Josephine Baker: Erotic dancer, spy and civil rights activist

Her banana-skirt dance made Josephine Baker famous. But she was more than an entertainer: She defied the Nazis in war-time France — and racism in her native US.

Legend has it that Josephine Baker received more than 1,500 marriage proposals. In 1927, the famous dancer made more money than any other entertainer in Europe. She was just 20 years old when she performed with the world-famous Revue Negre cabaret show in Paris, Madrid and Berlin.

Artists, actors and writers — including Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway, Le Corbusier, Jean Gabin and Max Reinhardt — were smitten. French writer and director Jean Cocteau raved about the "beautiful idol of brown steel, irony and gold!"

Born Freda Josephine McDonald to an American mother in 1906 in the slums of St. Louis, Missouri, Josephine Baker was an illegitimate child for the times. Her father, a musician of Jewish descent, left the family when she was a child.

Race riots at home

Josephine worked as a maid for a rich white family at a very young age to help support her family. When she was 11 years old, she witnessed the race riots in her hometown in which white mobs killed almost 100 AfricanAmericans. That later influenced her work as a civil rights activist.

Baker would ultimately marry four times, the first time when she was 13. She married again two years later, another shortlived union. But she ended up keeping her second husband's last name, Baker.

The teenager worked as an assistant for a vaudeville troupe, helping dress the members. When a dancer fell ill, she seized her chance and performed on stage with the troupe. She was ambitious and tenacious: At age

On tour with the Revue Negre