Storm in a D-cup: US mail accepts Josephine Baker's bare breasts

0 Comments | AFP, May, 2007

NEW YORK (AFP) — A man who as a child was cared for by 1920s Paris pin-up queen Josephine Baker has claimed a moral victory after forcing the US postal service to accept postcards featuring the bare-breasted "Black Venus."

The trouble started last year when Jean-Claude Baker, a New York restaurateur who Josephine apparently described as the 13th of her 12 adopted children, decided to mail out 15,000 postcards promoting his business.

The picture he chose dated from 1926 and showed the legendary African-American dancer, singer and cultural icon posing topless in her feather costume from the Folies-Bergeres music hall in Paris.

"I found this very pretty picture, it was very sweet," Jean-Claude told AFP, explaining how before printing the postcards, a friend...