who's to say. But she's hungry,

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Speaker 1: so she orders crab steak and French wine. Now all

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Speaker 1: of her friends they are served, but after an hour,

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Speaker 1: none of her foot had arrived. When she inquired, you know,

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Speaker 1: she's like, Hi, where's my foot? And the waiting staff

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Speaker 1: said that they had ran out of crab and ran

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Speaker 1: out of steak, even though she can see them delivering

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Speaker 1: crap and steak to other tables that came in after her.

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Speaker 1: So they also say that they are still looking for

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Speaker 1: that bottle of French wine. Unsurprisingly, she calls bullshit. And

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Speaker 1: here's the thing. The Store Club had an unwritten policy

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Speaker 1: of discouraging people of color, basically down them out right,

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Speaker 1: and Josephine she was not going to be quiet about this,

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Speaker 1: and so she gets the NAACP involved, who are also

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Speaker 1: not quiet about it, which then leads to the Academy

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Speaker 1: being involved. Like they write a letter going, well, it

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Speaker 1: looks like you're not going to get any members of

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Speaker 1: the Academy coming to the Store Club. You're racist, dick.

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Speaker 1: I mean, I'm paraphrasing, but that's the vibe, right, It's like,

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Speaker 1: see how you do? Now? What this does is this

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Speaker 1: absolutely tarmishes the Stork Club's reputation and within a few

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Speaker 1: years this bustling, thriving business just has to shut down,

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00:29:12,800 --> 00:29:17,960
Speaker 1: like it just loses from here. So she's out here

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Speaker 1: calling it like un American, Like you're un American because

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Speaker 1: you're not serving you know. It's a whole thing, and

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Speaker 1: like the papers run with it. It's it destroys the

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Speaker 1: completely destroys the Stork Club. But like, here's the thing.

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Speaker 1: When she goes to dine, right, there's a journalist that

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Speaker 1: she knows professionally. There are acquaintances, Walter Winchell. So he's

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Speaker 1: at another table and she greets him before she sits down.

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Speaker 1: So this journalist was popular and powerful, and he was

424
00:29:51,160 --> 00:29:55,440
Speaker 1: also a regular at the Stork Club. Now he claims

425
00:29:55,600 --> 00:29:59,280
Speaker 1: that he left before she ordered, and that he had

426
00:29:59,320 --> 00:30:03,520
Speaker 1: never seen any kind of discrimination at the Stork Club

427
00:30:04,000 --> 00:30:06,520
Speaker 1: at any of the points that he was there, in

428
00:30:07,160 --> 00:30:10,280
Speaker 1: the entirety of all the times that he had been

429
00:30:10,320 --> 00:30:16,080
Speaker 1: winding down at the Stork Club. Josephine calls him out

430
00:30:16,400 --> 00:30:21,360
Speaker 1: by name, and so he retaliates. He mocks her wartime

431
00:30:21,400 --> 00:30:25,080
Speaker 1: achievements and worst of all, accused her of being a

432
00:30:25,160 --> 00:30:30,400
Speaker 1: communist and a fascist like this is during the Red Scare. Okay,

433
00:30:30,680 --> 00:30:35,320
Speaker 1: he knew what he was doing and being the prominent

434
00:30:35,440 --> 00:30:39,080
Speaker 1: journalist that he was, there is no way he wouldn't

435
00:30:39,120 --> 00:30:42,000
Speaker 1: have known the effect it was going to have, right,

436
00:30:42,640 --> 00:30:49,560
Speaker 1: It is such a dangerous, dangerous card to play, and

437
00:30:49,600 --> 00:30:53,560
Speaker 1: it was bullshit anyway, but he did it. And even

438
00:30:53,600 --> 00:30:55,640
Speaker 1: if he wasn't there at the time, and he hadn't

439
00:30:55,640 --> 00:31:01,320
Speaker 1: seen this particular incident, if he hadn't noticed as journalist,

440
00:31:01,760 --> 00:31:05,840
Speaker 1: if he hadn't noticed that not one black person had

441
00:31:05,840 --> 00:31:10,160
Speaker 1: been properly served at the store club in all of

442
00:31:10,200 --> 00:31:12,920
Speaker 1: the years he had been frequenting it, like you'd have

443
00:31:13,000 --> 00:31:16,120
Speaker 1: to be as observant as a brick, Like the whole

444
00:31:16,160 --> 00:31:18,440
Speaker 1: point of being a journalist is that you observe the

445
00:31:18,440 --> 00:31:20,880
Speaker 1: world around you and you procure the information from it,

446
00:31:20,880 --> 00:31:24,960
Speaker 1: you make sense of everything around you. But clearly that happening,

447
00:31:25,320 --> 00:31:29,200
Speaker 1: and like to her shows, they start getting canceled because

448
00:31:29,240 --> 00:31:33,200
Speaker 1: of this accusation and Walter winchell because this this is

449
00:31:33,240 --> 00:31:36,240
Speaker 1: a peer show, right, this is a poor show in

450
00:31:36,280 --> 00:31:41,040
Speaker 1: his part, because he deliberately tries to destroy a women's career,

451
00:31:41,160 --> 00:31:44,760
Speaker 1: a black women's career, no less, not only ruined her

452
00:31:44,800 --> 00:31:49,320
Speaker 1: career and her livelihood with absolute bollocks, or because he

453
00:31:49,480 --> 00:31:51,720
Speaker 1: was too blind to notice that there was never a

454
00:31:51,840 --> 00:31:55,160
Speaker 1: black person with a full plate after plays that he

455
00:31:55,320 --> 00:31:59,680
Speaker 1: dined at on a regular basis. Right, So because he

456
00:31:59,720 --> 00:32:03,800
Speaker 1: did that, because he was seen as like stooping and

457
00:32:03,880 --> 00:32:07,880
Speaker 1: dropping down and punching down and being an absolute shit bag.

458
00:32:08,120 --> 00:32:13,000
Speaker 1: Right because of this, like the respect for him in

459
00:32:13,040 --> 00:32:18,680
Speaker 1: the journalistic community, in society and all of that just drops,

460
00:32:18,960 --> 00:32:23,720
Speaker 1: like his stock plummets effectively, and he is he is,

461
00:32:23,760 --> 00:32:31,240
Speaker 1: he is no longer respected effectively. So this bullshit it

462
00:32:31,360 --> 00:32:36,320
Speaker 1: sets off a chain reaction for Josephine Baker. Her shows

463
00:32:36,360 --> 00:32:41,960
Speaker 1: her canceled, her visa is canceled, and like she's got

464
00:32:41,960 --> 00:32:45,240
Speaker 1: no citizenship, so she's screwed because she needs her visa

465
00:32:45,600 --> 00:32:51,280
Speaker 1: because she's got French citizenship. Right, so she loses all

466
00:32:51,320 --> 00:32:57,240
Speaker 1: access to the US for over a decade. Right. She

467
00:32:57,240 --> 00:32:59,800
Speaker 1: she deals with this, and then she's like she's still touring.

468
00:32:59,800 --> 00:33:01,920
Speaker 1: She's no, no, I'm good at the show must go on.

469
00:33:03,320 --> 00:33:05,760
Speaker 1: And so she goes to Cuba, where she faces more

470
00:33:05,760 --> 00:33:13,920
Speaker 1: discrimination for being black and an alleged communist. Allegedly, police

471
00:33:14,040 --> 00:33:16,880
Speaker 1: raided her rooms, tried to get her to admit that

472
00:33:16,920 --> 00:33:20,480
Speaker 1: she worked for Moscow, and they stopped some of her

473
00:33:20,480 --> 00:33:24,640
Speaker 1: shows from going ahead, Like, they literally stop her from

474
00:33:24,680 --> 00:33:27,840
Speaker 1: performing at the larger venue that she was supposed to

475
00:33:27,880 --> 00:33:31,200
Speaker 1: be like gigging at, So she ends up performing in

476
00:33:31,280 --> 00:33:35,680
Speaker 1: a small venue and this is packed every single nick

477
00:33:35,800 --> 00:33:39,040
Speaker 1: because of course it is, because she's josephin fucking Baker.

478
00:33:40,440 --> 00:33:44,240
Speaker 1: So her picture the police have her picture on a

479
00:33:44,320 --> 00:33:50,960
Speaker 1: wall with like wanted communists, and she's on an FBI

480
00:33:51,480 --> 00:33:55,520
Speaker 1: watch list, Like the Justice Department is like, prove that

481
00:33:55,680 --> 00:34:02,240
Speaker 1: you're like so pro America, and she's like, why, why

482
00:34:02,280 --> 00:34:03,240
Speaker 1: do you deserve that?

483
00:34:04,400 --> 00:34:08,799
Speaker 2: So she's still to hearing, she's still kicking about, and

484
00:34:09,120 --> 00:34:15,200
Speaker 2: she goes to South America, more specifically Argentina, which is

485
00:34:15,320 --> 00:34:19,759
Speaker 2: run by the dictator Juan di Mingo Puron, who was

486
00:34:19,800 --> 00:34:23,200
Speaker 2: the husband of Eva Puron, how you may know as

487
00:34:23,280 --> 00:34:26,439
Speaker 2: Evita now Joseph Eton.

