Listen to this week’s episode here.

This week’s stories are incredible. Angie starts off with the story of Ronald Erwin McNair, the second Black NASA astronaut. Not only was he an astronaut, he was a fifth-degree black belt and accomplished saxophone player. His tenacity helped him rise through the ranks at all of his goals. His life is cut short, tragically, when the Challenge spacecraft explodes. 

Theresa lightens the mood by reverting to a love of hers – female spies of WWII. She regales us with the story of Josephine Baker, the nude dancer, turned actress, turned spy. Just when you think you know what is happening Theresa says something else out of right field. 

This episode pairs well with: 
Astronaut Sally Ride
Angie’s Favorite Space Mistakes
Astronaut Kalpana Chawla
WWII Spy Nancy Wake 
WWII Creation of the SOE / Collin Gubbins
WWII Spy Phyllis Latour Doyle
WWII Spy Aline Griffith

Transcript

Theresa: Hi, and welcome to the Unhinged History Podcast, the podcast where there’s a ton more of you here. But it’s where two compulsive nutjobs come together after we’ve spent a week alone, hiding, reading, reading about the history stories that we found unhinged, and then regale the other with the stories we’ve only recently heard. I’m Teresa. I’m host one.

Angie: I’m Angie. I’m host two. I like being number two. I say that. It sounds weird.

Theresa: It is weird, let’s be honest, but I mean look, you know your place.

Angie: Yeah, you know, I love knowing my place. It works for me.

Theresa: I can sit all the way down. I mean look, I honestly, having you as my ride or die is incredible. It is fantastic getting to sit next to you and be like, I’m again, I mean doing it.

Theresa: Because I swear to you, that is my modus operandi.

Angie: I feel so much better about my own self then. Yeah. Because it’s the same. It’s the same. I didn’t hit delete fast enough. Damn it. It’s what it is, usually what it looks like.

Theresa: What are we talking about now?

Angie: You know, like, you know, when you just realize like you could have done something slightly different and it would have been better, but you’re like, well, we’ve already done it now.

Theresa: Yeah. All right, great. We’re going back. We’re committed now.

Theresa: Let’s rehearse this at 3 a.m. tomorrow, okay? That sounds like the plan.

Angie: Can I pencil you in? All right. That’s perfect.

Theresa: Yeah. Hello, Anzai. You all see I won.

Angie: Dude, I still think about things like from my like preteen years that were what, 20 years ago that I’ve done and or said and been like, God, that was mortifying. Why did that have to hit right now?

Theresa: You know, there is something I think about now regularly, but I hadn’t thought about probably since it happened. I connected with somebody I knew back in elementary school. We went to middle school, high school together, but I mean, and she said, I remember meeting you in third grade. We were both the new kids. I was just a little bit newer than you. We were forced to sit next to each other. You farted, blamed it on me, and nobody liked me. And I’m like, I don’t remember that. But it fits.

Angie: It really sounds like something you would do.

Theresa: So like, here’s that. I mean, honestly, it’s consistent with the branding.

Angie: So it looks like a duck and it sounds like a duck.

Theresa: Theresa probably did it. And I’m, you know, I’m so sorry you’ve been carrying that since third grade for literal decades.

Angie: Yeah. I bet you this poor individual only farts in their own bathroom and never in front of anybody else.

Theresa: And meanwhile, I’m just crop dusting my third grade classroom. I think you are. Being like, so asparagus only sense the P. Are we sure can we test this? I mean, look, these are things, but it is your turn to go first. Oh, it is. Yeah. I did Earth and Kit. That’s how I started the episode last time.

Angie: Oh, dang girl. That’s right. Okay. Well, then let’s get into it. NASA is a source.

Theresa: Oh, okay. Hitting hard.

Angie: Because it’s been a few weeks.

Theresa: We’re not going to Park Service the way this is going for sources.

Angie: No, you know what? I do not have a Park Service. And funny enough, this particular person might actually, I didn’t even think to look I’ll have to go back and check. NASA.

So NASA, biography.com LSU University has a write up and the space center dot co dot UK has a really fabulous write up for a astronaut that was not their own. And that makes me really happy. Are we doing me Davidson? No, we are doing Ronald Irwin McNair. Okay. Are you familiar with him?

Theresa: Sounds familiar, but I could be conflating him with another individual. Okay.

Angie: So he was born October 21, 1950 in Lake Seas, South Carolina. His parents are Carol McNair and a mechanic. And his mother, she’s called Pearl. She was a teacher. Now, a lot of my sources say that he comes from a pretty poor family as in like, we’re just we’re scrapping by, right? And we are also being raised in the South in the 50s. Okay.

So just keep that in mind. Early, early in his years, he, so, excuse me, let me back up a second. He also has two brothers, one younger and one older than him. And fairly early in his childhood McNair shows a big love for all things tech. And at this point, he earns the nickname Gizmo. I love that. So part of the reason that I chose him was because, well, obviously he’s an astronaut and we love space, but as a renowned physicist, he is also just a second African American in space.

Wow. The other reason I chose to tell this story is because of this little moment in his life. So like I said, he is born in the South. It’s in the 50s. So you can kind of imagine what growing up as a black child in the segregated South and dealing with those pressures would be like, right? So McNair’s brother Carl relates a story from his childhood that I think really perfectly describes this kid. I mentioned earlier, he’s already way into learning. He loves tech. He loves science. And he walks to the local library. He’s nine years old. He walks to the local library to buy some, to borrow some books as you do when you’re a nerdy nine-year-old. I love this.

