← Who Did What Now With Katie Charlwood
Who Did What Now With Katie Charlwood
161. Josephine Baker - Resistance Fighter - Part II
00:55:54
From stripping on stag to smuggling intel
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- [00:10]
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- [00:40]
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- [01:10]
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- [01:46]
Katy Charlewood
Hello delicious friends and welcome to Herded what Now? The History podcast. That's not your history class with me, your host, Katy Charlewood, history harlot and reader of books. If you're thinking, wow, this sounds a bit different in this episode, well here's a fun fact. You'd be right. See, I'm currently in a hotel room in Paris right now and I am trying to record on a tiny, tiny laptop. It's the kind you get in a cereal box and with my replacement microphone they're both shit. But I am doing my best and hoping for the best. So I'm hoping everything will turn out fine with this. So I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, katie, quit your jibber jabba. In fact me. In fact you. I will. But first we've got to get a catch up. Where did we leave off? So let's get you back into style. Josephine was born in St. Louis, Missouri to a black mother and possibly probably white father. She grew up in poverty and Being resented by her mother. To escape her horrid home life, she got married twice, both times to a man named Willie. She made her way to New York as a chorus girl whose growth and popularity turned the gap between Josephine and her mother into a chasm. This resulted in Josephine leaving the States for punishment is where she skyrocketed, garnering fans and lovers alike. She gets to Paris, she's got her manager lover, the fake Count Giuseppe Pepita Albertino, who arranges for her to be in a movie. He is organizing everything her, because Josephine is very talented, but not the most organized of people. She is 21 years old, she's written her memoirs and then she stars in a film. And I think this is roughly where we left off last time. So her starring in this film, it is huge because she was the first black woman in the world to star in a major motion picture. Like, like mentioned in the previous episode, this was a time where primitivism was rife. It was so popular and it showed like it is in all of the media and it really showed in the movies. So she stars in Siren of the Tropics, which was a silent film. And the plot is that she's Zuzu, an innocent, wide eyed, primitive gal from the tropics who brings the Charleston to Paris. Guys, pals, friends, Romans, countrymen. This is so racist. Like, like, okay, at one point she falls into this like bin, a flower bin. So like baking flour, not like petal bouquet flour. She falls in and shock, horror. She's now white. And so she has to bathe to become her natural skin color again, which is like, you made her white. There's no reason to do that. Why did you have to do that? Okay, so she's not super fond of the movie role, you know, because it's racist and also because it doesn't really showcase all of her talents. Like, you'll see this with a lot of performers. Like, especially during this time period, they're like, yeah, movies were fine, but I couldn't do anything. I had no, I had no showcasing, I had no control. Like, it's this whole thing and like she's already dealing with all of this. And then there's this massive influx of Americans, right? And they are landing in Paris. Some are there to live, some are there to be tourists, but there's a good chunk of them. And around about the same time as this influx is happening. Willami, who is her favorite sibling out of all of her siblings, Willa Mae is her favourite and she has a back alley abortion, which was Majorly illegal at the time. Because, see, here's the thing. You cannot ban abortion. You can only ban safe abortion. And one of the reasons. Sidebar. One of the reasons why they are specifically criminalizing miscarriages. Because the medical term, the official medical term for miscarriage is spontaneous abortion. That is the correct terminology. And because of that, this is being utilized and twisted in order to keep the boot on women's necks, or at least on the necks of people who have the physical capabilities to gestate a fetus in a womb. Okay? So Willa May, she has complications from a botched abortion and she dies. Which, of course, was the perfect time for Josephine to go on tour in Europe, traveling around on the Orient Express, no less. All arranged by Count Pepito. No, Count Giuseppe Pepito Albertina, or not a count. So she performs all over Europe. Like, she is doing shows for the King of Sweden and Prince Gustav Adolf, the Duke of Westerboten. He was so into her. Like, she goes to the Swedish palace, and she actually has to go in through the city. Secret entrance. Like, not like, oh, going through the back by the bins. No, no, no. There's, like, a secret hidden entrance into the palace. And so she's led in here, and so she's brought in, and she ends up laying on a bed covered in furs. So she's laying on these furs, and the prince comes in with a cushion. On this cushion are gems, all of these gems. And he covers her entire body in jewels. We're talking diamonds, emeralds, rubies, the other shiny ones, like, all the good stuff. And so she's