Josephine Baker

and then I was like, oh, okay.

Josephine Baker.

Yeah, it just came back to me.

Oh, yes, yes.

Josephine Baker.

Josephine Baker.

Grab

the oil.

So that's them.

And then the exception to the unknown rule is Josephine Baker, a singer and dancer.

But I felt like I simply could not write a book about second world war women musicians without including josephine baker because she was unquestionably one of the most famous women musicians full stop in the world at the time um she was very influential as a singer um in france at the time she was kind of like a symbol of french nationalism by 1939 and she also had a secret life as an intelligence agent i could not include her right like wouldn't wouldn't have been a book about the second world war without josephine baker um and then i have an american jazz band called the international sweethearts of rhythm who were the first racially integrated women's band in the states And so I look at the story of the Second World War as seen from the perspective of black women in America.

And the African-American press at the time ran a double B campaign standing for double victory.

And the idea was that America would fight against fascism abroad and against racism at home and try and sort of.

And then there's also a ton of castles.

There's the Chateau de Melande, which is the home of Josephine Baker.

It's like a famous entertainer.

And that has like a museum of her life there.

[laughs] They're a magician

... as you know, one minute she's Josephine Baker, the next minute she's Tangled.

I could not understand what the fuck was go- It was short, it was long, it was a bob.

I think there was a crew cut in there.

Anyway, let's get to the rankings.

We've done this once before on this season with the inimitable Josephine Baker.

And things will mostly be the same this time around.

But just to recap for listeners, we have five categories.

I actually was inclined to score her lower in this category, but you kind of turned me around a little bit.

And I'll tell you why.

We've talked about Josephine Baker and she dreamed up this sham tour.

Basically, French intelligence officers needed to get to Lisbon.

So I lived there for a full year.

And while I was living there, I did not know how much influences people from the Harlem Renaissance, like Josephine Baker and James Baldwin, I had no idea how impactful and influential they were around the world.

And I'm not from Harlem, so I was kind of amazed, like, what? This translates? let me do a deeper dive and really understand like how this happened.

And so I became a student of the Harlem Renaissance actually, when I was living in Paris, because there were so many signs and symbols of, you know, Josephine Baker on the walls of all these different places and on the menus and, and she was super celebrated there.

So I think that was when the seed was planted, but then fast forward 12 years and And here I am starting the Harlem Candle Company, making candles in my kitchen, having fun.

I originally started just doing it for friends and family, And I called it La Maison des Bougies de Terry, Terry's House of Candles.

And you're a storyteller.

You're a natural storyteller.