The Many Faces of Josephine Baker

by Peggy Caravantes

  While she waited to adopt a Peruvian Indian child, Joséphine focused on having a mixture of religions. She decided to search for a Jewish boy to go with the Catholic, Shinto, Buddhist, and Protestant religions already represented in her growing brood. Unlike the Finnish government, which had willingly allowed her to adopt a child, the Israeli government refused to let a child leave their country. Undeterred, Joséphine adopted a Jewish boy from France. At 10 months of age, the child she named Moïse became the youngest of the adopted children, of whom the oldest was four.

  With six children to support, Joséphine needed to raise some money, so she went back to performing. She told the press: “I’ll be fifty this year. It’s time to retire. I want to say good bye to my people while I still have the physical strength.” Her first farewell performance occurred at the Olympia Theatre in Paris on April 10, 1956. Joséphine dressed in a sophisticated gold-and-blue, strapless, floor-length dress and a red velvet coat lined with aquamarine satin. Her hair was curled in long ringlets that swept her shoulders. Top French actors from all the places she had performed presented a collage of scenes from her life. After Joséphine sang her favorite songs, she introduced a new theme song, an old folk tune with lyrics that described each of her adopted children. She called it “Dans Mon Village,” or “In My Village.” The French audiences, who still adored Joséphine, also loved the new song.

  Life at Les Milandes was at the height of its success as well. Nearly 300,000 visitors toured the grounds annually. For a while, Joséphine seemed content devoting herself to her children and to the château. The family also had occasion to celebrate happy events: on her 50th birthday, her brother Richard married the Les Milandes postmistress. Meanwhile, news of her successful farewell show in Paris had spread, and other places where she had performed in earlier years begged her to perform. But the decision to take her show on the road was not an easy one because her children wanted her to stay home with them. Joséphine told a friend, “As I am leaving, [my daughter] will stretch herself out on the front hall floor and scream her head off. She says to me, ‘You’re never here when I need you.’ But I have to perform in order to support Les Milandes. I can’t be in two places at one time.”

  10

  Joséphine and Jo Split

  IN THE FALL OF 1956, JOSÉPHINE LEFT to perform in North Africa, where she had suffered through her serious illness during World War II. Those memories faded as she faced the new reality of the Algerian War. In a severe air-raid strike in a town called Palestro, almost the entire population had been massacred. The only survivors were two babies, a boy and a girl, found hidden underneath some rubble. They were taken to a hospital, where doctors determined that the two were not related. Joséphine adopted both children. She named the girl Marianne and decided she would be Catholic. She called the boy Brahim and determined his religion would be Muslim.

  When Joséphine arrived at Les Milandes with the two new babies, Jo was furious. He scolded her about adding more children to their already sizeable family. The fact that one of the new children was a girl was especially upsetting to him. He reminded his wife that their children had no blood relationship and that adding a daughter to their collection of sons was asking for trouble. He also warned her she was spending money faster than they could earn it.

  In 1957, Joséphine returned to the Ivory Coast, where she visited a hospital. When she discovered a young infant whose mother had died and whose father was unknown, she ignored her husband’s warnings and adopted him. Koffi became the ninth member of the Rainbow Tribe. Joséphine’s return with this child caused an argument so fierce that she ordered Jo to leave Les Milandes. He went to stay with friends in Paris, but he sent several people to talk to his wife to convince her to reconcile with him. She refused to consider it. She would not tolerate anyone telling her what to do.

  A despondent Jo decided to take up his musical career again so that he could assure the financial future of their children. He did not want to divorce Joséphine, especially once he realized the devastating emotional effect that it could have on children already once separated from their parents. Newspapers reported the marital split in headlines like this one: THE HEART-RENDING DRAMA OF JOE AND Jo, THOSE 50-YEAR-OLDS WITH BIG HEARTS. When Joséphine’s friend Miki Sawada, who had helped her get the first child for the Rainbow Tribe, heard about the couple’s separation, she wrote a letter begging them to reconcile. In her plea, she reminded the couple: “Having lost their natural parents, it would be unbearably cruel to be deprived of a mother and father again.” The letter impressed Joséphine, and she told Jo about it, but she was still determined to be her own boss.

  With her husband gone, Joséphine tried to manage the estate and care for the children, who lived in a converted stable block more like a boarding school dormitory than a home. Her temperamental nature could not tolerate the stress of so many responsibilities. She confused the children and upset their previously strict routines with her changeable nature. She did not discipline them because she wanted them to like her. If one of them misbehaved, she got a nurse or a nanny to apply the punishment. Joséphine showered the children with so many presents that they nicknamed her Maman Cadeau, or Mother Gift. Then she would leave them again to go perform. It was all or nothing in her relationship with the children, whose lives were most stable when she was gone.

  Still, years later, the youngest, Stellina, who was probably the closest to Joséphine, said, “I was lucky. I think I had a wonderful mother. I never tried to judge her. I had ten years with her, after she died, ten years with my father in Argentina, but for me he was a stranger.” However, while Joséphine toured and was separated from the children, Jo kept in contact with them, inviting them a few at a time to visit him in Paris.