just, like, getting all this stuff. And, like, when she would travel on tour, it is alleged that she would charge 50,000 Belgian francs to spend the night with her. I don't know why. Specifically Belgian francs. I don't know if they had more economic value than French francs, but that's what she allegedly charged. And you know what? Someone wants to spend 50 grand to spend the night with you, let them. So she is, like, traveling. She's touring over Europe, and she has got fans all across the continent now. An abundance of fans isn't the only thing she's got. She's also got a good few monocles, right? She has all these nicknames, and they're all vaguely fetishizing, right? We've got Black Pearl, Black Venus Creole, Goddess. Now, if it's other black people saying this, I feel like that's probably okay. But you and I, gentle listener, both know that given the time period and the locale, it's more likely that it's a bunch of white people saying this stuff, like, the M. Sapiens people who look like me in the moonlight. Like, this is not your place, sir. This is not your place. Now, she may have had fans all over. However, she was not adored everywhere. So in 1928, like, she's in Vienna, like, she arrives in. And, you know, it's. It's just Austria at this point. It's no longer Austria, Hungary. There is a growing Nazi movement in the country. Like, back in Germany, like Hitler. He's not the Fuhrer yet, like, but the Reichstag. There are 12 seats held by the Nazis in the Reichstag at this point. And in Austria, that movement is also growing. So anti Semitism, racism, the whole shebang. So Josephine Baker gets off the train in Vienna and sees posters which are graffitied with Black Devil. I mean, you go from Black Venus to Black Devil, Actually, sidebar. In Ireland, we don't use the word black like osquelaga. In Irish, we don't use that to describe black people. We use that to describe the devil. So in Irish, black people aren't black, they're blue. So you wouldn't call someone a black person or squaliga. You wouldn't say dini do or whatever. You'd use, like, de nie gorm. So you'd use gorm, which is blue, as opposed to do, which is black. And that's just how it is. So when I saw Black Devil, it just made me go, huh. There's a funny sidebar. It's not that funny, but it's just interesting how language works, because, remember, the Irish had enough respect. Expect to change the term. Okay, that's just how it is. But back to Josephine, because she's a sexy woman who owns her sexuality. She's also protested by the Catholic Church as she tours, which was probably amplified because she was a black woman. And so, like, the original theatre that she had been booked to play, she couldn't play there. Like, the city council wouldn't allow it. They, like, withdrew her option to do so. And so she had to perform in a smaller venue. And she, like, opens up the show. And she's in this beautiful gown, absolutely stunning. 10 out of 10, no notes. Like, this is her new era. She was singing and wearing more than she ever did at the Folies Bergere. To this is like this transition of her public image. She's investing in her costumes, dazzling gowns, headpieces, the whole shebang. Things do get a bit wild in Prague, right? Fans try to storm her, like she's almost stampeded by her fans. And then she goes from Czechoslovakia to Hungary where she gets protested again in Budapest, where students just like lug ammonia bombs at the stage. They're throwing bleach at her, like, what? What? Basically their issue is like she's so rich. Like they're protesting because she's so rich while there's massive levels of poverty Hungary at the time, and she's being paid to perform there, but people are paying for tickets to perform. Like these students would have paid for tickets to see Josephine Baker perform. They paid her to do it and now they're throwing bombs at her. I'm not saying it was the best of plans, because it wasn't. Anyway, this is again the inter war period. You know, the Austro Hungarian Empire has been dissolved. The Treaty of Versailles saw to that, reparations are in place. The job market's not great. Like economically they are not doing well. Like unemployment's an all time high, poverty is rising and she's there, she's rich and she's being rich in front of them. Now, I'm not a fan of eating the rich because, you know, I feel like they'll probably taste very gamey. Nor am I one to rub someone's poverty in their face, but I do love a petty bitch. So Josephine Baker's response to having bleach bombs hurled at her is to ride around downtown Budapest in a carriage pulled by an ostrich, of all things. An ostrich. Now I don't recall seeing that scene in Fantasia, but apparently based on a true story, being a celebrity of the era, Josephine ends up picking up a stalker. And he is absolutely obsessed with her. Beyond obsessed. And so as she's touring, when she gets to Croatia, trigger warning, I'm gonna everyone just skip forward 10 to 15 seconds if you're sensitive. So yeah, as she's traveling, you know, the stalker is following her. And then when they get to Croatia, he does something very extreme. So what he does is he tries to commit suicide at her feet. He tries to end his life in front of her, like in her proximity, in her personal space. He does not succeed. But he tried. And that's not exactly a fun experience for anybody. But again, the show must