on Washington, to speak at the rally next to Martin Luther King, Jr. In 1968, following King's assassination, his wife, Coretta Scott King, offered Baker the leadership of the movement, but she declined, citing that her children were "too young to lose their mother".
Baker, always a generous person, spent her fortune on charities and on the Civil Rights movement, thus by
1964 she had lost everything, including her home, the castle Les Milandes. Her friend, Princess Grace Kelly, who by that time had married Prince Rainier of Monaco, heard of Baker's financial troubles and offered her a home in Monaco.
Baker was back on stage at the Olympia in Paris in 1968, then, in 1973, she finally accepted the invitation to
perform at Carnegie Hall in New York. She had nothing else but apprehension about how the American audience and critics would receive her. To her surprise, it was a standing ovation that was so touching, Baker wept onstage.
During that time, Josephine also
developed a close friendship with American artist Robert Brady. They exchanged marriage vows in an empty church in Acapulco, Mexico, in September 1973, though Baker never publicized it for fear of ridicule. Both she and Brady were looking for a more platonic relationship; therefore, they never legalized their marriage, and maintained that bond for the rest of her life.
On April 8, 1975, Josephine would take the stage for the last time at the Bobino in Paris. The review was a retrospective celebrating her 50 year career, and financed by Prince Rainier, Princess Grace and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. On the opening night, celebrity guests such as Sophia Loren, Mick Jagger, Shirley Bassey, Diana Ross and Liza Minnelli sat in a packed room. Josephine captivated her audience with a medley of her successes. The review was a triumph.
In 1931, she rook the lead in a revival of Jacques Offenbach's opera La créole, at the Théâtre Marigny on the Champs-Élysées of Paris. In preparation, she went through months of voice coaching. Shirley Bassey, who has cited Baker as her primary influence, said of Baker: “... she went from a 'petite danseuse sauvage' with a decent voice to 'la grande diva magnifique’..."
Janet Flanner, "New Yorker" correspondent said of her "Her magnificent dark body, a new model to the French, proved for the first time that black was beautiful.”
Pablo Picasso said of her: "Tall, coffee skin, ebony eyes, legs of paradise, a smile to end all smiles.”
Back on Stage
Her Last Triumph
45 | Ceres Magazine | Oct/Nov 2015
Uncredited portrait of Josephine Baker, 1960's.
Uncredited portrait of Josephine Baker, 1931.