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U.S. Honours Singer With ‘Clothed’ Stamp
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE NEW YORK
Agence France-Press, Getty Images New Stamp Commemorates U.S. chanteuse Josephine Baker.
The U.S. Postal Service — which last year lost a legal battle after refusing to mail postcards with a topless image of U.S.-born chanteuse Josephine Baker — is honouring the late African-American with a stamp of her own on Wednesday. The stamp reproduces a poster from the 1935 French film Princess Tam Tam that featured the sultry star — this time with her bosom covered — who emigrated to France where she took much of Europe by storm after encountering racism in her home country. The image is part of a commemorative series of U.S. postage stamps honouring vintage black cinema that will be unveiled at a ceremony in Newark, NJ today. "My adoptive mother, whose theme song was ‘Two Loves Have I, My Country and Paris’, would be delighted, thrilled and deeply moved by this wonderful tribute to African-American culture," Baker's adopted son Jean-Claude Baker said in the statement. After a protracted free-speech battle, Baker was allowed in May 2007 to mail 15,000 postcards to patrons of Chez Josephine, his New York restaurant opened 22 years ago in honour of his adopted mother. The postal service had refused to mail the cards, which featured a 1926 watercolour by Henry Fournier depicting Baker as a topless Follies-Bergere dancer, saying they were "porno-graphic."
From the Calgary Herald Wednesday, July 16, 2008 Page A2 |
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