go on. So she reaches Amsterdam in the Netherlands and her fans are intense, one might say, like they actually block the street, right? They just filled up the streets and there's so many of them, like she cannot move through them. So she's getting love in. What I'm gonna Call various intensities. And, yeah, she's like, midway through the tour at this point, and the not quite account Albertina, he gets her to go back to Paris. Like, he's like, let's go back here for a bit to recoup and get things organized before we move on to the second leg. And so she goes back and she's interviewed by all the newspapers and she announces that she is finished with the Charleston, like, done, that the banana skirt is gone, and that she has evolved. And she's like, also, by the way, I simply cannot live without Paris. She's like, I cannot live without Paris. I need it. I need it to breathe. It is my jam and my butter, baby. Right? She is really, really feeling it. She's into it and she wants to come back. Now, she stays in Paris for, like, not very long. And after this Parisian respite, she continues the tour, going global as she performs in South America. But there were racist demonstrations against her there, which really drives home to her. Like, it really drives home the fact that racism is everywhere. Like, it's not just in the USA or Vienna or anything like that. It is a global issue. Something that was gonna get worse because of the Great Depression. Now, for Josephine, like, she was quite lucky because just before the Great Depression hits in 1929, she buys her mansion, La Maison La Bochen. And so, like, this was. Was it 15 miles. 15 miles outside of Paris and was large enough to host her entire menagerie. Like, she's set this up. It's gonna be like her place. She gets it designed and she returns the toast of Paris. And so she ends up starring in this show. Now, I did see the name in one. In one of my notes as Swinging Paris, but I've seen it nowhere else. And I couldn't verify it because a lot of his documentation is just gone. But that was what one of them said. It could be something else. So she is in this, like, performance. And so Josephine and this other performer, a white performer, they're both in it, but they perform on different days. And, like, the idea was that they would perform their shows on alternate nights. But Josephine Baker, she was more popular than the white actress, singer, dancer, performer. Josephine Baker is so popular that she just. She just outshines this other performer. And in the show, she would do these three different scenes that represented each of the French colonies. Now, this catches the eye of some officials, and in 1931, she was invited to be Queen of the Colonies for the Paris Colonial Exposition. Like, the officials, they're so fucking Proud of themselves. Like, they're so proud of themselves for this idea. Like, they're so smug. Like, that being said, many Parisians weren't happy. One, because she wasn't French, two, because she wasn't fluent in French, and three, that her accent would be wrong. Oh, yeah, sorry. They were also worried that she was too old at the ripe old age of 25. Like, they danced around the whole racism thing quite nicely. Like, they. They managed to skip around that whole scenario and not mention that. But, yeah, like, it is a big exposition of the French colonies with a romanticized representation of these locales via a colonialist lens, Right? So it is showing the colonies through the eyes of the colonizers. And then they're like, give us more money so we can continue colonizing places. It was basically fundraising for colonialism. But, like, Josephine wouldn't have known that at the time. It would have just been like, we're gonna celebrate stuff. And she's like, hell, yeah. She didn't, like, see the nefarious part of it. Now she is busy. The Count has her on just, like, this wild schedule where she's just being boosted and just promoted and being everywhere, running from pillar to post and just. Just being put out there. Right. By the 1930s, she's performing so much and burning the candle at both ends because, yeah, the Count really good with a spreadsheet. Right before spreadsheets existed. She's in shows, she's in dances. She's in movies again, which, I mean, she's not super fond of this. But in her first talkie in 1934, Zuzu. That is the name. That is the name, right? It is the story of a laundress who grew up in the circus, and she's in love with her foster brother who gets falsely accused of murder. These plots are something else, by the way. So in this movie, she becomes a star while saving him from the guillotine, and he falls in love with the white lady instead. Right? And so it was at this point where Josephine Baker becomes the highest paid performer in the world. She's the highest paid movie star at this point. Like, and this is where the talkies. And this is, like, shocking to, like, the US because they're like, I'm sorry, but she's not a white person. So, like, the Count as well, I love this because he's like, I'm not missing out on promotion. Like, what he does is he has these stickers, stickers of Josephine Baker, and he has them put on these bananas in Paris because she's already known for like the banana skirt thing. And he's like, ah, here's an easy like segue. But it's not all movies and bananas, because soon tragedy strikes again.