Yeah. Well, because we’re dealing with the segregated South, the librarian refuses to serve him, but he insists on waiting. The librarian threatens to call the police and then does so because, you know, a nine-year-old’s asshole is the most terrifying thing on the planet. And the police show up, but they are otherwise completely delighted and amused by all of this as well as his mother. So when the police walk in, mom and him are just sitting there politely on the bench, you know, minding their own business, sitting standing, whatever.

They’re being polite, hands to themselves, not causing any problems. The officer takes one look at the librarian and is like, pardon me? It just wants to borrow some books. The officer does everything he can to convince the librarian to let him borrow the books, at which case she finally relents unless the little boy borrowed the books he’s chosen from the library. At this point, his mother turns around and says to him, what do you say? McNair looks up at the librarian and very respectfully says, thank you, ma’am. And they walk out. And I love this moment because it shows you what kind of person he is already. At such an age.

Theresa: I like how you love it and I want to flip tables.

Angie: I want to flip tables because I’m at the librarian and I want to flip tables because they had to behave just so. You know, like he was still like, mom turns to him and says, what do you say? And he is very polite in his response and very respectful in his response. Like none of that should have had to happen as far as like he should have just been able to borrow the books and said, thank you, ma’am, and left at that. But I love the moment because it speaks to who he is and how tenacious he is. Like from the get go. I hear you.

Theresa: I agree with you. I don’t think anyone should be subjected to that level of prejudice and then ask to thank the person who subjected to that.

Angie: I agree with you except for I want to believe that that librarian had to sit with that for the rest of their life. Okay. Like I hope that was a changing point moment for them. Like, oh, actually this is just a child that wants to borrow a book about science. Like that’s what my ultimate hope in that moment was.

But I’ll show you one. As a kid and a young man, McNair like rocked at school as well as sports. He played baseball, basketball, football. He loved music. He played the saxophone in the school band.

He never gives up his love for science and he graduates from Carver High School in Lake City, South Carolina in 1967 as the valedictorian and highest performing student of the year. And all I got to say is I think my kid’s busy, but at least band is not on the table. Truth. One less thing. Thank you, child of mine. He would earn a scholarship at North Carolina A &T State University where he receives a bachelor’s science degree in physics in 71, magna cum laude.

He receives a doctor of the philosophy of physics from MIT in 1976. Only after. And I think this is so uncool.

But here we are. Only after two years of his specialized laser physics research for his doctorate were stolen. He manages to reproduce a set of that data within a year. So he can still graduate when he’s like, I don’t know. That made me so mad. Like where is his original research? But anyway. Yeah.

Theresa: I mean, who is it stolen by? Like, John Hutz, was it stolen by somebody who knew what they were taking? Like, I got a question. Right.

Angie: So do I. I didn’t look into it. I’m not sure that there would even be any sort of answer for that question, but I was so bothered by that. But it didn’t stop him.

He manages to produce a whole second set of data within a year. So, Bill McNair. He is also presented with an honorary doctorate of law from North Carolina A &T State University in 78.

An honorary doctorate of science from Morris College in 1980 and an honorary doctorate of science from the University of South Carolina in 1984. To say he’s busy must be an understatement. Yeah, a little bit.

A little bit. By 76, McNair is recognized as an expert in the field of chemical and high pressure lasers. Also in this same year, he would marry Sheryl Moore, whom he had previously met at a church potluck. And I just love that little tidbit. Thank you. That is cute.

I love that for you. He would go on to work for Hughes Research Laboratories in Malbu, California. This is where he kind of focuses on the development of lasers. I’m going to say this next sentence. Please don’t ask me what it means. I’m not entirely sure. But he is focusing on the development of lasers for isotope separation as well as conducting research on electro-optic modulation for satellite space communications.

Theresa: So, if we’ve got a listener that can explain it to us like we’re five, we’re here for it.

Angie: I know what each of those words means individually, but not together. While working as the physicist for Hughes Research Laboratory, he learns that NASA is looking for scientists to join their shuttle program. Of the 11,000 applicants, McNair was one of 35 selected in January of 78, and he completes his training and evaluation period the following August. So, hey, I don’t know if I’ve done a great job pointing out how much of this man is a nerd, but let me drive it home just a little bit harder for you. He was a young person, only about 16 years old when Star Trek first aired in 1966, and he was so inspired. For those playing at home who don’t know this, my desktop picture on my computer is Captain Pike and Spa.

So, this hit my heart right in the field. Anyway, this is like one of the first times we see a multiracial cast, and the crew itself is made up of many different people, and race is rarely mentioned or even really pointed out like it’s a feature. And this gives our man the courage and belief that space is possible for him. And like, if he was looking for a sign from the universe that he should go to NASA, well, Michelle Nichols, who played Lieutenant Yajra in Star Trek, was the public face of NASA’s recruitment campaign.

Theresa: Yes, I did not know that. I know that at one point she wanted to leave the show, and I can’t remember who, but they said, they told her about the important work that she’s doing just by being present.

Angie: Yes, she was. Could not agree more. So, just a few months after Dionne Bluford becomes the first black American in space, Ronald McNair would join the ranks and become the second on February 3, 1984 at the launch of the STS-41B mission of the Space Shuttle Challenger, where he famously played his saxophone. Oh, I have a picture. On this particular mission, McNair was a mission specialist. He was the operator for Challenger’s robotic arm. This arm helps astronaut Bruce McCanless conduct his historic untethered spacewalk. Also on this mission, they would do 191 hours in space as Challenger orbited Earth 122 times before returning to Kennedy Space Center on February 11.

