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Arts & Entertainment

NoHo Performer Gives Us a Course in Josephine Baker

Sloan Robinson, who wrote and stars in the show 'Bananas! A Day in the Life of Josephine Baker' opening at J.E.T. Studios on Dec. 21, takes us through the life of the legendary dancer.

Josephine Baker was a groundbreaking performer from the ‘20s through the ‘70s, legendary for her erotic performances and political work. Baker comes to NoHo by way of actress Sloan Robinson, who wrote and performs Bananas! A Day in the Life of Josephine Baker, named for one of Baker’s notorious costumes. 

Bananas! opens at the Dec. 20 and plays through February 29. Check dates and buy tickets at josephinebaker.eventbrite.com. Robinson gave us a full history of the Josephine Baker moments she covers in her play when we spoke on the phone. If the enthusiasm with which she speaks about Baker penetrates the phone lines that strongly, just imagine what she conveys on stage.

PATCH: Given the title of the show, will we get to see you in the banana costume?

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SLOAN ROBINSON: Absolutely. Not only in the costume, I’m going to do the dance. But now Fred, I’m not going to do it topless. [Laughs] Topless is a little more Parisian. I don’t think the Americans are prepared for that. But I recreate the banana dance and I try to do the best I can to show how much Josephine just danced with an abandonment that just drove the French crazy.

PATCH: This is a day in the life of Josephine Baker, so how did you choose which day that would be?

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ROBINSON: I’m so glad you asked me that because I titled the play the way that I did, Bananas: A Day in the Life of Josephine Baker, because Josephine’s life is an epic. In order to do it on stage, what I have decided to do was to use as the catalyst for the play an actual letter that was sent to her by L.A. Times Critic Bosley Crowther in 1961. So I begin reading the letter and that is the catalyst that takes me into her life. You know she died in ’75 at 69 so there were quite a few years left after ’61 that she did a lot of other stuff.

PATCH: What are some of the highlights you got to perform from Josephine’s life?

ROBINSON: By ’61 she had adopted the 11 children all as babies and infants and raised them together to show the world that racial hatred is really an unnatural state for human beings. We’re all in a universal family. So it starts with she’s really working to take care of the children and the chateau. So I get to go to 1928 when she first did the banana dance and when she was claimed the duchess of Europe by the French, the fashionista. She was sought out by painters like Paul Colin, Picasso. She was once the most photographed woman in the world. She had quite a menagerie of pets. It was not unusual to see Josephine walking with her cheetah on a leash down the Champs Elysees. She even took her to the opera. So I go back to her really fun madcap crazy days. This was during the jazz age so I get to talk about that part in history. At 15 she started doing Vaudeville and after Vaudeville was dying out, she then began doing colored musicals like Shuffle Along, Chocolate Dandies and that’s when the critics actually started noticing her as a talent. And then she got a job in a new show called La Revue Negre which was a review of negroes. She hated the show but she had a good part and from there, they went to Paris France and that’s how she was introduced to Paris. And I talk about in the days of the French excitement when she was so popular how she developed Bakerfix hair cream. A lot of people don’t know that. That slicked down short hairdo that she wore that looked like tar, she had a special mixture that she put together to create that look. A cosmetic manufacturing company manufactured it. It was called Bakerfix hair cream. It was used by women all over the world. So that’s another way that she made quite a bit of millions of dollars.

PATCH: Are you able to include her political work?

ROBINSON: We went onto some of the things that she accomplished in her life because once she became an international star, then she began to focus a lot of her energy on human injustice, on humanitarian efforts. Many of her performances, a lot of people don’t know, proceeds went to help various organizations like the Mexico Red Cross. Then I go on to talk about the movies that she did. She actually did three movies. She wasn’t happy with her life as a movie actress. She felt most comfortable on stage and felt like that’s where her true calling was, to be on stage, that she could reach a lot more people with her humanitarian efforts on stage. Then we go into when she was discovered by Henri Varna who was a great impresario and the respected director of the Folies-Bergere. He wanted to turn her into an international star. So between her relationship with Henry Varna and Pepito who was her main driving male force in her early days of becoming a star in Paris, Pepito was a count. Count Giusseppe Pepito Abatino, he saw her as a great star as well. So between Papito and Henry Varna, they orchestrated her career to create the right stage environment for her to become this international star leading to the Folies Bergere, leading to the movies and then leading to her war effort.

PATCH: So you cover her spy work in World War II?

ROBINSON: That was in the ‘40s. The ‘20s and the ‘30s were all about her becoming the international star. Then she’s in Europe, she’s in France and the war comes, the German occupation. She becomes a Red Cross nurse and she’s also still entertaining. So then she is recruited by the resistance to become an international courier for the movement. A lot of people don’t know this. Josephine carried microfilm in her wigs. She had coded messages in invisible ink on her sheet music. They sewed various secret documents deep in the linings of her costume. She crossed the borders with this information so she was basically a spy. She had all the elaborate wigs. So she was really a spy, but not only that, she was a French citizen by then because she was married to her third husband Jean Lion. So not only was she a spy for the movement, she was a French citizen.

