Watch rare footage of Josephine Baker singing in Paris in 1931
By the 1930s, Josephine Baker was the most celebrated performer in Paris. In this footage from the first years of the decade, the revered dancer, singer and actress is captured “singing a little word of praise” for the city that made her a star.
Baker first came to Paris in 1925. After performing in some of the first Black shows on Broadway and winning praise for her daring dance routines, Josephine crossed the Atlantic to join Paris’ La Revue Nègre, an all-Black review put together by a wealthy American socialite. The show, designed to introduce the Parisian public to jazz, featured a new form of dance music born during the Harlem Renaissance.
At this time, the people of Paris were becoming increasingly fascinated with Black art and culture. While clearly born from a European colonial mindset, this exoticisation was, for Baker, at least preferable to the rampant and frequently violent racism she had faced in the US. Still, some of her most talked-about dances, especially the ‘Danse Sauvage’, a seminude routine in which she wore a G-String ornamented with a dress of bananas, remain divisive.
In 1930, Baker added yet another string to her bow, releasing several incredibly successful films and songs, including her biggest hit ‘J’ai Deux Amours’ in 1931. It’s hard to convey just how famous Baker was by this time. She was the best-paid performer in Paris, spending most of her money on a menagerie of diamond-collared animals from around the world. That’s to say nothing of her cultural influence. Indeed, Baker was deemed so beautiful that many white Parisians started buying almond oil to darken their skin.
This British Pathé footage hums with a certain dramatic irony. By the end of the 1930s, everything had changed for Baker and for France. The German occupation decapitated her blossoming film and music career, at which point she joined the French resistance, swapping her jewel-encrusted headdress for a modest felt beret. According to some sources, Baker was trained to shoot a revolver in the sewers beneath Paris before being sent to infiltrate the Nazi Party.
Using her star status as her passport, she travelled Europe to target diplomats and military officials, feeding back to her confidants in Paris by writing messages in invisible ink on sheet music. Following the liberation of France, Baker was awarded the Croix de Guerre and the Legion of Honour, the nation’s highest honour.
