Josephine Baker born Freda Josephine McDonald naturalised French Joséphine Baker 3 June 1906 12 April 1975 was an Americanborn French entertainer activist and French Resistance agent Her career was centered primarily in Europe mostly in her adopted France During her early career she was renowned as a dancer and was among the most celebrated performers to headline the revues of the Folies Bergère in Paris Her performance in the revue Un vent de folie in 1927 caused a sensation in Paris Her costume consisting of only a girdle of artificial bananas became her most iconic image and a symbol of the Jazz Age and the 1920s