By 18, she had made her Broadway debut in "The Chocolate Dandies." She was invited to go to Paris with a black Vaudeville troupe, opening the show on 10/02/1925 to Parisian triumph. She was a sensation in the Follies-Bergere wearing only a skirt made of bananas. She became the rage of Paris and leaped to being worth a million dollars within the year for nightclub work and tours. She had an exceptional gift of communicating with the audience which in turn supplied some of her insatiable need for their love. With her jungle elegance she was compared to a panther, a jaguar.
In spite of constant tours to pay the bills, her estate collapsed and she was evicted on 10/07/1968 with her 12 kids. Princess Grace stepped in to help, arranging a house for her in Monte Carlo in 1968. However, Baker's health soon suffered and she suffered from a heart attack and a stroke.
She recovered and made a magnificent and triumphal return to the stage in early 1974. The stress had taken its toll, though, and she died of a cerebral hemorrhage on
4/12/1975, 5:00 AM, Paris.
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