the1920sand30s | Josephine Baker - Nuit D'Alger [Night Of Algiers] (1936) @the1920sand30s | Uploaded July 2022 | Updated October 2024, 1 hour ago.
Performed by: Joséphine Baker

Full Song Title: Nuit D'Alger

Recorded in Paris, October 1936

Flip side of: youtu.be/6sT6575GpPs

Josephine Baker (born 3 June 1906 - died 12 April 1975) (born Freda Josephine McDonald, naturalized French Joséphine Baker) was an American-born French entertainer, French Resistance agent and civil rights activist. Her career was centered primarily in Europe, mostly in her adopted France. She was the first black woman to star in a major motion picture, the 1927 silent film Siren of the Tropics, directed by Mario Nalpas and Henri Étiévant.

To say that Josephine Baker was ahead of her time is a grand understatement. Her success as a dancer and singer as an entertainer, electrified Europe in the 1920s. There, she became the queen of the stage, the most photographed woman in the world. However, critical and public response in her homeland, the United States, was far less enthusiastic. Mired in racial prejudice, both overt and covert, American society could not tolerate the concept of a strong, sophisticated black woman commanding so much attention. In a review, following a particularly sensual performance with the Ziegfeld Follies in 1936, the venerable New York Times called Josephine Baker a "negro wench." Sadly, it would be many more decades before she would find any acceptance in her native country.

But, in Europe, her career flourished. She was a great star. In addition, she lived a life of intrigue and espionage during World War II. She aided the French Resistance by carrying secret messages written on her sheet music, as she traveled on singing tours across Europe. For this she received several medals and awards from the French government. Beyond that, Josephine Baker was an independent woman, who never felt compelled to rely upon a man for financial support. Though married and divorced four times, and despite countless other, more transitory relationships, she raised twelve adopted children, whom she referred to as her "Rainbow Tribe." They were children of different races and ethnicities, whom she was determined to prove could live together in harmonious kinship.Her unbridled sexuality and the unrestrained abandon of her erotically charged dancing style caused an immediate sensation with the Parisian public, who were neither as prudishly conservative nor as racially discriminatory as their American counterparts. Josephine Baker became the talk of Paris, soon commanding the regal salary of $250 a week.

After the run of La Revue Negre ended, Josephine subsequently starred in a show at the Folies Bergere music hall entitled La Folie Du Jour. In that revue she amazed audiences by performing an aggressive Charleston, the "Banana Dance," and swinging from a trapeze, dressed in a skirt comprised of sixteen bananas hanging from a G-String. All of Paris fell under Josephine Baker's exotic spell. Her striking facial features and cross-eyed poses charmed the hearts of the city and the French nation. They called her "La Perle Noire," "the Black Pearl."

Paris in the mid-'20s was alive with the spirit of the Jazz age. Josephine's stunning performances elicited artwork from Alexander Calder and Georges Roualt among many others. It is said that an original print run poster of Le Revue Negre today commands a price as high as $45,000. In 1926, she opened her own nightclub, Chez Josephine, on the rue Fontaine. She also began her recording career, cutting a number of sides for a French label. By 1927, she was earning more money than any other entertainer in Europe, rivaling Mary Pickford and Gloria Swanson as the most photographed woman in the world. She made her first movie, La Sirene des Tropiques. Josephine Baker was only twenty-one years of age. Described by Pablo Picasso as a black Venus, a true cabaret star and exotic dancer Josephine Baker was certainly one of the 20th century's most extraordinary characters. Her act wouldn't raise an eyebrow these days but, in the Twenties and Thirties, her unconventionality and sensuality was legendary. She is one of my favorite singers/entertainers of that period. Too bad, they don't make stars like her anymore!

I hope you enjoy this as much as I have.

Best wishes,
Stu
______________________
Please Note: I do not claim copyright or ownership of the song played in this video. All copyrighted content remains property of their respective owners.