 The entrance in 2013, after renovations | |
  Folies Bergère Location within Paris | |
| Address | 32 Rue Richer Paris France |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 48°52′27″N2°20′42″E / 48.8742°N 2.3449°E /48.8742; 2.3449 |
| Designation | Cabaret music hall |
| Construction | |
| Opened | 2 May 1869 |
| Architect | Plumeret |
| Website | |
| Foliesbergere.com | |
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TheFolies Bergère (French pronunciation:[fɔlibɛʁʒɛʁ]) is acabaret music hall inParis, France. Located at 32 Rue Richer in the9th Arrondissement, the Folies Bergère was built as anopera house by the architect Plumeret. It opened on 2 May 1869 as theFolies Trévise, with light entertainment includingoperettas, comic opera, popular songs, and gymnastics. It became the Folies Bergère on 13 September 1872, named after nearby Rue Bergère. The house was at the height of its fame and popularity from the 1890s'Belle Époque through the 1920s.
Revues featured extravagant costumes, sets and effects, and often nude women. In 1926,Josephine Baker, anAfrican-American expatriate singer, dancer and entertainer, caused a sensation at the Folies Bergère by dancing in a costume consisting of jewelry and abikini bottom with rubber bananas attached.
The institution is still in business, and is still a strong symbol of French and Parisian life. The métro stations areCadet andGrands Boulevards.
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The Folies Bergère, located at 32 Rue Richer in the9th Arrondissement of Paris, was opened on 2 May 1869 under the name Folies Trévise as anopera house patterned after theAlhambra music hall in London by architectPlumeret, who was a building inspector of theFrench crown.
The term "folies" refers to pleasure houses, vacation homes built from the end of the 18th century near large cities to discreetly shelter the adulterous loves of the bourgeoisie and aristocrats.
When starting out as the Folies Trévise, it included light entertainment such asoperettas,opéra comique (comic opera), popular songs and gymnastics. The original name derived from the street of that name by the stage door. However, theDuc de Trévise objected.
On 13 September 1872, it became the Folies Bergère, named after a nearby street, Rue Bergère ("bergère" means "shepherdess").[4]
In 1882,Édouard Manet painted his well-known paintingA Bar at the Folies-Bergère which depicts a bar-girl, one of thedemimondaines, standing before a mirror.
In 1886,Édouard Marchand conceived a new genre of entertainment for the Folies Bergère: themusic-hallrevue. Women would be the heart of Marchand's concept for the Folies. In 30 November 1886, the Folies Bergère, staged the first revue-style music hall showPlace au jeûne !, featuringAlice Berthier [fr] and scantily clad chorus girls, was a tremendous success.
In the early 1890s, the American dancerLoie Fuller starred at the Folies Bergère. In 1902, illness forced Marchand to leave after 16 years.[5]
In 1907, at the age of 13,Yvonne Printemps was dancing at theFolies Bergère.[6]
In 1918,Paul Derval [fr] (1880–1966)[7] made his mark on the revue. His revues featured extravagant costumes, sets and effects, and "small nude women". Derval's small nude women would become the hallmark of the Folies. During his 48 years at the Folies, he launched the careers of many French stars includingMaurice Chevalier,Mistinguett,Josephine Baker,Fernandel and many others.
In 1926, Baker, anAfrican-American expatriate singer, dancer, and entertainer, caused a sensation at the Folies Bergère in a new revue,La Folie du Jour, in which she danced a numberFatou wearing a costume consisting of a skirt made of a string of artificial bananas and little else, andUn Vent De Folie(1927).[8] Hererotic dancing and near-nude performances were renowned. The Folies Bergère catered to popular taste. Shows featured elaborate costumes; the women's were frequently revealing, practically leaving them naked, and shows often contained a good deal ofnudity. Shows also played up the "exoticness" of people and objects from other cultures, indulging the Parisian fascination with thenégritude of the 1920s.
