Le Moulin Rouge
A
TYPICAL
PARISIAN
CABARET
Gorgeous Women, More
Gorgeous Women, Music, Nudity, Art, High Fashion, Style, Class, Champagne,
Cognac, Scandals, Betrayed Lovers, Gossips, Beautiful Legs and Intellectual
Derrieres, Dancers, Singers, Acrobats, Deal on the Wheel, Mistresses in
Abundance, Lots of Decoltes, Intoxicating Perfumes, Sex, Divorcees,
Impotents, Gigolos, Bleeding Hearts, Microphones which don’t work, Arrogant
Waiters, Five Star Menu, Homosexuals, Lesbians, de Givenchy and Christian
Dior’s Mannequins and Lots of B.S. You Got It. Shrewd
entrepreneurs and proprietors Charles Zidler and Joseph Oller opened their
« Le Moulin Rouge » Cabaret on October, Sunday 8th of 1889. And everybody
expected a « Lieu de Plaisirs » meaning a place for pleasures ! They were
not wrong! They got the best location in town. They knew what they were
doing. The location was perfect: La Butte, Montmartre, Paris, where “Les
Mauvais Garcons” handsome bad boys try to pick up girls, beautiful
half-innocent women from the province loose their virginity, and
intellectual drifters schmooze, booz and cruise at the nearby joint “Moulin
de la Galette”. A perfect setting and an exemplary rendez-vous spot for
everybody who wants to become somebody or pretend to be one!
La’Chaim and Vive La France!
Le Moulin Rouge: An instant success!
Le
Moulin Rouge was an instant success! A financial triumph! It became the
toast of the town. Extremely elegantly designed and furnished, with
unparallel
sophisticated artistic taste and French
finesse, the Moulin Rouge became the place to see and be seen. In short, it
has become the spot of the high society of Paris, its poets, writers,
philosophers and famous artists. At Le Moulin Rouge, the entire city of
Paris came to witness the birth of the French Can Can which was originally
called by the Parisians “Le Quadrille Naturaliste ou Realiste”. Later, this
presumptuous jargon became simply CAN CAN. Unfortunately, the CAN CAN did
not last long, for the owners of the Moulin Rouge split for some mysterious
reasons, the super star of the Parisian CAN CAN, Mademoiselle La Goulue took
off to open her own joint, and the nearby “Casino de Paris” competition was
hard to beat. What a
mess, mes amis! This “charabia” happened in 1892.
A wise guy by the name of Paul-Louis
Flers attempted to rescue the Cabaret by introducing new acts/shows,
typically Montmartre style « A La Pointe Du Pied » he said. We will see.
THE
WORLD’S FIRST CABARET CAN CAN SUPER STAR
MISS LA GOULUE
(1865
- 1929)
THE SUPER STAR OF LE MOULIN ROUGE. THE QUEEN
OF MONTMARTRE CABARETS… AND THE SADDEST SHADOW OF THE STREETS OF PARIS
She lived the two lives of Cabaret: The happy one on stage and the
tragic one in her real life when her last impoverished days ended her
up in the streets of Paris.
Photos:
Mademoiselle La Goulue, the Super Star of the French Can Can. Quite a
woman, quite a character and quite a human tragedy!
MADEMOISELLE LA GOULUE :
Nee
Louise Weber.
She was born in Clichy, France around 1865. Her mother was a
“Blanchisseuse” laundry woman.
Her father,
unknown. At 16,
she became like her mother, a « Blanchisseuse ». To earn more money, she
sold roses on rue de la Goutte d’Or in her spare time. God knows how it
happened, she met France’s great, Auguste Renoir and became one of his
models. Her income as a model allowed her to buy fashionable clothes
suitable for places and parks where people of a certain culture and a
social position mingle and gather. A more accessible and safer way of
meeting “respectable” men. In one of the parks, she meets Joseph Oller,
a co–owner of Le Moulin Rouge. Taken by her wit and beauty, he offered
her a job as a dancer and as an “artiste” in his cabaret. Overnight, she
became a sensation, the talk of the town. The press and the Cabaret
customers called her “La reine de la sensualite Parisienne”, meaning the
queen of the Parisian sensuality.