- [23:10]
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- [23:40]
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- [24:15]
Katy Charlewood
The same year that Zuzu was released, Josephine's stepfather Arthur had been committed to a mental institute and had committed suicide. But again, the show must go on. That very same year, she is in an operetta called La Criolle. Like, she creates this operetta and so Josephine Baker, she's the lead in an operetta with an all French cast. Adding to her filmography, Josephine Baker stars in the Turkey Princess Tam Tam, in which a white dude uses her to get his white wife back. Hmm. The following year, she goes back to the US to perform in Ziegfeld Follies. This is back when it's still the burlesque shows. So she goes back to performing this. And she is the only black performer in the Follies at the time. And things are so bad that the white performers on stage, the other dancers, they are not allowed to touch her. Not because of her, but because of the rules set out by the people running the show. So there was this small snag about her going back to the US and performing. She couldn't stay anywhere. Like, her and the county had like made reservations and booked in all these places. But as soon as they saw Josephine, they were like, oh, there's no room at the end, mate. Basically they saw that she was black and they're like, oh, you can't stay here. This interracial couple can't stay here. It was like a whole thing. And now, like, they were worried, I believe, about offending other white patrons. Like, that was their primary concern. Now she ends up staying with the Japanese consul and his wife because they're friends, right? The Count didn't join her. Like, he left her to her own devices. He's like, you can't stay here, but I can. Which leads her to the Japanese consul. So she decides that, seeing as she was in the country, to travel to Chicago to meet with her second Willy and finally get a divorce, right? After 16 years, like, it's time, you know, sometimes things have run their course and it's okay to say goodbye. Like, it's fine. So the Ziegfeld Follies, it's not exactly the highlight of her career, right? And the Count ends up going back to France and she ends up blaming this whole situation on him and it becomes a he said, she said situation. But it's just not working out great for her. Like, the kid was the one who really kept her, like, on the ball, kept her on schedule, because talented women, hot mess, you know. And so he was very good at keeping her on a budget and on schedule because, like, all through her performing career, like, she was often late for rehearsal and performances. And she also had this thing where she expected to, like, roll in, like in the afternoon and then have everyone work like 14, 16 hour days, which is just not how that works. And the Count was really good at managing her, however, like, weird and wibbly wobbly. Their relationship was like, he kept her on track. But back in Paris, his health was failing and he passed away at the age of 38 from kidney cancer. Like back in, I think it was 27. The couple had told the press that they had eloped and wed and like, it was a way of trying to reduce the scandal of the scenario. They had not done that. They had done a lot of stuff together. Marriage was not one of them. But yeah, the Count, Giuseppe, Pepito, Albertino, he was the one who planned the tour, set up her gigs, and without him, she was at a loss. And so because she had nothing lined up, she had no shows, no tours, no gigs. Like, she ends up just returning to the Folies Bergere and she's like, she's fairly lonely. That being said, she has this conveyor belt of lovers of both sexes, including some very famous women. She had affairs with Tallulah Bankhead. Darlings, I was wonderful. Tallulah Bankhead is one of, if not my favourite hot mess from history and star of stage and screen. Like, I swear, Talola Bankhead only took cocaine to calm herself down. So Josephine also had a liaise on her tea with Ada Bricktop Smith, the. That's right, the Colette who you will definitely be talking about at some point in the future. And then, of course, her affair with Frida Kahlo, but we'll get back to that. Now, lover after lover, it's like a passing fling, like, nothing really sticks. And she always believed that every great love affair with a man, parentheses, would result in marriage and that she would end up having this big family. Now she does end up becoming godmother to, like, 50 children at an orphanage. How? I'm not sure, because I don't believe she's a Catholic or, I don't know, do other Christians have godparents? Because I know that in Catholicism it's a thing, but I don't remember, like, the other flavors of Christianity if they have godparents. Anywho. So like, she craves this affection, this connection, and ends up, you know, again, caring, like, providing funding and just becoming godmother to these orphans. Meanwhile, she's performing at the Folies Bergeres because she's got nothing lined up and all of her money, it's burned in a hole in her