488
00:34:26,920 --> 00:34:29,440
Speaker 1: At the time, she was unaware that the Purons had

489
00:34:29,440 --> 00:34:32,520
Speaker 1: embezzled money from the poor, or that Argentina was a

490
00:34:32,560 --> 00:34:36,759
Speaker 1: safe haven for Nazi war criminals. And in fairness, this

491
00:34:36,960 --> 00:34:42,160
Speaker 1: wasn't exactly like out information. This wasn't known at the time,

492
00:34:43,880 --> 00:34:48,960
Speaker 1: So she felt an affinity for Eva Puron. She saw

493
00:34:48,960 --> 00:34:51,520
Speaker 1: her as a kindred spirit, the same sort of rags

494
00:34:51,560 --> 00:34:57,200
Speaker 1: to riches and using her power for good and because

495
00:34:57,680 --> 00:35:02,120
Speaker 1: Eva Peron died young, and so Josephine reached out to

496
00:35:02,239 --> 00:35:04,880
Speaker 1: Juan Peron to pay her respects and the like. Like

497
00:35:04,960 --> 00:35:09,560
Speaker 1: she I mean, she was always kind of reasonable about death,

498
00:35:09,840 --> 00:35:13,920
Speaker 1: but she saw how it affected other people. And so

499
00:35:14,040 --> 00:35:16,040
Speaker 1: she goes because she thinks she's dealing with like a

500
00:35:16,080 --> 00:35:19,880
Speaker 1: grieving man when he has grieving. We know what he

501
00:35:19,920 --> 00:35:26,040
Speaker 1: did to if he do his body, it is, I'm unpleasant.

502
00:35:26,520 --> 00:35:30,240
Speaker 1: Unpleasant is the word I'm going to use. So Josephine

503
00:35:30,239 --> 00:35:34,040
Speaker 1: Baker gets manipulated here because she doesn't know how awful

504
00:35:34,080 --> 00:35:37,160
Speaker 1: it is. And Juan Peron took advantage of her passion

505
00:35:37,680 --> 00:35:41,600
Speaker 1: and her naivete because she thinks she can do some good,

506
00:35:41,760 --> 00:35:44,040
Speaker 1: like like Eva Peron was doing. She wants to build

507
00:35:44,080 --> 00:35:49,400
Speaker 1: on that and help the Argentinian people and so like

508
00:35:49,480 --> 00:35:55,200
Speaker 1: he gets photos of them together and like talking to workers,

509
00:35:55,600 --> 00:36:02,239
Speaker 1: and it sort of goes the fifties very viral, and

510
00:36:02,320 --> 00:36:07,680
Speaker 1: the NAACP starts distancing themselves from her because photos with

511
00:36:08,080 --> 00:36:12,879
Speaker 1: a dictator, like a fascist dictator talking to workers, it's

512
00:36:12,960 --> 00:36:17,279
Speaker 1: not doesn't have the best optics, you know. But like

513
00:36:17,400 --> 00:36:21,880
Speaker 1: she was unaware of this at the time, and so

514
00:36:22,040 --> 00:36:24,319
Speaker 1: Juan he arranges for her to go on this tour

515
00:36:24,400 --> 00:36:27,880
Speaker 1: of these hospitals because he knows she's a humanitarian, and

516
00:36:27,920 --> 00:36:30,719
Speaker 1: so she visits a few. Now he says that they're

517
00:36:30,719 --> 00:36:33,120
Speaker 1: all done to like this very specific standard, and they

518
00:36:33,120 --> 00:36:37,560
Speaker 1: have this like great level of care. But only two

519
00:36:37,719 --> 00:36:41,279
Speaker 1: of the hospitals, like when she goes like seeing them,

520
00:36:41,840 --> 00:36:44,960
Speaker 1: only two have been fixed up. And so when she

521
00:36:45,080 --> 00:36:49,640
Speaker 1: goes off on this hospital tour, she sees exactly how

522
00:36:49,760 --> 00:36:55,000
Speaker 1: the weak, ill, and infirm are being treated. And it's

523
00:36:55,040 --> 00:36:58,160
Speaker 1: at this point that she realized that she's been hoodwinked,

524
00:37:00,120 --> 00:37:03,000
Speaker 1: and so she's like done, She's done with Juan Peron

525
00:37:03,160 --> 00:37:07,840
Speaker 1: and all of us bullshit, and she decides to go

526
00:37:08,040 --> 00:37:13,239
Speaker 1: back to her shadow, le Milan, and she decides that

527
00:37:13,440 --> 00:37:17,840
Speaker 1: now is the time to start her Rainbow tribe. Josephine

528
00:37:17,840 --> 00:37:21,759
Speaker 1: Baker is out there collecting children like beanie babies or

529
00:37:21,920 --> 00:37:25,840
Speaker 1: the booboos. Okay, so I'm being sassy about it, but

530
00:37:25,960 --> 00:37:30,520
Speaker 1: her goal was to raise a family of children in

531
00:37:30,640 --> 00:37:35,840
Speaker 1: brotherhood and universalism, right. She wanted a group of children

532
00:37:35,920 --> 00:37:42,320
Speaker 1: of different races, religions, et cetera to grow up without

533
00:37:42,520 --> 00:37:49,799
Speaker 1: prejudice and to be treated equally like, yeah, okay, I

534
00:37:49,880 --> 00:37:53,960
Speaker 1: understand that a collection of children different races religion is

535
00:37:54,040 --> 00:37:56,560
Speaker 1: sounding a little bit like the casting call from a

536
00:37:56,600 --> 00:38:00,680
Speaker 1: gap ad. But she's doing this because she she genuinely

537
00:38:00,719 --> 00:38:03,960
Speaker 1: thinks that if she can show this to the world,

538
00:38:04,600 --> 00:38:08,879
Speaker 1: this brotherhood of universalism, that it will make the world

539
00:38:08,920 --> 00:38:14,040
Speaker 1: see sense, you know. And the first place she goes

540
00:38:14,280 --> 00:38:17,000
Speaker 1: is Japan with the intention of returning home with a

541
00:38:17,080 --> 00:38:20,400
Speaker 1: Japanese child. So she goes to a home run by

542
00:38:20,440 --> 00:38:23,439
Speaker 1: a friend to collect a two year old Japanese boy

543
00:38:23,520 --> 00:38:29,080
Speaker 1: named Tioya whose name would be changed to Jano in France.

544
00:38:30,120 --> 00:38:33,400
Speaker 1: So this was an adoption that her and her husband,

545
00:38:33,480 --> 00:38:37,600
Speaker 1: Joe Billon, had agreed to do together. So she went

546
00:38:37,640 --> 00:38:40,719
Speaker 1: to Japan. She went to collect this child, and it's

547
00:38:40,760 --> 00:38:43,719
Speaker 1: at this home that she sees a one and a

548
00:38:43,800 --> 00:38:49,080
Speaker 1: half year old Korean boy, a Kio, and she decides

549
00:38:49,120 --> 00:38:53,760
Speaker 1: she wants to bring him home as well. Needless to say,

550
00:38:54,040 --> 00:38:56,919
Speaker 1: her husband was a wee bit surprised when she came

551
00:38:56,920 --> 00:39:01,440
Speaker 1: home with two infants instead of one. And for some

552
00:39:01,520 --> 00:39:05,680
Speaker 1: people two children would be more than enough, myself included,

553
00:39:07,320 --> 00:39:12,240
Speaker 1: but Josephine Baker, like Lande Lynnette, was not most people.

554
00:39:14,320 --> 00:39:18,640
Speaker 1: Later she brought home a blonde boy from Finland named Yari.

555
00:39:20,480 --> 00:39:25,600
Speaker 1: Then she went to Bogota in Colombia, and allegedly is

556
00:39:27,080 --> 00:39:31,400
Speaker 1: when she was there, when she was traveling, touring and such,

557
00:39:32,840 --> 00:39:37,520
Speaker 1: a mother of like eight children asks Josephine to adopt

558
00:39:37,520 --> 00:39:41,480
Speaker 1: her youngest boy, Gustavio, so that he could have a

559
00:39:41,520 --> 00:39:45,960
Speaker 1: better life. And so Josephine she takes Gastavio and in

560
00:39:46,000 --> 00:39:49,960
Speaker 1: return buys the family a house, and she promises to

561
00:39:49,960 --> 00:39:53,839
Speaker 1: bring Gastavio back and visit them, but instead of that,

562
00:39:54,560 --> 00:39:57,960
Speaker 1: she changes his name to Louise and doesn't tell him

563
00:39:58,000 --> 00:40:03,480
Speaker 1: of his origins in Bogota until he's much much older. Now,

564
00:40:03,520 --> 00:40:06,360
Speaker 1: this is a bit of a sticky wicket, right, But

565
00:40:06,400 --> 00:40:09,799
Speaker 1: when it comes to Josephine Baker, I don't think it's

566
00:40:09,840 --> 00:40:15,359
Speaker 1: ill intent. I think there's an assumption that what she's

567
00:40:15,400 --> 00:40:19,160
Speaker 1: doing is the right thing. And she might have said, oh,

568
00:40:19,320 --> 00:40:22,120
Speaker 1: bring him back, and had the intention of doing that.

