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     Roxie "Cyniquian" Level Poster Username: Roxie Post Number: 530 Registered: 06-2005 Rating: N/A |
Jackie, I got ALL those pictures too.  The fourth one adorns my wall. but if you look at the photos of her from the 20's to the 50's, her shade changes back and forth from photo to photo. anyway, mine was just a guess. Henry, remember in "princesse Tam Tam" when she san "Sous le ceil d'afrique" in the bar? She was WAY lighter than those dark blacks surrounding wasn't she? Anyway just have to say this: *She was too dark skinned to be in the Chorus line in "shuffle along", but when one lady got sick she took the opportunity to fill in for her. If you look at the famous photo of her in tbhe line She's the darkest girl in it. But then the other girls wer "damn near white".The other light-skinned performers made every effort to sabatoge her chances of performing with them. colorsm's a bitch! *In france they made her appear darker because unlike the US, the french loved black people's dark skin. So her attempts to get lighter sometimes worked against her in Paris. *Lynn whittfield was darker than the real Josephine. My point: Josephine was brown but was not light enough for one country but not dark enough for the other. But somehow she made it through in the end . But in the end she remained wthout an identity of her own, and it affected her children and how she tried to help black people back in the US. In the end her many deeds in the US failed and some of her adopted children were confused with their own identities, her only peace WAS france. A tragic figure, indeed. I suggest You guys read this book: Josephine: The Hungry Heart by Jean-Claude Baker and Chris Chase http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0815411723/ref=pd_sim_b_1/002-9241567-6630447?% 5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance&n=283155 I've beeen reading about her since I was 9 going from book to book. they all say the same thing except THIS ONE. This book actually brings out the real woman and not the same old myth we've kept reading about before. |