History of the Moulin Rouge. France

126 years ago, an institution was opened in Paris that cannot be called another word like a “phenomenon”. Its walls have "seen" scandals, intrigues, trials, public recognition and censure. Almost from the first days of opening, it has become popular, and today there is no end to visitors. The world-famous cabaret-variety show Moulin Rouge in Paris is put on the same level of the honorary pedestal with such sights of the capital as Notre Dame Cathedral, the Arc de Triomphe, the Eiffel Tower.

From the history of the legendary cabaret

The visitors of the new cabaret were a very diverse audience: petty bourgeois, creative intelligentsia, aristocrats, members of the royal family. And on the stage, former laundresses, street girls, aristocrats, girls with a good upbringing and without it at all shone. The main "pass" to the Moulin Rouge troupe was the desire to dance, and to dance well, to surprise the audience.

Cabaret opened at the foot of Montmartre - the highest point in Paris. Its owners - Spanish entrepreneur Joseph Oller and his partner Charles Zidler - deliberately chose this place. Firstly, in Montmartre lived mainly representatives of Bohemia, who liked the unbridled life, and the cabaret in those days was positioned as a brothel. Secondly, from May to the end of October 1889, the World Exhibition was planned in Paris, which means that moneybags, and most of them men, were supposed to come to the city. Thirdly, on the Boulevard Clichy, the place of the collapsed tavern "Rev Blanche" was "empty", which was ideal for companions.

In exactly to last month exhibition Moulin Rouge hospitably opened its doors to the first visitors. The original creators decided that best idea the appearance of a structure than a windmill, they cannot be found. However, this idea was prompted by a restaurant with dance hall Moulin de la Galette on Montmartre. He was captured in his painting by the artist Renoir. Today this painting hangs in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris. In ancient times, Montmartre really stood windmills and the vineyards grew.

The red color of the new cabaret hinted at the proximity to the Red Light District, a district of Paris where prostitution flourished. open entertainment establishment assumed the looseness of visitors: alcohol, frivolous dances, card games, cutie dancers of free morals.

Cancan

But the main "trump card" of the cabaret was a frantic, vulgar, bewitching and frank cancan. It is considered a derivative of the rural quadrille with the introduction of acrobatic elements into the dance, which the dancer Charles Masurier first began to use in movements. In Paris, it was danced by women, and alone. The manner of performing the cancan by a group of dancers came much later.

By the way, the French Channel neighbors, the British, did not like the Cancan at all. They found it vulgar and tasteless. But the French adored the cancan, because it gave a certain freedom in movements, and even brought to "madness". IN good sense words, of course. No one better than one famous dancer could describe this dance: “... At the last note of the ritornello I am intoxicated. Then the frenzy becomes unprecedented. My hands are insane, my legs too. I need movement, noise, Sodom; it's a kind of concussion, pouring from the legs to the head. Everything worries around me - decorations, furniture, candles. We can say that all this conspired to give me music. At this moment, if the wall were in front of me, I would seem to have passed through it ...»

La Goulue

The prima of the first generation of the Moulin Rouge dance floor is considered Louise Weber, nicknamed La Goulue (“glutton”). This young lady loved to dance and had an enviable stretch. Her childhood and youth were spent in the backyards of Paris, where she vegetated in poverty and helped her mother, a laundress, wash the clothes of rich French women. The mother had no idea how her daughter, secretly from her, put on beautiful client skirts and ran away to dance in local pubs. She danced with inspiration, boldly, and dreamed of being seen by the venerable public. And one day Charles Zidler noticed her.

He was struck on the spot by the way the girl danced. She moved her hips and tossed her legs so erotically that it seemed as if they were on hinges. Zidler decided that she was just what the new variety show needed, and he did not lose. The girl was young, groovy, artistic, and danced the cancan so that she quickly became the favorite of the public. In addition, she was not distinguished by the severity of manners and upbringing. Dancing between the tables of customers, La Goulue, with the grace of a cat, was able to discreetly drink a glass of a stranger. Her temperament and audacity were not a minus, but a big plus, which was regarded by the audience sitting in the hall as a spicy and very erotic element of the show.

