Some of us were lucky enough to see fellow St. Louisan Josephine Baker perform live. Senior producer Ruth Ezell remembers when her parents took her to see Baker perform in Detroit where she grew up. It was late in the trailblazing performer's career, but she left an impression on young Ruth. Ezell would later produce a profile of Baker for Living St. Louis that aired November 19, 2007, on Nine PBS.
Baker was born in St. Louis. She was a singer and dancer with a distinctive comic style and the first African American woman to earn international stardom. She was a cultural trailblazer, reinventing her image throughout her career and defying gender and racial stereotypes and barriers along the way.
She spent her early years in the Mill Creek Valley neighborhood near Eugenia Street, just southwest of Union Station, which was racially diverse at the time.
In Ezell's profile, Baker's nephew, St. Louisan Richard Martin Jr., said his aunt was influenced by the horrors of the East St. Louis race riots. (Watch the 2003 Nine PBS special, Made in USA: The East St. Louis Story, which reported on the event, at ninepbs.org/eaststlouis.)
She frequented the entertainment district near Chestnut and Market streets. While performing with the Jones Family Band, a theater manager spotted her and put her on stage. She never looked back. She later left St. Louis, eventually landing in Paris, her adopted hometown. She returned to St. Louis in 1952 with a performance at the Kiel Auditorium (now Stifel Theatre).
Her experiences in St. Louis shaped her quest for racial harmony. She became an activist and humanitarian, refusing to perform in theaters that segregated audiences. She was married four times (two were considered interracial) and adopted 12 children of different nationalities.
She was inducted in the St. Louis Walk of Fame on Delmar Boulevard May 20, 1990, and she has a street named after her in Gr and Center, Josephine Baker Boulevard.
Watch the special at ninepbs.org/archives.
This article appeared in the March/April 2021 issue of Nine PBS Magazine.