Josephine Baker

Baker had a mischievous, manic, Liza Minnelli quality. While her co-stars move on camera at a blithe, comfortable pace, Baker seems about to burst from the screen, all arms and legs and kinetic energy. This was the verve that captivated her nightclub audiences. What the movies cannot show us is the flamboyance that captivated them offstage as well.

There was Baker strolling down the Champs Elysees with a panther and a monkey on leashes. (Later, she had a cheetah as well.) There was Baker stealing off to have an affair with the future king of Sweden. There was Baker recovering from cyanide poisoning at the hands of Hermann Goering. And, through it all, there was Baker the woman of style, a walking advertisement for the great couture houses and jewelers of Paris.

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