La Gulyu did her best! The administration supported all her "antics", because the success of the dancer was automatically the success of the institution. Once she was so dispersed that, noticing the English heir to the throne in the hall, she contrived and kicked off his hat with the toe of her shoe. And then she also shouted: “Hey, Galsky! Champagne for you!"

Toulouse-Lautrec

The young Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec fell in love with Louise. This artist from a noble family was a frequenter of nightclubs and brothels. As a child, he suffered a serious leg injury and stopped growing. Even though he had to quit Father's house, where his father did not recognize him at all, Henri remained a good fellow. He specifically settled in Montmartre, where brothels were teeming with swarms. It was only there that he felt at home.

Lautrec was a very good artist and painted in the style of impressionism. Becoming someone to prove to his dad how talented, albeit a cripple, he was was part of his essence. But over time, he was no longer afraid to remain himself, and people recognized him as an intelligent and pleasant conversationalist with a subtle sense of humor. Prostitutes and dancers were crazy about him, and trusted him with their innermost secrets.

At the Moulin Rouge, Henri was a regular visitor who was assigned a table. He did not part with drawing supplies and painted everything "that he saw." It is to his pen that we owe the idea of ​​the cabaret of that time. From his eyes, albeit clouded with absinthe, trifles did not escape. He liked everything but special attention the artist deserved a trio: La Goulue, Jeanne Avril and Valentine Le Desosse, nicknamed "Boneless". Although Lautrec visited other nightclubs, the Moulin Rouge remained a source of constant inspiration for him.

"Stars" variety show

Not only Lautrec, but also other regulars knew all the "stars" of the cabaret. Each had nicknames that characterize the dance style and individual qualities. A dancer named Nini Patzanler was nicknamed "La Macarona" for her pale complexion. Jeanne Avril, mentioned above, was called "Dynamite", because her long face, thin figure of an aristocrat did not at all fit with the "explosive", even crazy manner of dancing. When she danced before the Moulin Rouge, she was called the "prancing beauty". In a cabaret in Montmartre, she appeared almost together with La Goulue. Alas, both dancers had a sad life ending: they died in complete poverty. Louise Weber was buried at the Montmartre cemetery, Jeanne Avril at Pere Lachaise.

How many more talented and imaginative actors, singers and dancers were there in the Montmartre cabaret?

• Yvette Gilbert - a singer with a gorgeous voice; after the Moulin Rouge, she acted in films, directed, wrote books, was awarded the Order of the Legion of Honor;
• Sha-U-Kao - dancer and clown, Toulouse-Lautrec's favorite model, the only woman in a cabaret, whose talent was highly appreciated by Valentin Beskostny;
• Josephine Baker is a black dancer and singer with luxurious body; performer of dances and songs in the best cabarets of Paris; she was dubbed the "Black Pearl", and her talent "... something incomprehensible, as delightful as the music itself».

Over time, the requirements for Moulin Rouge dancers increased. Today, the cabaret employs artists of many nationalities, including Russians. Applicants are selected based on the following factors:

• Ability to dance well
• Impeccable slender body and long legs;
• Beautiful breasts without silicone.

At the same time, the dancer must have a certain height and weight, not gain more than 2 kilograms during the validity of the signed contract.

Now feel the pride of the nation! The directorate of the cabaret marks the Russians as very hardworking and spectacular dancers. For example, Vladlena Krasilnikova, who accidentally ended up in the Moulin Rouge, was his prima for more than 10 years at the end of the 20th century. At the same time, she told how difficult the cancan was for her, how many times during her performance on stage she had to change outfits and perform light-looking “pas” with several kilograms of the suit on her body. The audience followed the movements of her beautiful body with delight, and she smiled at the audience, trying not to notice the pain that her foot, shattered from the dance, caused her.