La
Goulue had her own style. While all the dancers were required by the
Cabaret management to wear a hat while dancing, La Goulue categorically
refused to follow the rules. She danced on the tables, her long hair
floating all over her body and gladly, she would show to selected
clients, the delicate little heart etched on her underwear “culotte”.
Her fame allowed her to play hardball with the Cabaret owners. On April
6, 1885, she decided to leave Le Moulin Rouge and open her own Cabaret,
hoping to cash on her beauty, fame and eccentricity. Unfortunately, luck
was not on her side.
She failed.
She became bitter
and alcoholic.
In June 1899, she
became a partner in an impresario agency and convinced the owner
Monsieur Pezon to open a night club. Once again, she failed. So, she
decided to leave Paris for good, more bitter than ever. In 1903, she
meets a shady character who did not treat her right. She became
extremely dependant on alcohol. Her beauty became to fade away and her
health deteriorated. Those who saw her could not recognize her. The once
upon a time, the Toast of Paris has become one of the frightening
shadows of the dark alleys of Paris. Flat
broke and forgotten, she returned to Montmartre, Paris in 1928 looking
for a job, any kind of job. The former Queen of Parisian Cabaret and the
envy of all the dancers and Cabaret artists of France is now selling
flowers, matches, cashew and nuts in the streets of Paris, and sometimes
on the terraces of cafes. She has become a living example of destiny
mockery, hardship of life and self destruction. She died on January 21,
1929 of a broken heart, without a single dime in her pocket, homeless
and alone. Before she closed her eyes for the last time, she asked God
to keep a small corner for her in his paradise. Louise Weber, (Her real
name. Mademoiselle La Goulue was her stage name and nickname as well)
who was larger than life when she was on the top of the world, became
smaller than the box of matches she sold, when she hit rock bottom…
When she became ill, lonely, poor and hungry,
nobody was there to give her a helping hand. The former queen of the
Nights of Paris, the friend, the woman with The big heart who
took care of everybody died alone in the streets of Paris, just like one
more shadow of a forgotten name around garbage cans and paint tubes of a
miserable homeless artist …And that is life, my amis. What a tragic real
tableau of the world of Cabaret!
SOCIO-HISTORICAL
RETROSPECTIVE
LA BELLE EPOQUE…BOHEMIANS…ADVENTURES…DRAMA…
MELODRAMA…COMEDIA…WOMEN
AND ALWAYS WOMEN…
MUSIC…ART…SONGS…NOSTALGIA WERE THE FABRIC AND SOUL OF
FRENCH CABARET.
In
the closing decade of nineteenth century Paris, a
new period retrospectively christened
La Belle Epoque
(The beautiful period) was born. As its name suggests, the Belle Epoque was
characterized by relative calm, prosperity, enterprise and social freedom.
Most
importantly for our story, the Belle Epoque gave birth to a new culture of
entertainments immediately recognizable as modern. To mark the centenary of
the French Revolution, a revolution against privilege and inequity, Paris
staged the Universal Exhibition of 1889. Here, a variety of amusements and new
technologies serviced wondrous worker and bourgeois alike. This 'level of
enjoyments' as one contemporary called it, marked a democratization of leisure
that heralded the 20th Century's invention of mass culture. As
Paris raced toward the end of the century, automation and mass production
brought heady rewards. There was more bread, wine, books, textiles,
fashionable garments and new concept Parisian department stores to buy them
in. Above all, the populace made a dizzying start on the twentieth century's
love affair with new technologies. The invention of the telegraph, the
telephone, the elevator, the bicycle, hand-held cameras, the first
automobiles, the electric light and the first mass produced typewriters - not
to mention advances in both public hygiene and in surgery, spawned an optimism
at once practical and utopian. For the Bohemians of Montmartre, who in our
story called themselves” Les Enfants de La Revolution” (The Children of the
Revolution), the promise of 'Truth, Beauty, Freedom and Love!' of a better
world, seemed germane in these unprecedented new technologies. But it wasn't
all unalloyed progress and joy. Along with the benefits of the machine age
came bitter social dilemmas. Paris drank as never before, increasingly
as a social past-time, spawning a new social disease: alcoholism.
