Nov 30, 2019: The Folies-Bergere Revue Turns 133 Years Old!

A Bar at the Folies-Bergere, Edouard Manet; oil on canvas 1881-1882 {public domain}

In Paris, France 133 Years ago on November 30, 1886 the Folies-Bergere opened its first revue with beautiful dancers in gorgeous costumes! It seems the costumed ladies made the theater's pantomime shows old hat and pretty much every other act they'd previously featured. Stars were born!

Then one fabled night in 1925, a certain lady was lowered from the ceiling and she turned out to be the fabulous Josephine Baker who treated the audience to her famous (or infamous!) banana dance. Follow the link to a previous post concerning Miss Baker's natal planets and view a gif that captures her sparkling Gemini personality, plus, a photo of her sporting her scanty banana get-up!

Ooh-La-La at the Folies Bergere!

Yes, It's a Case of 19th Century Ooh-La-La!

Recently I received an email alert that History Today has published an article on the famous music hall the Folies Bergere which opened in Paris, France way back in 1869. Staging light opera and pantomimes in the early days led to wider success in the 1870s as vaudeville and scantily clad ladies became the nightly fare.

Later in its history, one of Neptune's Silver Screen's favorite actresses and dancers found major success there when she debuted in 1926--lowered down from the ceiling wearing a g-string decorated with what became her legendary bananas...the one of a kind Miss Josephine Baker! Follow the link for a brief Astro-Portrait of the lady, plus, a GIF that captures her Geminian gaiety and charm, and a photo of Josephine wearing her famous Banana Dance costume...if you dare!

One of a Kind: Miss Josephine Baker!

Famous for her Banana Dance and international lifestyle, Miss Josephine Baker remains a definition of The Jazz Age of the 1920s. Josephine and her skirt of bananas wowed the world in Paris at the Folies-Bergere on October 2, 1925 and was judged to be a 'triumph'! Check out the excellent British Glamour article on memorable fashions:

The women who rocked the Jazz Age. From Coco Chanel to Josephine Baker – 1920s style icons: https://t.co/mi2LRqq6Ik pic.twitter.com/jvKwuTBIVT

— British GLAMOUR (@GlamourMagUK) April 29, 2016

A Brief Astro-Portrait of Josephine Baker

Josephine Baker's international fame and fortune may be seen in a full 10th house of World Stage and Career. Check out her natal horoscope (with brief bio) where her 10th house Mercury, Sun, Jupiter, Mars, and Pluto present an amazing line-up of communicating ability, personality, fortune, energy and desire, and sexual magnetism. Even a very creative Venus-Neptune conjunction in Moon-ruled Cancer is nearby in the 11th house of Hopes, Wishes, Groups, and Alliances--assuring that the goddess of love and beauty, Venus, meets the Neptunian masses!

Yet stability and gaining possessions were primary life goals with late Taurus (ruled by money planet Venus) at Midheaven (MC), aka, the Aspiration Point...and what asteroid goddess is at MC to help make it all possible? Why seductive Lilith, of course! Plus, with a sign associated with another goddess, Virgo (the Virgin; the Beautiful Maiden) rising on her Ascendant, we find a lady described by Earnest Hemingway as sensational!

For entertaining Leo we see her North Node, a Jupiterian point of public contact and favor, in the Collective 12th house and her publicity-seeking Moon in Venus-ruled Libra in the 3rd house of Communications. A Libra Moon indicates a double-Air personality blend of Sun Gemini-Moon Libra, a breezily charming, persuasive, diplomatic combination of energies. Miss Baker was a 'wandering spirit' of spontaneity and grace who may have tended to become bored with people rather quickly. Business that involved changing tastes and fashion was her forte, and her sense of fun and love of celebration was readily on display for the world to see. Ever on the look out for 'new vistas', she lived by her wits with a seemingly childlike persona--yet Air is a mental element in Astrology and we find this most obviously expressed by her undercover work during the war for the French resistance.

Well, that's my very quick portrait of a complex lady so let's close with a few witty words from the premiere Jazz Age entertainer herself:

"I wasn't really naked. I simply didn't have any clothes on."

Lucien Walery {Public domain), via Wikimedia Commons; 1927 (over 70 years)

Josephine Baker June 3, 1906 11:00 am CST St. Louis, Missouri; RR: B from bio/autobiography. Death by cerebral hemorrhage April 12, 1975 at 5:00 am Paris, France.

For more personality blend info see Sun Sign-Moon Sign by Charles and Suzi Harvey.