Jazz Cleopatra: Josephine Baker in Her Time (Paperback)

by Phyllis Rose (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
The influential, uninhibited entertainer's life is traced from her turbulent Missouri childhood to her fame as a jazz singer and dancer. "This indispensable biography treats in full the two cultures--American and continental--that formed Baker, and sets a new standard for critical studies of performing artists," cheered PW. Photos.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
Vivid life of the fabulous entertainer who rose from povery in East St. Louis to international celebrity in the Folies-Bergere as the banana-bikinied "black Venus" and later returned to poverty; by the author of the shrewd Parallel Lives: Five Victorian Marriages (1983) and a well-received biography of Virginia Woolf (1978). Josephine Baker died before finishing her autobiography Josephine (1977), which was completed by bandleader Jo Bouillon, her second husband, but was something of a mess. Here, Rose focuses largely on 19-year-old Baker's first great year in Paris (1925-26), details finely Baker's various stage routines (often bare-breasted, she loved to cross her eyes, spread her knees in the widest rubber, legged Charleston ever seen, and bounce her rear end like a machine - "The rear end exists. I see no reason to be ashamed of it," she said), and explores the racial mythologies that produced Black Broadway and Black Paris. Baker's opening night in the Revue Negre compared well with the first-nighters' riot at Stravinsky's The Rites of Spring. After only one year, Bakermania swept France: white-skinned Frenchwomen stained themselves with walnut oil and slicked their hair with a product called Bakerfix. Rose is especially clearminded about Baker's love life and sex life, which were not the same - Baker had no bourgeois morality (one of her lovers was Georges Simenon). Between the wars she became a European star, though the Nazi Aryans tried to wipe jazz out of Germany, and on a trip home she discovered that race-conscious America did not welcome her as Paris had. During WW II she did undercover work, later adopted children of all races while on her world tours, collecting a personal family of man but exasperating husband Bouillon. For 25 years she gave so many farewell performances that "a goodbye performance by Josephine was just an elegant way of announcing she was back again." At 69, at the height of another Paris comeback, she had a fatal stroke in her sleep. Her state funeral: tremendous, with 20,000 mourners crowding the church door. Rose is a sympathetic, idea-filled biographer who tells a rich story briskly. (Kirkus Reviews) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 321 pages
• Publisher: Vintage (January 2, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679731334
• ISBN-13: 978-0679731337
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,026,098 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars There is more to Baker than banana skirt!, September 18, 2001

By	Sasha "lampic" (at sea...sailing somewhere) - See all my reviews

I honestly must admit I was surprised - schocked in fact - with seriousness,love and depth this author approached a subject which would many consider lightweight.As a difference from many other celebrated biographers who are basically just listing recording dates,Rose goes into describing the atmosphere around Paris in 1920's,what a half nude black woman on the stage meant to european audience at the time,all of a sudden we have discussion about Picasso,Hitler,De Gaulle and the whole book is just simply fascinating.On many occasions there were clever observations about life - I find myself seriously thinking about my own life while reading a book about a person who doesnt have anything in common with me - its almost a biblical saga about a strong individual,a fighter and survivor in a world that objects to anybody who stands above the crowd.Baker could have just used her sex appeal to get rich and built herself from the poverty,instead she changed the world around her and used all her energy to spread humanity wherever she went (it made me think about Lennon lyrics:"you may say I'm a dreamer,but I'm not the only one").Rose doesn't just idolise Baker,there is a understanding that such a strong personality was as powerful to audience as overbearing to people close to her in private life,which seems to be a destiny of anybody with a big influence.
Instead of another entertainer-biography I stumbled upon serious and deep analysis of fascinating character,brave and honest,sensitive woman.Bravo!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I wish that it had been more about Baker herself., March 18, 2003

By	C. Gilbert "frumiousb" (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Jazz Cleopatra is a slim volume (269 pages of text, plus notes and bibliography) but clearly a well-researched and well-written one. Rose's extensive notes and bibliography give a small idea of how much thinking went into the writing of the book, and indeed it has the feel of something which has been carefully considered.

It is worth emphasizing that the subtitle of the book is "Josephine Baker in Her Time". I stress the point because I think that the reader should expect that this is not so much a biography (although biography is an important element) as it is a contextual portrait. Rose spends a lot of time on Baker not just as a person, but as an icon and the book is often closer to cultural criticism than "true" biography.

This is not a bad thing, necessarily. It is just that I was looking more for biography and probably more for personality and that is not what this book is about.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exceptional Heroine, August 27, 2000

By	Renee Thorpe (Karangasem, Bali) - See all my reviews

Josephine Baker was a unique entertainer, we all know, but she was also an amazing woman off stage.

This fascinating biography satisfies not only the interests of musicians and jazz fans but also those readers interested in Black history and the lives of remarkable women. I read it twice, I loved it so much. Good sense of mid 20th century Paris, and other details really do come alive.