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Women of Peace and Those Sided the Wrong of World War II

Khalid Elhassan November 20, 2020 32 min

World War II - Italian resistance movement — Women of the resistance in Italy. Wall Street Journal

26. This Future Icon and Nazi Fighter Launched Her Entertainment Career as a Comedienne

In 1919, Josephine Baker got started as a professional entertainer, touring with the Jones Family Band and The Dixie Steppers, and performing a variety of comical skits. When the troupes split, she tried out for a spot as a chorus girl with The Dixie Steppers, in a production called Shuffle Along. However, she was rejected for being “too skinny and too dark”.

Undaunted, Baker stayed on as a dresser and learned the chorus girls’ routine in her free time. When a dancer unexpectedly left, Baker was the obvious replacement, and she made the most of her opportunity. She put a comic spin on her performance by deliberately acting clumsy and rolling her eyes onstage, and the audience ate it up. Baker became a mainstay and a box office draw for the rest of the show’s run.

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.