BEFORE TELEVISION or radio, a type of popular entertainment reigned which is now on the endangered species list -- the live show. Accompanied by everything from the genteel applause of sophisticates in the concert hall to the gawking of ruralites at an itinerant medicine show, the participants all had something in common: They were real. They were immediate.
It was the same in Europe, but Europe -- and in particular France -- had
something quite extraordinary: The Music Hall. While American vaudeville
had much in common with the British and French music halls, the famous
Music Halls of Paris had something more -- the massively elaborate production
numbers. More singers, more dancers, more glitter, more outrageous costumes
-- and, may we say, more exposed flesh -- came to be the hallmarks of
these establishments.
The history and impact of French Music Hall is a subject deserving far more lengthy treatment than is possible here. Still a taste of the flavor is within our reach.
Three
historic establishments stood out above the rest: The Moulin Rouge, The
Folies Bergere, and the Casino de Paris. Of these, the Moulin Rouge --
literally "Red Windmill" -- claims the longest lineage.
The Moulin Rouge is in Pigalle (pronounced "pee-gahl," and not
"pig alley," no matter what your great-grandfather claims to
remember from the Great War), a neighborhood that has built a reputation
for itself as a center of naughty nightlife (which might well displease
Pigalle himself, the sculptor after whom the district is named).
Its doors first opened on Sunday, October 6, 1889. The site had previously
been occupied by the Reine Blanche, where the most popular attraction
was an acrobatic dancer who walked on her hands, much to the delight of
packed houses. The resulting display accounts for her stage name "Nini-la-Belle-en-Cuisse,"
or Nini of the Beautiful Thighs. Thus the elements of Music Hall were
in place before the opening of the first great venue. The list of fabulous
artists whose performances echo in the corners of the Moulin Rouge is
a roll call of the greats. Volumes could be written about them. For the
present, we shall mention only three significant highlights, each indelibly
associated with the venerable establishment. The first of these is the
architecture of the Moulin Rouge itself.
The
windmill symbol is a holdover from the time of Louis XIV, when the hilltop
Montmartre section of Paris housed as many as thirty windmills. As early
as the 1500s, a visiting Italian poet remarked that the windmills "turned
as swifty as the Parisians' heads." The landmark Moulin Rouge red windmill
was modified and reconstructed several times over the years. The version
shown here represents street view as it appeared at the turn of the century.
The most remarkable feature of the early Moulin Rouge was visible only from the rear. Next to the outdoor Jardin de Paris stood an enormous stucco elephant, originally constructed for the Universal Exhibition of 1889.
A
gentleman with a single franc to spare could ascend a spiral staircase
inside one of the elephant's legs. Upon reaching the hollow belly of the
beast, the adventurous visitor was entertained by a different belly: that
of a dancer. Those of the fairer sex were denied admission into the creature.
Perhaps the ladies busied themselves with donkey rides in the garden while
their husbands marveled at the exotic undulating abdomens.
Regrettably, this extraordinary pachyderm was trundled off to the graveyard before his time. When the Moulin Rouge was rebuilt in 1906, the elephant was gone. Fortunately, a kinder fate was reserved for that other symbol of the Universal Exhibition of 1889: La Tour Eiffel.
Perhaps
the best known legacy of the Moulin Rogue is the "Can-Can." This distinctly
exhuberant dance never failed to arouse the crowd. It inspired numerous
theatrical productions, more than a few Hollywood films and has otherwise
achieved iconic significance.
The origin of the Can-Can is traceable to Celeste Mogador, a popular polka
dancer who devised the first "quadrille," to the music of Jacques Offenbach
in about 1850. By 1861, it was being copied on the London stage and had
been given the name French Cancan, meaning French tittle-tattle. The authentic
quadrille is very demanding of its performers, each of whom must have
superior qualities of balance, rhythm and stamina.
In
the words of an early reporter on the scene:
The quadrille possesses a number of features which render it memorable:
the cool indecency of the women, the eager crowd six-deep around the stage,
having come in the hope of seeing something daring, their excitement being
communicated to the performers.
Amidst
the early days of this merriment, a frequent occupant of a front-row bar
stool was an unusual little gentleman named Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.
Eccentric
in appearance and in manner, he was also a 
genius.
Regularly accompanied by two companions -- a glass of wine and a sketch
pad, with the deft strokes of his pencil he captured the intimate movements
of the dancers, their suggestive gestures and expressions, the bellowing
red faces of the drunken applauders -- in short, the gaiety of the moment.
Soon, his sketches became posters and the reputations of the artist and
the dance hall became forever intertwined.
In ensuing decades, the Moulin Rouge reigned as one of the predominant halls featuring famous comics, singers, dancers and lavish production numbers.
The Moulin Rouge, its glory days behind it, continues to entertain foreign tourists a century after its debut. the Can-Can still a staple of its productions. The sketches of Toulouse-Latrec, once handed out to his subjects as a favor, are now found only in museums and the private collections of private persons. Or, of course, on the Web.
Both the Moulin Rouge and the Can-Can have been immortalized on the screen more than once. Indeed, there have been at least nine such films. Those most readily available include: "Moulin Rouge," the 1953 John Huston film with Jose Ferrer, which recounts the story of Toulouse-Latrec, and "Can-Can," the 1960 film with Shirley MacLaine, Frank Sinatra, Maurice Chevalier, Juliet Prowse, and Louis Jourdan, each of which are available on video and most recently in the superb movie by Baz Luhrmann.
Moulin Rouge: The Splendid Illustrated Book
Moulin Rouge Hotel History Book
Toulouse-Lautrec: At the Moulin Rouge