In 1926 the facade of the theatre was given a complete make-over by the artistMaurice Pico [fr]. The facade was redone inArt Deco style, one of the many Parisian theatres of this period using the style.[9]
Nulls de Folies being followed byFolies en Folie and thenEn Super-Folies[10]
In 1931, in the revueL'usine à folies,[11][12]Malian dancer Melka Soudani starred with Senegalese dancerFéral Benga in the actSur le plateau de la négresse.[13]
In 1936,Josephine Baker returned fromNew York City and Derval signed her to lead the revueEn Super Folies.[14]
In 1937,Margaret Kelly hiredConstance Tomkinson.[15]
Michel Gyarmathy [de], a Hungarian fromBalassagyarmat, designed the poster forEn Super Folies and lasted 56 years at the Folies Bergère.
The funeral of Paul Derval was held on 20 May 1966. He was 86 and had reigned supreme over the most celebrated music hall in the world. His wife Antonia Derval, supported by Michel Gyarmathy, succeeded him. In August 1974, Antonia Derval passed on the direction of the business toHélène Martini, the empress of the night (25 years earlier she had been a showgirl in the revues).
Since 2006, the Folies Bergère has presented some musical productions withStage Entertainment likeCabaret (2006–2008) orZorro (2009–2010).
The Folies Bergère inspired theZiegfeld Follies in theUnited States and other similar shows, including theTeatro Follies inMexico and a long-standing revue,The Las Vegas Folies Bergere, at theTropicana Resort & Casino inLas Vegas, which opened in 1959, closed at the end of March 2009 after nearly 50 years in operation.[17][18][19]
In the 1930s and '40s the impresario Clifford C. Fischer staged several Folies Bergere productions in the United States. These included theFolies Bergère of 1939 at the Broadway Theater in New York[20] and theFolies Bergère of 1944 at theWinterland Ballroom[21][22] inSan Francisco.
A recent example isFaceboyz Folliez, a monthly burlesque and variety show at theBowery Poetry Club inNew York City.[23][24]
Folies Bergère is mentioned in the movie,The Last Time I Saw Paris.
It is also mentioned in the movie,Nine.
![Lina Cavalieri poster by PAL, 1897[25]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.m.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aAffiche_Folies_Berg%25C3%25A8re_La_Cavalieri.jpg)
![Josephine Baker dancing the Charleston for the silent film La Folie du jour [fr] (1926), from Revue nègre [fr], at the Folies Bergère, Paris](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.m.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aBaker_Charleston.jpg)
Venues:
Theatre groups:
Shows:
From the mid-1920s into the 1930s and 1940s, Benga appeared in a barrage of onstage tableaux that included the primitivist revue Sur le plateau de la négresse (On the Tray [Lip] of the Negress), in which he starred alongside the electrifying female Malian dancer Melka Soudani.
Book
Translated by Lucienne Hill (c) E.P. Dutton & Co
Nulls de Folies being followed by Folies en Folie and then En Super-Folies, a build- up of inanity, until, after the war, they gave in to Folies-Cocktail
In 1931, Melka Soudani performed with Senegalese dancerFéral Benga in the primitivist act "Sur le plateau de la négresse"...
French program, 40 pp., die cut wrappers showing Baker in a color plate by J.G. Domergue. When Baker made her Parisian return, she headlined this revue, and this book devotes a number of its pages to documenting her various musical numbers.
Alhambra, Ambassadeurs,Casino de Paris et Folies-Bergères, quatre salles emblématiques dont ce mémoire propose une étude de cas afin de dresser un état des lieux du music-hall parisien entre 1917 et 1940.
translated from the French by Lucienne Hill. With a preface by Maurice Chevalier
... the Folies Bergère , 32 Rue Richter . Directed by M. Paul Derval , and witnessed " C ' est de la Folie " ( It is a folly ) in two acts and 35 tableaux . We thought the Casino show bold on Saturday night . It was a Sunday school tableaux ...
Folies Bergère
... Paul Derval , a seventy - two- year - old Frenchman with a pink tie , a long cigarette holder , a fashionable wife , and a Broadway press agent . We embarked on the expedition because M. Derval is the director of the Folies- Bergère , a ...
... Paul Derval , longtime manager of the Folies - Bergère , beautiful prostitutes were given special passes that allowed them to enter without paying , a practice Derval ended in 1918.35 It was only good business sense to admit prostitutes ...
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