Unlike Josephine Baker, she did not s survive the 1917 riots in East St. Louis, Illinois, and ran away a few years later at age thirteen and began dancing in vaudeville and on Broadway. Alternatively, in 1925, she did not go to Paris where, after the jazz revue La Revue Nègre failed, her comic ability and jazz dancing drew the attention of the director of the Folies Bergère to later became one of the best-known entertainers in both France and much of Europe.
via #HappyMothersDay
