Contessa di Albertini

Socially well-posted U. S. Negroes know that at Rome resides the most ancient and patrician aristocracy in Europe. Prince Massimo of Rome is an undisputed descendant of the Roman General Quintus Fabius Maximus, "The Delayer" (Third Century B. C.). The family of the late Prince Scipione Borghesi is both Royal and Papal. There are, in fact, dozens, scores, hundreds of Italian noblemen whole titles are genuine and venerable beyond reproach. Therefore, it was not surprising that in Paris last week, famed Negress Black Bottom, and Charleston performer Miss Josephine Baker, once of Harlem, now mistress of a Montmartre night club, should have announced her marriage to Count Pepito di Albertini of Rome. Few of Miss Baker's race would have kept the secret as long as she said she had kept it--20 days--and when the announcement was cabled to the U. S. last week, Negro newspapers carnivaled.

Proud, the Pittsburgh (Negro) Courier, boasted: "The Courier was the first to publish an individual picture of the Countess di Albertini . . . who has just passed from the state of girlhood to womanhood. . . .

"Josephine Baker . . . born in St. Louis. . . arose from the obscurity of a Missouri town to be acclaimed the 'Darling of Paris.' Several years ago . . . when she was a mere girl . . . the Courier . . . remarked that she would go far."

Meanwhile, in Paris, correspondents were asking: "Who is Count Pepito di Albertini?" Since the Parisian police keep a very careful record of all strangers, it was to M. le Prefet Jean Chiappe that reporters turned. They received a reply which was suavity itself: "Our records show that this gentleman came with Miss Baker from America, three years ago, as her manager. Their addresses in Paris have always been the same, although this residence has changed several times. The gentleman has never claimed a title other than 'Monsieur'."

Josephine Baker, interviewed at the Folies Bergere, said: "My husband sure is a count. I looked him up in Rome. He's got a great big family there with lots of coats of arms and everything. His father writes me the nicest letters, and his mother is right here in Paris stopping with us for a while."

Soon the New York Herald Tribune Paris Bureau announced: "The American Consul's records prove that Count Pepito made her his bride at the consulate."

Meanwhile Negro friends of Miss Baker in Harlem, New York City, positively asserted that she was the wife of a Pullman porter named George Baker. By this time the confusion and sensation were international. The Associated Press put its Rome correspondents to work tracing Count Pepito di Albertini. For three days they ransacked Italian genealogical and police records--found no such name--announced the fact.

At last Josephine Baker was cornered, in her Montmartre night club, by reporters who demanded detailed explanations. Miss Baker, clad in an Afric dance costume of bright feathers, shrugged nervously, grinned, confessed: "Stories sure do travel fast. It was all something I told my friends for a joke--and see how everybody has taken it seriously. The wedding I spoke of was only just a movie wedding."

Her conscience relieved, Danseuse Baker added a parting shot: "I don't think the publicity will do me any harm. Anyway the public won't be angry with me. It's always kind to me. ... Oh well, I had a lot of fun while it lasted! I got cablegrams of congratulations from almost every country in the world."

Toward morning black and white friends of Miss Baker escorted her to a sumptuous flat in the Champs Elysees, her present residence. There they drank her health and that of her pet baby lioness, reclined upon satin cushions, later disported themselves in her swimming bath, said to have cost 200,000 francs.

The Governor of Friuli Province, near Rome, Signor Di Albertini was last week under the impression that a son of his had married Miss Baker. Said he: "I'm glad of it, for she is a lovely, clever girl and my son likes the kind of life they will lead in the future. "We don't have any racial feeling over here or in Sicily. . , ."

*In Paris she is reputed to have been born in the Philippines.