And because this is another one of those types of fellows who absolutely must do the most, and being a physicist and an astronaut wasn’t enough, he was also highly skilled in karate.

Theresa: Yes, do you know what style?

Angie: It doesn’t particularly say, but maybe this next sentence will tell you. He won the 1976 AAU Karate Gold Medal and five regional championships, eventually achieving the rank of fifth degree black belt. Does that help fill in the blank?

Theresa: I mean, it doesn’t help a whole lot, but it’s cool.

Angie: Yes, that made me happy, and I knew it would make you happy, and I’m sorry I did not. I don’t know what style, but I did think it was super fantastic that this guy just cannot sit still. In early 1985, McNair was tapped for the STS-51L mission for the Space Shuttle Challenger. Now, this mission drew a ton of media attention because of its selection of teacher Krista McAlliff. She is going to be a civilian payload specialist. Like in his previous mission, McNair was tasked with controlling Challenger’s robotic arm to release and retrieve satellites that were to observe Haley’s comet.

But there’s going to be multiple delays. Challenger would end up launching from Cape Canaveral, Florida shortly before noon on January 28, 1986. 73 seconds and 46,000 feet later on live television, the shuttle suddenly explodes, killing all seven crew members. And because my heart just had to know, can I give you all of their names?

Yes. Commander Francis R. Bickey, Scooby, pilot Michael J. Smith, who holds the distinction of being the last voice heard from the shuttle just before the explosion, replying to mission control, go at throttle up. He was posthumously promoted to captain. Dr. Judith A. Resnick, she is one of three mission specialists. She, in January of 1978, was part of the first cadre containing women, as well as the second woman in orbit. Ellison S. Onisaku, who was the first ever Asian American and person of Japanese descent to travel into space. He was a group favorite who loved to share the traditional customs of his home, Hawaii. He is known for having full pig roasts that he would invite everybody over to.

I love that. There is also Gregory B. Jarvis, a payload specialist who also worked for Hughes Aircraft Corps Space and Communications Group in Los Angeles. And our guy, Ronald McNair, who was just 35 years old at the time of his death. A presidential commission determined that the explosion was caused by the failure of a rubber O-ring seal on the Challenger’s solid rocket boosters. This allowed the hot gases to leak into the hydrogen fuel tank, which is gnarly. In 2004, McNair and the rest of the Challenger crew members were posthumously awarded with the Congressional Space Medal of Honor by President George W. Bush. And SpaceCenter.UK has to say this about his legacy, and I just loved it so much that I included all of it. Quote, throughout Ronald’s adult life, he had continued to pursue various extracurricular interests. He was a five-time regional champion in karate and had maintained a life-long love of the saxophone becoming an accomplished player. He was famously photographed playing his saxophone during his first flight in 84. Ahead of his 86th flight, he had been collaborating with renowned electronic musician and composer Jean-Michel Jarre, and was due to record a saxophone solo for Jarre’s upcoming album While in Space. After Ronald’s death, Jarre renamed the track that would have included his contribution as last rendezvous Ron’s piece and included a dedication to Ronald and his fellow Challenger crewmates on the album’s linear notes. As one of the first African-American astronauts, Ronald McNair was an inspirational figure and a pioneer of the increasingly diverse astronaut corps we see today. A huge number of public buildings and parks have been named in his honor. Perhaps most prominently in 2011, the very same library that he had visited as a nine-year-old was renamed the Ronald McNair Life History Center.

His fitting tribute to the small boy who had been initially refused service for just the color of his skin is now being celebrated for his inspirational achievements. And I have a couple of pictures. Please and thank you. You’re welcome. Allow me to just click. Okay. So this photo is his crew. He is in the bottom right.

Theresa: I could have figured that. He’s literally the only black man in the photo.

Angie: Yes, that’s true. Yeah. I think this is a fairly famous photo. I’ve seen it before, but I just didn’t make the connection. Yeah. So the photo she’s looking at features all seven members of the crew. They’ve got their helmets in their hands and there is a shuttle model. What would you call it? Like a shuttle model?

Theresa: I want to say toy, but I know better. Yeah.

Angie: Okay. This picture just screams 1980. You know, like every bit of it is delightful. There are NASA uniforms look like the costumes we buy today. Yeah.

Theresa: Honestly, they’re at Spirit Halloween. Yep. And here he is playing his saxophone. Okay.

Theresa: He’s playing his saxophone. Yes. But what Angie is neglecting to mention that he is in zero gravity. He is in fetal position with his back on what you would consider the bottom of the photo, but he is clearly floating. And he is just having a great time. He is Lisa Simpsoning it right now. Yes.

Angie: He is in fact living his best space shuttle saxophone playing black belt having life. So that is my, my story of Ronald McDean.

Theresa: You know, and I just want to say, because you talked a little bit about. Lieutenant Uhura on Star Trek and how important she was. And I think it’s important to recognize representation, regardless, like if you’re part of a marginalized community. Like if you’re, if you’re a part of an ethnic marginalized community, then you don’t get to leave your identity at home. That comes with you wherever you go. And so seeing somebody who mirrors one of your identities or a facet of your identity, doing something that felt unattainable is super important.

