Les « autres » Folies - Joséphine Baker in America, "The Ziegfeld Follies of 1936"

 

In costume for "Five A.M."

In costume for "Maharanee (At the Night Races in Paris)."

In costume for "The Conga."

The Ziegfeld Follies of 1936 was a musical revue with lyrics by Ira Gershwin, music by Vernon Duke, and sketches by Gershwin and David Freedman. It premiered at the Winter Garden Theatre on 30 January 1936 and closed on 9 May 1936 after one hundred and fifteen performances. It was produced by Ziegfeld's widow Billie Burke and Lee and Jacob Shubert, and directed by John Murray Anderson and Edward Clarke Lilley. The choreography was by Robert Alton, with ballets directed by George Balanchine. Scenic design and costumes were by Vincente Minnelli, with additional costumes by Raoul Pène Du Bois. In addition to Baker, the cast starred Fanny Brice, Bob Hope, Eve Arden, Judy Canova, Gertrude Niesen, June Preisser, and the Nicholas Brothers. But Brice was the star of the production, dominating the show to such a degree that when she became ill in May, the production closed, at which point Baker took the option to terminate her contract. Four months later the musical returned to the Winter Garden Theatre, with Brice reprising her roles and with additional cast members, including Gypsy Rose Lee who took Baker's place in the conga; her other numbers were dropped. The production only continued for another three months, closing on 19 December 1936 after an additional one hundred and twelve performances. 

"The Conga."

Baker performed three numbers in the show. The first had a "tropical" setting. Gertrude Niesen sang of the "West Indies," and Baker appeared garbed in a strange and spiky silver costume, a vague sort of tribute to her former banana girdle. She proceeded to dance a conga with male dancers, knocking them over one by one. In her second appearance she sang the Duke/Gershwin song "Maharanee (At the Night Races in Paris)" while wearing a sari. The tempo of the number started as a one-step, transitioned to a waltz, and finished as a tango with Baker executing a wordless coloratura passage, ending on an eight bar sustained high B flat. In her final number, "Five A.M.," she wore a gown of gold mesh; its designer, Vincente Minnelli, claimed it weighed almost a hundred pounds. He also gave her a plum-colored ostrich cape, which choreographer Balanchine had her drag across the floor before the ballet, proper, began.

"Maharanee (At the Night Races in Paris)."

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By the middle of the 1930s Joséphine Baker was firmly established as one of France's brightest stars, and she had high hopes of furthering the great success she'd experienced with the French when she was engaged to be in the starry cast of the 1936 revival of the "Ziegfeld Follies" on Broadway. She sailed on the Normandie to New York in August of 1935 in order to begin rehearsals. But right from the beginning, she had to fight the sort of racism she rarely encountered in Europe; she was turned away from the hotel where she had reserved rooms, as the management didn't want to offend their Southern clientele. 

And even before the show opened, her talents were being widely disparaged in the press, and she had to endure insulting comments and behavior due to her race. Time magazine referred to her as a "Negro wench ... whose dancing and singing might be topped anywhere outside of Paris", while other critics said her voice - accustomed to the more intimate French music hall settings, half the size of the Broadway venue - was "too thin" and "dwarf-like" to fill the Winter Garden Theatre. She was even criticized for being too sophisticated - too "continental" - for a black woman in America in 1936. I reaction to all this, she openly compared America unfavorably with France, and spoke French whenever possible, further alienating her critics.

One month after the opening of the Follies, and as something of a rebuttal to and rebellion against the attacks, Baker opened her own after-theater club, Chez Joséphine Baker, in what during the day was an elegant restaurant, Le Mirage. Backed by an orchestra and accompanied by three chorus boys, she danced and sang in English and French, recreating the sort of excitement her Parisian performances had always provided. It was a great success, attracting a sophisticated, cosmopolitan crowd. Even so, most of the New York press continued their hostile commentary.

 

In the midst of all this, Paul Derval, the director of the Folies Bergère, arrived with a contract for his upcoming season. So when Fanny Brice fell ill in May, Baker terminated her contract, and arrived back in Paris in June to cheering crowds. En Super Folies opened in October and ran well into 1937; it was a triumph and a much needed validation of her talents. She had returned to France heartbroken by her experiences in America, and with her marriage to a French industrialist in October 1937, she became a French citizen. In later years she refused to ever talk about her engagement with the Ziegfeld Follies.

Nearly all of the portraits here were taken by Murray Korman, his studio signature clearly evident. Korman (16 March 1902 – 10 August 1961) was a New York "publicity photographer" who made his reputation with his glamorous "Hollywood style" portraits. His clients ranged from showgirls to famous entertainers to members of "cafe society." The images of Baker, taken both in the costumes she wore in the production and wearing other lavish gowns, were made to promote her appearance in the Follies; she would go on to use the portraits for several years after.

Except... these three, taken Joseph Abeles (circa 1908-1991), who established his Talbot Studio, specializing in theatrical portraiture, in 1935. 

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Brooks Atkinson, New York Times review of 31 January 1936

Any one interested in an evening of good entertainment may be glad to hear about the 1936 edition of the "Ziegfeld Follies," which opened at the Winter Garden last night under the protection of the Messrs. Shubert. Following an honorable tradition of showmanship, it provides a jovial and handsome song-and-dance festival, glorifying the Broadway tempo and style. Vincente Minnelli, who decorated "At Home Abroad," has burst into the Winter Garden with a whole portfolio of original splendors. Without being in the least sensational, he has managed this season to reanimate the art of scenic display and costumery. Although he is lavish enough to satisfy any producer's thirst for opulence, his taste is unerring and the "Follies" that comes off his drawing-board is a civilized institution. Even the mediocre numbers, of which there are the usual number, look well when Mr. Minnelli dresses them.

