The Divine Josephine

I've always been fascinated with Josephine Baker. I've never really understood why, but I can remember being a young child poring over a big coffee table anthology of articles and photos from the original Vanity Fair magazine of the 1920's and 1930's with a fascination that seemed odd to me even then. I remember having a very odd sensation looking at that book; one I still have, since I now have a copy that I purchased on Ebay a few years ago. It's an odd sense of familiarity, of coming home; similar to one I have when I listen to the very early jazz records of the 1920's. It's one of the reasons I believe in reincarnation -- because I've experienced at least three such phenomena that I can't really attribute to anything else.

If I recall correctly, I think it was this photo that fascinated me:

...but I'm not sure it matters, because there's something about Josephine Baker that still captivates today.

When I began reading about her after seeing the excellent documentary, Chasing a Rainbow: The Life of Josephine Baker, I discovered that not only was she a hero of WWII for her work with the French resistance, but she was a pioneer for race relations during the civil rights era.

For another three days, until March 6, you can catch the exhibit of Baker memorabilia in the windows at Macy's 34th Street flagship store, much of it contributed by Baker's adopted son Jean-Claude Baker, proprietor of the charming Theatre Row landmark restaurant Chez Josephine. When I worked in the city in the early 1990's, one of my splurges was to have dinner with a friend or two after work at Chez Josephine, where I could soak up the aura of the woman by looking at the walls covered with posters and photos. In those days I immersed myself in all things Josephine, from remastered CD recordings of her early vocal performances to the Kino video re-releases of her films Zou Zou and Princess Tam-Tam.

The New York CW affiliate ran a news story on the exhibit this week.

If you're in the area, it's worth your while to go take a look. I don't have to, because I've probably seen everything there. But I am telling you that even though she's been gone 32 years already, her image is so indelible that you half expect her to leap off the page or the poster or the screen any minute.

It's one thing to be this fabulous at 28:

But to have been this fabulous at 68:

...well, how many people manage THAT? (Especially the headdress!)