569
00:40:22,200 --> 00:40:26,879
Speaker 1: But then her I'm going to say, chaotic lifestyle may

570
00:40:26,920 --> 00:40:29,040
Speaker 1: have just gotten in the way of that, you know,

571
00:40:30,239 --> 00:40:35,359
Speaker 1: and it may have been an intention that just never

572
00:40:35,480 --> 00:40:39,840
Speaker 1: came to pass. So Josephine and her husband je Boileon

573
00:40:40,400 --> 00:40:44,000
Speaker 1: then adopt two more children, this time out of the

574
00:40:44,040 --> 00:40:48,879
Speaker 1: French welfare system, Jean Claude and a ten month old

575
00:40:49,000 --> 00:40:53,280
Speaker 1: Jewish boy called Moisch. At this point, Josephine was planning

576
00:40:53,320 --> 00:40:56,759
Speaker 1: to focus all of her efforts on her estate and

577
00:40:57,239 --> 00:41:02,040
Speaker 1: her family, her little Rainbow tribe, because like her estate

578
00:41:02,080 --> 00:41:06,400
Speaker 1: at this point is receiving over three hundred thousand visitors

579
00:41:06,440 --> 00:41:10,680
Speaker 1: a year, so you could say it was fairly popular.

580
00:41:11,320 --> 00:41:15,600
Speaker 1: And so because she's planning to focus on this, she

581
00:41:15,760 --> 00:41:19,759
Speaker 1: decides that she's going to do one final performance, her

582
00:41:19,800 --> 00:41:30,480
Speaker 1: finale before she retired, you know, for the fans. Josephine

583
00:41:30,480 --> 00:41:34,880
Speaker 1: Baker has her finale, her final performance at the Olympia

584
00:41:34,920 --> 00:41:39,520
Speaker 1: Theater in Paris, and it is so popular that all

585
00:41:39,600 --> 00:41:42,440
Speaker 1: of these other venues, many of them in France that

586
00:41:42,600 --> 00:41:46,520
Speaker 1: she had previously performed in, they wanted her to do

587
00:41:46,719 --> 00:41:52,880
Speaker 1: a final performance there as well. So, like all major acts,

588
00:41:53,680 --> 00:41:59,480
Speaker 1: her goodbye show became a goodbye tour. Well on tour.

589
00:41:59,520 --> 00:42:04,319
Speaker 1: In Alga, she adopted the only two survivors on an

590
00:42:04,320 --> 00:42:09,040
Speaker 1: air raid in a small village, Mary Anne and Brahim

591
00:42:09,440 --> 00:42:13,760
Speaker 1: now Brahim, his name would later be changed to Brian.

592
00:42:15,880 --> 00:42:17,880
Speaker 2: So she just.

593
00:42:17,760 --> 00:42:21,520
Speaker 1: Showed up with these kids, right, and when she lands home,

594
00:42:22,800 --> 00:42:29,680
Speaker 1: her husband, Jean Bon, he was loved because okay, the

595
00:42:29,760 --> 00:42:35,120
Speaker 1: family was already massive. And then she adopts two more

596
00:42:35,200 --> 00:42:40,800
Speaker 1: children without consulting him. And you know, she wasn't exactly

597
00:42:41,040 --> 00:42:45,719
Speaker 1: great with money, right, and so he's already he's already

598
00:42:45,760 --> 00:42:49,480
Speaker 1: trying to, like money manage this situation. And remember she's

599
00:42:49,520 --> 00:42:51,880
Speaker 1: sinking all this money into the estate and she's spending

600
00:42:51,880 --> 00:42:56,840
Speaker 1: money on these tours and it's just yeah, it's after

601
00:42:56,920 --> 00:43:01,719
Speaker 1: this that she's on tour in the Cordivo where she

602
00:43:01,920 --> 00:43:07,759
Speaker 1: adopts a baby boy named Coffee, and this leads to

603
00:43:07,840 --> 00:43:12,200
Speaker 1: a huge fight between Josephine and the husband. Like it's

604
00:43:12,280 --> 00:43:16,120
Speaker 1: bad and it's so bad that she tells him to leave,

605
00:43:17,600 --> 00:43:22,000
Speaker 1: and he does, but like they don't divorce right away,

606
00:43:22,760 --> 00:43:27,200
Speaker 1: but she tells him to go and he goes. Now,

607
00:43:28,520 --> 00:43:34,480
Speaker 1: Josephine Baker was not the most organized or disciplined parent.

608
00:43:36,000 --> 00:43:38,840
Speaker 1: Like she liked being the fun parent, Like that's what

609
00:43:38,920 --> 00:43:43,680
Speaker 1: she was good at. And I think she didn't quite

610
00:43:44,200 --> 00:43:50,239
Speaker 1: realize like what being a parent entails. Like she has

611
00:43:50,280 --> 00:43:56,960
Speaker 1: this idea and it's a very optimistic, idealistic idea, but

612
00:43:57,120 --> 00:44:00,799
Speaker 1: the reality of that was a little less at the

613
00:44:00,840 --> 00:44:05,319
Speaker 1: forefront of her mind. The practicalities of parenthood was not

614
00:44:05,480 --> 00:44:09,279
Speaker 1: something that she had a great grasp of, Like she

615
00:44:09,400 --> 00:44:13,040
Speaker 1: didn't discipline them, like that was not a thing she did.

616
00:44:13,719 --> 00:44:16,640
Speaker 1: And then she would like leave for weeks at a

617
00:44:16,680 --> 00:44:21,400
Speaker 1: time to like go gigging and perform like they had nanni's,

618
00:44:21,480 --> 00:44:24,360
Speaker 1: Like they weren't left alone, like a bunch of toddlers

619
00:44:24,400 --> 00:44:28,799
Speaker 1: were running through an a state, but like they had

620
00:44:28,880 --> 00:44:34,600
Speaker 1: nannies and caretakers and all that jazz. But she was

621
00:44:34,680 --> 00:44:40,600
Speaker 1: not the most present of parents. She'd go away, go perform,

622
00:44:41,160 --> 00:44:45,880
Speaker 1: and come back, share them with gifts, and then leave again.

623
00:44:47,160 --> 00:44:50,960
Speaker 1: Like it gets to the point because this is such

624
00:44:51,280 --> 00:44:55,800
Speaker 1: a common cycle that the children they don't call her mama,

625
00:44:56,360 --> 00:45:00,880
Speaker 1: Like they don't call her mama, they call her cadau,

626
00:45:02,080 --> 00:45:07,120
Speaker 1: which is French for present or gift, not a mama,

627
00:45:07,680 --> 00:45:14,440
Speaker 1: a mama, No, it's the elacado. Yeah. So this is

628
00:45:14,520 --> 00:45:18,279
Speaker 1: just how Josephine lives her life. And when she's on

629
00:45:18,360 --> 00:45:22,600
Speaker 1: tour in South America, she hears the news that her mother,

630
00:45:22,760 --> 00:45:28,799
Speaker 1: Carrie has passed away. Nikaren MacDonald, she had become like

631
00:45:28,800 --> 00:45:34,680
Speaker 1: a sort of attraction of the Chateau Le Miland estate. Like,

632
00:45:34,760 --> 00:45:37,320
Speaker 1: so she would sit under a tree in a rocking chair,

633
00:45:37,960 --> 00:45:41,200
Speaker 1: and she'd be in this white dress, and she would

634
00:45:41,320 --> 00:45:43,799
Speaker 1: greet people like she would speak to them if they

635
00:45:43,800 --> 00:45:47,600
Speaker 1: spoke English, and she would chat to them. And she

636
00:45:47,800 --> 00:45:50,640
Speaker 1: was just this sort of like the wise old woman

637
00:45:50,800 --> 00:45:55,320
Speaker 1: under a tree. Like it's such it's such a powerful image,

638
00:45:55,760 --> 00:45:59,240
Speaker 1: so it's not surprising that people would take an interest

639
00:45:59,280 --> 00:46:05,320
Speaker 1: in her. Now, Josephine's siblings they worked on the estate,

640
00:46:05,640 --> 00:46:07,840
Speaker 1: like I was saying before, about the sort of the petrol,

641
00:46:07,920 --> 00:46:11,120
Speaker 1: the gas station and things, and so of course they

642
00:46:11,160 --> 00:46:16,960
Speaker 1: went to their mother's funeral. Josephine did not so like

643
00:46:17,200 --> 00:46:21,479
Speaker 1: she had this very pragmatic view of death, and she's

644
00:46:21,560 --> 00:46:25,160
Speaker 1: like everybody dies sometime, and so she didn't really see

645
00:46:25,160 --> 00:46:29,880
Speaker 1: the point in returning, and especially returning for a dead person.

646
00:46:31,560 --> 00:46:35,560
Speaker 1: That being said, with one person now being out of

647
00:46:35,600 --> 00:46:39,399
Speaker 1: her life, she decided to add another person into it.