  In January 1959, Joséphine was en route from Rome to Istanbul when she received word of the sudden death of her mother, Carrie, at age 73. Joséphine accepted the news philosophically, believing death was a part of life, and did not return home to attend the funeral.

  In that same year, while in Caracas, Venezuela, Joséphine adopted another boy. Mara’s golden skin and coal-black eyes accented his native Venezuelan heritage, but like all the children in his desperately poor tribe, his legs were as thin as matchsticks and his belly was distended from malnutrition. Joséphine added: “Mara has rickets and a swollen stomach. When given food, he trembles and snatches … His mother worked out as a cook and left him alone on the ground all day with a piece of banana and coconut shell as his only toys.” Maracaibo, the tribe’s chief, had heard about Joséphine’s Rainbow Tribe, and he decided to entrust his young grandson into her keeping. Because she was still on tour, Joséphine hired a nurse to take Mara home.

  While Joséphine traveled and Jo remained in Paris, there was no one to supervise workers at the château. The situation was even worse when she was home because she treated the employees poorly, often criticizing one of them in front of others. But Joséphine had more serious problems than staff relations with which to contend. Because of the need to provide for her additional children, she needed more income. She agreed to return to the stage in Paris at the Olympia Theatre, where she had retired a few years earlier. In her usual style, Joséphine tackled rehearsals for Paris Mes Amours, or Paris My Love, with enthusiasm, but she expected everyone to conform to her workaholic schedule. She thought nothing of insisting the cast work until after midnight.

  In December, a ragpicker was combing through the garbage in Paris when he found an infant boy. Joséphine heard about the child and rushed to claim it at the hospital where the baby had been taken. Although nurses had already given him the name André, Joséphine changed it to Noël because of the season when he was born.

  Paris Mes Amours opened in May 1959 with Joséphine presenting several new tunes to audiences. One reviewer had mixed reactions: “Banking on the theory that Joséphine is a show in herself, Brunno Coquatrix hasn’t provided much of a supporting show…. [Baker] neglects to sing any of her old songs—not even her theme, (J�
��ai deux amours.) In truth, her new material is only so-so. Press and public are so ecstatic at seeing Josie again that the flaws of (Paris Mes Amours) have escaped with scant mention. The Olympia has a hit that will run the summer and deep into next season.” During one especially popular song, “Don’t Touch Me Tomatoes,” she dressed in a full-skirted, flouncy, West Indian costume and tossed fruits and vegetables to the audiences as she sang. She always closed with “Dans Mon Village,” the song about her children.

  Critics praised her performances, citing her development of a richer and truer voice. Joséphine and Jo remained on friendly terms, and his orchestra even played for several of her recordings. As they worked together, they decided to try to work out their marital problems because, as Joséphine said, “We feel it is our duty to overcome all obstacles for the sake of our children.” Jo moved back to Les Milandes. Despite their attempt to reconcile, the couple could not save their marriage. Joséphine explained to a reporter: “‘We are not angry, but I have asked for a divorce on the grounds of incompatibility. Up to now, we have had very little time together; and until I left the stage, I have worked hard to do two things successfully’ … to give a home to, and rear together, the nine children of different races she has adopted; and … to make Dordogne a progressive town … ‘But Jo … does not agree with me in my two aims in life.’” They gave up on the marriage in 1962, and Jo moved to Argentina, where he opened a French restaurant.

  Joséphine and Jo pose with the first seven boys they adopted into the Rainbow Tribe. © Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS

  In that same year, Joséphine adopted her final child. Her only daughter, Marianne, kept asking for a sister, since she felt isolated among the 10 boys. The second girl Joséphine chose to adopt was born in France to a Moroccan mother. Joséphine named the child Stellina. Despite the couple’s separation, Jo signed the adoption papers, bringing the total children in the Rainbow Tribe to 12.

  Over the next several years, the family’s financial problems escalated. As Joséphine said in a newspaper interview, “I didn’t realize when I retired that children cost so much money.” From 1953 to 1963, Joséphine had lost $1.5 million and accumulated $400,000 in debt. To save Les Milandes, she once again had to pawn her jewelry, including the diamond-studded choker she had years ago bought for her cheetah Chiquita. By June 1963, her creditors were trying to force the sale of the château and its contents. Despite her money woes, Joséphine decided to expand the scope of her brotherhood movement. Instead of housing just the children in her Rainbow Tribe, she wanted Les Milandes to become an international College of Brotherhood. In August, she had the opportunity to earn some money for this latest project: a black American producer, Jack Jordan, invited her to appear at the 1963 March on Washington to promote civil rights and economic opportunity for blacks.

  Joséphine agreed to attend the march, but she had trouble getting a visa. American officials refused to let her enter the country because of her actions and words years before in Argentina. She appealed to Attorney General Robert Kennedy, who overruled the objections and issued her a visa. He sent her a telegram regarding his decision that stated, “I am happy to inform you that your request for a visa has been granted and you will have it on Monday.” He also told her that the delay had nothing to do with Cuba or civil rights but that she had not filled out the forms properly.

