Josephine Baker: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know

<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vLXpmac7meo" width="560"></iframe> </span><br /> <span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #404040; margin-bottom: 2.4rem; word-wrap: break-word;"> <span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Entertainer and activist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josephine_Baker" rel="noopener" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #1177aa; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Josephine Baker</a> is the subject of today’s <a href="http://heavy.com/tag/google-doodle/" rel="noopener" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #1177aa; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Google Doodle</a>. June 3rd, 2017, would be her 111th birthday. Baker is best known for being the first African American to become an internationally recognized performer, and the first to headline her own film, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zouzou_(film)" rel="noopener" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #1177aa; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Zouzou</em></a>, in 1934. Today, she remains a defining cultural figure of the period.</span></div> <div class="heavysidebar" id="in-article-1" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #404040;"> <div class="heavy_desktop_inarticle_1 heavy_ad" id="Heavy_Desktop_InArticle_1" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> </div> </div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #404040; margin-bottom: 2.4rem; word-wrap: break-word;"> <span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Baker, also known by a variety of different nicknames, including “Bronze Venus,” “Creole Goddess,” and “Black Pearl,” was born on June 3rd, 1906 in St. Louis, Missouri and died on April 12th, 1975 in Paris, France.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #404040; margin-bottom: 2.4rem; word-wrap: break-word;"> <span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“With her kohl-rimmed eyes and exotic costumes, Josephine Baker pounced onto the global stage in the 1920s, becoming a Jazz Age icon and one of the first internationally recognized African-American entertainers,” Google says. “A celebrity in Europe – and one of the most photographed women on the planet – Baker nonetheless faced racially charged comments from the press when she returned to the U.S. in 1936 for a short-lived starring turn in the Broadway series <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ziegfeld_Follies" rel="noopener" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #1177aa; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Ziegfeld Follies</em></a>. Championing diversity and fighting for civil rights would become an enduring concern throughout her life…There’s little doubt why Ernest Hemingway once called her “the most sensational woman anybody ever saw—or ever will.”</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #404040; margin-bottom: 2.4rem; word-wrap: break-word;"> <span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Learn more about Baker, her personal life, and her groundbreaking career here:</span></div>

Josephine Baker: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know

Entertainer and activist Josephine Baker is the subject of today’s Google Doodle. June 3rd, 2017, would be her 111th birthday. Baker is best known for being the first African American to become an internationally recognized performer, and the first to headline her own film, Zouzou, in 1934. Today, …

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