648
00:46:40,640 --> 00:46:44,239
Speaker 1: While on tour in Venezuela, she added another member to

649
00:46:44,320 --> 00:46:51,360
Speaker 1: her Rainbow tribe. So this story goes that there is

650
00:46:51,480 --> 00:46:56,919
Speaker 1: a tribal chief in Venezuela and she adopts his grandson Mara,

651
00:46:58,840 --> 00:47:04,360
Speaker 1: which is okay, another child to support. So Mara comes

652
00:47:04,360 --> 00:47:08,000
Speaker 1: and joins the Rainbow Tribe over in the chateau, and

653
00:47:08,120 --> 00:47:14,319
Speaker 1: Josephine goes on tour again. And when she's touring, like

654
00:47:14,360 --> 00:47:18,480
Speaker 1: and it's around about Christmas time, a member of her

655
00:47:18,600 --> 00:47:23,520
Speaker 1: crew finds a baby abandoned in a bin, like in

656
00:47:23,560 --> 00:47:28,000
Speaker 1: the trash. Now I've heard two versions of this story.

657
00:47:28,560 --> 00:47:30,640
Speaker 1: One is that the baby is in a bassinet and

658
00:47:30,680 --> 00:47:35,480
Speaker 1: it's sort of just like surrounded by like rubbish, and

659
00:47:35,520 --> 00:47:39,200
Speaker 1: the other is that like it was found just in

660
00:47:39,200 --> 00:47:44,080
Speaker 1: in the trash. So this baby boy who's discovered like,

661
00:47:45,200 --> 00:47:52,080
Speaker 1: they name him Noel, and this infant was another addition

662
00:47:52,680 --> 00:47:57,000
Speaker 1: to the Rainbow Tribe. It was at this point that

663
00:47:57,080 --> 00:48:02,040
Speaker 1: Jeau Boyon divorced Josephine Baker in ninety sixty one, and

664
00:48:02,120 --> 00:48:07,960
Speaker 1: he moved to Argentina to open up a restaurant. So

665
00:48:08,080 --> 00:48:14,520
Speaker 1: now Josephine had ten boys in one girl, her daughter

666
00:48:14,680 --> 00:48:17,840
Speaker 1: Marie Anne. Like she said that she wanted a sister,

667
00:48:18,640 --> 00:48:22,160
Speaker 1: and as luck would have it, a Moroccan friend of

668
00:48:22,280 --> 00:48:28,600
Speaker 1: Josephine's would abandon Stilena in France at birth, and Stelena

669
00:48:28,719 --> 00:48:32,880
Speaker 1: would be the second daughter and twelfth child of the

670
00:48:32,960 --> 00:48:40,759
Speaker 1: Rainbow tribe. So like in this period of time sort

671
00:48:40,800 --> 00:48:48,200
Speaker 1: of the mid twentieth century, inter country adoption wasn't the

672
00:48:48,239 --> 00:48:53,759
Speaker 1: most regulated on a global level, and Josephine's fame it

673
00:48:53,960 --> 00:48:59,439
Speaker 1: certainly helped most of her children. They were adopted by

674
00:48:59,480 --> 00:49:03,279
Speaker 1: her an her husband under the French Family Code of

675
00:49:03,360 --> 00:49:08,840
Speaker 1: nineteen thirty nine, and so even though they divorced, Like

676
00:49:09,840 --> 00:49:13,640
Speaker 1: he was also written as the adopted father of like Stelena,

677
00:49:14,400 --> 00:49:18,560
Speaker 1: So even though they were separated, he like continued being

678
00:49:18,560 --> 00:49:21,120
Speaker 1: that sort of father figure, even though he was I

679
00:49:21,160 --> 00:49:27,680
Speaker 1: don't know, a restauranteur and Argentina of all places. So

680
00:49:28,680 --> 00:49:32,040
Speaker 1: each child of the Rainbow tribe was assigned a religion

681
00:49:32,360 --> 00:49:39,280
Speaker 1: in accordance to their heritage. So Janno, who was from Japan,

682
00:49:40,320 --> 00:49:45,240
Speaker 1: he was Burhist, Weish was Jewish, Mary Anne was Catholic.

683
00:49:46,280 --> 00:49:53,640
Speaker 1: Brian slash Brian was Muslim, Yari was Protestant, Coffee was Animist,

684
00:49:53,800 --> 00:49:57,239
Speaker 1: so on and so forth. So those two ways you

685
00:49:57,239 --> 00:50:00,160
Speaker 1: can take this. One is that she's just as signing

686
00:50:00,239 --> 00:50:03,600
Speaker 1: these religions to each of the children, just so they

687
00:50:03,640 --> 00:50:06,799
Speaker 1: have a different one each right, And the other is

688
00:50:06,840 --> 00:50:10,040
Speaker 1: that she's trying to ensure they still have a connection

689
00:50:10,120 --> 00:50:16,719
Speaker 1: to their heritage by giving them a religion and to

690
00:50:17,239 --> 00:50:20,120
Speaker 1: like also show that you can have different religions, and

691
00:50:20,160 --> 00:50:28,200
Speaker 1: grew up in harmony. AnyWho. Josephine Baker, like everything else

692
00:50:28,239 --> 00:50:32,080
Speaker 1: in her life, the kids, she put them on display

693
00:50:33,320 --> 00:50:38,960
Speaker 1: because she said, and I quote, there was no point

694
00:50:39,000 --> 00:50:41,680
Speaker 1: in adopting children of every color to be kept away

695
00:50:41,680 --> 00:50:45,600
Speaker 1: from everyone else. They must be made visible so that

696
00:50:45,640 --> 00:50:48,840
Speaker 1: people can see that it is in fact possible that

697
00:50:48,960 --> 00:50:54,240
Speaker 1: children from different races raised together as siblings have no animosity.

698
00:50:54,360 --> 00:50:58,759
Speaker 1: That racial hate is not natural, it is an invention

699
00:50:59,120 --> 00:51:06,360
Speaker 1: by mankind direct quote. So they all love the chateau

700
00:51:06,440 --> 00:51:10,840
Speaker 1: in Milande, which has now opened as a tourist attraction, okay,

701
00:51:11,320 --> 00:51:16,239
Speaker 1: and people are coming to see her rainbow tribe. So

702
00:51:16,320 --> 00:51:20,200
Speaker 1: the chateau it has thirty nine rooms, one hundred members

703
00:51:20,239 --> 00:51:24,880
Speaker 1: of staff. The estate has a bakery, a jazz club,

704
00:51:25,120 --> 00:51:30,759
Speaker 1: a museum, and a mini golf course. Now I'm not

705
00:51:30,800 --> 00:51:34,000
Speaker 1: sure if it's a mini golf course or just a

706
00:51:34,040 --> 00:51:40,120
Speaker 1: mini golf course. That was unclear. So it's got all

707
00:51:40,160 --> 00:51:48,600
Speaker 1: that and her children and her menagerie. Yeah, she's still

708
00:51:48,640 --> 00:51:52,920
Speaker 1: got all her animals. Right. The kids fucking hated it, right.

709
00:51:53,840 --> 00:51:59,480
Speaker 1: At one point a monkey steals a baby. That was

710
00:51:59,480 --> 00:52:02,520
Speaker 1: a thing that happened. A monkey came in and stole

711
00:52:02,600 --> 00:52:07,319
Speaker 1: a baby out of her crib. I feel like I

712
00:52:07,360 --> 00:52:10,680
Speaker 1: shouldn't have to explain to anyone that that is not

713
00:52:10,719 --> 00:52:17,600
Speaker 1: a safe environment. And she is continuing this right, she's

714
00:52:18,080 --> 00:52:25,279
Speaker 1: pushing this whole idea to show brotherhood. You know, she's

715
00:52:25,320 --> 00:52:31,600
Speaker 1: sinking into debt doing so. Meanwhile, she's asked to join

716
00:52:31,680 --> 00:52:38,040
Speaker 1: in the nineteen sixty three March on Washington. She was

717
00:52:38,080 --> 00:52:42,520
Speaker 1: initially denied a visa because of the whole accused of communism,

718
00:52:42,600 --> 00:52:48,160
Speaker 1: then photographed with a fascist dictator in Argentina thing. However,

719
00:52:48,840 --> 00:52:54,360
Speaker 1: Attorney General Robert Kennedy overrules it, and so she gets

720
00:52:54,360 --> 00:52:57,840
Speaker 1: her visa and she shows up in her full French

721
00:52:58,000 --> 00:53:03,680
Speaker 1: military uniform. She is the only female speaker, and she

722
00:53:03,880 --> 00:53:08,280
Speaker 1: is the warm up speaker for doctor Martin Luther King Junior.

723
00:53:09,320 --> 00:53:13,719
Speaker 1: And she says, I have walked in the palaces of

724
00:53:13,800 --> 00:53:17,080
Speaker 1: kings and queens, and into the houses of presidents and

725
00:53:17,239 --> 00:53:20,480
Speaker 1: much more, but I could not walk into a hotel

726
00:53:20,520 --> 00:53:26,839
Speaker 1: in America and buy a cup of coffee. She also

727
00:53:27,000 --> 00:53:29,799
Speaker 1: said that the world was behind the movement that she

728
00:53:29,920 --> 00:53:35,880
Speaker 1: had been following for thirty years. She gives this idealistic

729
00:53:35,920 --> 00:53:40,600
Speaker 1: and emotional speech, and she really thought that she could

730
00:53:40,640 --> 00:53:44,120
Speaker 1: make the world see race was just a social construct

731
00:53:44,880 --> 00:53:50,000
Speaker 1: with her racially inclusive family, and she thought she could

732
00:53:50,120 --> 00:53:53,600
Speaker 1: just and she wanted to dial it up to eleven.

