Born on this day 120 years ago: “Jazz Cleopatra” Joséphine Baker (née Freda Josephine McDonald, 3 June 1906 - 12 April 1975). The trailblazing African American dancer, actress, cabaret chanteuse, rumoured French WWII spy, civil rights activist, Chevalier of the Legion of Honour and paragon of Black glamour (once described by Ernest Hemingway as “the most sensational woman anyone ever saw”) found acclaim in the 1920s in her adopted city of Paris performing at the Folies Bergère, where she was promoted variously as the “Black Venus", the "Black Pearl", the "Bronze Venus" and the "Creole Goddess.” Baker set a kind of template for subsequent performers like Eartha Kitt and Grace Jones (and portraying her in a biopic is an unrealized dream project for Diana Ross). Pictured: showgirl deluxe Baker photographed onstage in 1974 by David Redfern.
