Photo Coverage: Doris Eaton Travis Celebrates at Chez Josephine
By: Peter James Zielinski Apr. 27, 2009
Before there was the Disneyfied new 42nd Street, it was a street of sin and the spot where Jean-Claude Baker plopped his restaurant Chez Josephine 24 years ago was a massage parlor called The French Palace which featured a sign on the window stating $10 Complete Satisfaction.
Pornographic paintings lined the wall and one that was left was a life-sized nude lying on her back looking to the heavens. In honor of the new documentary, "42nd Street River to River " which features the popular restaurant, Jean-Claude is digging into his closet and unveiling the portrait on Saturday.
And he enlisted the help of Doris Eaton Travis, the one-time Ziegfeld Follies star who is now still kicking at the age of 105! She was joined by Broadway's Nick Adams and the legendary Liliane Montevecchi.
Following her Ziegfeld years, Doris Eaton Travis was a featured star in many musical reviews, Broadway comedies and silent films. Nacio Herb Brown's classic "Singing In The Rain" was written for and introduced by Doris in the Hollywood Music Box Review. She starred in films made in New York, Hollywood, England and Egypt and after an absence of over sixty years, returned to Hollywood in 1999, and at the age of 95 was cast for a cameo role in Jim Carrey's "Man In The Moon."
For the past number of years she has performed her dance magic on the New Amsterdam stage in the annual Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS benefits. Now, celebrating her 105nd birthday, she continues to actively manage and operate her 880 acre ranch in Norman, Oklahoma.
At Jean-Claude Baker's lively homage to his adopted mother, Josephine Baker, the welcome's so warm, it feels like a homecoming, and the piano is live every night. Chez Josephine is located at 414 W. 42nd St., New York, NY 10036
Photos by Peter James Zielinski
Chez Josephine on 42nd Street
Doris Eaton Travis and Jean-Claude Baker
Doris Eaton Travis and Jean-Claude Baker
Doris Eaton Travis and Jean-Claude Baker
Doris Eaton Travis and Jean-Claude Baker
Doris Eaton Travis and Jean-Claude Baker
Doris Eaton Travis and Liliane Montevecchi
An old mural from The French Palace
Doris Eaton Travis and Nick Adams
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