Other pages are devoted to Le Moulin Rouge and Le Moulin de la Galette. They were lynchpin cabarets in Montmartre, and are visited in the first two novels. There are two other cabarets have starring roles in A Harmony of Hells. And, beyond them, many other fascinating venues important in the era.
Here is L’Enfer, Hell, where Averill Charron and Blaise Dancier meet for the first time.
At night, patrons are greeted at the door by a demon or a Satanic figure. Inside, the sculptures of damned souls continue to writhe and crevices in the walls teem with various visual effects of fire, molten metals, and hissing puffs of sulfurous steam.
Numerous red tables stood against the fiery walls; at these sat the visitors… Instantly it became aglow with a mysterious light, which kept flaring up and disappearing in an erratic fashion; flames darted from the walls, fires crackled and roared.**
Blaise is very fond of a seething bumper of molten sins.
One of the imps came to take our order; it was for three coffees, black, with cognac; and this is how he shrieked the order: “Three seething bumpers of molten sins, with a dash of brimstone intensifier!” Then, when he had brought it, “This will season your intestines, and render them invulnerable, for a time at least, to the tortures of the melted iron that will be soon poured down your throats.” The glasses glowed with a phosphorescent light. “Three francs seventy-five, please, not counting me. Make it four francs. Thank you well. Remember that though hell is hot, there are cold drinks if you want them.”**
The Devil himself appears to provide torturous entertainment and promises of damnation.
The Cabaret du Néant
First it was the Cabaret Philosophique in Brussels, then the Cabaret de la Mort (Death) in Paris. After the death of a local, it was finally rechristened the Cabaret du Néant or the Cabaret of Nothingness.
It’s Salle d’Intoxication was staged with chandeliers of human bones suspended over tables shaped like coffins. Undertakers and monks waited on the patrons. The served serving drinks named after vile diseases, held inside skull-shaped cups.
The occasional ghost would wander through the room. On the surrounding walls, paintings slowly mutated into scenes of carnage. Averill is feeling very bleak when he visits, though he has fond memories of an evolving painting based on Poe’s story, “The Mask of the Red Death.”
In a separate room, visitors were invited to watch a shrouded figure rot into a skeleton.
The Cabaret du Ciel
Next door to the red and black entrance to L’Enfer was the celestial blue and white facade of the Cabaret du Ciel, its heavenly counterpart.
Those who did not want to be seduced by demons could try their luck with angels, while harps play sweetly in the background.
“Presently we reached the gilded gates of Le Cabaret du Ciel. They were bathed in a cold blue light from above. Angels, gold-lined clouds, saints, sacred palms and plants, and other paraphernalia suggestive of the approach to St. Peter’s domain, filled all the available space about the entree. A bold white placard, “Bock, I Franc,” was displayed in the midst of it all. Dolorous church music sounded within, and the heavens were unrolled as a scroll in all their tinsel splendor as we entered to the bidding of an angel….
“A very long table covered with white extended the whole length of the chilly room, and seated at it, drinking, were scores of candidates for angelship, mortals like ourselves. Men and women were they, and though noisy and vivacious, they indulged in nothing like the abandon of the Boul’ Mich’ cafes. Gilded vases and candelabra, together with foamy bocks, somewhat relieved the dead whiteness of the table. The ceiling was an impressionistic rendering of blue sky, fleecy clouds, and golden stars, and the walls were made to represent the noble enclosure and golden gates of paradise.”
“Flitting about the room were many more angels, all in white robes and with sandals on their feet, and all wearing gauzy wings swaying from their shoulder-blades and brass halos above their yellow wigs. These were the waiters, the garcons of heaven, ready to take orders for drinks. “Two sparkling draughts of heaven’s own brew and one star-dazzler!” yelled our angel. “Thy will be done,” came the response from a hidden bar.”
Lapin Agile
It existed circa 1860 under the name Au rendez-vous des voleurs meaning “Where the Thieves Meet.”[1] Some twenty years later the walls were decorated with portraits of famous murderers and the place became known as the Cabaret des Assassins.[2] Tradition relates that the cabaret received this name because a band of gangsters broke in and killed the owner’s son in a robbery attempt.[3] In 1875, the artist Andre Gill painted the sign that was to suggest its permanent name. It was a picture of a rabbit jumping out of a saucepan, and residents began calling their neighbourhood night-club Le Lapin à Gill, meaning “Gill’s rabbit.” Over time, the name had evolved into “Cabaret Au Lapin Agile,” or the Nimble Rabbit Cabaret. The original painting on canvas was stolen in 1893;[4] a reproduction on timber was painted to take its place.