733
00:53:54,239 --> 00:53:57,400
Speaker 1: And so she has this idea to turn her estate

734
00:53:58,120 --> 00:54:02,439
Speaker 1: into a college of brothers. This is the part where

735
00:54:02,480 --> 00:54:06,520
Speaker 1: I remind you that all your faves are problematic. All

736
00:54:06,560 --> 00:54:09,200
Speaker 1: your faves are problematic. No person is perfect, and some

737
00:54:09,320 --> 00:54:16,399
Speaker 1: people do shitty things sometimes. So Yari the Finnish boy,

738
00:54:16,960 --> 00:54:22,680
Speaker 1: when he's like fourteen fifteen, Josephine Baker sends him to

739
00:54:22,840 --> 00:54:26,600
Speaker 1: Argentina to live with Jean Boion. She sends him away

740
00:54:27,760 --> 00:54:32,160
Speaker 1: because Yari is gay and she's worried that it's going

741
00:54:32,200 --> 00:54:39,480
Speaker 1: to spread. Like, I understand that it's the sixties, but

742
00:54:39,600 --> 00:54:43,480
Speaker 1: Josephine Baker was a bisexual woman. She said it was

743
00:54:43,560 --> 00:54:47,600
Speaker 1: only natural, you know, Like did she think that somebody

744
00:54:47,760 --> 00:54:51,080
Speaker 1: just turned her a little bit gay? No, Like, you

745
00:54:51,120 --> 00:54:54,799
Speaker 1: don't catch homosexuality. Well, I mean you can if you

746
00:54:54,880 --> 00:55:00,480
Speaker 1: do it right, but no, So he is a away

747
00:55:01,080 --> 00:55:07,520
Speaker 1: and that's a shitty thing to do. Meanwhile, she has

748
00:55:07,960 --> 00:55:13,960
Speaker 1: put all this money into her Chateole Milan, and she's broke,

749
00:55:14,200 --> 00:55:18,600
Speaker 1: like she has sunk economy. Everything is gone. She can't

750
00:55:18,640 --> 00:55:22,040
Speaker 1: afford to pay the workers' wages at you know, the estate,

751
00:55:22,400 --> 00:55:25,440
Speaker 1: and so they just start stealing from her and things

752
00:55:25,480 --> 00:55:29,600
Speaker 1: get so bad that she is peeling gold leaf tiles

753
00:55:29,640 --> 00:55:32,280
Speaker 1: off of the walls and giving them to the bank

754
00:55:32,440 --> 00:55:37,040
Speaker 1: is collateral. Now she's doing shows in Carnegie Hall to

755
00:55:37,160 --> 00:55:40,160
Speaker 1: raise money for like civil rights charities and for her

756
00:55:40,280 --> 00:55:45,200
Speaker 1: Rainbow Tribe, and none of this works. Like in nineteen

757
00:55:45,239 --> 00:55:49,359
Speaker 1: sixty four, like there's a press conference like begging for help,

758
00:55:49,719 --> 00:55:55,280
Speaker 1: and Richard Baldeaux appears on TV to ask for donations

759
00:55:55,280 --> 00:56:01,280
Speaker 1: for Josephine. Now this this is a bit controverty, because

760
00:56:01,960 --> 00:56:05,160
Speaker 1: you know, the logical thing to do would be to

761
00:56:05,239 --> 00:56:09,400
Speaker 1: sell the entire estate, downsize and move somewhere more manageable.

762
00:56:10,200 --> 00:56:13,680
Speaker 1: But again, this is a sunk economy. So Josephine's so

763
00:56:13,840 --> 00:56:16,479
Speaker 1: invested in it that she doesn't want to let go.

764
00:56:17,200 --> 00:56:21,120
Speaker 1: And because she really believes that this College of Brotherhood

765
00:56:21,760 --> 00:56:25,839
Speaker 1: is going to change the world, She's getting donations from

766
00:56:25,960 --> 00:56:32,720
Speaker 1: Jaja Agabor, Brigi Bardeaux, Paul the Sixth, but it's not enough,

767
00:56:32,800 --> 00:56:36,279
Speaker 1: and so she's performing again, and she's performing at the

768
00:56:36,320 --> 00:56:38,600
Speaker 1: same rate that she was when she was in her twenties,

769
00:56:38,640 --> 00:56:42,760
Speaker 1: Like she is constantly going and because she is working

770
00:56:42,800 --> 00:56:47,600
Speaker 1: herself to the bone, she has her first heart attack

771
00:56:48,680 --> 00:56:52,200
Speaker 1: and she ends up being in the hospital for two months.

772
00:56:53,160 --> 00:56:55,280
Speaker 1: And when she gets home, like, she doesn't have workers,

773
00:56:55,320 --> 00:56:58,840
Speaker 1: doesn't have nanny's and she just can't look after her kids,

774
00:57:00,200 --> 00:57:06,600
Speaker 1: so they get sent to boarding school, which costs more money.

775
00:57:06,640 --> 00:57:10,080
Speaker 1: And so again she's performing again, even though she's you know,

776
00:57:10,360 --> 00:57:15,560
Speaker 1: recovering from a heart attack, and she's still trying to

777
00:57:15,600 --> 00:57:21,960
Speaker 1: outrun her debts. And so in sixty five, she goes

778
00:57:22,040 --> 00:57:24,640
Speaker 1: to King Hassan, the second of Morocco, and she begs

779
00:57:24,720 --> 00:57:28,720
Speaker 1: him for help, and he gives her money to stop

780
00:57:28,760 --> 00:57:33,960
Speaker 1: the foreclosure on the chateau, and he gives like an

781
00:57:34,040 --> 00:57:38,400
Speaker 1: annual an annual amount, an allowance of like twenty grand

782
00:57:38,440 --> 00:57:45,680
Speaker 1: a year for the kids. And Fidel Castro, right, he

783
00:57:45,840 --> 00:57:49,920
Speaker 1: takes pity on this whole situation, and so he pays

784
00:57:50,000 --> 00:57:53,680
Speaker 1: for her and all of her children to go on

785
00:57:53,720 --> 00:57:57,320
Speaker 1: holiday to Cuba, and so this kind of calms things

786
00:57:57,360 --> 00:58:02,000
Speaker 1: down for a while. But then, of course, her intestinal

787
00:58:02,040 --> 00:58:06,520
Speaker 1: issues like the scarre tissue, the infections they wear their

788
00:58:06,600 --> 00:58:10,280
Speaker 1: ugly head, and so more operations, more time in hospital,

789
00:58:11,200 --> 00:58:16,960
Speaker 1: and she she just can't afford anything, but she's so

790
00:58:17,120 --> 00:58:20,560
Speaker 1: determined to have this college of brotherhood. And again, all

791
00:58:20,600 --> 00:58:22,880
Speaker 1: of these friends, like I said, Jashigabar pret our door,

792
00:58:23,480 --> 00:58:25,640
Speaker 1: they are just like a couple of thousand year but

793
00:58:25,760 --> 00:58:30,080
Speaker 1: here and she's just making lots of really bad decisions,

794
00:58:31,840 --> 00:58:38,440
Speaker 1: Like she's not the most financially conscious of people. So

795
00:58:38,640 --> 00:58:41,920
Speaker 1: like she's given like a gig in a club and

796
00:58:42,000 --> 00:58:45,640
Speaker 1: she's going there and she's working, and that money was

797
00:58:45,640 --> 00:58:50,000
Speaker 1: supposed to go towards like reasonable logical things. But then

798
00:58:50,520 --> 00:58:55,480
Speaker 1: JFK is shot and so she goes to the funeral.

799
00:58:55,520 --> 00:58:58,320
Speaker 1: She flies over, she brings the kids and they're all

800
00:58:58,400 --> 00:59:04,040
Speaker 1: dressed and new design er outfits. Right, like the flight

801
00:59:04,920 --> 00:59:11,160
Speaker 1: and the clothing. Right, it was more than what she

802
00:59:11,280 --> 00:59:17,520
Speaker 1: earned in a year, Like she spent so much money. Right. Finally,

803
00:59:18,040 --> 00:59:21,360
Speaker 1: after all of the like robbing Peter to pay Paul,

804
00:59:22,480 --> 00:59:27,120
Speaker 1: she has served an eviction notice in September nineteen sixty eight,

805
00:59:29,480 --> 00:59:32,040
Speaker 1: and so they end up having to leave the whole

806
00:59:32,160 --> 00:59:36,680
Speaker 1: estate and move into this like two bed apartment. And

807
00:59:36,720 --> 00:59:38,760
Speaker 1: so she's there with all of like the younger kids,

808
00:59:38,760 --> 00:59:42,080
Speaker 1: so there's like nine ish maybe ten of them altogether.

