Princesse Tam TamPygmalion in Africa

Jean ReynoldsPolk State College

1935 French film starring Josephine Baker and Albert Prejean, produced by Arys Nissotti, and written by Pepito Abatino and Yves Mirande

Josephine Baker (1906 – 1975): “The most sensational woman anyone ever saw. Or

ever will,” according to Ernest Hemingway transported secrets for the French Resistance during WWII awarded the Croix de Guerre, Légion d'Honneur, and Rosette of the

Résistance the only woman who spoke at the March on Washington in 1963 adopted 12 children of various racial backgrounds and called them “the

Rainbow Tribe” the only American woman to receive full French military honors at her funeral the first black female to star in a major motion picture, integrate an American

concert hall, and become a world-famous entertainer

Both Eliza Doolittle and Alwina: have learned to live by their wits are regarded as less than human at first are taught by men who make their living through words (Max as a novelist,

Higgins as a phonetician) pretend to be members of high society are caught up in practical jokes they don’t understand eventually defy their teachers choose other men as their husbands

Both Shaw’s Pygmalion and Baker’s Princesse Tam Tam seem to underscore the same message: The combination of creativity and romantic love doesn’t work as well with living men and women as it does in mythology.

This presentation can be viewed online at: http://www.slideshare.net/ballroom16/josephine-baker-pygmalion-in-africa