pocket. And without the count, who wasn't actually a count, who was in charge of her accounts, wasn't there to, like, manage her spending or ensure that she was performing. Yeah, yeah. When he could no longer do that because he was, you know, facing the cold, icy hands of death, like, she was just kind of there. But then another man enters her life. Jean Leon. Not called Willy, not called anything related to Willy, not called Pepito because, you know, she likes some repetition. So he was no run of the mill guy. He was a sugar broker. And I really, really do not have the time to delve into the many layers of why that's problematic. But, yeah, I mean, I say sugar broker. His family's in sugar and he is the heir to this, like, sugar money. But, yeah, he's got this. He's athletic, he's rich, he's smoking hot. Like, he is fine. Like, this is. This is a hot guy. And his family are absolutely freaking out. Like, they object to. To this union of any kind. Like, this is a family involved in sugar cane. Like, we can guess of what their opinions were of their son marrying a black woman. Now, Jean Leon, he was the one that pursued Josephine. He thought that he would gain popularity by osmosis and, like, just being with her would benefit his career. So they get married in his family village in 1937. And two things happen because of this. Because she's married to a Frenchman, Josephine Baker now has French citizenship. Well, she has the ability to now get French citizenship, which she does. And Jean Leon and his family, well, fun fact, they were Jewish and they emigrated to the states in 1938, saving them from the Nazi invasion that was on the horizon. Now, the couple, when they were together, didn't actually see each other that much. They saw each other enough, though, enough for Josephine to become pregnant. And she is overjoyed. They were together, I think, just over a year, and she's getting a nursery ready, she's nesting, and she's at least trying to knit baby clothes. And this is something she has always wanted. Unfortunately for Josephine, she suffers a miscarriage and it hits her hard. And so, like, she and Jeanne, they separate, but they don't actually get divorced until 1941, three years later. But, yeah, they separate and he emigrates to the us. Now, it's not too long after their marriage is dissolved after they split and he leaves. Like, it's not long after that when she meets artist Frida Kahlo, who had come to Paris for an art exhibition, like, of her art, of course, in 1939, sparks fly and the two are just enamored with each other and they become lovers. And the two women, they just hold themselves up in this room for a solid week, right? A week of passion between two artistic, enigmatic bisexuals. And now, I would be remiss if I were not to mention that another thing that was happening in 1939 was that the world was on the verge of war. Germany would invade Poland in September 39and would go on to invade France in May the following year. Just something to bear in mind. Now, Josephine, she was performing in a show called Paris London for British and French troops, and, of course, her adoring public. Now, Josephine had managed to acquire a new agent after the Count's, you know, like, after him kicking the bucket. Did you think I wasn't going to make a Sesame street joke at least once, how little you know me? But, yes, she managed to acquire a new agent. And this basically contact of her agent, right, he mentions her to Jacques Abtie of the French Military Intelligence Service. Well, Jacques was actually the head of military counterintelligence and he was keeping his eyes peeled for someone who could travel freely throughout Europe and Africa without attracting suspicion. Someone who could attend events and soirees and gather intel and information. Also someone who wanted to do this for France, because the pay, it wasn't great. It was minimal. It was minuscule. So, yeah, the job didn't pay well. And you couldn't exactly hand in your receipts for expenses on a super secret spy mission. And it's like, here's my receipts for this super secret mission so that we have a fucking paper trail. What? Yeah, I probably should have mentioned because I don't think I actually said the words earlier. Jacques Abdie is looking for a spy. Josephine Baker was wise enough to leave Paris as the Nazis moved closer. Like, they're aging into northern France. And she's like, yeah, I don't need to be here right now. And so she rents Les Milandes, a massive chateau 300 miles south of Paris, a city she would not see for the next four years of her life. So, ab day, he visits Josephine at the Chateau de Melande, where she is in the garden feeding snails to her ducks. Oh, if you thought she was gonna be moving and not taking her menagerie with you, well, more fool you. So he shows up and he's like, hey, Josephine. Sorry, Josephine. Hello. Hello. Listen very carefully. I will say this only once. BS Bi. And she's like, okay, sorry, we. So Josephine, she's grown up with racism. She knows a racist when she sees one. And it's pretty clear to her that one of the core