Unforgettable evening

For more than 100 years of its existence, the cabaret was closed only 2 times. After the fire that happened in 1915 and during the Second World War. In the 50s, the Clerico brothers took up the restoration of the legendary institution. They modernized the program of the variety show, offering guests the option of "dinner + performance". Such an unexpected "layout" of the evening in the cabaret was to the taste of the public.

Today, the Moulin Rouge offers guests an unforgettable evening in one of two programs: show only or show and dinner. Moreover, the cost of the second option varies depending on the selected menu, and there are three of them:

• "Mistinguette" offers to taste delicious chicken fillet, shrimps and berry or chocolate dessert. The menu includes two options for the range of dishes;
• "Toulouse Lautrec" is Norwegian chum salmon, royal dorado and Moulin Rouge cake; a choice of two assortments of dishes;
• "Belle Epoque" combines duck foie gras, stonefish fillet and one of three desserts to choose from. Appetizers and main courses are offered in two versions.

Each of the menus includes a variety of vegetables, side dishes and, of course, champagne. This French drink is included in every visitor's ticket. With him, and begins the evening at the Moulin Rouge. The administration correctly organized the programs: first, the guest must be “warmed up” and fed, and the “sweetest dish”, that is, a wonderful spectacular revue, will be in the second part. Visitors gather at the entrance to the cabaret in advance - about half an hour. To visit the establishment, a dress code is required: men should be in trousers or suits. No shorts and no socks! Women usually arrive in evening attire.

By the way, you can't take pictures in the cabaret! Therefore, it is better to leave cameras at home and enjoy old paintings and posters inside the establishment, on which Toulouse-Lautrec immortalized hectic life"old" variety show.

Buses with tourists come here every day who want to look at the Legend of Paris, where Frank Sinatra, Yves Montand, Liza Minnelli, Charles Aznavour once performed. You won't meet Parisians here: they like something spicier and livelier. Contrary to public opinion, there is no striptease, but some dancers perform topless. Guests are offered to spend a great evening in a cozy atmosphere where fun and laughter reign, where the artists certainly warm up the audience with jokes, where stunning girls dance the second part of the program for them with the obligatory cancan at the end.

Especially for Lilia-Travel.RU - Anna Lazareva

When it comes to cancan, the imagination immediately draws spectacular girls raising their legs high. Today, this dance is strongly associated with the famous cabaret "Moulin Rouge", but its origins originate from the usual square dance.

Dancer. A. Toulouse-Lautrec. | Photo: colors.life.

One version of the name of the dance is associated with ducks. The French believe that their ducks quack can-can. As you know, one of the characteristic steps is the movement of dancers waddling one after another.

Cancan. Natalia Papirna, 2011. | Photo: colors.life.

In general, the word "cancan" is translated from French as "noise, din." Some claim that the classic cancan was performed at the Moulin Rouge in 1890, but this is not entirely true. The first similarity of the cancan originated in the working-class districts of Paris back in the 1820s. He transformed from a quadrille and a gallop. Swinging legs was added to the dance by the dancer and acrobat Charles Mazurier. When stockings with garters came into fashion, they became an invariable attribute of cancan performers. The dance began to be considered completely obscene.

Cancan dancer. | Photo: colors.life.

Golden cancan. Natalia Papirna, 2011 | Photo: colors.life.

The cancan melody belongs to the composer Offenbach. It was first performed in the operetta Orpheus in Hell in 1858.

Cancan. Natalia Papirna, 2010 | Photo: kulakov-papirna.com.ua.

In the famous Moulin Rouge, the cancan was performed for the first time at the opening of the cabaret by the dancer Celeste Mogado. At first, not only women took part in the dance, but also men, who also raised their legs high.

Moulin Rouge cabaret poster. A. Toulouse-Lautrec.

The modern can-can is an 8-minute performance. The dance involves swinging legs, jumping, splits and other movements that are only accelerating every minute. Everyone who finds himself in the Moulin Rouge is simply obliged to see the famous incendiary dance with his own eyes.

