YOUR DAILY DOSE OF EUBIE!
When Shuffle Along opened in Boston (after its successful run in New York), The Boston American praised the production, singling out a “chorus girl who literally ‘walks off with the show’…not by mere beauty…but by her comedy dancing.” Although not cited by name, this clearly refers to the huge impression made by Josephine Baker, who first joined the main company in Boston. Baker would become the surprise hit of the show, despite having a nonspeaking role.
The show’s creators were initially reluctant to hire Baker when she auditioned for the original company. Sissle remembered: “We had turned her down when she tried out for us in Philadelphia because she was not yet sixteen. We had wanted to hire her but by law we couldn’t. She was heartbroken. We produced a number-two company to play one-nighters throughout New England while we were still in New York. Word got back to us that a comedy chorus girl had joined the company after we had rehearsed it and sent it out on the road—it was Josephine. She had slipped out on the road to join that company because she thought we didn’t like her or want to hire her. How glad we were to get her back.”
Baker’s memory of the audition was even more traumatic. She related: “I found myself face to face with Mr. Sissle, a thin man with a full head of hair. Mr. Blake, plump and bald-headed, sat at the piano, his nose buried in his music. He never once opened his mouth. Nor did Mr. Sissle waste words. ‘Too young,’ he snapped. I began my usual routine. ‘But I’m seventeen…’ ‘Sorry. Too small, too thin, too dark’ …. Sissle wanted his chorus to look like Tillers, a highly successful white company…” The Tiller Girls were a popular white chorus line of the day. Baker felt that Sissle was “ashamed” of his race, but he would have argued he simply was trying to break into the white theatre world.
While the show was still in New York, Al Mayer hired Baker for the touring (or second) company. She was finally given her chance on stage as one of the chorus. After one of the chorus’ numbers, she broke free and started dancing wildly. The conductor tried to keep time but she was out of control. The stage manager fired her on the spot. Blake called the theatre to inquire about how the show was doing and was told that Baker was fired. Blake asked, “How did the audience react?” The stage manager told him that the out-of-town audiences thought she was terrific. Blake immediately responded, “Put her back in.”
Her success on the road secured her a place in Boston. And from the time she set foot on the stage, audiences adored her. As Sissle related, “Every place we went, people buying tickets asked: ‘Is the little chorus girl here who crosses her eyes?’ In time she became the highest paid chorus girl of her day….”
Now a full member of the company, Baker really started to shine, with many other critics noting how her comedic dancing was making her a star of the show. In a review titled “A Chorus Girl, But Can’t Be Overlooked,” one critic enthused: “Where the best part of a capacity house singles out one little girl in the chorus and gives her attention every time she appears, it shows the recognition of qualities such as stars are made of. There is a little girl like this in the all colored musical success “Shuffle Along” … A sturdy youngster, with a comedy way that asserts itself in everything she does … her name is Josephine Baker. Jolly as she seems to be in her work, the stage romping is serious business with Josephine. She has to work to help support her mother and little brother at home in Washington, DC.” Typically, this white critic emphasizes that Josephine only took to the stage to help support her family, giving her an “honest” motive to pursuing what many viewed as the scandalous life of a traveling actor.
