The Josephine Baker Story

Man on TV: News reached Paris this morning

that Josephine baker is on the verge of bankruptcy.

Adored in Paris but banned in her native America,

she was once the richest black woman who ever lived.

Her years of fortune began in the 1920s with her scandalous banana dance.

But now her chateau in Southern France is in danger of being taken away from her.

It's been the home of her 12 adopted children of all races,

her rainbow tribe.

Janot.

- And? - Akio from Japan.

Jari from Finland.

- Yes. - Luis from Colombia.

- Moise from Israel. - Marianne. Marianne.

Some people in the villages around les milandes

are turning against their penniless neighbor.

Oh, I don't care about her philosophy.

All I know is she has not paid one bill in seven months.

No rock 'n' roll...

Man on TV: Yesterday, Josephine said goodbye to her children,

sending them to friends in Paris.

Vowing to keep her dream alive,

Josephine is threatening to lock herself in her medieval castle and take on all comers.

Josephine: My dearest children,

I want you all to know that I love you

and that I have been forced to send you away.

By now, you are in Paris,

hearing stories about my scandalous past and crazy ideas,

and I must set the record straight.

I've got slave and Indian blood, which I always claimed

made me more American than most people who call themselves that.

So what am I doing here,

so far from where I began?

This here is a castle.

It got walls 10-foot thick and 100-foot high.

This here is the Princess. Ain't she beautiful?

She can have her pick of any prince she wants.

This here is the prince she chooses.

He's just about the swellest thing there ever been.

You can tell he's a prince.

He's got silver buckles on his shoes.

When I was trying to grow up,

white folks had no heart and black folks had no power.

All a little black girl had was a hard way to go.

Any niggers in here?

Any niggers in here?

Open this door, nigger.

St. Louis on a Tuesday morning,

1917, -

39 black people died that day.

I got a knot in my stomach that never went away.

There and then, I swore that if I grew up,

I'd make sure little children didn't have to live scared

ever.

Dancing must have come from running, and laughing from crying.

Here, take Chloe.

By the time I was 14, I realized nobody hates a black girl who's cute and funny.

You like being a dancer, Josie?

- Best way I know how to keep warm. - You like making people laugh?

Can't hardly stop them with the face I got.

Well, how about I take you off the end of that line,

give you your own comedy spot?

You mean it?

If little David could use his harp to make the angels cry,

I meant to make them laugh till I had enough to eat

and enough clothes for at least two changes.

Even when I got to Broadway, I was still in blackface dancing to all white audiences.

So when I got an offer to go to Paris,

huh, I didn't think twice.

I knew mama wasn't going to act glad.

She said, "a colored woman's life is from can't do to can't don't”

and she didn't want her daughters getting their hopes up and their hearts broken.

She'd been a dancer, too.

Josie.

Hey, girl, I missed you so much.

I brought you presents. I'm going to France.

How you like that?

Hey, mama, here.

I am. I'm going to France. I'm going to be singer and a proper dancer.

I ain't gonna do none of that old hucklebuck stuff. Uh-uh.

Josie baker is going on an ocean liner to France with a real contract.

Mama?

You like this, mama?

What about him? What about Willie baker? What about your husband?

He going, too?

Shoot, he can't hardly go. He got a job on the railroad.

Besides, we don't see too much of each other these days.

No, madam is too busy dancing alongside half-naked women.

What do you mean by coming here, shaming us? What do you mean by it?

I sent you money, mama.

I send you money every week.

That don't give you the right to parade up and down,

all stuck up and hincty, bring attention to your family.

- Take me, Josie. Can I come, too? - Follow her? Hmm.

- Mama, don't! - That's where you can go, missy.

Yeah, I'll send for you. When I get set, I'll send for all of you.

New York, Paris, the moon. Go where you like.

- Don't you bother us no more. - Josie, you promise?

I promise. I'll send for you. I'll send for all of you.