fundamentals of Nazism is racism. Now, this may shock you, but her and Jacques, they become lovers. And, yeah, she's all in from the get go. And, like, she does so much. Like, she works at a refugee center for people fleeing Nazis. She attends these big swanky parties and writes on her skin and, like, on her arms and hands, and she writes stuff. She overhears active Nazi troop activity and movements. She smuggles secret codes and messages, invisible ink on sheet music on notes pinned to the inside of her brassiere. Like, she is taking risks. On top of this, right? She joins the Free French movement with Jacques Abdie because he had abandoned his previous post because the Vichy government, in his eyes, had just allowed Germany to occupy France. And so he was like, no, I'm not doing this anymore. And so she gets involved in Charles de Gaulle's resistance, and. And, yeah, she learns to fight and shoot, but, like, she's not only doing stuff for herself, right? She lets the French air force use her private plane, and she ends up hiding French resistance fighters in her maison in her house. I say house, it's a shadow. They're in a chateau, right? So Nazi soldiers, they come looking, but somehow do not ask me how. Somehow Josephine Maker manages to charm the Nazis into actually leaving the chateau without searching it. So she is using all of her skills for good use. And like, she's starting to travel again and she's going on tour. Well, she has this ruse that she's going on tour and Jacques Abtey, he's posing as her ballet master to get her in shape for said, you know, and visible tour.
- [40:48]
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- [41:18]
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- [41:54]
Katy Charlewood
Jacques Abti and Josephine Baker were instructed to travel to Lisbon and Portugal. Portugal was neutral and was full of spies on both sides. So there's, there's a whole lot of distrust there. There's a whole lot of like second guessing and watching your back. And it's because there's so much going on. Like she's got all this info about German military secrets and this is where she writes on the sheet music and invisible ink. And that's how she transports it out. Now in Portugal, she is the toast of the town. She's going from party to party, gathering information, and now she's doing all this, but she's not actually earning any money. So she decides to get a cast together and perform a revival of her operetta La Crole in Marseille. She decides to stage an operetta for two, two weeks in the middle of a world war. The woman's determined, I'll give her that. Like it's here that she gets the news that Germany is about to occupy all of France, not just northern France. And so Jacques and Josephine, they make the executive decision to get the heck at a dodge and flee to Northern Africa. She wasn't able to bring her entire menagerie on this escapade, and it just crushes her. But she doesn't really have time to be sad about it because when she arrives in Algiers, like, she is arrested for and she's freaking out because she's like, shit, I've been caught. I'm gonna be done for. Like, it's gonna be because of the whole spying on the Nazis thing, when the reason she's arrested is because of breach of contract. So because of the Marseille operetta that she had just, like, done a bunk on because of, you know, the Nazi invasion, they're like, you owe us money. Now, it does get settled, but it's like, read the room, guys. Read the room. That being said, like, once she's released and everything is fine, like, she ends up touring around Casablanca, Portugal, Spain, Morocco, and, like, all around that area collecting intel. She's hobnobbing with important people. She's shagging officials and royals and Morocco, including, allegedly, the Pasha of Marrakech. A rumor goes around that Jacques Karl cover is blown, so he ends up staying in Casablanca. And Josephine continues to, like, travel around. She's hosting soirees and dinner parties wherever intelligence is needed. Now, back In Northern Africa, 12 apostles show up. The 12 apostles, Robert Murphy's American spies, Like, from a whole host of backgrounds who were, to put it mildly, wildly out of their depth. Now, These were the US's first overseas spies during the Second World War. They were working alongside the OSS, and they needed Josephine and Jacques help, right, because they didn't know the area. But these two were basically locals at this point because of just how much they'd been there. And Josephine, she would help them, right? Like, at one point, she has to smuggle info, like, out to where it needs to go. So, like, out of Northern Africa. And she hides it in her underwear. She's like, nobody's gonna strip Serge me. Like, everybody's seen me naked. Nobody's gonna strip search me. And, yeah, it worked. So on top of smuggling secrets in her underwear, Josephine Baker decides that, you know, she's not gonna let a little thing like a entire world war get in the way of her family planning. And so she ends up visiting doctors in Morocco for these sort of gynecological fertility