Josephine Baker's 50 Year Performance Career Across Paris, Havana, and New York Programs, 1927-1975

Josephine Baker

Pamphlet

Josephine Baker performance archive from 1927 to 1975, documenting the theatrical construction and international circulation of her public identity across the Folies Bergère, Havana, Broadway, and her final autobiographical revue at Bobino. The five pieces follow Baker from the racialized spectacle of interwar Paris through postwar productions in which she appeared as a named dramatic character, a touring international vedette, and the central subject of a retrospective built around fifty years in show business. Programs from Paris, Cuba, and New York preserve cast lists, production credits, multilingual titles, stage photographs, and repertory that changed with each audience while continuing to market Baker through glamour, costume, movement, and cosmopolitan celebrity.

Archive of five illustrated theatrical programs and promotional publications, Paris, Havana, and New York, 1927 to 1975. Measurements range from 6" x 8" to 8.5" x 11".

[1] Un Vent de Folie. Paris: Folies Bergère, 1927. Program for Louis Lemarchand’s “hyper revue à grand spectacle,” issued during Baker’s early period as a Folies Bergère star. Her portrait by Waléry heads a cast page listing “Joséphine BAKER” and the first act’s multilingual sequence, including “L’Horloge des Fêtes,” “Les Souliers de Noël,” “Le Gui de l’An Neuf,” “Le Baiser de Minuit,” and “Les Poissons d’Avril.” The production is independently represented in the Josephine Baker collection at Johns Hopkins and in the Bibliothèque nationale de France.

[2] Folies Bergère program, Paris, 1949. Red and gilt program for a postwar revue in which Baker appears as “Joséphine de Beauharnais” and as herself in “Boléro de Minuit.” The cast pages place her among the Folies Bergère models, show girls, dancers, and revue principals, extending her established stage persona into historical pageantry and late night music hall spectacle.

[3] Jo Bouillon presents Josephine Baker. Teatro Lírico, Havana, Monday, October 30, 1950. Large blue printed folding program advertising Baker as “la más grande Vedette Internacional.” The program combines selections by Offenbach, Massenet, Suppé, Bizet, Delibes, and Saint Saëns with Baker’s repertory, including “J’ai deux amours,” “Paris chéri,” “Bye Bye Blackbird,” “Begin the Beguine,” “La petite Tonkinoise,” and “Te me voe ben.” The date corresponds to Baker’s first documented Cuban engagement, when Havana publicity described her as one of the theatrical attractions of the year.

[4] Henry Miller’s Theatre Playbill: Josephine Baker and Her Company. New York, 1964. Program for Baker’s return engagement with Carmen de Lavallade, Geoffrey Holder, and the Aviv Dancers, produced by Sherman S. Krellberg and staged by Felix G. Gerstman. The engagement ran from March 31 through April 19, 1964, for twenty four performances, and the program records Baker’s reappearance on Broadway after the civil rights era had altered the political meaning of a Black international star returning to an American commercial stage.

[5] Joséphine à Bobino 1975: un grand spectacle de André Levasseur. Paris: Bobino, 1975. Oversized illustrated retrospective for Baker’s final Paris revue, presented by Jean Claude Dauzone with staging and costumes by André Levasseur. Pages reproduce Baker in 1926, 1930, 1931, and 1956, alongside performance portraits and facsimile tributes by Francis Veber, Tino Rossi, Françoise Sagan, Francis Carco, and others. The production narrated Baker’s life through musical tableaux drawn from New York, the Revue Nègre, the Folies Bergère, Latin America, and her French repertory; the press gala took place on April 8, 1975, four days before her death.

The archive records how Baker repeatedly revised the conventions that first made her famous. Varying moderate edge wear, toning, handling creases, scattered spotting, short tears, and localized losses; the Havana sheet shows pronounced folds, and the Bobino publication has rubbing, staining, and edge wear. Overall good condition. A chronological record of how Josephine Baker moved from being presented as the exotic subject of a Paris revue to directing the terms by which five decades of performance would be remembered.

Item #23668

Price: $1,250.00