Tuberculosis,
organized prostitution, the spread of syphilis, and overcrowding as the
promise of regular income beckoned those from farming communities to the
ever-swelling cities, abounded. Still, evidence of a new mood afoot is wittily
immortalized in a contemporary pamphlet attacking the work ethic and the
misery of workers in capitalist industry - and entitled 'The Right to be
Lazy.' Here, author Lafarge condemns the 'dogma of work,' chastises French
workers for 'vegetating in abstinence' and recommends work be confined by law
to three hours a day in favor of a new healthful 'regime of laziness”. With
the rise of organized mass labor came the new concept of 'leisure hours' and a
demand for mass entertainments. Typical French, folks, typical French!
Photo:
Kiki Heessels, a modern times European
Cabaret Star
Photo:
Lea Thompson, an American Cabaret Star
A
booming middle
class found more time for distraction - and more money to spend on it. An
ever-growing new demand for popular entertainment, for race tracks, circuses,
opera, brothels, cabarets and balls, was voiced. Indeed, turn of the century
Paris hosted some 27,000 cafes which, in tandem with the wine bars and
cabarets gave it more drinking places than any other city in the world. By
century's end, 264 cafe-concerts or 'theatres of the poor,' many of which
evolved into their grander relation the music and dance halls, also
flourished. Here, bourgeois, worker and Bohemian alike could enjoy a song or a
theatrical act for the price of a drink. All kind of distractions were in
vogue, and the low life, in particular the amorous low life, was suddenly hot.
Jane Avril
An Aristocrat, Marquise,
French-Italian Nobility, Author, Writer, Philosopher, Humanitarian, Lovers
Collector, Queen of The French Can Can, Friend of Oscar Wilde, Verlaine,
Mallarmé and the Greatest Poets of the Era…and a French Legend!
Jane Avril (1868
- ) You will never meet a woman like Jane Avril. Don’t let the naked
appearances fool you. In her own way, she was a saint and a woman with a heart
bigger and larger than the world you live in. The
life and destiny of Jane Avril were much luckier and happier than those of La
Goulue. Although, she has been called “Jeanne La Folle” (Crazy Jeanne), also
“La Mélinite” for being extremely audacious in her Can Can performance. And
she hated those nicknames. Jane, despite being a dancer who performed
completely nude, was a refined, sweet, generous, fun, audacious, liberal,
elegant lady with finesse and savoir-faire. French used to refer to her as a
lady with “ Une personnalité distinguée”, meaning a lady of a distinguished
personality. She was well read and evolved in literary circles and milieux.
She was born to a wealthy family. Much better, she was “noble”, an aristocrat,
a Marquise (Equal to Duchess in English nobility or other European royalty
hierarchies). Her father was an Italian Marquis. Why did she become an exotic
Can Can dancer? Why did she dance naked in public places and cabarets? Why did
she pose nude? Wait and see. Read the story.
Jane
spend her time, telling jokes, reading, perfecting her dance techniques,
visiting painters studios, conversing with the most illustrious writers,
authors and poets of the era and of course, regularly frequenting the famous
and infamous “Le Chat Noire”. Her father was loving and caring.
Her mother au contraire.
She used
the beat the hell out of her. So Jane, decided to run away but she
was caught by her mother. At 16, she became an intern at the office of
professor Charcot at “La Salpêtrière”. All the nurses at Charcot’s clinic
became fond of her and tried to organize a “Bal Masqué” in her honor. In
reality, she was not an apprentice nor an intern. Her mother committed her to
the hospital as “Une Folle“, meaning “Crazy”. The physicians at the hospital
began to have doubts about her insanity. They conducted further tests and
psychiatric evaluations and found her to be completely sane, and they sent her
free. Instead of returning home as her mother wanted, Jane managed to escape.