PATCH: By 1961, you can cover some of the Civil Rights movement but not all of her work, right?

ROBINSON: In 1963 they have the Civil Rights march on Washington, the very first one, led by Dr. King. Josephine was invited by Dr. King to come to the march and he asked her to give a speech. She gave the speech and during the speech someone handed her a note. The note was from Lyndon B. Johnson who was president at that time inviting her to come to the White House. This was a full circle event for her, to be invited to the White House by the president to talk about the state of racism in America and that sort of thing. Since I stop at ’61, that is not as fresh in my mind but I did all the research to do her life, read the books and everything.  Her last performance in Los Angeles was at the music center in 1973. Then in 1975 there was the biggest comeback of her life. There was a big production created entitled "Josephine" and it was a revue of her entire life. It was a star-studded opening night. Mick Jagger, everybody was there. It was such a huge success, the show had just opened, she’d only done four shows. Four shows so two days after she opened she died in her sleep. Isn’t that something? She had very few tours in America because of the racism. She came back to America in 1951. I think she only did three tours in total in her whole career in America. Now in 1951 when she came to do her tour here, she performed in various places in the states and she also went to Harlem and they declared that day Baker Day. It was May 21, 1951 and she was very, very excited. She was so well received. The people of Harlem embraced her and loved her and showed her that love and were very excited. But then in that same tour, she went to have dinner at The Stork Club and she was refused service. She was still dealing with a lot of racism and Walter Winchell was there. He did nothing and that started a war with she and Walter Winchell. Winchell then began on radio calling her Josephony Baker. He said a lot of derogatory things about her and that was the last time she appeared in America until 1973.

PATCH: Which of her songs do you perform in the show?

ROBINSON: I do an American song that works with the monologue that she used to do, “Hello Young Lovers.” I do “J’ai Deux Amour.” You cannot do Josephine and not do “I Have Two Loves, (J’ai Deux Amour.)” She sings that for the troops. In 1942 they came to Casablanca. That’s when they landed in Casablanca. So she was also in Morocco because she’d been poisoned by a German officer in her own home and she fled to Morocco for her safety. Morocco was kind of like a safe haven at that time during the war. She sang for the troops and she sang “J’ai Deux Amour.” Another signature song that came a little later in her career after “J’ai Deux Amour” was “Dans Mon Village (In My Village.)” “Dans Mon Village” was a song that was expressly written about the world village that she was creating and her 11 orphaned children, babies that she adopted to raise together. Then I sing one of her really cute teasing kind of song, “Please Don’t Touch Me Tomato.”

PATCH: When did you first become aware of Josephine?

ROBINSON: Well, Fred, I’ve been out here about 30 years. I came to L.A. in ’84 and that’s from being in New York for 10 years working on off off off Broadway stages. I went to New York from Detroit which is my hometown to go study at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. So once I finished school, I just started working on the stages of New York and I was aligned with my mentor, one of my theater fathers, Mr. Woodie King Jr. Now Mr. King told me that in my career, he said, “This is what you need to do. One day you’re going to have the opportunity to play three great women.” I said, “Who, Woodie?” He says, “Billie Holiday, Dorothy Dandridge and Josephine Baker. You should start gathering information now.” Well, I did and everything I read about Josephine just fascinated me, every photograph. I just thought she was this amazing woman. It was like she wasn’t even a real person, the things that she accomplished. Her love for children and how she took that love because she couldn’t have any kids of her own, and adopted the children and created this place to show us all how we could all live together. I just became fascinated with her so I started collecting everything, every photo, every piece of film footage. I went to the Shamberg in New York which you know is an archive for black films in Hollywood and studied everything I could there. I sat on all that information because I said one day I’m going to play her. So I played Billie Holiday in a show called Dark Legends in Blood. Then I got the opportunity to do a one woman show on the life of Dorothy Dandridge called Yesterday Came Too Soon: The Dorothy Dandridge story written by Jamal Williams which was a huge success here in L.A. I received an NAACP theater award for best female performance for that production and I was also a coproducer with my production company, Do It Yourself Productions.

PATCH: And you’re doing this yourself. What prompted you to go ahead and create the Josephine Baker role for yourself?

ROBINSON: Because the other thing Woodie told me was, “You’re going to have to create your own projects. You don’t look like the Hollywood type so you may have to write and create your own work.” So as I did Billie, I did Dorothy, all of this is in Los Angeles, I said, “What do I want my next project to be?” Then I wrote an autobiographical piece called, It’s a Good Thing I Knew How to Dance which was all about my life. I had no idea that anybody could care but it was something I felt like I needed to do and I wont the award again by the NAACP for best female performer for my one woman show. So I said, "Okay, now I’ve done my life. Now I’m ready to do Josephine," because as I had aged, I’m beginning to look more and more like Josephine. I’m built like her and I’m a dancer. Now I want to take on this challenge. I sat down and I started reading and rereading my material and gathering my pictures and my film and studying the film. Out of that came Bananas! A Day in the Life of Josephine Baker.

PATCH: Are you from North Hollywood or close?

