This article accompanies the fable
Life as Opera


Josephine Baker looking her best in Paris in 1927

After moving from the U.S. to Paris in 1925, she quickly became known there as La Baker and elsewhere as the Black Pearl (take that Johnny Depp!). In the late 1920's, she became for a time the most highly paid American entertainer in France -- very much in the same "ethnic" tradition as Carmen, Lola and La Mogador... and the unfortunate Mata Hari.