Homeless and without a dime, she took refuge at “Les Filles Publiques”, not so
good! Short after, she began to visit “Le Bal Bullier” on Boulevard Saint
Michel where a new nickname was given to her “Fil de Soie” meaning thread of
silk, because she was extremely thin. New friends at “Le Bal Bullier” invited
to go dancing at “La Closerie des Lilas”. There, by pure stroke of luck, she
encountered some of the era’s most brilliant figures of literature and
humanities such as Oscar Wilde, Arsène Houssaye, Moreas, Paul Fort, France’s
great Mallarmé and the illustrious French poet of a world fame: Verlaine.
Charming, sweet and strikingly intelligent, Jane captured the attention of
Houssaye who gladly employed her as a secretary in his office. Of course,
being a noblewoman, an aristocrat with the title of Marquise (never mind, she
was poor), helped her to approach well to do people and gave her confidence to
converse with them. Besides, being a sweet, young and poor aristocrat girl
created people interest and curiosity in learning more about this enigmatic,
aristocratic “clochard” and “vagabond” little girl. To many, she was a
puzzling little darling.
JANE AVRIL ON THE
BIG SCREEN
In1910,
she marries the French painter Maurice Biais and retires to “Jouy-en-Josas”.
She lived happily with her husband until he died. After his death, she entered
a “maison de retraite”, a retirement home where she spent her time reading,
writing poetry and sewing. Never again, to talk about her glorious past, the
fame and the success she enjoyed when she was the biggest star on the stages
of Paris. She returned one more time to Paris, her last visit to Paris in 1941
for a diner given by old friends for old time’s sake…just a friendly token to
pay homage to once upon a time, the queen of France’s Can Can. Excited by the
occasion, she stood up while everybody was still eating, kicked a chair which
was in her way and shouted “Allez Les Enfants, Une Fois En Plus!
Une Autre Dance. Peut Ertre, C’est
Ma Derniere!” meaning « Hurrah children, one more time, one more dance, maybe
this is my last!”. But this was not her last, for an impresario asked her to
choreograph a show for a major Parisian production.
Jane accepted. In her memoires, she wrote
about this. This what this sublime woman wrote : « "Je serais capable, en
dépit de mes cheveux blancs et du "qu'en dira-t-on" de me laisser emporter par
la musique! C'est peut-être l'une des multiples expressions de ce qu'il est
convenu d'appeler la folie. Si c'en est une, elle me fut toujours douce et
consolante, elle m'a aidée à vivre et je reste son esclave enchantée. Si dans
l'autre monde existent des dancings, il n'y a rien d'impossible à ce que j'y
sois conviée pour y interpréter la danse macabre. » I will
translate it for you.
« Despite
my gray hair, I shall be able to do it. It is perhaps one of those multiple
expressions, so convenient to call “madness”. And if it is this one…it has
always been sweet and comforting to me. It helped me live and to it, I shall
remain its enchanted slave. If in the other world, there is dancing, then, it
should not be impossible that I might be invited the interpret the dance
macabre !”- Jane Avril
ZSA ZSA GABOR PLAYS
JANE AVRIL ON THE SILVER SCREEN
After
her death, a movie was made about Jane’s life. Zsa Zsa Gabor was chosen the
play Jane. Katherine Kath played the role of de La Goulue, Walter
Crisham played Valentin de Désossé and Harold Kasket played Zidler.
Zsa Zsa,
née Sari. She was born on February 6, 1917, don’t tell her ! In 1936,
she became Hiss Hungary.
She was
married 8 times. One of her previous
husbands was the famous British screen actor George Sanders who later
divorced her to marry her sister Madga ! In1991, she has been arrested for
hiting a policeman. Who allegedly refused to acknowledge her star status.
She spent a few days in jail. One of her marriages to playboy Felipe de
Alba lasted only one day. Very short after, she married Prince Frederick von
Anhalt and became Zsa Zsa Princess von Anhalt and Duchess de Saxonie. Another
husband on the list was Hilton Hotel tycoon Conrad Hilton.
Photo: Jane Avril.
