Emerging from the sordid poverty and racial intolerance of early-2Oth-century St Louis, she delighted audiences all over America with her exuberant dancing and clowning, before moving on to scandalise Paris with her sensuality and sexual frankness.
The star of show after show, Josephine appeared in the debauched cabarets of Berlin and Paris, including the infamous Folies Bergere, as well as a succession of tours of Europe and South America, earning a reputation, by turn, as a symbol of liberation and as a demon of licentiousness.