- I'll miss you. - I got news for you, girl.

You ain't so much of a dancer anyways.

Y'all, come on. Come see our show.

Josephine: Free in France. Still black, but free in France.

We could stay in hotels ahd dance in the streels.

The air made us drunk.

The first ime a white waiter served me and called me ma'am, I nearly died.

I fell in love with Paris that day.

Sidney bechet with his soprano sax and his Louisiana smarts

was my daytime friend and my nighttime company.

See, Josie, this here's a big party town. It's been that way since the war.

Every week, they gotta have a new sensation, and this week, baby,

it's black skin, and I like it. Ha, ha.

Back home, we can't give it away.

Now jam with them, Josie.

Come on, Josie, we gotta go. Come on, baby.

Bye. Bye.

Bye.

I'm home! Yeah.

Josephine: I ain't gonna wear just feathers.

- Man 1: There are a lot of feathers. - No.

- Please. - I'm not gonna put that on.

No, that's not why I got on the boat.

Man 1: It's beautiful.

You old rich dog.

I ain't gonna do it. I ain't from no jungle.

Look, they don't know the difference, and they don't care.

All they want is that sweet ass of yours.

Yeah, they want my bare ass. Bechet, they want my bare black ass.

My primitive, my essential ass.

If my mama found out, she'd knock me into next week come Monday.

I want respect, bechet.

I came here to be a dancer.

And maybe I could be a singer, too.

I headlined on Broadway. I do comedy. I'm good at it.

Well, they want something else.

You gonna be out of here on the first thing smoking if you don't deliver.

Now, I'm your friend. I'll tell them what you want.

You want to go back to five shows a day on the chitlin' circuit?

Looking for lodging in places that don't say, "no dogs, no Jews, no niggers"?

Look, Josie, you and your sweet ass have got them right here.

And don't it feel good? Ain't you a long way from east St. Louis?

A famous painter asked me to pose.

Josephine: His eyes approved of me.

To him, I wasn't just a woman

or a colored woman.

I was all women.

Nobody had ever looked at me that way before.

Never before.

There she was.

She'd been there all the time.

I'd been too busy making faces so folks would like me.

I'd never seen her.

There she was.

Bravo.

One dance had made me the most talked about woman in the world.

I had fame and money and Paris and freedom.

And I bought a zoo full of animals and a pet leopard.

I was loved by bankers and danced for royalty.

I didn't miss Willie baker the least little bit.

I've died and gone to heaven.

Ooh!

Love you.

For you. Fill it with everything you've ever wanted.

Oh, Victor.

Victor.

Paris is the dance, and you are the dancer, and we're going to stay on this boat forever.

And I'm going to learn to speak French properly.

And chiquita is gonna have lots of babies, and so are we.

And a big house, big enough for all the babies.

Chiquita's babies,

- and our babies, all mixed up. - Our babies? Mmm-hmm.

How's that sound?

From monsieur Victor.

Oh.

I don't care about you if you don't care about me.

Benny.

I thought more and more of mama's words.

"A colored woman's life is from can't do to can't don't."

You eat because you're sad.

Because of the frenchman.

I eat because I grew up hungry, like a lot of other people did.

Learn this.

No frenchman will sacrifice his respectability to make you his wife.

Josephine.

Mistress, yes. Lover, yes. Wife, no.

And not because of your color, but because you have no family,

no history.

Addio senza rancore.

Give your farewells without bitterness and enjoy Paris while it lasts for you.

Remember, everything is possible here.

Back home, I was a stone Mason who liked to dance.

I come here to Paris, give myself a title,

and the next thing I know, rich women are paying to dance with me,

with count guiseppe pepito abatino, at your service.

Stateside, we'd call that being a no-count count.

What are you going to do when they get tired of you?

When they get used to you,

when they begin to look for the next spectacle,

the next Josephine?

Read the American papers, count.

I'm the most famous colored woman in the world, and I plan on being the richest.