Rare photos of can-can dancers from the Moulin Rouge

The Moulin Rouge was founded in 1889 by two partners, Joseph Oller and Charles Zidler. The cabaret was close to Montmartre, known as a place for entertainment, so the flow of visitors was guaranteed. The cabaret was located in the very center of the so-called red-light district, and the very name - the Red Mill - emphasized that the neighborhood was not without reason.

Dancers of The Hoffman Girls before the performance. 1924

Dancer Edmonde Guydens performing at the Moulin Rouge. 1926

1890 - the original appearance of the Moulin Rouge cabaret.

At the beginning, performances at the Moulin Rouge were noisy parties, where champagne flowed like water, and the dancers were very close to the audience, sometimes even luring some of the intoxicated guests right onto the stage. The scenery quickly changed, the dancers performed the famous cancan, and more and more often not only representatives of the middle class, but also artists, writers, poets and others began to appear in this institution. famous people. The secret of success was simple - you just need to give guests the opportunity to have fun and forget about all the problems.

1895 Moulin Rouge in Paris.

Garden at the cabaret, the main attraction of which was a huge elephant. 1900

American sailors visit the Moulin Rouge during the First World War. Around 1915

The dancers are getting ready to perform. 1930

Alcohol was always flowing in the bar. 1929

On October 6, 1889, almost immediately after the completion of the construction of the Eiffel Tower, not far from the Parisian red-light district Pigalle, entrepreneurs Joseph Oller and Charles Zidler opened the doors of the Moulin Rouge cabaret for the first time. The place for the institution was chosen optimally - it was not difficult for lovers of famous nightlife to walk a few steps from Pigalle Square to the cabaret, and decent Parisians did not consider it shameful to visit the area, which, being close to the red light district, still did not enjoy such a bad reputation. The highlight of the program of any evening show "Moulin Rouge" was an energetic cancan dance performed by half-naked (though not always) girls. It is thanks to the cancan that the cabaret has not yet lost its popularity and remains a favorite place for visiting tourists, and the Parisians themselves.

(Total 15 photos)

Post Sponsor: Cafe Fryer: Equipment for your dream pizzeria!
Source: Lenta.ru

1. February 19, 1924. The Hoffman Girls prepare to take the stage at the Moulin Rouge in Paris

The dance group Hoffman Girls is the brainchild of dancer and choreographer Gertrude Hoffman. The performances staged by Hoffman, including those on the Moulin Rouge stage, often not only aroused the interest of the public, but also shocked - as a rule, because of eroticism and sensuality, which at the beginning of the 20th century was unequivocally assessed disapprovingly.

2. January 1930. Special expert evaluates and measures the legs of potential Moulin Rouge dancers

The selection criteria for any Moulin Rouge show are very strict. They were established more than 60 years ago and have been strictly followed ever since. Only candidates with a height of 168 to 172 cm, athletic build, with perfect skin. For a certain number, all the parameters of the girls should be the same - the length of the legs and arms, even the distance between the breasts. The viewer gets the feeling that the same girl is in front of him, and the rest is a play of light and shadows.

3. Approximately 1930. Preparing for a performance

The face and body are the working tools of the artists, and the administration is strict about this. For example, once a week all dancers are weighed (“rainy day”). If a girl has gained more than one extra kilogram, then she is not allowed to the show until she gets in shape.

4. 1989 Dancers in the dressing room of the Moulin Rouge

Managers of the Moulin Rouge carefully monitor the intimate integrity of their dancers. After each show, the girls go outside through a secret passage, where drivers pick them up and take them home. If the artist herself committed inappropriate behavior, she will be fired without talking.

5. 1989 The show is attended by 50 dancers selected according to special criteria.

Some shows are prepared for a year or more - every element of the performance must be honed to perfection. That is why on dance numbers choreographers all over the world are equal in Moulin Rouge, and celebrities often invite participants of the show for their concerts. Cabaret dancers, for example, performed with Christina Aguilera, Dita Von Teese and Carmen Electra.