Angie: Oh my gosh. Can I just, this is going to sound so lame, but I didn’t realize how important it was until we were in the theaters watching Avengers in game. And you see the scene with all of the female superheroes. That’s when I was like, Oh, I get it. I fully get it. Like they’re there.

Like all of the little girls on the planet, including myself, look like one of these or could look like one of these ladies. Right. That is so important. It is.

Theresa: And I know this is Black History Month. This isn’t one of the other ones, but I was thinking about this because of some online comments about, you know, just what is this frame of reference of identity have to do with their ability to be in space. This was a post or this was a comment on the Sally Ride social media on Tik Tok.

Okay. And it was just like the fact that anybody who identifies under that lens now can look at her and go, I can do it because she did it. And in his case, I can do it because he did it and he was able to do it because he saw Retina Hora. Mm hmm.

Angie: And I love it.

Theresa: Yeah. Go on. Yeah.

Theresa: I’m sure I love it. That’s just it. It’s just me on my soapbox getting up in my feels because somebody of the dominant culture doesn’t believe we should identify things that separate him from that person.

Angie: Yeah. No, I, yeah. Of course it matters because how many people with particularly within her community feel ostracized or told that they can’t do something because of that. Right. Why? What’s stopping them? Yeah.

Theresa: Like, and you’re not wrong that that shouldn’t influence the problem is it does. Right.

Angie: And that’s exactly the problem. Like just because you, you know, just because your skin color is a different shade or your, or your eyes are shaped differently or you believe differently than the main group, if you will, the majority group of the people that you’re within.

What it, how does that make you any less qualified for the position? Yeah. Like, I can’t, it baffles my mind all the time. Like, I think about that a lot. Like, why does, why does being a woman make you any, any less qualified to go in space than being a white man? Yeah. Because we have ovaries?

Theresa: No, I mean, but I don’t want to get too off the base because we are talking about in this case, a black man. Right. I know. I’m hijacking this, but I mean, so I don’t want to, I want to be very conscious of that so that we’re not conflating issues. But just the fact that there is systemic bias and we need to dismantle the system.

Angie: I could not agree with you more. And the fact that I think what bugs me in his case is that he was only the second and it was this late 70s, early 80s. Right. It took that long. Like that’s what bothers me. Like, we know, we know that there were brilliant people available that could have.

Right. But I think, again, it speaks to his tenacity as a child, but no, no, I’m going to do the thing. I don’t, I don’t care what number I am. I’m going to do the thing because I deserve to do the thing.

Theresa: Well, I have a sharp departure from the story you told me. Surprise, surprise. I’m going to tell you the story of Josephine Baker. Okay. Do you know who she is? I think so. Okay. My sources, The Guardian, The Extraordinary Life of Josephine Baker, looked back on in 1986 by Emma Beddington.

The New Yorker has a brilliant thing that I used for the bulk of this, which is Josephine Baker was the star France wanted and the spy needed by Lauren Michelle Jackson. Okay.

Angie: I’m so excited. That’s literally the only information I know. So I am so excited. All right. At one point, Baker says

Theresa: a black childhood is always a little sad and hers began June 3rd, 1906 in St. Louis when her mom, Carrie McDonald, who is a dancehall girl of local renown, delivered a baby whom she named Frida Josephine. The baby is quite the name, isn’t it? I love this description. The baby’s plump and came to be called Tumpy as in Humpty Dumpty.

Angie: Oh, I am so in love already.

Theresa: This moniker, she carries with her proudly until after poverty sent her into what they referred to as a ragabuffin, which is not my fave. The identity of hump. Yeah. You know, honestly, a chubby baby is the best.

Angie: It’s the cutest thing on the planet. When their roles have roles.

Theresa: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Theresa: The identity of her father remains disputed and it became an opportunity for Baker to improvise. We’ve had a couple of improvisers who, you know, they tell folks their stories about their own lives. I’m thinking of Sarah Bernhardt as one of them, but you know, this is going to be right in that same vein.

Angie: I was thinking of our nun.

Theresa: The Lieutenant Nun? Yeah.

Theresa: I can’t remember her name, but I just know that she’s Lieutenant Nun. And if you look up Lieutenant Nun, you’re going to find her.

Angie: Yeah. I was literally like, what is her name?

Theresa: I just, I could find it. Yeah, the Lieutenant Nun. One of her biographers, Lewis, notes that she had variously claimed that her father was a black lawyer, a Jewish tailor, a Spanish dancer, or a white German then resident in America.

Angie: Okay. So, like whoever she wants to be that day. Exactly.

Theresa: She shifts this myth and this, what is referred to as, I love this, ethnic promiscuity is mirrored in her onscreen roles that she’s going to have later on. Okay. Get it, girl. But as a wee one, little Tumpty wanted to dance and the opportunity is her scarce. It’s 1921 and she fled the St. Louis life with her second husband. And she was all that 15 by marriage number two.

Oh, that’s harsh. And this is a guy named William Howard Baker. He’s performing as a comic corine. I think that means like coral member.

Okay. I think I say that out loud and realize I should have looked that up. They’re basically a traveling vaudeville troop. Now she wants to aim higher. And so she books a one way passage in New York where she ends up working backstage for an all black review called shuffle along. And when a member of the touring cast falls ill, because it was just a matter of time, she was, you know, she was waiting in the wings. She steps in with an incredible style. And this show has a very successful run. And then she lands a 1924 Broadway musical. And when called out chocolate dandy’s getting girlfriend.