tests, you know, because she wants to see if she can conceive, if she can stop start a family with Jacques. Now, she had suffered many miscarriages over the years, and she wanted to make sure, that she could have children. And so they do these invasive tests and, you know, she's supposed to rest, but she wants to see Jacques. And so she ends up traveling. And as she's going, she's feeling sick. Like, more than just sick. She has a high fever and severe pain, severe abdominal pain. And, like, it's so bad that this rumor spreads that she had been poisoned by the Pasha of Marrakesh's harem of wives. But, no, she had an infection caused by the tests. So she ends up being rushed to a private clinic just because they need to catch this now. Because the infection spread to peritonitis, which then became sepsis. The infection on her abdominal wall led to scar tissue, which caused blockages, which meant that she needed more surgery. Like, she would go on to joke that they had cut it open so many times, they may as well have installed a zipper just to, like. Like to get in. Now, obviously, when she's in recovery, she's not seen. And so there's another rumour this time that she's dead. But she's like, no, I'm too busy to die. So, like, the best part was the United Press International released the news that Josephine Baker had died in 1942. I just love the fact that she's just there going, I'm not quite dead. She does end up having to have, like, a full hysterectomy, though, just because of the amount of damage that was happening. And Jacques, he was there through all of the surgeries. Like, he doesn't go to sleep until he hears Josephine speak again, like, after. Like, one of the really, really serious ones. And the thing is, like, after surgery, she complains about the compress on her tummy because it's too heavy. Like, yeah, you've got wounds that we've had to stitch up. But, yeah, the funny thing is, like. Like, she's recovering. She's at Pasha's palace on the edge of the Sahara Desert. And, like, while she's recuperating, her recovery room becomes, like, this unofficial headquarters for the French Resistance. Like, again, she's healing from massive dangerous surgery. Because this is the 40s, right? There's a lot of stuff they hadn't mastered yet. So she is recuperating and she's arranging for Jewish people to get Moroccan passports to escape the Nazis, right? And there are people constantly in and out of her room. But anyway, a year and a half after this, she's still in recovery and she develops a parathyroid disease and she's, like, not getting better. And it's upsetting her. Meanwhile, the Nazis had some camps in North Africa, and so the Allies decide to send a bunch of trips there in preparation. But there's not a lot of action happening. And the American GIs are bored, which is never good. And because they don't want bored soldiers doing shit. The director of the Red Cross Liberty Club invited Josephine to perform. Take that, Kylie Jenner in your Pepsi. So he had invited her to perform. However, at the time, segregation was still very much a thing in the U.S. and so the club was segregated. It had been organized as such that Black and white GIs would use the club at different times. So they would use it just not together. So Josephine said, fuck this for a game of soldiers and refuse to perform to a segregated crowd. Because she's like, how are you going to fight racists if you're being racist? Because that's what the Nazis were. Little, big filthy racists. Now, bear in mind that Josephine Baker was still in recovery. She was weak, she had unhealed surgery, scars, and she really shouldn't have been. She really shouldn't have been on stage. But she said she would only perform for an integrated audience. And she did. Still recovering, she travelled and performed for British, American and French trips all over Northern Africa for two and a half years. And she wasn't exactly living the high life. She was eating army rations along with the rest of them. She was eating a lot of tinned tuna. Like that came up a lot. A lot of tinned tuna. So she is also, like, not only doing that, but she is sleeping next to her Jeep convoys at night so that she can avoid landmines and other such dangerous devices. So she's doing this again. She's still recovering from surgery and she is doing several performances a day. Like, she's just getting them in and doing this and doing her part. Many parts, actually. Many fingers, many pies, Josephine. So. So this brings me to one of my favourite stories about her. So, like, she's performing one night for US soldiers in Algeria and then all of a sudden, German planes fly overhead and start shooting. Now the troops take cover, like they hit the deck. Meanwhile, Josephine Baker makes her way to the buffet. Now the shooting gets worse and heavier and she ends up hunched down, hunched down on the ground in this expensive gown, eating ice cream. As you should, Josephine, as you should. It's just one of my favourite things. It's like, hey, we're being shot at. Get the ice cream. But, yeah, something that was really important