ROBINSON: Now, actually I live in L.A. close to downtown. I just got so lucky, I got blessed. J.E.T. who I’m very excited to work with, I think the J.E.T. Studios is a lovely facility. It’s a multi-faceted facility. It’s a sweet little intimate ’60 seat house theater that’s perfect for my show. [Producer] Judith [E. Taranto] approached me because she was looking for a show and we talked and after I sent her some of my material and after talking to her, it has turned into a three month booking and I couldn’t be happier.

PATCH: And you got a prime run, December through February.

ROBINSON: I’m so excited because I’ll be honest with you, I’ve been basically working the hood. The theater that I premiered in was on 10th and Washington Ave., Vintage Hollywood. The executive producer, Leroy Richardson III loves Josephine Baker. He is a collector of vintage Hollywood memorabilia and I did a little scene for him. He was like, “I’d love to have your show. I’m gonna give you all your costumes. I’m gonna do your set.” And we had an amazing nine month run there. The show won Best Costumes, it won Best Music Director, oh my beautiful pianist Aeros Pierce. That’s the other thing that’s a little unique about my one woman show. I have a pianist that plays and she underscores all the dialogue as well as playing the production numbers. It just creates this beautiful ambiance because she does music from the ‘20s, the ‘30s, the ‘40s, the ‘50s. It just creates this mood to the piece that also is a part of what I think the audience really enjoys about the piece.

PATCH: Was there any similarity between playing Josephine and playing Dorothy and Billie?

ROBINSON: Oh, all three of those women were so different. Billie as we know was a drug addict. Playing her was a sad experience for me because I really hate that some of the women, particularly in jazz, in that era, went to drugs when they were so brilliant in what they did. It destroyed her. It destroyed her career. Billie could’ve sung forever, to the end of her natural days had she not been a drug addict. So playing her was a little bit of a sad experience but the highlight for me was I got to sing the song “Strange Fruit” which I think is such a disturbing song. To be able to explore that was interesting but it was a sad experience to me. Now doing Dorothy Dandridge was like oh my God, she was this beauty of beauties and I felt a lot of pressure to be very beautiful, very elegant and somewhat naïve because Hollywood destroyed her. She let Hollywood destroy her. Did you know Dorothy Dandridge died at 42 with $2.42 in her bank account? Her life was tragic but playing her was a real Hollywood experience because her existence was Hollywood. Now let’s go to Josephine Baker. Josephine Baker is just an international icon and playing her is like channeling one of the goddesses of the world. She was just everything. The way she touched her audience, how she was able to bring people together, how she was able to go from being a washer woman’s daughter to a multi-millionaire, a star in France and the world is just so exciting to play her. Playing Josephine I get to wear fabulous costumes and fabulous hair and the long eyelashes. I get to really get the audience to understand that it wasn’t just about the clothes or the hair. This woman had a soul and a heart that was as big as the world. So doing Josephine is like I don’t know who I’m going to do next because I feel like this is the ultimate.

PATCH: What did you think of the HBO movie The Josephine Baker Story with Lynn Whitfield?

ROBINSON: I thought Lynn Whitfield and HBO did such an amazing job that I don’t think anyone else should try to tackle Josephine on film. That’s how I feel about Lynn Whitfield’s performance. It was amazing and I think all the production values of that film were amazing. The costuming, the hair, the era, just everything. I thought it was wonderful.

PATCH: You have a good TV resume too. How often do you go out for TV work?

ROBINSON: It’s so funny, I’m glad you asked me that because I have an audition this morning. As soon as I finish talking to you I’m going to the Valley for an audition for Two and a Half Men and I’m sitting here right now with a blonde wig on.

PATCH: You were on two of my favorite doctor shows, House and Scrubs.

ROBINSON: Yes, I had a good time on Scrubs. Scrubs was so much fun. House was a little more intense but it was a great job because I got to work for two weeks. Now the episode I did was an unusual episode for them. They did the two part season opener and this was when Dr. House was trying to get clean from the drugs, when he was trying to get off the pills and he went to an institution, a rehab institution to try to get off the drugs. So I was a nurse in that hospital so that was a really interesting episode. That episode wasn’t your typical House episode. The cast that normally is on the show with him, none of them were on for that two parter. So that was a very exciting experience and I loved working with Hugh [Laurie]. He’s a lovely person.

PATCH: So if we see you in a blonde wig on Two and a Half Men we’ll know you got the part.

ROBINSON: Wish me luck. And I just finished shooting a couple things that haven’t aired yet. I did an episode of Shameless.

PATCH: Don’t they shoot in Chicago?

ROBINSON: They shoot in Chicago and L.A. The episode I’m in, part of it is L.A. and part of it is in Chicago and Jenna Elfman is in this episode. I also just finished shooting Body of Proof with Dana Delaney which was a lot of fun. I think both of those will air sometime in January. And I’m still dancing. That’s what’s so exciting to me. That’s the other thing I love about doing Josephine because I get to dance. I get to just be half naked on stage and this may be my last chance to do this because the wrinkles are hard to fend off. 

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