809
00:59:42,880 --> 00:59:47,200
Speaker 1: You know, Yari's over in Argentina, another one is somewhere else,

810
00:59:48,840 --> 00:59:51,840
Speaker 1: and so, you know, all her stuff gets auctioned off,

811
00:59:52,720 --> 00:59:57,000
Speaker 1: and the date that is set for her to vacate

812
00:59:57,240 --> 01:00:01,880
Speaker 1: the chateau estate was the fifteenth March. So it gets

813
01:00:01,920 --> 01:00:03,800
Speaker 1: sold and she's told, you're gonna be out with the

814
01:00:03,800 --> 01:00:08,960
Speaker 1: fifteenth of March, and she's like, okay, But Josephine Baker,

815
01:00:09,880 --> 01:00:15,240
Speaker 1: like myself, is a petty bitch because she's told, oh,

816
01:00:15,280 --> 01:00:17,919
Speaker 1: it's the fifteenth of March, and then she finds out

817
01:00:18,360 --> 01:00:22,040
Speaker 1: that the people who bought it would to move in earlier,

818
01:00:23,520 --> 01:00:27,600
Speaker 1: and so she decides that she's not gonna let them

819
01:00:27,640 --> 01:00:30,360
Speaker 1: in yet. She's like, no, it is still mine until

820
01:00:30,400 --> 01:00:35,120
Speaker 1: the fifteenth of March. So she goes back to Le

821
01:00:35,200 --> 01:00:40,920
Speaker 1: Milan the shadow Lea Milan, barricades herself in the kitchen

822
01:00:41,600 --> 01:00:49,120
Speaker 1: and pauses for photos and gives newspaper interviews. Right now,

823
01:00:50,360 --> 01:00:55,440
Speaker 1: consider this, she was once one of the richest women

824
01:00:55,480 --> 01:00:59,360
Speaker 1: in the world and the richest black women in the world.

825
01:00:59,520 --> 01:01:06,120
Speaker 1: Right she was just living the high life, and now

826
01:01:06,160 --> 01:01:11,640
Speaker 1: she's like homeless okay. And so like they're interviewing her

827
01:01:11,680 --> 01:01:15,480
Speaker 1: and they're asking me these questions, and she's like, everything's fine.

828
01:01:15,600 --> 01:01:17,760
Speaker 1: I could live in a tent. I can live anywhere.

829
01:01:18,840 --> 01:01:22,720
Speaker 1: And so the new owners they are so mad, they're

830
01:01:22,760 --> 01:01:25,160
Speaker 1: like really impatient. They want to get into the shadow,

831
01:01:25,840 --> 01:01:29,400
Speaker 1: and she's like, no, not until March fifteenth. And she's

832
01:01:29,440 --> 01:01:34,160
Speaker 1: really digging her heels in, right, and so in a

833
01:01:34,200 --> 01:01:37,280
Speaker 1: move of what I can only describe as sheer stupidity

834
01:01:37,480 --> 01:01:43,880
Speaker 1: on the new owner's part, they send eight men, eight

835
01:01:44,000 --> 01:01:53,360
Speaker 1: men to effectively storm the house and forcefully remove her

836
01:01:53,440 --> 01:01:58,560
Speaker 1: from it. Right, let's just picture this. You have eight

837
01:01:58,800 --> 01:02:05,440
Speaker 1: grown ass men dragging an elderly black woman outside of

838
01:02:05,480 --> 01:02:11,920
Speaker 1: her home in the rain, like, and she's in her negligee, right,

839
01:02:12,640 --> 01:02:16,720
Speaker 1: She's in her her night dress, she's got a shower cap,

840
01:02:17,000 --> 01:02:20,160
Speaker 1: and she's holding a kitten wrapped in a blanket that

841
01:02:20,200 --> 01:02:22,480
Speaker 1: she found on the property because she wasn't gonna leave

842
01:02:22,520 --> 01:02:29,200
Speaker 1: the kitten behind because it's Josephine fucking Baker. Okay. So, like,

843
01:02:30,960 --> 01:02:35,440
Speaker 1: she is there for seven hours on the front steps.

844
01:02:36,280 --> 01:02:40,280
Speaker 1: She is there for seven hours, and this is when

845
01:02:40,320 --> 01:02:44,840
Speaker 1: she has another heart attack, right as she is there

846
01:02:45,440 --> 01:02:49,240
Speaker 1: in the rain in her neglige and a shower cap

847
01:02:49,480 --> 01:02:52,120
Speaker 1: and holding a kitten. Now, I know some of you

848
01:02:52,200 --> 01:02:55,040
Speaker 1: might be thinking, is a bonnet that she's wearing. Well,

849
01:02:55,520 --> 01:02:58,720
Speaker 1: Josephine Baker was bald at this point, like she didn't

850
01:02:58,760 --> 01:03:02,040
Speaker 1: have hair, so I don't know if she would be

851
01:03:02,040 --> 01:03:05,000
Speaker 1: wearing a bonnet. Like everywhere I read it was like

852
01:03:05,040 --> 01:03:08,400
Speaker 1: a shower cap, So it could have been a bonnet

853
01:03:08,400 --> 01:03:12,560
Speaker 1: and somebody just didn't realize what it was, So that

854
01:03:12,640 --> 01:03:16,040
Speaker 1: is open to interpretation. But like so she would wear

855
01:03:16,040 --> 01:03:18,880
Speaker 1: wigs and head pieces and everything when she'd perform at

856
01:03:18,880 --> 01:03:20,560
Speaker 1: this point, it is to do with all like the

857
01:03:20,600 --> 01:03:22,840
Speaker 1: stuff she put through her hair when she was younger,

858
01:03:23,240 --> 01:03:28,720
Speaker 1: and it just kind of like destroyed it. So as

859
01:03:28,760 --> 01:03:33,680
Speaker 1: she is thrown out in the rain, she screams, if

860
01:03:33,720 --> 01:03:36,680
Speaker 1: I die tonight, I want to be buried in the

861
01:03:36,680 --> 01:03:42,320
Speaker 1: pink night gown of my agony. Now I love the

862
01:03:42,360 --> 01:03:46,320
Speaker 1: fact that it's a pink neglige. It's just again drama,

863
01:03:46,400 --> 01:03:50,040
Speaker 1: Dave a drama. So there are reporters and everything around

864
01:03:50,120 --> 01:03:52,760
Speaker 1: because again this is Josephine Baker, it's a big deal.

865
01:03:53,760 --> 01:03:56,480
Speaker 1: And so she ends up back in the hospital again.

866
01:03:57,200 --> 01:04:00,520
Speaker 1: I can remember what I said about optics earlier, throwing

867
01:04:00,560 --> 01:04:05,880
Speaker 1: an elderly black woman, you know, with eight grown as men,

868
01:04:06,120 --> 01:04:10,600
Speaker 1: throwing an elderly black woman out into the rain in

869
01:04:10,720 --> 01:04:15,240
Speaker 1: her ninety while holding a kitten, Like that's not a

870
01:04:15,280 --> 01:04:17,920
Speaker 1: good look for anybody like that is Just wait a

871
01:04:17,920 --> 01:04:21,840
Speaker 1: couple of days, guys, like March fifteenth, you have a date.

872
01:04:22,600 --> 01:04:25,640
Speaker 1: Why are you storming the gates? Like there was no

873
01:04:25,680 --> 01:04:29,240
Speaker 1: reason to. You can hold off a few days. And

874
01:04:29,320 --> 01:04:32,400
Speaker 1: of course this makes the news, right, this is a

875
01:04:32,520 --> 01:04:36,480
Speaker 1: huge deal. And because it gets like shared all over

876
01:04:36,520 --> 01:04:40,720
Speaker 1: the world, Fidel Castro sends her a box of fruit.

877
01:04:42,200 --> 01:04:47,400
Speaker 1: I mean sure, Fidel sure, So he gives her a

878
01:04:47,400 --> 01:04:52,320
Speaker 1: box of fruit. And Grace Kelly, Princess Grace of Monaco,

879
01:04:52,960 --> 01:04:56,880
Speaker 1: who like Josiphin Baker, had befriended at a Red Cross

880
01:04:56,880 --> 01:05:03,200
Speaker 1: event in Monaco, right, Grace Kelly gives her a house

881
01:05:05,160 --> 01:05:10,120
Speaker 1: when she finds out that they're homeless. She gifts Josephine

882
01:05:10,160 --> 01:05:13,720
Speaker 1: and her family a huge villa on the coast of

883
01:05:13,800 --> 01:05:16,600
Speaker 1: Monte Cristo. And it's got like if you who have

884
01:05:16,760 --> 01:05:21,040
Speaker 1: like the Grimaldi castle, you know where Princess Grace of

885
01:05:21,080 --> 01:05:25,360
Speaker 1: Monaco is living, like and Josephine Once she's you know,

886
01:05:26,480 --> 01:05:29,840
Speaker 1: healed up a little bit, she goes back to performing.

887
01:05:29,920 --> 01:05:33,680
Speaker 1: So she's trying to raise money to reviews, and she

888
01:05:33,760 --> 01:05:36,360
Speaker 1: has this new show and on the opening night of

889
01:05:36,400 --> 01:05:39,960
Speaker 1: her show, like it's in this club called like Shay Josephine.

890
01:05:40,000 --> 01:05:42,880
Speaker 1: Well it's not called Shay Josephine. They nickname it Shaye

891
01:05:42,960 --> 01:05:48,000
Speaker 1: Josephine just because she's performing there. And so you've got

892
01:05:48,000 --> 01:05:52,320
Speaker 1: people that are like coming to this review. You've got

893
01:05:52,480 --> 01:05:57,760
Speaker 1: Prince Renier and Grace Kelly. You have Jackie Kennedy, O Nassis,

894
01:05:59,000 --> 01:06:04,800
Speaker 1: You've got Sophie In, Mick Jagger, Laza Manelli, Diana Ross,

895
01:06:06,160 --> 01:06:11,200
Speaker 1: Shirley Bassey. Right, You've got all of these people, and

896
01:06:12,360 --> 01:06:15,480
Speaker 1: it's like a huge deal. It's a very big moment.