Angie: She’s 19 when she’s recruited by a society woman named Carolyn Dudley Reagan for a new production across the Atlantic. La review, Nick Gray, which opened at the champs October 2 of that year. Okay. Now.

She’s referred to as a dance savage and she’s wearing little more than what is described as a feathered loin cloth. Oh, yes. Okay. She enters on the soldier or she’ll. decision.

She enters on the shoulders of her male dance partner upside down in a full split. Of course. There is not much left of the imagination. Of course.

Now this is 1925. She’s in Paris. She is the featured dancer with a Mac for comedy. She is just dripping in charisma. She rolled a 20. Oh yeah. Charismatic natural 20. Love this for her.

Angie: And what has been doing? Did she leave him?

Theresa: You know, there’s too many to keep track of. Okay. Got it. She’s a serial monogamous. Got it. Okay. Go girlfriend. Yep. Now this is her. She’s 19. This is her first experience in an unsegregated society. And she is shaken off her childhood. And she because.

Okay. First off, one of the things that is said about her childhood in the St. Louis slums is that she witnessed the worst race riots and massacres that the U. S. Had known. Oh wow. That is what she’s coming from. And she looks at Paris as the antithesis of her previous existence and she falls in love.

Angie: I mean, who among us doesn’t when you get to Paris? You know, I haven’t been. I’ll let you know.

Theresa: Paris loves her back. And by 1926, she’s performing at I’m going to butcher this, the full a brujer, which in she’s in what is described as a girdle of gilded bananas.

Angie: At no point did I think that was going to be a sentence. I heard someone say you’re welcome.

Theresa: Okay. So she makes a fortune and she does an ex logical thing. She acquires her own nightclub.

Theresa: Like you do.

Theresa: Now they here see her in like they see lots of her brown skin intersected by pearls in a skirt. Here’s where we get to learn more about the banana get up.

Thanks. Pearls and a skirt strung in to to messant bananas. Please tell me you have photos. I don’t have this. Okay. But like these are things. She’s known to stroll the streets of Paris with a fellow performer Chiquita, which I feel like Chiquita should have been one of the banana skirts. But these are things.

Theresa: Yeah, yeah.

Theresa: I will say that Chiquita is not a person. Got it. Ideas on what Chiquita is. A chimpanzee. A cheetah collared by a rope of diamonds. Even better.

Angie: I love I would love to see how you would put a banana skirt on that.

Theresa: You know, if I’ve got enough money to give it a collar of diamonds, I would figure out a way. Okay. I’m saying money would come with ingenuity. Now without anybody actually, if you didn’t ever see Josephine Baker, you would see her everywhere in Paris because there would be posters as a doll in a shop window. Everybody just had her visage everywhere. She was ubiquitous. She was the it girl. Yeah.

Okay. Picasso and Matisse portrayed her. Hemingway said she was the most sensational woman anyone ever saw. Wow. Okay. High praise. And he’s not alone because we have a quote from E. E. Cummings. Beyond time and the sense that emotion is beyond arithmetic. Okay. Very poetic. And Margot Jefferson observed that Baker was quote her own devoted muse.

Angie: Love that for her. Now it’s 1930s.

Theresa: We’re in Paris. Baker’s really refined her stage presence, her whole visual brand. And she’s got this show called Paris Quix Renus. I don’t speak French and I’m trying to fake it and it’s not going well. Now this is at the illustrious Casino de Paris and this is where everything is made plain. The feather skirt that she used or the loincloth that she used to have, that’s gone. And Janet Flanner who wrote for a magazine in 1930 reported her caramel colored body, which overnight became a legend in Europe, is still magnificent.

It has become finned, trained, almost civilized. The last two words I think could have been cut. Those last two didn’t age well. No. I was with you up until the end. We blew the landing. But these are, you know.

Angie: What are you going to do? You’re doing good till we got there. Yeah. You know. Not everyone likes this though.

Theresa: There’s Austrian headlines that denounced quote the black devil touring country cities because this is happening in Berlin. Right. And Baker is hounded out of town three weeks into a six month engagement. Oh, this makes sense.

Right. We can see the political climates that change in. This is the late 1930s. Now her face appeared on a leaflet by Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Gerbils. Of course, who labels her as a representative of the degenerate art.

Angie: Do you know? Can I just can I just hijack this for a split second please? Do you know that the Nazi exhibit on degenerate art, which they created to show their people what was inappropriate is the most sought art exhibit ever?

Theresa: That doesn’t surprise me. Like you just made it desirable now.

Angie: Exactly. Like do you do you realize what you just did there? Yeah. That’s one of my favorite fun facts about art.

Theresa: It gets worse for her when you think of Italy because or when you think of Europe because it’s Benito Mussolini who banned her from Italy all together rude. And I didn’t know that a country could have a wall of shame. I mean, I guess I could have figured that out. But you know, yeah, all of this is happening. She is basically expelled from the access powers through no fault of her own. But this is where that’s fine.

Angie: The French Riviera is nice too.

Theresa: It’s not very bad. It will be eventually, but it’s not it’s not so bad right now. This is where she’s people begin to think of her as what if we brought her in as a spy? But then it’s one of those questions of how could a named target of the fascist serve the secret agents? Like how could we even make this happen?

The great news is this work. The fact that he’s such a big celebrity. It’s so well known. It provides the actual camouflage. Perfect. And her theater manager argues that when he brought up her name to the French counter intelligence agency, the certain bureau officials, they think that they kind of liken her to Matahari, the Dutch dancer from World War One who was recruited by the friends and then executed when, you know, they kind of found out she’s a double agent.

