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[[image - woman in dress]]
[[caption]] Gowns by: GRIFFE [[/caption]]

Fabulous

The Fabulous Josephine Baker, a Dream Deferred

While watching a performance of the new sensational "Dream Girls" the new hit show at the Imperial theatre on the great white the show, which tells of the trials and tribulation of a black singing act as they rose to success to become Super stars, I was reminded of the late and great Negro artist, Ms. Josephine Baker. My thoughts turned to Miss Baker as the Dream girls show displayed glamorous and glittering costume, and when Curtis, the manager of the act in 'Dream girls' implored the to raise their sights through accepting a booking in a fabulous Miami Beach Hotel. 

"It would be the first time a Negro Act was to play the hotel engagement and it was to be a first for Black Entertainers", Curtis said. And this brought my thoughts back to Ms. Baker. 

As I recall it the first time a major Negro star played at Miami Beach and demanded and dictated the condition under which she would work was Josephine Baker. This resulted in the desegregation of Miami Beach which allowed Negroes to stay in all the hotels on the Beach as guests and seated in the night spots as Patrons. 

This feat was accomplished when Ned Schuyler, a Miami Beach night club operator opened up his Cotton Club on downtown Collins Avenue. 

Ned noted that he did not have an audience at his six o'clock shows and the reason for this was an act being staged at six o'clock in a Havana night spot by a Black French citizen named Josephine Baker. 

Because, as Ned told the Black press in New York in the Hampshire House on West 59th Street, where we were assembled there by Ed Weiner, former N.Y.U. football great of the late 20th and later the Press Agent for Freedomland in the Bronx, 'I could not figure out what was happening to my investment. I had sunk quite a bundle in building my Cotton Club but I had no business and the reason was this woman in Havana Cuba.'

to the American fashion industry. 
So the folks whose designers gowns were sold on 57th Street and Fifth Avenue tried to sabotage the first tour. Ned and Ms. Baker persisted that they would come to New York under their terms and if the Strand wanted to book Ms. Baker it was under her terms. The folds who operated the theatre acquiesced and Ned and Ms. Baker came and Ms. Baker was sensational. A second and third tour were planned by Schuyler for Ms. Baker. 

So I swallowed my pride and under desperation went over one evening to see this artist do her six o'clock show. 
I was dumb founded not only seeing my customers in the room, but struck dumb by the artistry of this fabulous Black woman." Mr. Schyler then said he made a hasty decision- he went back stage to speak to Ms. Baker to immediately offer her an engagement to come Stateside and perform in Miami at his Cotton Club. 

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