897
01:06:15,520 --> 01:06:18,800
Speaker 1: Like she doesn't realize the impact she had and how

898
01:06:18,880 --> 01:06:22,840
Speaker 1: popular she was, Like she didn't know how much she

899
01:06:23,080 --> 01:06:26,959
Speaker 1: was loved, respected and adored. Meanwhile, she's got this villa

900
01:06:27,040 --> 01:06:30,520
Speaker 1: and Monaco and like her teenage kids are being teenagers

901
01:06:30,560 --> 01:06:34,840
Speaker 1: and she never really got the chance to be a

902
01:06:35,040 --> 01:06:37,640
Speaker 1: proper parent to them. Like again, she liked to be

903
01:06:37,680 --> 01:06:40,840
Speaker 1: the fun parent, not the strict one, and here she

904
01:06:41,000 --> 01:06:44,040
Speaker 1: was having to be both. Like she loved doing the

905
01:06:44,080 --> 01:06:46,960
Speaker 1: fun stuff with her kids and not like the nitty

906
01:06:46,960 --> 01:06:51,560
Speaker 1: gritty stuff. And because she like needs money and she

907
01:06:51,600 --> 01:06:54,280
Speaker 1: needs to perform it, I think performing for her was

908
01:06:54,360 --> 01:06:59,160
Speaker 1: always a driving force, and so she didn't really have

909
01:06:59,240 --> 01:07:01,720
Speaker 1: the opportunity to stay at home and try and mend

910
01:07:01,800 --> 01:07:08,680
Speaker 1: those relationships with her kids. So in nineteen seventy two,

911
01:07:09,320 --> 01:07:13,200
Speaker 1: she's invented to perform at the Carnegie Hall again, and

912
01:07:13,280 --> 01:07:15,800
Speaker 1: so it's like a Unisef night or the proceeds are

913
01:07:15,840 --> 01:07:21,720
Speaker 1: going to Unief and it's a celebration of fifty years

914
01:07:21,760 --> 01:07:28,240
Speaker 1: since she first appeared in Shuffle Along. So she's sixty

915
01:07:28,320 --> 01:07:32,880
Speaker 1: seven years old and she's on stage in this i'm

916
01:07:32,880 --> 01:07:38,520
Speaker 1: gonna call it bedazzled like net stocking outfit and a

917
01:07:38,840 --> 01:07:44,920
Speaker 1: four foot tall headdress full of orange feathers. Like you

918
01:07:44,960 --> 01:07:50,520
Speaker 1: can still see the pictures online. It's gorgeous. So she

919
01:07:51,080 --> 01:07:55,200
Speaker 1: goes back to Monaco and she's got like a regular heartbeat.

920
01:07:55,440 --> 01:08:01,280
Speaker 1: She's stressed, and her daughter Mary Anne's right away she's gone,

921
01:08:01,320 --> 01:08:04,520
Speaker 1: and so this adds to her stress. And her doctors

922
01:08:04,560 --> 01:08:07,360
Speaker 1: are like, you need to rest because you're sixty seven

923
01:08:07,440 --> 01:08:10,280
Speaker 1: years old, and she's like, no, no, I have a

924
01:08:11,000 --> 01:08:14,640
Speaker 1: contract in Copenhagen. I've got stuff to do and don't

925
01:08:14,680 --> 01:08:19,599
Speaker 1: have time to be sick. And she was worried that

926
01:08:20,120 --> 01:08:23,120
Speaker 1: all of our health issues were gonna cause her tours

927
01:08:23,160 --> 01:08:27,160
Speaker 1: and shows to be canceled. Like she's sixty seven, she's

928
01:08:27,200 --> 01:08:30,680
Speaker 1: working twelve hour days. Like that's that's wild, you know.

929
01:08:32,240 --> 01:08:36,679
Speaker 1: So she flies back to the US for a tour.

930
01:08:36,760 --> 01:08:41,080
Speaker 1: It's like seventeen cities, and she's like doing like so

931
01:08:41,120 --> 01:08:42,800
Speaker 1: many cities, and then she's a break and then does

932
01:08:42,800 --> 01:08:46,200
Speaker 1: so many more. And so in the middle of this,

933
01:08:47,880 --> 01:08:54,120
Speaker 1: like the Prime Minister of Israel flies her over for

934
01:08:54,160 --> 01:08:59,599
Speaker 1: the twenty five year Freedom anniversary. Now this is a

935
01:08:59,640 --> 01:09:02,479
Speaker 1: period of time in which we are still presented with

936
01:09:02,560 --> 01:09:10,680
Speaker 1: the idea that the separation in Palestine was a harmonious

937
01:09:10,720 --> 01:09:14,320
Speaker 1: one and this was a place of respect and care

938
01:09:14,479 --> 01:09:19,120
Speaker 1: and refuge. So she was working with Jewish refugees during

939
01:09:19,360 --> 01:09:22,519
Speaker 1: the Second World War, and so on her mind she

940
01:09:22,520 --> 01:09:24,439
Speaker 1: would have seen this as like a very good and

941
01:09:24,479 --> 01:09:28,280
Speaker 1: bright and accepting thing to do. And so she flies there,

942
01:09:28,400 --> 01:09:32,519
Speaker 1: she does her bit, and so when she returns, she's

943
01:09:32,560 --> 01:09:38,120
Speaker 1: a day late getting back and her manager has to

944
01:09:38,560 --> 01:09:40,840
Speaker 1: refund a sold out crowd because she didn't show up

945
01:09:40,840 --> 01:09:44,320
Speaker 1: because she was a daily and so he's like, I've

946
01:09:44,360 --> 01:09:46,400
Speaker 1: got to take it out your pay because you know,

947
01:09:47,320 --> 01:09:50,519
Speaker 1: you are the reason you are daily. And so she quits.

948
01:09:51,479 --> 01:09:56,400
Speaker 1: She just quits her tour, and so, yeah, things are

949
01:09:56,439 --> 01:10:00,200
Speaker 1: not going well for her. She's in debt, she's wasting money.

950
01:10:00,840 --> 01:10:05,320
Speaker 1: She's struggling as well because she's ill and with her age,

951
01:10:05,360 --> 01:10:09,240
Speaker 1: like she's not remembering like the lyrics to her songs

952
01:10:09,320 --> 01:10:14,080
Speaker 1: or anything anymore, and like she's very exhausted because she's

953
01:10:14,160 --> 01:10:20,800
Speaker 1: sixty seven, and so she's trying to perform, and like

954
01:10:20,960 --> 01:10:25,720
Speaker 1: people are very gentle and considerate with her because they're like,

955
01:10:26,840 --> 01:10:33,880
Speaker 1: you know, she's sixty seven and she's struggling. Then the

956
01:10:33,880 --> 01:10:36,960
Speaker 1: Monoccan Red Cross decide that they're gonna put on like

957
01:10:37,240 --> 01:10:40,200
Speaker 1: this big celebration that year for their gala, and they

958
01:10:40,240 --> 01:10:45,400
Speaker 1: called it Josephine, a televised tribute to her life, starring

959
01:10:45,479 --> 01:10:50,720
Speaker 1: her and younger dancers dressed as her. And on the

960
01:10:50,760 --> 01:10:54,120
Speaker 1: opening night, this is madness. Right on the opening night,

961
01:10:55,240 --> 01:11:01,240
Speaker 1: she sang thirty four songs in fifteen scenes. She gets

962
01:11:01,400 --> 01:11:07,200
Speaker 1: a thirty minute ovation, and then she's out to dinner

963
01:11:07,400 --> 01:11:09,720
Speaker 1: for like a big dinner with like two hundred and

964
01:11:09,840 --> 01:11:13,840
Speaker 1: fifty people at the Bristol to honor her, and there

965
01:11:13,920 --> 01:11:17,960
Speaker 1: is a seven layer cake. It's very tall, and Princess

966
01:11:18,040 --> 01:11:24,599
Speaker 1: Grace of Monaco helps her cut it. And so after

967
01:11:24,800 --> 01:11:32,760
Speaker 1: like her second performance, like in Josephine starring Josephine, so

968
01:11:32,840 --> 01:11:34,880
Speaker 1: her and her like co stars, they're all like really

969
01:11:34,960 --> 01:11:37,679
Speaker 1: much younger, and they go across the street to eat

970
01:11:37,680 --> 01:11:41,840
Speaker 1: one of her favorite foods, spaghetti. I love the story,

971
01:11:42,560 --> 01:11:44,960
Speaker 1: and she wants to like continue and go dancing, and

972
01:11:45,000 --> 01:11:46,800
Speaker 1: like all of her younger co stars are like, I

973
01:11:46,840 --> 01:11:50,240
Speaker 1: am tired, and she's like, you young people are no

974
01:11:50,280 --> 01:11:56,320
Speaker 1: fun anymore. So four days after this big show, okay,

975
01:11:56,439 --> 01:11:59,519
Speaker 1: so it's like the day after like the second show,

976
01:11:59,560 --> 01:12:02,200
Speaker 1: but a big show. It's the fourth day after that.

