Josephine
Baker exhibit shows breadth, versatility, excitement of unique
approach to showcasing a legend against backdrop of her times
By Daniel
Hines
Publisher
America’s Seniors at
www.TodaysSeniorsNetwork.com
If your
concept of a visit to a museum is a leisurely stroll through a lot
of older items, you need to go to the exhibit honoring the
Centennial Birthday Celebration of the legendary Josephine Baker,
now wrapping up its St. Louis showing (August 26) at The Sheldon Art
Galleries in St. Louis.
It is
fitting that St. Louis should be the launching point for this really
outstanding presentation not only of Josephine Baker’s many
accomplishments, failures and restoration as a star that transcended
her time and era, but also helped shape not just a nation’s but a
world’s consciousness.
That is an
amazing feat for a Black woman born June 3, 1906 as Freda Josephine
McDonald in St. Louis. Her mother, a cleaning woman, hired
Josephine out to help her clean houses for the more affluent—and
very likely now forgotten—citizens of St. Louis.
But not
for long.
Josephine
ran away from home at 13 years of age to join a traveling road
show. Because she was so young, and, frankly, a long ways from the
beautiful cosmopolitan star she was to become, she relied on getting
attention by making sappy faces and gestures in the chorus line.
The antics were successful, and in 1921, she landed a major dancing
role in ‘Shuffle Along’.
But while the show was a success, touring the country, it
was Josephine’s decision to accept a role in Paris, France,
in a musical review, Le Revue Negre.
Freed from the racial restrictions of the United States,
where the Ku Klux Klan was rising to new political heights
and power, Josephine flourished. She was eagerly embraced by
the French, became a major celebrity and established a
presence as a grand dame of the French entertainment
industry.
If that
were the end of the story, Josephine Baker would merit a tribute of
the sort that has been assembled at the Sheldon. But, she was to
accomplish much, much more.
Her
infectious enthusiasm spread into everything she did, expressing
itself in what many might have considered excesses. She adopted 12
children from around the world, her famed ‘Rainbow Tribe.’ She
became one of the world's most versatile entertainers, performing on
stage, screen and recordings. She was decorated for her undercover
work for the French Resistance during World War II. She was a
civil rights activist. She refused to perform for segregated
audiences and integrated the Las Vegas nightclubs.
But, as
Mary Strauss, one of the owners of The Fabulous Fox and the one who
first dropped the idea of a Centennial Tribute several years ago and
has supported it by being its underwriter, noted during our tour of
the exhibit, ‘Great People have Great Flaws.’
Money was
Josephine Baker’s great failing, and the money she poured into her
dream home—a mansion in rural France—eventually led her into
financial problems that caused her to be evicted in 1969.
But
Princess Grace of Monaco became Josephine’s patron, providing her
with a residence and income in Monaco. In 1973 Baker married an
American, Robert Brady, and began her stage comeback. In 1975,
Josephine Baker's Carnegie Hall comeback performance was a success,
as was her subsequent Paris performance. But two days after her last
Paris performance, she died of a stroke. She was accorded a full
French Military Burial, a reflection of the deep love and respect
her adopted country felt for her.
The
exhibit at The Sheldon features more than 100 prints, drawing,
photographs, posters, sculpture ands ephemera from important
museums. Olivia Lahs-Gonzales has done an outstanding job of
assembling some very rare items that provide insights into the era
that shaped Josephine Baker, and, as one walks among the pieces, we
gather an insight into a truly unique woman that exemplifies the
talent that can spring forth from such an unlikely source as a
little girl born into poverty in a mean-spirited era that placed
such a foolish importance upon skin color.
Another
example of the successful presentation of mood and significance is
evidenced by the community outreach in which school children made
posters about Josephine Baker. They are creative and worth seeing
in and of themselves, but when presented as a part of the exhibit,
they make you believe that Josephine, who loved children, would be
thrilled that she can stir such excitement and enthusiasm among the
students.
That she
can is the thing that is most moving and memorable is the spirit of
Josephine Baker. She had an indomitable spirit, and as one looks at
the pictures, it is that spirit that shines forth. In one, she is
in the middle of a club and while her focus is sharp, and she is
energetic, the audience around her is only a backdrop. The effect
is that of a star shooting across the night sky, and like a shooting
star, this wonderful exhibit will remain in St. Louis for only a
short time, before moving on to Washington, DC.