Joe Alex

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Joe Alex , sometimes also José Alex or Joë Alex (born November 1, 1891 in Saint-Paul (Réunion) , † April 5, 1948 in Lima , Peru ), was a French dark-skinned singer , variety dancer and actor at the time before the second World War.

Life

Alex, whose family probably came from Martinique , appeared in a number of revues in the 1920s , including at the Club Le Grand Duc in Montmartre . Rolf de Maré and André Daven hired him as porteur of Josephine Baker, who immigrated to France on September 22, 1925, for the show La Revue Nègre, choreographed by Jacques Charles . Their joint appearance at Baker's breakthrough, the erotic dance Danse sauvage , which was performed between October 2, 1925 and November 19, 1925 on the vaudeville stage of the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris and subsequently at guest performances, became particularly well known . The two dancers were only dressed in red and blue feathers. With Baker he also recorded the duet song "Voulez-vous de la canne à sucre".

From 1923 until 1946 he was cast in many of the then so-called "negro roles" in French film. His filmography includes over thirty works, including Marcel Carné's Children of Olympus (1945).

In 1938 he headed the Parisian "Théâtre Africain", which only employed dark-skinned actors. After the outbreak of war the following year, he had to end this project.

Filmography

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ National Archives of the Overseas Territory of La Réunion
  2. ↑ the life dates that can sometimes be found (* February 23, 1895 in Recht (St. Vith), Germany, today Belgium; † June 14, 1972 in Berlin) belong to the composer and accordionist Josef August, who also works under the pseudonym "Herbert Sand" "Joe" Alex
  3. ↑ Carole Sweeney: From Fetish to Subject: Race, Modernism, and Primitivism, 1919-1935 . 2004, p. 46
  4. ^ Kwame Anthony Appiah, Henry Louis Gates Jr .: Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience . Oxford University Press, 2005, ISBN 978-0-19-517055-9 , pp. 340 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  5. ^ Jean-Claude Baker, Chris Chase: Josephine Baker: The Hungry Heart . Cooper Square Press, 2001, ISBN 978-1-4616-6109-2 , pp. 108 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  6. ↑ Josephine Baker , accessed April 24, 2016 (English)
  7. ^ Cary D. Wintz, Paul Finkelman: Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance . Routledge, 2012, ISBN 978-1-135-45536-1 , pp. 264 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  8. ↑ Maja Figge: (Re) establishing German Being: Whiteness and Masculinity in West German Cinema of the 1950s . 2015, p. 204.
  9. ^ Jean-Michel Bergougniou, Remi Clignet, Philippe David: "Villages noirs" et autres visiteurs africains et malgaches en France et en Europe: 1870-1940 . 2001, p. 58
personal data
SURNAME Alex, Joe
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Alex, José; Alex, Joë
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French singer, variety dancer and actor
DATE OF BIRTH November 1, 1891
PLACE OF BIRTH Saint-Paul (Réunion)
DATE OF DEATH April 5, 1948
Place of death Lima , Peru