So that’s kind of a huge bummer. But they’re thinking, you know, hey, honestly, we’ve done this playbook before. We could probably roll it out. It would make it happen.

You’d need a better handler to make sure that she doesn’t, you know, turncoat. We don’t need another Benedict Arnold, but this could work for us. Still, the counterintelligence bureau, there are dire straits. They’re cash strapped. They’re understaffed. And they’re ignored by political officials. This checks.

I mean, one of the quotes that I found by the most recent biographer, Lewis, he writes, it’s far easier to gather intelligence than it was to get those in power to act on it. This also checks. Yeah. So when they’re thinking about this, this counter espionage is going to require the deployment of amateur, loyal, and basically unpaid services who are designed honorary correspondence.

Okay. Now they kind of tell her this and she’s on board. She ends up asking, or she’s asked to exploit both her Italian and Japanese contacts for any information they let slip. And this is kind of fortuitous because four years earlier, she had expressed support for Italy’s invasion of Ethiopia. And at the time, she believed that this would help emancipate the country’s enslaved people.

Angie: I’m going to say Italy’s invasion of Ethiopia was also not on my bingo card for today.

Theresa: You know, I don’t blame you. This is what I’m bringing. I’m bringing additional questions. You’re so consistent. I do what I can, you know, like, I don’t cause you to rat it whole, who will?

Angie: Honestly. And then how would I, how would I, I would have no other way of learning new things, you know?

Theresa: I mean, yeah, the internet just simply wouldn’t deliver the craziest information to you. Now, as all of this is happening, and she’s, you know, let the slip about Ethiopia, this ends up really working out for her because that what would be an unfortunate show of faith gained the devotion of this loose-lipped attache at the Italian embassy who’s like, I remember you four years ago.

You and I, you said the thing and I kind of enjoyed it. Now, she realizes that the best way to really pump information is to provoke and contradict him. So she’s playing him like a fiddle. And in response to this, he’d fall into the habit of whispering reassurances into her ear and whatever she learns, she passes along. So she just stirs the pot and writes notes. Get it, girl, get it. Now, as all this is happening, because this isn’t happening in a vacuum, Hitler’s troops are advancing and she’s maintaining her life in and around Paris for as long as she can because this is where the hotbed is. Right. And here’s a line I didn’t think I, I saw coming. As she’s doing this, she’s making use of her piloting skills.

Angie: Oh, okay. Because that was the thing that she did at some point.

Theresa: And those were a gift from one of her husbands. I think two, three, I can’t remember, but you know, I didn’t write their names down because honestly, you’d need a map.

Angie: There were many. Okay. Yeah.

Theresa: Those flying lessons come into handy because she’s using them to aid transport to refugees in the low countries and she’s performing for troops as she’s going.

Angie: Love this for her. Oh my goodness.

Theresa: It’s early June 1940. Baker prompted, left her beloved city just days before the German troops start going through the streets. Okay. So they are hot on her heels. Her car is filled with petrol filled champagne bottles, which is a visual. And she has an elderly Belgian Jewish couple that, that were fugitives that she taken in because everything about this just screams, this is who Josephine is. Yeah.

Angie: Honestly, I’m not surprised. Even a little bit.

Theresa: She is doing the absolute most this entire story. Love this. Now her destination that she’s going to is a place called Chateau des Missandres. And it’s overlooking the, another word I’m going to butcher, Dorgon, which was a place that she had leased three years earlier. Of course. Basically, she’s going to a previous Airbnb.

Theresa: Now this thing’s to that visual. You like that? I mean, because, you know, like, look, oh, I know this area. We stayed there. We see that cute little bungalow, but in her case, it’s a 15th century castle.

Angie: I mean, when you’re doing the absolute

Theresa: most, where else are you supposed to put your petrol filled champagne bottles?

Angie: I mean, I’m imagining that her car was also a drop top. So she’s got this cute Belgian

Theresa: couple and like champagne bottles out the wazoo.

Theresa: And she’s popping corks to refill on the side of the road.

Angie: Like that’s exactly what I’m seeing. Okay. He’s got these glasses, you know, these ones.

Theresa: Oh, the big one. I love them. Yep. So the castle had become a fortress once again, because it’s war. And it’s harboring this little rag tag resistance group because it was World War Two.

And this is a mid mobilization for De Gaulle’s free French forces. Baker and her handler, who’s also her lover, didn’t put his name in there because I mean, one of them.

Theresa: Again. Take a number. They find time.

Theresa: Here’s a moment for lazy canoe trips along the river.

Angie: Of all the things I didn’t see coming.

Theresa: He also teaches how to use a pistol. He equips her with a cyanide pill just in case of the event of capture. But the lazy canoe rides. I’m here for it. Let’s do it.

Angie: Now, oh my God, it’s true. Okay. So you know how we’re always like, why is Violet so thirsty for Zaden? You’re in the middle of war.

Theresa: That’s why. Because ladies talking about 43. Okay. Okay. I was like, where are we going?

Angie: Actually happens. It can actually happen. Lazy canoe rides in the middle of war are a thing. I feel so much better.