  MARCH ON WASHINGTON

  On August 28, 1963, 250,000 people of all types—black and white, rich and poor, young and old, Hollywood stars and everyday people—gathered in Washington, DC, for a peaceful march to promote civil rights and job opportunities for black Americans. Participants walked down Constitution and Independence Avenues to the Lincoln Memorial, where they heard speeches, songs, and prayers by clergymen, civil rights leaders, politicians, and entertainers. The high point of the day was the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech.

  Money for the march’s organization came from the sale of buttons at 25 cents apiece, and from thousands of people who sent in small cash donations. Every detail was important because the planners believed that unless the march was peaceful and well organized, it would harm their cause. President Kennedy had even pre-signed executive orders to allow military intervention in case of rioting. But the march was a success and represented the belief that people of all races could work together for racial equality.

  With visa in hand and wearing her French Air Auxiliary uniform with all of her medals, Joséphine joined the people who marched in the biggest civil rights demonstration in American history. She was among the seated guests on the platform and gave a brief two-and-a-half-minute speech, telling the audience: “You are here on the eve of a complete victory. You can’t go wrong. The world is behind you. I’ve been following this movement for thirty years. Now that the fruit is ripe I want to be here. You can’t put liberty at the top of the lips and expect people not to drink it. This is the happiest day of my life.” She had made a similarly effusive comment when she performed before her first mixed-race audience in the United States.

  Following the march, Joséphine was invited to appear in four benefit concerts at Carnegie Hall. The proceeds were to be divided among four civil rights charities and the Rainbow Tribe. Although Jordan had found backers to put up $15,000 for the concerts, he had difficulty finding a public relations person to manage Joséphine’s performances. Many still remembered her anti-American statements in Argentina. Others had heard the stories about her failure to pay those who worked for her.

  Finally, friends at the NAACP, one of the concerts’ beneficiaries, persuaded Henri Ghent, a retired concert singer who wrote promotional materials for Columbia Records, to manage Joséphine. The youngest of 11 black children from a poor farm in Georgia, Henri had followed a similar career path to that of Joséphine. Having heard all the stories about the difficulties of working with her, Henri nervously went to meet her at her suite in the New York Hilton. He was shocked to find an almost-bald woman, clad only in a flannel nightshirt that came to her knees, with her legs wrapped in pink elastic bandages to protect her joints from the cold. Instead of the difficult prima donna he expected, he found an almost childlike person who wanted desperately for American audiences to like her.

  CARNEGIE HALL

  Beginning on May 30, 1890, Carnegie Hall was constructed over a period of seven years so New York citizens could enjoy music in a suitable concert hall. Andrew Carnegie, one of the world’s richest men at the time, donated money to the city to build the music hall, and it was later named for him. Carnegie Hall was built as three connected buildings, with the main hall being the place where the music was performed. Over the years as various renovations occurred, this initial configuration presented some problems. The issues began when workers removed the roof, added a studio floor, and constructed a 10-story tower on the second building; this extra construction made Carnegie Hall difficult to navigate.

  The first official performer in the hall was the famous composer Pyotr (Peter) Tchaikovsky. Since that first concert, most of the world’s greatest performers and orchestras have appeared there. Ownership changed periodically, beginning with Mrs. Carnegie’s sale to a realtor in 1925, six years after her husband’s death. In March 1960, the hall was headed for demolition because of the need for massive renovations. At the last minute, interested parties stopped its destruction, and three months later New York City purchased the hall for five million dollars. It is now overseen by a nonprofit committee. Noted for its impeccable acoustics and Italian Renaissance-style architecture, the solidly built Carnegie Hall continues to be the site of spectacular musical performances with more than 180 concerts presented there every year.

  Using makeup tricks learned over the years, Joséphine managed to cover up the ravages of age while she was onstage. A wig covered her baldness caused by using congolene to straighten her hair. To camouflage the bags under her eyes, she dusted glitter under them and also added glitter across the bridge of her nose and on her lips. Wearing clothes
that emphasized her small waist, her bust, and her hips, she appeared onstage in all her glamor, and the Carnegie Hall concerts were a success. Joséphine was still in the United States on November 22, 1963, when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. In a six-word telegram, she communicated her shock and dismay to Jo in Argentina: “Our World is toppling. Affectionately yours.”

  In the meantime, the state of Les Milandes had begun to decline. Her employees frequently stole from the estate when Joséphine did not pay their wages. Because of her flamboyant lifestyle, merchants assumed she was wealthy and doubled the prices when they learned their products were going to the château. At that time, while Joséphine was staying in the Hotel Scribe in Paris, she met Jean-Claude Rouzaud, a 14-year-old porter who helped guests with their luggage and ran errands for them. The handsome, dark-haired teen came from a poor background where he and his family depended on friends to support them. After his father deserted the family, the teen had come to Paris to find work. He met Joséphine one day when he was asked to run an errand for her, and she sensed his loneliness. After they talked a while and she learned his story, Joséphine told him, “Don’t be worried, my little one, you have no father, but from today on, you will have two mothers.” She later unofficially adopted the boy and took him with her to Les Milandes. When he became a young adult, he took the last name Baker.