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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nEarly Life and Upbringing<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Born in St. Louis, Missouri, on June 3, 1906, Josephine Baker was raised in poverty by her mother, also an entertainer. She encountered plenty of discrimination throughout her childhood and often had to bounce from job to job to help make ends meet for her family. <\/p>\n\n\n\n By the age of 12, Baker had dropped out of school, and by 15, she had already been married twice. She worked for a time as a domestic servant, but her passion lay in performing, where she truly thrived. Her drive to entertain eventually led her to dance her way to New York City at the age of 15 after catching the eye of a touring group and joining their troupe. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Baker quickly made a name for herself by performing in vaudeville shows, including in the musical comedy Shuffle Along<\/em>, and the floor show of the Plantation Club in New York.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Unbeknownst to her at the time, Baker was making her mark amid the Harlem Renaissance. Her rapid success as a dancer would eventually bring her across the Atlantic to Paris, France, where her career took off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite being a teenager in a foreign country where she didn’t speak the language, Baker’s charisma and talent catapulted her into stardom overnight. Her unique dancing style and costumes immediately made her one of the most sought-after performers in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 1925, after taking the chance to perform in Paris in a show at the Th\u00e9\u00e2tre des Champs-\u00c9lys\u00e9es – La Revue N\u00e8gre – Baker swiftly became one of the most popular music-hall entertainers in France. The performance, however, was controversial because of the racial slur in the name, along with the request for a performer to dance half-nude.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite this, Baker and the all-Black cast experienced a level of freedom in France that they couldn\u2019t have hoped for in the US. She subsequently achieved star billing at the Folies-Berg\u00e8re and even took French citizenship in 1937.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the US, Baker went on to become the first African American woman to star in a motion picture and perform with an integrated cast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Baker’s performances were heavily influenced by African themes and style, but she was the subject of much sensation by dancing seminude in a G-string ornamented with bananas in her famed danse sauvage<\/em>. It was performances like these that cemented Josephine Baker as not only a celebrity, but a sex symbol, in popular culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, Josephine Baker was much more than her performances on stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.historydefined.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Baker_Harcourt_1940_2.jpg\")
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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nRise to Fame and an Iconic Career<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.historydefined.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Baker_Banana-649x1024.jpg\")
World War II and Espionage<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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