977
01:12:03,120 --> 01:12:05,280
Speaker 1: So she was having a typical day. She had little

978
01:12:05,280 --> 01:12:08,519
Speaker 1: afternoon nap and so her friend is you know, she

979
01:12:08,760 --> 01:12:11,200
Speaker 1: goes in and she wakes her up because she's supposed

980
01:12:11,240 --> 01:12:14,240
Speaker 1: to have an interview with a journalist. Her friend goes

981
01:12:14,280 --> 01:12:18,160
Speaker 1: in tries to wake her up, but she's not waking up.

982
01:12:18,800 --> 01:12:21,720
Speaker 1: Josephine Baker had had a stroke and was now in

983
01:12:21,760 --> 01:12:26,800
Speaker 1: a coma, so she is rushed to the emergency room

984
01:12:26,920 --> 01:12:32,200
Speaker 1: of PTI Sapinine Hospital, and so she's there and her

985
01:12:32,200 --> 01:12:35,320
Speaker 1: family show up, and so does Princess Grace of Monaco.

986
01:12:35,800 --> 01:12:38,920
Speaker 1: So they all rush there, and the doctors tell them

987
01:12:39,320 --> 01:12:42,639
Speaker 1: that there is a seventy percent chance that if they operate,

988
01:12:43,520 --> 01:12:47,160
Speaker 1: that Josephine Baker is going to be severely physically impaired,

989
01:12:48,800 --> 01:12:51,800
Speaker 1: and so they all agree that there's going to be

990
01:12:51,840 --> 01:12:56,240
Speaker 1: no operation because it is the last thing she wanted, like,

991
01:12:57,080 --> 01:13:00,880
Speaker 1: she hated the idea of the idea of living like that.

992
01:13:02,520 --> 01:13:07,759
Speaker 1: And so on the twelfth of April nineteen seventy five,

993
01:13:08,720 --> 01:13:12,559
Speaker 1: Josephine Baker passed away at the age of sixty eight.

994
01:13:13,400 --> 01:13:17,040
Speaker 1: And when her friend found her, initially, when she found

995
01:13:17,080 --> 01:13:23,040
Speaker 1: her in the bed, unresponsive, she was surrounded by reviews

996
01:13:23,080 --> 01:13:26,759
Speaker 1: of her lady's show, and these were rave reviews, and

997
01:13:27,040 --> 01:13:35,080
Speaker 1: the show, Josephine, there were just amazing, just five star,

998
01:13:35,280 --> 01:13:38,599
Speaker 1: ten out of ten, all of these amazing reviews about

999
01:13:38,600 --> 01:13:42,080
Speaker 1: her performance in her show. And so she had been

1000
01:13:42,120 --> 01:13:46,800
Speaker 1: reading these reviews and they're like all around her, and

1001
01:13:46,840 --> 01:13:52,240
Speaker 1: she was being celebrated. And so the last memory that

1002
01:13:52,320 --> 01:13:55,720
Speaker 1: Josephine Baker would have had was of the world celebrating

1003
01:13:55,760 --> 01:14:03,360
Speaker 1: her back when she was twenty one. She had said

1004
01:14:03,400 --> 01:14:08,000
Speaker 1: that I shall dance all my life. I was born

1005
01:14:08,040 --> 01:14:12,120
Speaker 1: to dance, just for that. To live is to dance.

1006
01:14:16,280 --> 01:14:21,240
Speaker 1: And so she has a full Catholic funeral at Leglise

1007
01:14:21,320 --> 01:14:25,759
Speaker 1: de la Madeleine. And this is like a big public funeral,

1008
01:14:26,200 --> 01:14:31,400
Speaker 1: and it is it is paid for by Prince Rainier

1009
01:14:31,479 --> 01:14:37,880
Speaker 1: and Princess Grace of Monaco. It's a full military funeral. Right,

1010
01:14:37,920 --> 01:14:42,240
Speaker 1: she gets a full military funeral, and over twenty thousand

1011
01:14:42,280 --> 01:14:47,400
Speaker 1: people come. Right, she is the only American born woman

1012
01:14:47,840 --> 01:14:53,000
Speaker 1: to receive full French military honors at her funeral. And

1013
01:14:53,120 --> 01:14:59,080
Speaker 1: so after that, like Princess Grace, she has this like

1014
01:15:00,280 --> 01:15:05,320
Speaker 1: a private, quiet funeral at legl Sanchars back in Monaco,

1015
01:15:06,200 --> 01:15:10,800
Speaker 1: and she is interred at the Cemeterire des Monico. And

1016
01:15:10,960 --> 01:15:16,320
Speaker 1: so ends the story of Josephine Baker. And that is

1017
01:15:16,360 --> 01:15:21,400
Speaker 1: the death of a showgirl. If you liked this series

1018
01:15:21,439 --> 01:15:23,920
Speaker 1: on Josephine Baker played writ in review five stars. If

1019
01:15:23,920 --> 01:15:26,280
Speaker 1: you didn't like it, shut your mouth. You don't have

1020
01:15:26,320 --> 01:15:30,400
Speaker 1: to say anything. Don't worry about it. I am so

1021
01:15:30,560 --> 01:15:34,479
Speaker 1: glad that I got to tell this story as full

1022
01:15:35,040 --> 01:15:36,920
Speaker 1: as I could. And I know this is probably part

1023
01:15:37,000 --> 01:15:41,439
Speaker 1: that I still managed to miss because she did so much.

1024
01:15:41,640 --> 01:15:47,080
Speaker 1: Like she did so much, and listen, all your favors

1025
01:15:47,080 --> 01:15:52,160
Speaker 1: are problematic, and some people do the wrong thing for

1026
01:15:52,240 --> 01:15:54,840
Speaker 1: what they believe are the right reasons. Happens all the time.

1027
01:15:56,960 --> 01:16:02,200
Speaker 1: But she was such an inspiration and crossed borders when

1028
01:16:02,240 --> 01:16:06,720
Speaker 1: others wouldn't or couldn't, and stood up when it was

1029
01:16:06,800 --> 01:16:11,599
Speaker 1: time to stand. Like it's so funny. I think of

1030
01:16:11,640 --> 01:16:13,880
Speaker 1: like that line in Hamilton, like if you stand for nothing,

1031
01:16:13,960 --> 01:16:18,120
Speaker 1: what will you follow for? And like she risked her

1032
01:16:18,160 --> 01:16:22,800
Speaker 1: life in so many occasions trying to do the right thing.

1033
01:16:24,080 --> 01:16:29,240
Speaker 1: And yeah, she was a diva and dramatic and just

1034
01:16:29,880 --> 01:16:33,680
Speaker 1: very much all of the muchness and I fucking love

1035
01:16:33,720 --> 01:16:36,080
Speaker 1: her for it. And like, I really want to go

1036
01:16:36,160 --> 01:16:39,920
Speaker 1: see the Josephine show in Paris. I don't care if

1037
01:16:39,920 --> 01:16:41,920
Speaker 1: it's all in French, I don't care. I'll go watch it.

1038
01:16:42,200 --> 01:16:46,120
Speaker 1: I don't care. But yes, so ends the story of

1039
01:16:46,240 --> 01:16:49,680
Speaker 1: Josephine Baker, or does it? Thank you for listening, And

1040
01:16:49,720 --> 01:16:54,519
Speaker 1: I guess it's recommendation time for watching. Apart from coming

1041
01:16:54,520 --> 01:16:57,720
Speaker 1: to see my show in London, come see me perform,

1042
01:16:57,960 --> 01:17:01,400
Speaker 1: I say, perform, talk about history in the top the

1043
01:17:01,400 --> 01:17:05,400
Speaker 1: shows a little bit too much cleavage for watching. If

1044
01:17:05,400 --> 01:17:09,879
Speaker 1: you get a chance to see Jess Thunder the Blessed

1045
01:17:09,920 --> 01:17:13,479
Speaker 1: Queen Miss Exotic twenty twenty five, you should go see her.

1046
01:17:13,640 --> 01:17:19,559
Speaker 1: She's fab for listening. For listening, I'm gonna recommend Scam

1047
01:17:19,680 --> 01:17:22,240
Speaker 1: Goddess because you know me, I love a scam, I

1048
01:17:22,240 --> 01:17:25,200
Speaker 1: love a hockster, I love tricks and love absorbing that information.

1049
01:17:25,240 --> 01:17:28,839
Speaker 1: I don't love them, I love hearing about them because

1050
01:17:29,439 --> 01:17:31,639
Speaker 1: I don't know. I got problems I don't know anyway.

1051
01:17:32,080 --> 01:17:35,880
Speaker 1: And for reading, and because you know, I'll let my

1052
01:17:35,920 --> 01:17:42,639
Speaker 1: cozy mysteries, I'm going with Deep Fried Trouble, the Eugena

1053
01:17:42,760 --> 01:17:46,439
Speaker 1: Patterson Mysteries. And with that, I am going to wish

1054
01:17:46,520 --> 01:17:51,320
Speaker 1: you good night. Adios. Au revoir of Wes Them my friends,

1055
01:17:52,120 --> 01:17:52,719
Speaker 1: Bye bye