The Lapin Agile was bought in the early twentieth century by the cabaret singer, comedian, and nightclub owner Aristide Bruant to save it from demolition.[5] The Lapin Agile became a favourite spot for struggling artists and writers, including Picasso, Modigliani, Apollinaire, Roman Greco and Utrillo.
The Lapin Agile is located in the centre of the Montmartre district in the 18th arrondissement of Paris, behind and slightly northwest of Sacre Coeur Basilica. Since this was the heart of artistic Paris at the turn of the twentieth century, there was much discussion at the cabaret about “the meaning of art.”
The Lapin Agile was also popular with Montmartre residents including pimps, eccentrics, poorer people, local anarchists, as well as with students from the Latin Quarter and a sprinkling of upper-class bourgeoisie.
Existing venue
The Lapin Agile is largely unchanged and maintains its tradition as an informal cabaret venue. It is located in a stone building on the steep and cobbled Rue des Saules and showcases poets and singers who perform French songs dating back as far as the fifteenth century.[6]
Legacy
Pablo Picasso’s 1905 oil painting, Au Lapin Agile (“At the Lapin Agile”) helped to make this cabaret world-famous.[7] The cabaret has been captured on canvas by other Montmartre artists, such as Maurice Utrillo and Roman Greco.[8] INTERIOR DIDIER DESCOUENS
Le Cat Noir
The iconic Black Cat Cabaret poster by Théophile Steinlen can be found everywhere – though more in Montmartre than anywhere else.
Le Chat Noir may be the first modern cabaret. Its arrival on the Left Bank was popularized by Les Hydropathes, a group of young artists and writers radical in their politics as well as their art, who claimed their fear of water meant they must drink only alcohol.
With exaggerated, ironic politeness, Salis most often played the role of conférencier (post-performance lecturer, or master of ceremonies). It was here that the Salon des Arts Incohérents (Salon of Incoherent Arts), and comic monologues got their start.
It was famous for its shadow plays.
Its success was assured with the wholesale arrival of a group of radical young writers and artists called Les Hydropathes (“those who are afraid of water – so they drink only wine”), a club led by the journalist Émile Goudeau. The group claimed to be averse to water, preferring wine and beer. Their name doubled as a nod to the “rabid” zeal with which they advocated their sociopolitical and aesthetic agendas. Goudeau’s club met in his house on the Rive Gauche (Left Bank), but had become so popular that it outgrew its meeting place. Salis met Goudeau, whom he convinced to relocate the club meeting place across the river on rue de Laval (now rue Victor-Massé).[4]Le Chat Noir is thought to be the first modern cabaret:[1] a nightclub where the patrons sat at tables and drank alcoholic beverages while being entertained by a variety show on stage. The acts were introduced by a master of ceremonies who interacted with well-known patrons at the tables. Its imitators have included cabarets from St. Petersburg (Stray Dog Café) to Barcelona (Els Quatre Gats) to London’s Cave of the Golden Calf.
The cabaret began by renting the cheapest accommodations it could find, a small two-room site located at 84 Boulevard Rochechouart, which is now commemorated by a historical plaque.
Le Chat Noir Cabaret original location at 84, Boulevard Rochechouart
Detail from LE CHAT NOIR journal, number 152, 6 Decembre 1884.
Second site
Le Chat Noir soon outgrew its first site. In June 1885, three and a half years after opening, it moved to larger accommodations at 12 Rue Victor-Massé. The new venue was the sumptuous old private mansion of the Belgian painter Alfred Stevens, who, at Salis’ request, transformed it into a “fashionable country inn” with the help of the architect Maurice Isabey.
Soon a growing crowd of poets and singers was gathering at Le Chat Noir, which offered an ideal venue and opportunity to practice their acts before fellow performers, guests and colleagues.
With exaggerated, ironic politeness, Salis most often played the role of conférencier (post-performance lecturer, or master of ceremonies). It was here that the Salon des Arts Incohérents (Salon of Incoherent Arts), shadow plays, and comic monologues got their start.
Among the many celebrated men and women to visit Le Chat Noir were Claude Debussy and Erik Satie, August Strindberg and Paul Verlaine, Jane Avril and Yvette Guilbert, Adolphe Willette and André Gill, as well as Paul Signac and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.
The last shadow play by Salis’ company was staged in January 1897, after which Salis took the company on tour. Salis was talking of plans to move the cabaret to a location in Paris itself, but he died on 19 March 1897.
The death of Rodophe Salis in 1897 spelled the end of Le Chat Noir. By that time the fascination with Montmartre had already diminished, and Salis had already disposed of many of the club’s assets and facilities. Soon after Salis’ death, the artists dispersed, and Le Chat Noir slowly disappeared.