6. 1989 Dancers backstage before going on stage

All the girls in the Moulin Rouge work under pseudonyms. Nobody knows their real names. The choice of a pseudonym is the prerogative of the top managers of the cabaret, the dancer can only once refuse the proposed option, the second time she will have to accept a new name one way or another, which will remain with her until the end of her work at the Moulin Rouge.

7. 1989 Acrobats warm up before entering the stage, where they will perform music hall numbers.

Acrobatic numbers and pole dance - permanent elements show at the Moulin Rouge.

8. 2001 Artists relaxing backstage at the Moulin Rouge

The administration of the Moulin Rouge tried many different theatrical and musical genres. Operettas and revues were staged on the cabaret stage, sometimes even films were shown, but today, as always, the audience comes to the Moulin Rouge to see the signature French cancan dance.

9. 2001 What you can't see on the Moulin Rouge stage

About the cabaret filmed six feature films. The last one, released in 2001, restored former glory"Moulin rouge". The tape itself revived the film musical genre, under its influence the film "Chicago" appeared, which received the maximum positive reviews at the public.

10. 2001 Dancer warming up before performance

The “visiting card” of the Moulin Rouge cabaret is the incendiary cancan, which mainly attracted visitors. “In order to dance the cancan, one must have a very special temperament, an exceptional spirit, here one cannot limit oneself to reproducing a figure drawn up according to the rules. Here it is necessary to invent, to create. The can-can is the craziness of the legs. When I dance, a kind of insanity seizes me: I forget everything ... Music shrinks in my chest, rushes to my head like champagne vapor, ”Marguerite Rigolbosh, one of the most famous Moulin Rouge dancers, recalled her work.

11. 2002 Dancers put on makeup in the Moulin Rouge dressing room

The competition between dancers in a cabaret is huge. Ruining a suit or slipping shoes of a smaller size on an opponent just before a performance is in the order of things.

12. 2002 Red feather ball

Contrary to popular belief, the Moulin Rouge has never performed and does not perform a striptease. Although there is a legend that it originated here, when two slightly tipsy guests climbed onto the tables and undressed to the music until they were completely naked. Since then, striptease has begun its triumphal march around the world, eclipsing the signature French cancan.

The artistic troupe "Moulin Rouge" holds six world records. For example, a group of cancan dancers were awarded for the most leg swings during a performance.

Headache, feeling unwell - not a reason to disown the performance. In any condition, the girls should go on stage smiling.

The costumes in the Moulin Rouge cabaret are worked out just as carefully as the musical numbers themselves. Each show is not just a dance, but a bright theatrical performance, and stage costumes very important.

The highest hill in Paris is Montmartre. Until the middle of the 19th century, it was famous for its vineyards and mills. Now there is only one left in Montmartre, but the most recognizable one is the Red Mill, translated as “Moulin Rouge”, a world-famous cabaret with enchanting dance show and, of course, the famous traditional French cancan. The French say: "Those who have been to Paris and have not visited the Moulin Rouge will not be able to fully understand what Paris is." After all, the Moulin Rouge is also part of the history of Paris, it is more than a melodramatic story told in the film of the same name, it is a symbol. A symbol of fulfilled and unfulfilled hopes, broken and united hearts, creativity and vice, beauty and ugliness.

Moulin Rouge became the place where entertainment united the most different groups people mixed artists, drunkards, thieves, prostitutes, artists, the bourgeoisie and the aristocracy. Here the boundary between high and low, between art and show, between individual and collective, was erased, here the vulgar spectacle became an object of admiration and a symbol of refined taste. Let's find out a more detailed history of this seemingly immortal creation.

View of Montmantre

The Moulin Rouge was born on October 6, 1889, when Oller and Zidler open the doors of the Moulin Rouge Ball for the first time. A brilliant idea - a quadrille, which became an immortal creation, later nicknamed with light hand the English "French Cancan", has since been identified with the famous red mill that crowns the theater building in the Montmartre area.