If the 1936 edition offered nothing but Fannie Brice, most of us would feel sufficiently grateful. Fannie has been such a good sport for so many years that it is difficult as well as superfluous to attempt to separate the affection she has bred from the downright, wholesome enjoyment she supplies. Here you will see her up to all sorts of flamboyant, Bricean mischief—stretching her mobile mouth a hundred different ways to draw comedy out of her material, rolling those eloquent eyes, fairly engulfing the whole show. The coarse elegance she contrives for the upper-class English of Ira Gershwin's "Fancy Fancy," the infuriating temperament she puts into "Baby Snooks Goes Hollywood" and the grotesqueness of her burlesque of revolutionary dancing ("Rewolt," she screams with her wicked eyes crossed)-are Fannie in top form. She has a capital partner in Bob Hope, who is gentleman enough to be a comrade and comedian enough to be funny on his own responsibility. In fact, most of the principals are well met in the current “Follies." Hugh O'Connell is one of our most expansive merry-andrews and Eve Arden has an alert sense of humor. Here and there throughout the show the clowns satirize government spending, the grandiose promotion of super-specials from Hollywood, and amateur night on the radio. Without being devastatingly funny, the sketches are neatly written and they are acted in the highest good humor.

One major disappointment must be bluntly chronicled. After her cyclonic career abroad Josephine Baker has become a celebrity who offers her presence instead of her talent. They have given her ravishing settings, effulgent gowns or practically no costume at all, which is an improvement, but her singing voice is only a squeak in the dark and her dancing is only the pain of an artist. Miss Baker has refined her art until there is nothing left in it. When the two Nicholas Brothers follow her with some excellent Harlem hoofing out of the Bill Robinson curriculum they restore your faith in dusky revelry. As a matter of fact, this "Follies" has a good many light feet. Cherry and June Preisser and Duke McHale can patter a mean dog or two. And Harriet Hoctor, the phantom ballerina, has been drawn under the old "Follies" canopy again to disclose a bit of stirring surrealist imagery, and to give you an affecting suggestion of the beauty of flying at night.

Something particularly cordial should be said for Stan Kavanagh's exuberant juggling. He is a working trouper at one of the oldest music hall turns, but his skill and his humor make juggling one of the most hilarious pleasures of the evening. Vernon Duke has written some tunes, which are probably all right, and Gertrude Niesen sings most of them with a cloudy voice suggesting an oboe with a cold, and probably that is all right, too. Probably Ogden Nash's "The Voice of Friendship" sketch and Eve Arden's description of "The Economic Situation" as It affects amour are legitimate revue staples. Even if you are surly and feel cross about them, they matter very little in comparison with the beauty and hospitality of the new "Follies." John Murray Anderson has translated the many materials into a flowing entertainment. Show business always seems mighty cozy when Fannie Brice is galumphing around the stage.

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From the playbill.

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And let me end all this with a alternate print of my favorite of these images, Baker in her "Maharanee" sari. 

Les enfants - the children of Louis XIV and Louise de La Vallière, marble high-reliefs, circa 1669-70

 

Marie-Anne de Bourbon, Légitimée de France, mademoiselle de Blois, at approximately three or four years old.

Louis de Bourbon, Légitimé de France, comte de Vermandois, at approximately two or three years old.

The sculptures, by an unknown artist, are in the collection of the château de Versailles.

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The duchesse de La Vallière with mademoiselle de Blois and the comte de Vermandois, studio of or a copy after Pierre Mignard.

Louise de La Vallière (Françoise Louise de La Baume Le Blanc, duchesse de La Vallière and de Vaujours 6 August 1644 – 6 June 1710) had four children by Louis XIV, two of whom survived early childhood, and only one who reached full adulthood. The first two were registered under false surnames: Charles ‘de Lincourt’ (19 December 1663 – circa 1665 or 1666), who died in infancy and was never legitimized, and Philippe ‘Derssy’ (7 January 1665 – July 1666), who also died in infancy and never legitimized.

Mademoiselle de Blois and the comte de Vermandois, a nineteenth-century copy after Pierre Mignard.

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Marie-Anne de Bourbon, the dowager princesse de Conti, by François de Troy, circa 1690-91.

Marie-Anne de Bourbon, Légitimée de France, mademoiselle de Blois (2 October 1666, Vincennes – 3 May 1739, Paris). In the first of the king's series of scandalous marriages between his illegitimate offspring and members of the royal family, she was wed at the age of thirteen to her eighteen-year-old distant relative Louis Armand I, prince de Conti. Widowed five years later - she contracted smallpox, passed it to her husband; she recovered, he died - she never remarried and had no issue. She inherited the titles of duchesse de La Vallière and de Vaujours from her mother.

The dowager princesse de Conti, by Hyacinthe Rigaud, 1706.

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The comte de Vermandois, attributed to François de Troy, before 1683.

Louis de Bourbon, Légitimé de France, comte de Vermandois (2 October 1667, Saint-Germain-en-Laye – 18 November 1683, Flanders). He was seven years old when his mother entered a Carmelite convent in Paris and he was put into the care of his aunt, the duchesse d'Orléans, wife of the king's famously homosexual/bisexual brother. Later, at the age of only fifteen, having joined a secret group of young aristocrats calling themselves La Sainte Congregation des Glorieux Pédérastes, he was involved in a great scandal implicating members of the duc d'Orléans' circle. Several men who practiced le vice italien were banished from court; he was exiled to Normandy. In an attempt at "rehabilitation," his father the king sent him to join a military campaign in Flanders, where he soon fell ill and died. He was just barely sixteen.

The comte de Vermandois, by Pierre Mignard, before 1683.

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