Did Josephine Baker really walk an ocelot down the Champs-Elysees?
Yes, though the sources still argue about whether Chiquita was an ocelot or a cheetah, and Chiquita is not telling. In this episode of Our Next Collar, the most imposing guest in the catalog explains the three lives of Josephine Baker that were always one life: the performer who conquered Paris at nineteen, the Resistance courier who hid messages in her sheet music, and the activist who never once performed for a segregated audience.
History remembers the famous. Their pets remember the person. On Our Next Collar, a brown tabby cat named Prince MoRee reaches the pets of history. One of them tells what they really saw. This episode is part of the Older Kids tier, for families ready to go a little deeper: same show, same honesty, told up a band and never grown-up. Tonight, two serious presences, one boulevard, and a person who knew exactly what to do when the world was watching.
This episode is fully scripted and has passed the Talking With Pets accuracy review. The recording is in production. The audio player and the full transcript will appear right here the day the episode goes live. Join the founding list below and we will write to you when it does.
From the episode
Chiquita: She walked down the Champs-Elysees with an ocelot on a leash because Paris would look. And Paris was looking. And so she walked.
Armando: (the formal farewell, but quietly) She used every room she walked into.
Chiquita: (a beat, precise, correcting something important) She never walked into a room she hadn't already decided to use.
Armando: That's a different thing.
Chiquita on a leash in Paris, the 1925 debut, the invisible ink on sheet music, the Croix de Guerre, and the March on Washington are all real. The conversation is ours.
Sources and further reading
- Josephine Baker: St. Louis, 1906; Paris debut 1925 with La Revue Negre at nineteen, then the Folies Bergere. The documented biographical record.
- Chiquita on a leash in Paris: documented; the species varies by account between ocelot and cheetah, and the episode acknowledges the inconsistency rather than resolving it.
- Resistance service: intelligence courier, invisible-ink messages in sheet music, notes pinned inside clothing; Croix de Guerre, Medaille de la Resistance, Legion d'Honneur, presented by General Valin in 1961 with congratulations from de Gaulle by letter.
- Refusal of segregated audiences, documented across sources and Baker's own statements; desegregation of The Last Frontier, Las Vegas, 1951.
- The March on Washington, August 28, 1963: the only official female speaker, in French Resistance uniform; her documented speech, including âYou know I have always taken the rocky path.â National Archives. archives.gov
- Carnegie Hall, 1973: the standing ovation before she sang; April 1975, her death two days after the sold-out fiftieth-anniversary opening in Paris. The documented record.
All historical claims above were checked in the Talking With Pets accuracy review, most recently the full editorial pass of July 2026.
Did Josephine Baker really walk a wild cat through Paris on a leash?
Yes. Baker walking her exotic cat Chiquita on a leash, including on the Champs-Elysees, is documented. The species is recorded inconsistently, some accounts say ocelot and some say cheetah, and the episode acknowledges the gap directly rather than pretending to certainty. Chiquita herself declines to resolve it.
Was Josephine Baker really a spy for the French Resistance?
Yes. She worked as an intelligence courier, using her celebrity as cover, carrying messages written in invisible ink on her sheet music and notes pinned inside her clothes. France awarded her the Croix de Guerre, the Medaille de la Resistance, and the Legion d'Honneur. Source: the documented record of her decorations and Resistance service.
What did Josephine Baker do for civil rights?
She refused to perform for segregated audiences, every time, even when it cost her money and bookings, and her conditions desegregated The Last Frontier in Las Vegas in 1951. At the March on Washington on August 28, 1963 she was the only official female speaker, and she spoke wearing her French Resistance uniform. Source: the documented record of the March; Baker's documented statements.
How did Josephine Baker's story end?
On a stage. In 1973 Carnegie Hall gave her a standing ovation before she sang a note, and in April 1975 she died two days after the sold-out opening night of the show marking her fifty years in Paris. The episode treats that as what it was: a finish, complete, with the audience still applauding.
What is Our Next Collar, and is this episode good for kids?
Our Next Collar is an educational history podcast where a brown tabby cat named Prince MoRee reaches the pets of history, and one of them tells the true story of the person they knew. The core episodes are for ages 6 to 10, and this one is part of the Older Kids tier for ages 9 to 12, for families ready to go a little deeper. Every episode lists its sources and says plainly which parts are real and which are ours. It is a podcast from Talking With Pets.
Our Next Collar · the true stories only the animals saw.
Chaco, Roxie, Moose, Prince MoRee, and Armando are getting the pilot ready. Join the founding list and we will write to you when the first episodes go live. Listen with someone you like.