Joseph Oller

Only a few months have passed since the music hall received its first visitors, and the whole of Paris was soon talking about how it was to “visit the Moulin Rouge”

Solving the decisive personnel issue and recruiting personnel to perform the simple tasks of show business was a simple matter - boring provinces regularly supplied living goods to the City of Light, so that it flourished and wide choose, and healthy competition - even now you can appreciate the fairness of the then prices!

To look at stunning, extraordinary dancers with such expressive names as La Goulue (literally - "glutton"), Rayon d'Or ("Golden Ray"), Nini-Pat-en-l'Ere ("Nini-paws up”), guests from all over the world came here. One of them - La Goulue (a native of Alsace, Louise Weber) became a real decoration of the Moulin Rouge. She was destined to become one of the most famous dancers of her time.

She made her cabaret debut at the age of 19 in 1890. Very soon she becomes the brightest star of the Moulin Rouge, its vicious and attractive symbol. According to the tradition of the Montmartre balls, she received the nickname La Goulue - Glutton. Because she loved, having sat down at tables with cabaret visitors, to eat deliciously and drink at their expense. La Goulue enjoyed resounding success She was vulgar, sensual and piquant.

From her can-can the stage and auditorium trembled. It seemed like another second, and everything would collapse from the furious shot of her strong, strong legs. In her can-can contemporaries heard gunshots. It was not a dance, but a battle. Louise turned out to be not only a strong performer, but also a dancer not without imagination. She came up with her own version of the can-can. Spinning in the dance, Louise moved her leg to the side, then took it by the foot and lifted it above her head. And then, with a heartbreaking cry, she fell on the twine.

La Goulue, Louise Weber

And here is the famous Grand Chahut (fr. Grand Chahut) in the Moulin Rouge

Few people already remember that the very groovy melody to which “for 10 hryvnias you can jump like fools” appeared long before the opening of the Moulin Rouge, and not at all in connection with these jumps ... October 21, 1858 in Paris at the Bouffe Parisien Theater On the Champs-Elysées, the premiere of the operetta performance Orpheus in Hell (Fr. Orphee aux enfers) took place, the music for which was written by Monsieur the theater director, a German Jew with a newfangled surname Jacques Offenbach, who was born in Cologne and died in Paris - long before the birth of that cabaret, where, by the will of fate, this melody of his became famous forever, these chords of the final scene from the play, where Orpheus and the nymphs are dancing a quadrille, which were pioneered by the enterprising leadership for musical accompaniment Moulin-Rugevsky Chaos. A talented composer was buried at the Montmartre cemetery ...

Jacques Offenbach

By the way, with Bach ((German Jóhann Sebástian Bach), he, Offenbach, and at the same time - and many other representatives of Bohemia, have in common musical homeland- Allemagne!

Jeanne Avril

Another star of the Moulin Rouge was Jane Avril, whom the public nicknamed Melinite - Dynamite, and critics called the embodiment of dance. Behind the sickly appearance of this woman, there was an incredible energy that amazed the visitors of the Moulin Rouge. Other famous character"Moulin Rouge" and La Goulue's partner was Valentin Renaudin, nicknamed Le Desosset - Boneless. In the mornings he worked as a servant in a small cafe, and in the evenings he became the hero of a cabaret. Unsociable in life, Valentin was transformed on the stage. His gloom disappeared, and he was a sparkling dancer, striking with the plasticity of a snake and the refinement of manners.

The Moulin Rouge quickly gained a reputation as a place where men could look at young Parisians, whose unique and amazing movements were as flexible as their morals. Thanks to the famous cancan, cabaret grew in popularity. At that time, this dance was considered vulgar, which sometimes caused the anger of the audience. Since that time, the artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec has taken under his patronage the institution, who painted many paintings with scenes from the life of the music hall.

Dance, Toulouse-Lautrec

There is a legend that when, in 1890, His Highness the Prince of Galsky, the future King Edward VII, was traveling in Paris on private business, he did not fail to book a table at the Moulin Rouge to see what kind of quadrille it was, a rumor about which swept far beyond the English Channel. La Goulue, dancing the French cancan, throwing her legs high and lifting her petticoats right up to her head, recognized the prince and without any hesitation shouted to His Highness, welcoming: “Oh, Galsky, you have champagne!”