Last location
Third location of Le Chat Noir at 68 Boulevard de Clichy Paris (image from 1929)
Le Chat Noir c.1920
Modern appearance of the last site of Le Chat Noir at 68, Boulevard de Clichy
Ten years later, in 1907, Jehan Chargot opened an eponymous café in an effort to resurrect, modernize, and continue the work of his illustrious predecessor. This new Chat Noir, located at 68, boulevard de Clichy, remained popular into the 1920s.[5]
Today a neon sign which incorporates Steinlen’s iconic Chat Noir image is on display at 68, Boulevard de Clichy, now the site of a hotel by the same name.
Other cabarets successfully copied and adapted the model established by Le Chat Noir.[6] In December 1899, Henri Fursy opened his Boîte à Fursy cabaret in the former Chat Noir hotel on rue Victor-Massé. He claimed to have inherited the mantle of Salis, and said his cabaret “has thanks to Fursy become once again the goal of all who ‘climb Montmartre’ to hear their favorite chansonniers (singers)…”[7]
Shadow play
From its opening, Le Chat Noir was thought of as a meeting point for artists, with an interior design in the style of Louis XIII. In the beginning, poets, musicians, writers, and singers performed on the stage, but they were quickly replaced as the shadow play medium developed at Le Chat Noir and spread from there. The cabaret is still remembered for these.
The shadow play had already been established in France in the 18th century and made popular by Dominique Séraphin, but it had disappeared from the art world during the 19th century. Le Chat Noir was the major cause of the shadow play’s renewed popularity in France, as Lotte Reiniger was in Germany by her linking of such shows to the cinema by creating characters from cutout figures and projecting them as shadow puppets.
The birth of the shadow plays in Le Chat Noir took place in a peculiar way. By the end of 1885, the painter Henry Sommer and the illustrator George Auriol built a puppet theater there, intended for adults-only performances. One day Henri Rivière placed a white napkin in front of the opening of the small puppet theater and moved a cardboard puppet behind the white screen with lighting from behind, while Jules Jouy sang, accompanying himself on piano. This was the first shadow play in Le Chat Noir.
In 1887 Rivière replaced the puppet theater with a proper shadow theater, with a screen 44 inches high and 55 inches wide, held by a huge frame. Artists such as cartoonist Adolphe Willette, painter Caran d’Ache, Henri Rivière and George Auriol created the cabaret’s shadow plays. They used zinc to create the silhouettes of a few characters (although initially they used cardboard), which they used as puppets, projecting their shadow onto a white screen which was illuminated from behind with electric lights. This was an evolutionary development in the art of shadow plays.
Writers who frequented the club wrote stories for the shadow theater that Rodolphe Salis, the owner of the cabaret, would read out loud after the performance. Thanks to the collaboration of many of the artists of that time, the stories were accompanied by some very complex colour, sound, and movement effects, making them more dynamic and exciting, as well as piano accompaniment.
Over an eleven-year span these plays were presented nightly in the Shadow Theater, totaling more than forty. The Montmartre museum still has a few zinc shapes that had been used in the plays.
The spread of this type of show became successful because of Théophile Steinlen’s poster announcing “la tournée du Chat Noir avec Rodolphe Salis”, a Shadow Theater tour from Le Chat Noir.
Le Chat Noir made many tours with the Shadow Theater. These started in 1892, basically around France during the summer, although Salis and the company went to Tunis, Algeria, and other French-speaking countries such as Belgium. Some of the artists who played in Salis’ performances became so famous that they founded their own cabarets or shows. Le Chat Noir was supposed to have its last show and tour in January 1897, since Salis died just after that. However, it was his wife who took the charge of the cabaret and organised other tours. During these shows, Dominique Bonnaud replaced Salis and became the storyteller. Although he did it well, the quality of the performances declined. By then, other establishments had become popular by copying Le Chat noir’s techniques, shows and decor.
Under the management of Rodolphe Salis, Le Chat noir produced 45[8] théatre d’ombres (shadow play) shows between 1885 and 1896, as the art became more popular in Europe. Behind a screen on the second floor of the establishment, the artist Henri Rivière worked with up to 20 assistants in a large, oxy-hydrogen backlit performance area and used a double optical lantern to project backgrounds. Originally cardboard cutouts were used, but zinc figures took their place after 1887. Various artists took part in the creation, including Steinlen, Adolphe Willette and Albert Robida. Caran d’Ache designed around 50 cutouts for the very popular 1888 show L’Epopée.
*** Quotes from Bohemian Paris of Today (1900) by Edouard Cucuel