Theresa: Look, Rebecca Yarabos, what’s her last name? Yaros. Yaros. Maybe she read the story. Maybe she knew. Yeah. Now, the place that this 15th century castle is, it’s in the free zone of Vichy. And the terms, the armistice required that all French security forces that were supposed to report that newly throttled government because it’s Vichy France. Officially, there’s no longer the counterintelligence agency that recruited her. But unofficially, its agents have simply gone underground.

This checks. And this includes the crew at Melandes. One fall day, Baker met with two former bureau agents. And while she’s doing this, a group of Nazi officials arrived at the Chateau. Now, Baker shoes the spies into hiding. And she struck a pose as the lady of the house, hotly and patient with the German intrusion, especially once the search warrant appeared.

Angie: I mean, I could, I could fake being real ticked off real quick. I don’t know if I’d be faking it. I mean, I wouldn’t, but yeah. Yeah. Now, even if it’s not my house.

Theresa: I mean, but yeah, I mean, this is just the Airbnb you came back to. Lewis, who wrote, who wrote about this account, he is pulling from a variety of sources, including writings of the resistance veteran named Gilbert Renaud, who his nom de guerre is Colonel Remy, which is the bestest name.

Angie: Love that. Oh my gosh.

Theresa: Now her sheer effrontery, a staged suspicion, because you know, because she is so diva ish in this response, they’re like, well, maybe her sheer effrontery.

Angie: Thank you for that sentence. Yeah.

Theresa: Just bruh, you know, like, and I can only imagine her going full Mariah Carey.

Angie: Oh, I’m seeing it. Yeah. I mean, we did just picture her driving down the, down the street in her drop top pink car with champagne and a cute old couple in the back seat. So I mean, if that’s not Mariah Carey, I don’t know what it is. Truth.

Theresa: So now we’re going to fast forward a little bit. It’s November 1940. Baker and her handler also lover, they make their way through Franco’s Spain. Okay. So she’s honestly just rolling through all of the hot spots. She’s wrapped in furs.

As you do. And her handler is just lurking in the shadows. Her cover story is that she’s touring again, and she’s assisted by Jack Herbert, who’s her non descriptor manager. Don’t pay attention to him. He just lurks in shadows.

He’s just creepy. Yeah. Now alongside costumes and makeup, her trunks held a dossier that’s written with invisible ink and among the notes on Baker’s own sheet music. Oh, that’s cool. Yeah. So she is just doing it. Now as she disembarks, nobody cares. Nobody is really concerned with her luggage or the man attending to it. Instead, you have a cadre of French, Spanish and German officials who crowded around her desperate to see, feel, touch, or bask in the radiance of that famous smile. I mean the sheer affronterie.

Angie: She’s just owning the room. Get for her, man. I’m proud.

Theresa: In Lisbon, she’s drawing even more attention. She said, I come to dance to sing. She told reporters her handler sees to it that the files that are collated, they end up getting passed to a British embassy and put into the hands of a spy master for London secret intelligence services.

I mean, she’s just working it. It’s now the summer of 1941 and they go to Morocco. And this is where she ends up gaining another vital link to Britain. But it’s at this time that there’s also a group of some Wiley diplomats and she gets sick.

She’s diagnosed with peritonitis and is bedridden for a year. Oh, okay. This is not what you want. But because she can spend everything into gold in her life, this ends up becoming an incredible rendezvous point as contacts arrive as visitors to give their best to this ailing performer.

Angie: Oh, brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.

Theresa: And it was incredible because it’s that celebrity and this global stardom which meant that anybody could come in to pay a visit. Yes. So she’s a good for her ideal intelligence hub.

Yeah. She recovers and when she does, she goes back to performing for ally troops. And then she does this fundraising morale boosting tour alongside just some some miners like Lawrence Olivier and Vivian Lee. Just some miners. Just some miners. You know, some A-listers that might still be known. Her handler, they assembled this final docket of intelligence for Free France and she goes on to perform in Alexandria, Cairo, Damascus and Barout. Wow.

Angie: Wow. Now I’m going to need like a 10 season series on this.

Theresa: She just doesn’t seem real. Like the more you dig and the more you’re like, there’s no way.

Angie: I also need Zendaya to play her. I agree to your terms. Thank you. Her non-descript handler can be played by Tom Holland.

Theresa: He’s so cute.

Angie: I mean, we already pretty much plays her non-descript handler. Yeah. You’re not wrong. You ever watch like their paparazzi shots are freaking adorable. He’s just trying to get the poor girl in the car. I know.

Theresa: So it’s 1947 now and she outright buys that little chateau that she’s been staying at and she marries this dude who is a French composer, Joe Bouillon. Now, eventually, she still friends with her handler slash former lover now and they continue to go on to support each other through the future decades and all the exploits they have. But for her, she still has some battles that she’s going to fight. One big one for her is that she promised Black GIs that she encountered when she was on the African front of the war that segregation would follow this war on fast food and that they’re fighting.

So throughout the 50s and 60s, she reasserted her racial egalitarianism and she’s refusing to perform to segregated nightclubs and she’s shaming establishments that are declining to serve Black patrons. Good. Which every time I hear of somebody doing this, I am so thrilled with life. Now we fast forward to a very fateful moment. It’s the Manhattan Stork Club, which is one establishment that was racist in how it did things.

And it’s 1951. Baker made a show of walking out of the place and Grace Kelly joins in solidarity. Yes. Now, there is a newspaper columnist named Walter Wynchel, who’s also present. He does nothing, but Baker reproached him for condoning the discrimination. Wynchel is a supporter of Senator Joseph McCarthy. And he responded in print, accusing Baker of harboring, quote, communist sympathies.

