"Josephine Baker is a St. Louis washwoman’s daughter who stepped out of a Negro burlesque show into a life of adulation and luxury in Paris during the booming 1920s. In sex appeal to jaded Europeans of the jazz-loving type, a Negro wench always has a head start. The particular tawny tint of tall and stringy Josephine Baker’s bare skin stirred French pulses. But to Manhattan theatre-goers last week, she was just a slightly buck-toothed young Negro woman whose figure might be matched in any nightclub show, whose dancing and singing could be topped practically anywhere outside France."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Civil rights activistsCatholics from the United StatesAfrican AmericansDancers from the United StatesActresses from St. Louis
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
"The Theatre: New Plays in Manhattan," TIME, 10 Feb 1936
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Josephine_Baker
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Josephine Baker
Josephine Baker (born Freda Josephine McDonald, naturalised French Joséphine Baker; 3 June 1906 – 12 April 1975) was an American-born French entertainer, French Resistance agent and civil rights activist.
9 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Josephine Baker →
Related Quotes
"I have stage contracts for the next 18 months, and I shall go on with them whatever he says."
"France made me what I am. I will be grateful forever. The people of Paris have given me everything. They have given m…"
"First, I want to do what I can to help win the war and thus perform whatever duty I can for my native land. Second, I…"
"I cannot see that I did anything extraordinary to merit this honor. Everything was just as it had to be.""
"I want you to know that this is the happiest day of my entire life. And as you all must know, I have had a very long …"
"I believe in action. … I believe in doing rather than talking. All my life I have maintained that the people of the w…"
"Surely the day will come when color means nothing more than skin tone, when religion is seen uniquely as a way to spe…"
"She broke down barriers … She became part of the hearts and minds of French people ... Josephine Baker, you enter the…"
"Enjoying an extraordinary knowledge of languages (ancient and modern), literature, and art, by his cultured personali…"
"When young persons are summoned from this world ere they have mingled in its sinful pursuits, they can be readily yie…"