Casino de Paris. “Paris Qui Remue” Hyper Revue / A Super Spectacle / avec / Josephine Baker.
Paris: 1930. Double sided sheet measuring 5 ½ x 8 ¾ inches, folded into four panels, all illustrated. Fine condition. Item #List3628
An apparently unrecorded program documenting one of Baker’s defining early Paris triumphs, the lavish Paris Qui Remue revue at the Casino de Paris, a venue synonymous with large-scale spectacle during the interwar years. Following her breakout success in La Revue Nègre (1925) and rapid ascent within Parisian nightlife, Baker became a central figure in revues that blended American jazz idioms, African diasporic performance traditions, and French music-hall staging. The present illustrated souvenir captures the scale of the production through staged tableaux, chorus formations, and elaborate scenic constructions characteristic of Casino de Paris spectacles of the late 1920s and early 1930s. The revue’s visual language—geometric stage lighting, mass choreography, and exoticist imagery—reflects interwar Paris entertainment culture, where American jazz performers and Black expat artists shaped performance style. Baker’s performance of “J’ai deux amours,” introduced during this period and quickly becoming her signature song, cemented her image as both an international star and a symbolic mediator between Paris and America.
The photographs reproduce large ensemble numbers featuring tiered chorus lines in feathered headdresses, synchronized kick formations, and geometric Art Deco stage designs; aerial-style shots of massed dancers arranged in radiating patterns; costumed scenes labeled “La Danse du Monde Bleu” and “Noblesse d’Ébène”; and a central portrait of Baker in elaborate costume with extended wing-like adornments, surrounded by male dancers in formal evening dress. Additional panels depict garden tableaux, mechanized stage props, and full-cast curtain scenes, offering a visual record of the revue’s scale, choreography, and scenic ambition. We find no record of this booklet in OCLC or in commerce.
Price: $750.00