TOP FLIGHT
English summary
Despite this slightly dodgy
association, an audience of
highly-respected people came
right from the start to see Mou-
lin Rouge, including Pablo Pi-
casso, Oscar Wilde and even
the Prince of Wales (to whom
one of the dancers, La Goulue,
with her leg in the air, shout-
ed: “Hey, Wales, the champagne
is on you!”). The original idea of
the creators of the cabaret was
to allow the rich and famous to
‘slum it’ in the bohemian, deca-
dent district of Montmartre, and
it was a success. Now at the cab-
aret they even hold magnifi cent
gala evenings dedicated to vari-
ous luxury brands.
Nevertheless, Moulin
Rouge did not enter into histo-
ry for that: it is best known as
the birthplace of the modern
form of the can-can dance. Ini-
tially, it was performed by both
men and women, but gradually
it turned into an exclusively fe-
male dance. Intertingly, at fi rst
the Moulin Rouge administra-
tion strictly forbade them from
showing their underwear during
the dance.
The can-can gave birth to
some real stars. Yvette Guilbert,
La Goulue, Jane Avril, Mistan-
get were constantly talked about
by connoisseurs of female beau-
ty, and the famous artist Hen-
ri de Toulouse-Lautrec, drawing
inspiration from the dancers,
created a number of works de-
picting the Moulin Rouge of
that time.
Nu mber 11 /120/ November 2019
The fi rst public striptease
was also performed at the Mou-
lin Rouge when, in 1893 at the
Four Arts Ball, one of the danc-
ers portraying Cleopatra com-
pletely undressed. And of course,
at that time the event caused
a huge scandal.
1915 brought trouble: the
cabaret burnt down, and they
were forced to close down. The
beautiful dancers were able to
continue performing only six
years later; and now, in addi-
tion to the can-can, the caba-
rets began to perform operettas
and revues. In the post-war
years, Charles Aznavour per-
formed here, and later Liza Min-
nelli joined.
They say that the 1990s
were not the best for the cab-
aret: the institution began to
slide into a fi nancial crisis.
However, the famous fi lm by Baz
Luhrmann called Moulin Rouge!
came to the rescue, which was,
by the way, the twelfth fi lm ded-
icated to the cabaret from the
time of the fi rst American silent
fi lm Moulin Rouge Dancers, shot
in 1898. The cinema brought it
great popularity.
W H AT ’ S N E A R :
L I T E R A L LY F I V E
MINUTES FROM THE
MOULIN ROUGE,
O N R U E C H A P TA L ,
YOU C AN FI N D
THE MUSEUM OF
ROMANTIC LIFE,
ONE OF THE MOST
BEAUTIFUL MUSEUMS
I N PA R I S . T H E
MANSION IT OCCUPIES
W A S B U I LT I N 1 8 3 0
FOR ARI SCHAEFFER,
The current show Féerie is
the tenth in the modern history
of Moulin Rouge, fi rst showing
in 1999. Interestingly, the names
of all ten shows begin with the
letter F, which the superstitious
Jacques Clerico decided to do
following the stunning success
of the Frou-Frou revue in 1963-
1965. He owned the cabaret until
his death in 2013. Féerie annu-
ally attracts 630,000 spectators,
only half of whom are foreign-
ers. The show involves 80 danc-
ers (60 young women and 20
young men) with fourteen dif-
ferent nationalities, 1,000 cos-
tumes and 800 pairs of shoes,
and six horses and fi ve pythons.
No less than 240,000 bottles of
champagne are drunk each year
here, and in order to serve the
850 spectators at each show, 400
people work in the cabaret.
It is noteworthy that previ-
ously the show was changed ev-
ery two to three years, but 8 mil-
lion euros were invested in the
current show, and to change it,
according to various estimates,
would cost 14 million euros. Of
course, the cost of life is con-
stantly increasing, but we al-
ways want something new!
T H E CO U R T PA I N T E R
OF KING LOUIS
PHILIPPE I. THE
GUESTS OF
THIS ELEGANT
HOUSE INCLUDED
CELEBRITIES SUCH AS
EUGÈNE DEL ACROIX,
JEAN AUGUSTE
INGRES, CHARLES
DICKENS, FREDERICK
CHOPIN AND
F R A N Z L I S Z T.