to her was integration with civil rights. And One thing she does, a very important thing she does is she connects with black military personnel and vows to return to the States to fight racial discrimination. Like she could have stayed behind. Like she could have stayed in France. She could have just stayed in France. But no, she wants to do more. So in 1943, the Charles de Gaulle, Charles de Gaulle of Resistance and airport fame, awards her with the Cross of Lorraine, the album of the Free France forces. Try saying that five times fast. So she ends up auctioning it like she loved this. Like she loved this piece more than she loved her bloody diamonds, right? So she ends up auctioning it to raise money for Free France, along with a heap of other, like, fundraising stuff for the French Resistance. Like, she ends up being awarded, like, because of this, she ends up being awarded the honorary rank of Lieutenant in the Ladies Auxiliary of the French Air Force. That's pretty cool. Pretty cool for her. So D Day happens on the side. 6th of June, 1944. Thanks to Maureen for having Sweeney. You're welcome. So D Day happens and then two months later, the liberation of Paris occurs. And this happens between the 19th and 25th of August, 1944, when Paris is liberated and Charles de Gaulle holds a massive parade. Josephine returns to Paris in her French military uniform and she takes part. And like, she's still like a well known celebrity at this point. Like she's still fawned over, adored. And she ends up, like, getting flowers just fucking lugged at her. Like she's being celebrated by the French for the part that she did and protecting that country, right? She's, she's crossing ruse and boulevards and she is being adored. But she doesn't have time to revel because she becomes acutely aware of the substandard living situations of her neighbours who are too poor, too weak, too in thumb or too elderly to evacuate. So she auctions off like a chunk more finery and jewels to provide necessities for those who needed it. She also discovered that Nazis had been staying in her home. And she was pissed about that. Post War, Josephine Baker receives the Croix de Guerre, Rosette de la Resistance, and was made a Chevalier of the Legion d', Honneur, but by Charles de Gaulle himself. Josephine Baker was a decorated French war hero, but she had a plan to right wrongs and fight injustice, not just back in France, but over in the usa. And that'll be coming up in the next episode where she championed for civil rights. And so we're gonna have a little break on our story about Josephine Baker and we'll be back talking about her in a couple of days because I'm in Paris. So of course this seems like the perfect time. So if you liked my telling of this story, please rate and give you five stars. If you want to complain about the audio, don't. Again, I'm hoping this is recording fine, but again, guess we'll find out. And of course it is recommendation time for listening. I'm actually really excited about this one. For listening. I want y' all to listen to Kiss Me like youe're Sorry by Danny Padella, right? Listen to it. It's supporting friends. He's a really good guy. I actually really like the song. It's an earworm for me now and I find myself humming it as I'm like going through the boulevards aux Paris. So, yeah, kiss me like you're sorry. I'm gonna put it in the links down below for watching. If you're in London, come see me perform on stage and I will tell you a raucous or exciting or depressing tale. The sadder it is, the more likely that there'll be less of fun facts hidden in my bosom. But we'll see how it goes. So for that also, come see me if you don't want to do that. And by that I mean if you're not in that country, you can do something else for watching. You know, I'm gonna say there is a Josephine Baker musical in France. Like there's a French musical. I really want to see it. Actually, I'm not sure my French is that good, but I really want to see it. So that's another option. Something else would be. All I can think of is Sister Act. Like, I really want to recommend Sister act to people because it's got like singing and dancing and really something not as depressing. And so for reading now, here's one for you for reading. Going to recommend the Number One Ladies Detective Agency because it's got crossover themes and also I enjoy a mystery. So, yeah, that is everything for today. I am so tired actually, because I was up at 5 o' clock this morning and it's now. It's now midnight. So it's been a very busy day with lots of TR travel and work and stuff. And so, yeah, it's been. It's been a lot. And I have an early start in the morning, so I gotta get this done. But I hope everything works out sound wise. And I'm gonna put the links for everything else in the description down below. So thank you so much. Have a good day. Have a good weekend. If you're listening to this, one day of release and the next episode will be coming in the next couple days. So adios. Au revoir. Au revoir, Zen my friends. Bye bye.
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