Other pages are devoted to Le Moulin Rouge and Le Moulin de la Galette, lynchpin cabarets in Montmartre, there are three other cabarets that make an appearance in my books, one with a starring role.
both o
L’Enfer & Le Ciel
Neant
Le Cat Noir
Lapin Agile
The Nouvelle Athènes
A revolutionary architecture for the auditorium that allowed rapid changes of décor and where everyone could mix;
Festive champagne evenings where people danced and were entertained thanks to amusing acts that changed regularly, such as Le Pétomane;
A new dance inspired by the quadrille which becomes more and more popular: The Can-can, danced to a furious rhythm by dancers in titillating costumes;
Famous dancers whom history still remembers: la Goulue, Jane Avril, la Môme Fromage, Grille d’Egout, Nini Pattes en l’Air, Yvette Guilbert, Valentin le désossé, and the clown Cha-U-Kao;
A place loved by artists, including Toulouse-Lautrec whose posters and paintings secured rapid and international fame for the Moulin Rouge.
Le Ciel
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.
litting 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. One of these, with the face of a heavy villain in a melodrama and a beard a week old, roared unmelodiously, “The greetings of heaven to thee, brothers! Eternal bliss and happiness are for thee. Mayst thou never swerve from its golden paths! Breathe thou its sacred purity and renovating exaltation. Prepare to meet thy great Creator and don’t forget the garcon!”
Ceil & Enfer 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.
“Brothers, your orders! Command me, thy servant!” growled a ferocious angel at our elbows, with his accent de la Villette, and his brass halo a trifle askew. Mr. Thompkins had been very quiet, for he was Wonder in the flesh, and perhaps there was some distress in his face, but there was courage also. The suddenness of the angel’s assault visibly disconcerted him, he did not know what to order. Finally he decided on a verre de Chartreuse, green. Bishop and I ordered bocks.
“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.
Obscured by great masses of clouds, through whose intervals shone golden stars, an organ continually rumbled sacred music, which had a depressing rather than a solemn effect, and even the draughts of heaven’s own brew and the star-dazzler failed to dissipate the gloom.
Suddenly, without the slightest warning, the head of St. Peter, whiskers and all, appeared in a hole in the sky, and presently all of him emerged, even to his ponderous keys clanging at his girdle. He gazed solemnly down upon the crowd at the tables and thoughtfully scratched his left wing. From behind a dark cloud he brought forth a vessel of white crockery (which was not a wash-bowl) containing (ostensibly) holy water. After several mysterious signs and passes with his bony hands he generously sprinkled the sinners below with a brush dipped in the water; and then, with a parting blessing, he slowly faded into mist.
Crevices in the walls of this room ran with streams of molten gold and silver, and here and there were caverns lit up by smouldering fires from which thick smoke issued, and vapors emitting the odors of a volcano. Flames would suddenly burst from clefts in the rocks, and thunder rolled through the caverns. Red imps were everywhere, darting about noiselessly, some carrying beverages for the thirsty lost souls, others stirring the fires or turning somersaults. Everything was in a high state of motion.
L’Enfer
Numerous red tables stood against the fiery walls; at these sat the visitors. Mr. Thompkins seated himself at one of them. 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. 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.”
Presently Satan himself strode into the cavern, gorgeous in his imperial robe of red, decked with blazing jewels, and brandishing a sword from which fire flashed. His black moustaches were waxed into sharp points, and turned rakishly upward above lips upon which a sneering grin appeared. Thus he leered at the new arrivals in his domain. His appearance lent new zest to the activity of the imps and musicians, and all cowered under his glance. Suddenly he burst into a shrieking laugh that gave one a creepy feeling. It rattled through the cavern with a startling effect as he strode up and down. It was a triumphant, cruel, merciless laugh. All at once he paused in front of a demure young Parisienne seated at a table with her escort, and, eying her keenly, broke into this speech: “Ah, you! Why do you tremble? How many men have you sent hither to damnation with those beautiful eyes, those rosy, tempting lips? Ah, for all that, you have found a sufficient hell on earth. But you,” he added, turning fiercely upon her escort, “you will have the finest, the most exquisite tortures that await the damned. For what? For being a fool. It is folly more than crime that hell punishes, for crime is a disease and folly a sin. You fool! For thus hanging upon the witching glance and oily words of a woman you have filled all hell with fuel for your roasting. You will suffer such tortures as only the fool invites, such tortures only as are adequate to punish folly. Prepare for the inconceivable, the unimaginable, the things that even the king of hell dare not mention lest the whole structure of damnation totter and crumble to dust.”
