On a day that reported the Julia Child worked for the OSS during WW2, quieter reporting revealed that her compatriots included Arthur Schlesinger, Sterling Hayden and Josephine Baker. I looked up Baker today and found an amazing biography. Surely one that deserves a big screen treatment. Moving from a broken family to Parisian sensation with a a "pet cheetah Chiquita, who was adorned with a diamond collar. The cheetah frequently escaped into the orchestra pit, where it terrorized the musicians, adding another element of excitement to the show."
Her manager was a "Sicilian stonemason who passed himself off as an Italian count".
For services to the underground in WW2 France, "Baker was awarded the Croix de Guerre and the Légion d'Honneur by General Charles de Gaulle, and also the Rosette of the Résistance."
And she always seemed to have something to say about everything....... including:
"Beautiful? It's all a question of luck. I was born with good legs. As for the rest... beautiful, no. Amusing, yes."
"It [the Eiffel Tower] looked very different from the Statue of Liberty, but what did that matter? What was the good of having the statue without the liberty?"
"Until the March on Washington, I always had this little feeling in my stomach. I was always afraid. I couldn't meet white American people. I didn't want to be around them. But now that little gnawing feeling is gone. For the first time in my life I feel free. I know that everything is right now."
Read more here and visit her official website here.
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