History Creator / JosephineBaker

* ShoutOut:
** Music/AlStewart wrote a song about her.
** Appears in ''WesternAnimation/IlEtaitUneFois'' in the episode of the first half of the 20th century.
** Also dances in the street in ''WesternAnimation/{{Anastasia}}''.
** She is seen among the performing acts in the black-and-white segment that opens ''WesternAnimation/TheTripletsOfBelleville''. Her dance excites the males in the audience so much that they turn into apes who try to grab the bananas on her skirt.
** Has a romance with Frida Kahlo in ''Film/{{Frida}}''.
** Appears as a character in Creator/WoodyAllen's ''Film/MidnightInParis''.
** Music/{{Beyonce}} once wore a banana skirt during a duet with Music/JayZ.
** An animated pony version of her is featured in a nightclub scene in the episode "Dungeons & Discords" of ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic''.
** In ''Series/ADifferentWorld'', Whitley does a tribute to Josephine Baker in a telethon but it falls apart when her male dance partners begin fighting over her.

* ShesGotLegs: Josephine was known for her funny and sexy leg movements while dancing.

Sadly, Josephine's personal life wasn't as succesful as her career. Despite being a celebrity star she would still encounter racism when she travelled abroad, [[NeverAcceptedInHisHometown especially in the USA]]. She refused to play to segregated audiences on her US tours, though. In 1951, when Josephine visited Sherman Billingsley's Stork Club in New York she was refused service because she was black. As fate would have it actress Creator/GraceKelly was also present in the restaurant. Despite having never met Josephine before she felt so disgusted that she rushed over to her, took her by the arm, stormed out with her entire party and vowed never to return to this place. And they never did. Josephine and Grace become close friends after that night. Later when Baker was near bankruptcy Kelly (who by that time had become The Princess of Monaco) and her husband Rainier III of Monaco offered her financial assistance.

* ComicallyCrossEyed: performed a silly ''Ostrich'' dance during her shows, in which she often took on a goofy, cross-eyed expression.

* DangerouslyShortSkirt: Famously danced completely in the nude, wearing nothing but a banana skirt. Yes, that means not even a FurBikini or a LoinCloth, unless when being filmed for the more prudent Hollywood productions.

** Also dances in the street in ''WesternAnimation/{{Anastasia}}''

** Music/BeyonceKnowles once wore a banana skirt during a duet with Music/JayZ.
** An animated pony version of her is featured in a nightclub scene in the episode "Dungeons & Discords" of ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic''

! Josephine provides examples of:

When Josephine passed away in 1975, her funeral shut down the streets of Paris. She got a full French military funeral ceremony and 21-gun salutes. She was inducted in the French Pantheon in Paris in August 2021, the sixth woman and first black woman to have this honor.

* ForeignFanservice and ForeignCultureFetish: Her appeal to white audiences was the idea that she was some sort of tribal, sexy African NubileSavage. The revues she appeared in were even titled ''Revue Nègre'' (''Negro Revue'')

** An animated pony version of her is featured in a nightclub scene in the episode "Dungeons And Discords" of ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic''

* SignatureSong: ''J'ai deux amours''.

When Josephine passed away in 1975, her funeral shut down the streets of Paris. She got a full French military funeral ceremony and 21-gun salutes.

Despite Josephine's multiple affairs with [[UsefulNotes/{{Bisexual}} men and women]], her relationships all ended in divorce/separation. Not one to despair she adopted 12 orphan children from all over the world, nicknamed her ''Rainbow Tribe'' and let them live in her castle where she took care of them.

!! Josephine provides examples of:

* TwentiesBobHaircut: Her boyish Eton Crop.
* AncientAfrica: Played with this image, despite being born in the USA.

Part of her appeal was the fact that she appeared totally nude on stage, apart from an ornate banana skirt [[DiamondsInTheBuff and jewellery as a cover]]. She sang and danced and also appeared in films playing the same part. This made her one of the most recognizable revue icons of the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s. ValuesDissonance may frown upon her stage act nowadays, which emphasized all the stereotypes about African women being wild, animalistic, sex-crazed savages. Yet Josephine enjoyed playing the part, which she saw as self-parody. Interestingly enough the French accepted her as one of her own and the rest of the world also recognized her as a star. Creator/PabloPicasso, Creator/JeanCocteau and Creator/ErnestHemingway all wrote in superlative terms about her. Thus she may have destroyed more racial barriers than one might expect seeing her in archive photos and footage today. And she always said in interviews that the French treated her more as an equal than people in her homeland America.