Heading: (1931 French risqué magazine features Negro Jazz-age entertainers in Paris)
Author:
Title: 'Noir' issue of French magazine Le Sourire
Place Published: Paris
Publisher:
Date Published: 11471
Description:

Le Sourire Noire (magazine). “Special” number, May 28, 1931. Text in French. 28pp. including ads (mostly for pornography). 9.5 x 12.5 ins. Profusely illustrated with 20 black and white photographs and 5 color cartoons, one double-page, plus black and white cartoons in the text.

Le Sourire (“The Smile”) was a weekly French satirical magazine of the Toulouse-Lautrec era which, during the Jazz Age, featured a risqué view of French society. This “special” issue, which added “Noir” (Black) to the title, attempted to capitalize on the Negro entertainment craze started by Josephine Baker, an international celebrity after her appearance in the Revue Negre of 1925. This provided the magazine with an excuse to shamelessly display both photos and caricatures of nude or semi-nude Black bodies, male and female, including popular Parisian singers and dancers, some expatriates from America. The front-cover cartoon shows a topless African female leeringly admired by the two aged white men. The rear cover cartoon is of a Black saxophone player kneeling besides a Black show girl, captioned “I have two loves: my ‘country’ and Paris…” The double-page centerfold cartoon features three lovely nude Black women lounging near a camel oasis. The photographs are of dancers and singers (not including Baker) who performed at the Folies Bergere and other Paris night spots. This may have been the only special “Noir” issue of the magazine, which continued until the late 1930s.

Very Good