A handout summarizing Jean Reynolds' presentation "Princesse Tam Tam: Pygmalion in Africa" for the 2013 "Shaw at Home" conference in Ayot St. Lawrence

1. Princesse Tam Tam
Pygmalion in Africa
Jean Reynolds
Polk State College
1935 French film starring Josephine Baker and Albert
Prejean, produced by Arys Nissotti, and written by Pepito
Abatino and Yves Mirande
Josephine Baker (1906 – 1975):
• “The most sensational woman anyone ever saw. Or
ever will,” according to Ernest Hemingway
• transported secrets for the French Resistance during WWII
• awarded the Croix de Guerre, Légion d'Honneur, and Rosette of the
Résistance
• the only woman who spoke at the March on Washington in 1963
• adopted 12 children of various racial backgrounds and called them “the
Rainbow Tribe”
• the only American woman to receive full French military honors at her funeral
• the first black female to star in a major motion picture, integrate an American
concert hall, and become a world-famous entertainer
Both Eliza Doolittle and Alwina:
• have learned to live by their wits
• are regarded as less than human at first
• are taught by men who make their living through words (Max as a novelist,
Higgins as a phonetician)
• pretend to be members of high society
• are caught up in practical jokes they don’t understand
• eventually defy their teachers
• choose other men as their husbands
Both Shaw’s Pygmalion and Baker’s Princesse Tam Tam seem to underscore the
same message: The combination of creativity and romantic love doesn’t work as
well with living men and women as it does in mythology.
This presentation can be viewed online at:
http://www.slideshare.net/ballroom16/josephine-baker-pygmalion-in-africa