CIEL
Because the Cabaret du Ciel and the Cabaret de L’Enfer were next door to each other, customers could visit both and get an idea of these two very different concepts of entertainment. The two operations took advantage of their proximity and enhanced it further by taking radically different approaches on their exterior design.[5] The storefront of the Ciel was painted in white and blue, and was decorated by angels, while Hell’s façade was painted in red and black and its entrance featured giant satanic jaws.[5]
The cabaret followed the trend of similar establishments of the era which focused their entertainment on death and the afterlife. The atmosphere inside the cabaret was provided by harp music, a master of ceremonies playing the role of a priest, and a selection of plays centered around themes involving the depiction of the joys of the heavenly afterlife.[6]
Inside the restaurant, beer was served, and the customers were greeted by acts such as angels playing music, St. Peter sprinkling holy water from the heavens, as well as reenactments of scenes related to Dante’s Inferno.[7] In one part of the hall, there was a giant golden pig, surrounded by candles. The patrons formed a line, as they approached the statue of the animal, bowing and making the sign of the cross before it.[7]
Illustrations by W. C. Morrow
Contents
1 History
2 Theme
3 Illustrations by W. C. Morrow
4 Cultural Depictions
5 References
6 Further reading
History
Cabaret du Néant vault of the sad ghosts.
The Cabaret du Néant was an early pioneer of the modern theme restaurant; its theme was death. The original theme restaurant, called at the time “Cabaret philosophique”, was first established in Brussels in 1892, and soon after relocated to Boulevard Rochechouart in Paris under the name Cabaret de la Mort (The Cabaret of Death). In the 1890s,[6] following the death of an area resident, the cabaret was renamed “Cabaret du Néant” because it was thought that “Néant” (nothingness) was less frightening to local residents. The cabaret was eventually moved to number 34, Boulevard de Clichy.[1][7][6] At this address, the cabaret is listed under the category “Cabarets Artistiques” in the 1904 edition of Baedeker’s Paris and Its Environs.[8] In 1896 the cabaret sponsored performances in New York City, at the Casino Chambers, Thirty-ninth Street and Broadway.[2][9][10][11]
Theme
The Salle d’Intoxication (Intoxication Hall) at the Cabaret du Néant featuring coffin-shaped tables, and chandeliers made of human bones
Inside the cabaret, the patrons were led by a monk through a dark hall to the drinking area, where the waiters were dressed as undertakers.[12][8] Presenters would then show paintings of people who would transform into skeletons.[8] The monk also led the patrons into another room, where a member of the audience was invited to participate in a magic trick, by entering a coffin. The volunteer was subsequently wrapped in a white shroud, and apparently transformed into a skeleton, and then back into human form.[8]
Once inside the drinking area, the customers were told to take “bières”, a word meaning both a beer and a coffin (“bier”) in French.[13] In the “Salle d’Intoxication” (Intoxication Hall),[1] which featured chandeliers made of human bones,[1] customers drank alcoholic beverages served in cups shaped like human skulls,[9][14] while sitting at coffin-shaped tables.[1][13]
The decor of the cabaret was redolent with skeletons and corpses.[13] Magic tricks were performed in which patrons appeared to dissolve into skeletons and ghosts would enter the rooms of the cabaret.[13] It was a place that provided entertainment for the patrons, while at the same time, the mock-gothic theme could also cause worry and distress.[13] The Cabaret du Néant is credited with producing “one of the most original adaptations” of Pepper’s ghost.[9] Scientific American called the New York performance of the Cabaret “[A] most interesting performance based upon the principles of the well known ‘Pepper’s ghost'”.[10]
Illustrations by W. C. Morrow
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
The Nouvelle Athènes was a café in the Place Pigalle in Paris, France. It was a meeting place for impressionist painters, including Matisse, Van Gogh and Degas. Degas painted L’Absinthe in this place. Another notable denizen was the eccentric composer Erik Satie, who played the piano in the cafe, and was there introduced to a fifteen-year-old Maurice Ravel by Ravel’s father. Absinthe painting Manet?Le Chat Noir (French pronunciation: [lə ʃa nwaʁ]; French for “The Black Cat”) was a nineteenth-century entertainment establishment, in the bohemian Montmartre district of Paris. It was opened on 18 November 1881 at 84 Boulevard de Rochechouart by the impresario Rodolphe Salis, and closed in 1897 not long after Salis’ death.
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.
In its heyday it was a bustling nightclub that was part artist salon, part rowdy music hall. From 1882 to 1895 the cabaret published a weekly magazine with the same name, featuring literary writings, news from the cabaret and Montmartre, poetry, and political satire.[2][3] It was the subject of an iconic Théophile Steinlen poster in 1896.
Contents
1 Early history
2 Second site
3 Last location
4 Shadow play
5 Cultural associations
6 References
6.1 Sources
7 Further reading
8 External links
Early history
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.
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]
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.
Famous men and women to patronize Le Chat Noir included Jane Avril, Franc-Nohain, Adolphe Willette, Caran d’Ache, André Gill, Émile Cohl, Paul Bilhaud, Sarah England, Paul Verlaine, Henri Rivière, Claude Debussy, Erik Satie, Charles Cros, Jules Laforgue, Yvette Guilbert, Charles Moréas, Albert Samain, Louis Le Cardonnel, Coquelin Cadet, Emile Goudeau, Alphonse Allais, Maurice Rollinat, Maurice Donnay, Armand Masson, Aristide Bruant, Théodore Botrel, Paul Signac, Porfirio Pires, August Strindberg, George Auriol, Marie Krysinska, 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.
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