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40 Fascinating Facts About the Fabulous Josephine Baker

Khalid Elhassan July 2, 2019 24 min

Josephine Baker - Josephine Baker - Chanter L'amour

30. Her Signature Act in Paris Caused a Sensation

Josephine Baker in her banana costume. Wikimedia

In Paris, Josephine Baker remade herself into a glamorous Jazz Age cabaret star, and took the City of Light by storm. Her signature stage act was quite risque, with her performing while clad only in high heels, a skirt made of artificial bananas, and a bra that revealed far more than it hid. She sang and danced with a wild abandon and erotic frenzy that held the audience spellbound. She was often accompanied by her pet cheetah, Chiquita. Wearing a diamond collar, the feline would sometimes escape into the orchestra pit, terrifying the musicians and further enhancing the wildness of the moment.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.