The French magazine, La Femme de France published a fascinating article about the emergence of “Étoile Noir,” Josephine Baker. The article, written by French film director J.K. Raymond-Millet, came out with the 1925 issue of the magazine, and summarized the public opinion of Baker at the time, shortly after her debut in Paris in 1925.
The author, J.K. Raymond-Millet, was a French actor, director, and film maker who rose to prominence in the late 1920s and 30s. He created many documentaries and films as well as wrote several poems.1 La Femme de France or “The Woman of France,” was a large and popular magazine that published between 1925 and 1938. The magazine was targeted toward French women and included articles, advertisements, and tips for keeping up with “la Mode” of France with fashion, home styling, makeup, art and much more.2 As a filmmaker, Raymond-Millet likely viewed Josephine Baker as she could be seen through the lens of a camera: with drama, flair, and a “healthy, cheerful glow that was both jovial and familiar.” He also commented on her apparent personal love of cinema, claiming that the lights of a dark film room satisfied her “naïve pleasure.”3
Raymond-Millet describes Josephine Baker’s beauty and allure, which were different from traditional ideals for feminine presenting singers, dancers, and musicians before the 1920s.
“Physically, Josephine Baker seems like a big athletic boy. She doesn’t bother with sweetness or frills. She escaped from the fragility and the grace of her sex. Her beauty is different, more poignant, less delicate; its attraction is different: and yet, she never ceases to be a woman.”
His description of her body type demonstrate the changing standards of beauty of the 1920s; she is described as athletic and confident, a far cry from the delicate and feminine ideals of previous years. Similarly, her dances and costumes represent a growing comfort with feminine sexuality in 1920s France, especially in entertainment. Raymond-Millet even suggests that Baker did not only win over the common people of Paris, but also ‘l’Aris” or the aristocrats of the city, crossing class lines. Although she had many critics and her fame (called mutinous at one point) was not initially accepted by all, eventually Josephine Baker won over most Parisians.4
Josephine Baker’s stardom was particularly striking because she was an African-American woman who had immigrated to Paris in 1925 after being devastated by the state of race relations and segregation in the U.S. at the time. However difficult her time performing in the U.S. had been, she was eventually greeted with open arms by the people of Paris.5
Some scholars argue that her fame and success had much to do with her race. Irina Armianu argues that Parisians were enchanted by her because of their lingering fascination with colonial exoticism.6 As Cary D. Wintz and Paul Finkelman discuss in their Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance, Baker embraced the popularity of the “black rage” and leaned into stereotypes and aesthetic appeal to catapult herself toward success.7
Raymond-Millet seems to point toward fetishisms of Baker’s features with his many references to her appearance, at one point describing her teeth as “teeth that know how to bite.” This description hints at the ways in which Parisian audiences interpreted black exoticism and stereotypes of wildness or savagery in Baker’s performances. Although 1920s Parisians may not have thought of their excitement over Baker in this way, her emergence is now scholarly linked with ideas of negrophilia. Nevertheless, it is clear from Raymond-Millet’s article; continued scholarship; and her revered place in history, that she was an undoubtedly influential figure in shaping the music scene of 1920s France.