Because it’s the 50s. Yep. So her visa is revoked because she gave up her citizenship when she went to France and married whatever husband, number, whatever. And so now she’s kicked out of the country. So the FBI ends up facilitating a dossier on her because they started wondering her resistance work in France.

And so they kind of reopened that file. Which I don’t, I feel like I should have kept track of every time the American government has opted to open a dossier on its own people.

Angie: I don’t think there’s a way to keep track of that.

Theresa: I mean, at least for my notes, I should have, but I haven’t kept a tally. Agent Josephine, which is how the British journalist Damian Lewis, who wrote a biography chronicles with much detail that she has, he says that as much as she knew, she didn’t know about the resistance, that this book isn’t necessarily just telling her life story. He looks at it as because the book’s 500 pages long. So it’s big. And it covers most of her work as a secret agent. And it’s confined mostly to the shadows of World War II. It also doesn’t use a lot of her own autobiographies because she wrote several and all of them contradict each other wildly because she loves her. But instead, this is pulling from memoirs by agents, interviews with veterans, and private family archives of the British bymaster. And it’s all pulled together. Some of these files weren’t available until the 2020.

Like, so this is some old stuff. That’s crazy. She ends up getting the Legion to Honor and Resistance Medal. And the crazy part is, like, we just know that these honors were, quote, not usually bestowed on ex-nude dancers of the music hall.

Angie: Didn’t see that sentence coming. I do what I can.

Theresa: Because obviously we’re winding down. This whole life of hers just really elaborates on what, how complex she was as an individual. You know, she was so many things. One of the things I didn’t really touch on is that she and her fourth husband, Joe Bouillon, when they buy the Chateau, they adopt 12 children from various nationalities. Oh, wow.

Okay. This is the Brad Angelina kind of thing. And she just, she did what she could to raise them. It doesn’t sound like she’s necessarily the best mom. Like, she did what she could, but it sounded fairly chaotic.

Angie: I mean, her entire life has been fairly chaotic. So I’m not surprised.

Theresa: You’re not wrong. Now, she does all this in 1956. She retires and she decides she’s going to look after these 12 kids. Nobody believes it’s her final adieu. And it’s not because 1969, her money runs out. And so she’s like, well, back to work. And so she returns triumphantly on stage, quote, even more attractive than she was in 1956.

Now, there was one thing I wrote, I read somewhere, I didn’t put it in my notes, that she actually had the opera glasses taken away from people so that they couldn’t see her age. That’s hilarious. And I’m here for it.

I’m here for that. So 1975, she’s celebrating her 50th anniversary in Paris with a run of performances. Oh, this is where she had the opera glasses removed. Now, she astonished her audiences with her youthfulness and vivacity. And she’s dancing a vigorous Charleston. So this is a full mood.

Angie: I think she has been a full mood. I strive to be her frontery.

Theresa: Yeah, solid move. She does such a good job that the audience applauses that first night for 15 minutes. Oh, that is a long time. That’s an applause right there. I mean, I can’t even do that on a treadmill for a good sprint. And she’s, you know, they’re standing and clapping and being completely enthralled. The music stops after the 14th show. She goes, dives with friends, goes home. And it says, amid the press and flower cuttings of her last triumph, she dives quietly in her sleep. Mm. She’s trying to get that one more. And she maintained the code of silence about the seven years that she spent fighting the Nazis and went to her grave, taking many of those secrets with her.

Angie: I love that. I love that so much. Could you just add her to my…

Theresa: Your to be reincarnated as Liz?

Angie: Yes, please. That wasn’t what I was going to say, but that’s fine.

Theresa: That’ll do. Yeah. You know what? I changed my mind. Whatever I was going to say, that was it.

Angie: Yep. Well done. I just, I cannot get the visuals out of my mind. Thank you for that.

Theresa: You’re welcome. And I did pull up photos of her. I didn’t put them in my notes because limited bandwidth.

Angie: Yep. That is 100% what I was picturing. She is… She’s showing me a photo from 1950. So you can imagine the cut of the dress. She’s got the full opera gloves, the, the Kate coat that she’s wearing is draped down her shoulder. She’s got the full diamond dripping necklace. Her hair is in like one of those high ponytail. She is stunning. Absolutely stunning.

Theresa: I think that’s… I don’t know if that is the banana dress.

Angie: I’m not sure if that’s the banana dress, but that’s definitely what we know her. Like, that’s her probably one of her most famous. photos. It’s, it’s, so she’s got to be probably in her, she’s probably 20 here, 21, 22. Yeah.

Theresa: 27. That sounds about right.

Angie: She’s got the, it’s like a banana. It’s not a banana. It’s like a girdle sort of thing. She is populous. She’s got the feather, but feather, but I don’t know how else to explain it that comes out on all the sides. Like you’ve seen this photo of her. Yeah. She’s fabulous.

Theresa: And then that’s a picture of her as the cover of a, of a magazine.

Angie: From 1928. How fun. But yeah, that is, that is us.

Theresa: So if you’ve enjoyed this, if you’re thinking, oh, that was such a wild mishmash of stories and I am here for every bit of it. Hey, hey, we like it. We are available. Should you choose to try to communicate it with us via email at unhinged.historypod .gmail.com or you could do this great little thing where you rate, review, subscribe, wherever you decided to listen to this and tune in next week for us covering even more unhinged history. And on that note, good

Theresa: day.