An Englishman at the Moulin Rouge by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

“In order to dance the cancan, one must have a very special temperament, an exceptional spirit; here one cannot limit oneself to reproducing a figure drawn up according to the rules. Here it is necessary to invent, to create. The can-can is the craziness of the legs. When I dance, a kind of insanity seizes me: I forget everything ... Music shrinks in my chest, rushes to my head like champagne vapor. At the last note of the ritornello, I am intoxicated. Then the frenzy becomes unprecedented. My hands are insane, my legs too. I need movement, noise, sodom; it's a kind of concussion, pouring from the legs to the head. Everything is agitated around me - decorations, furniture, candles. We can say that all this conspired to give me music. At this moment, if the wall were in front of me, I think I would go through it. I love applause. When I dance, I would like thunder to rumble, to lament at home! I would like such a rattle that terrifies even the bravest: the incessant strikes of a large bell Notre Dame of Paris, earthquakes, the last judgment!..”

Crazy nights at the Moulin Rouge continued until the outbreak of the First World War. Having closed in 1915, the cabaret was reopened only in 1921, becoming the temple of the music hall. famous artists- from La Goulue to Mistinguet, from Edith Piaf to Josephine Becker, from Maurice Chevalier to Yves Montana - they considered it an honor to perform here.

With the advent of money from the public, and their subsequent appearance (monetary public!) In a cabaret, the owners of the cabaret, in turn, had a natural idea to update both the interiors and the exterior - the appearance of the Moulin Rouge. It was then that a simple shed in the yard of the former mill, under which the budget swindlers played out, turned into the very most respectable cabaret that we all know. Take a look at these unique photos! Pay attention, my friends, to the general appearance of the entrance to the Moulin Rouge, and two important details- this mini-castle with turrets to the left and an extension to the right of the mill. This is how it looked during the day -

In 1925, a black star flares up in the music hall sky of Paris - Josephine Baker. She was born in America, in St. Louis, in a poor Negro family, from childhood she dreamed of becoming an artist, she performed in the music halls of Broadway, and then, as part of the Negro revue “Black Birds”, she came to Paris and conquered this most capricious city in the world. She shone at the Folies Bergère theater in Paris, and performed at the Moulin Rouge.

Her performances shocked with amazing immediacy. Josephine sang, danced, twirled, somersaulted, grimaced, resembling a fabulous imp. So, in the finale of her number, she ran away on all fours, with her back raised above her head, like a young giraffe's. And with this comedy, she was unusually erotic. Flexible as a snake, with singing hands, with a hot sparkle in her eyes and with skin the color of coffee with milk, she attracted the attention of the entire hall.

And how Josephine danced the Charleston! Nobody danced like that. It seemed that a cheerful demon settled in her legs, which leads her dance. One of the critics, describing Baker's performance, exclaimed: "This is not a woman, this is not a dancer - this is something incomprehensible, as delightful as the music itself."

On stage, Josephine appeared almost naked. She was so pretty that she didn't need any jewelry - she only wore feather boas, a string of pearls and her famous bunch of bananas on her hips.

Many consider the Moulin Rouge to be the place where striptease originated, but there was no striptease as such in the Moulin Rouge. Women danced there, but at the same time, they showed the audience only the remaining uncovered pieces of the body between panties and stockings, that is, just a little. The rest, the men sitting in the hall fantasized themselves, relying mainly on their own desires and experience. And yet, it was the Moulin Rouge that became the place where striptease was born.

In the summer of 1893, a traditional student ball was held here. art schools. And so, at its very height, two girls, flushed with champagne, suddenly jumped onto the table and, to the sounds of music, began to slowly undress until they were left in what their mother gave birth to. History has preserved their names: Manon Laville and Sarah Brown. Yes, I will clarify that they earned their bread by posing for novice artists and sculptors, which means that they were well acquainted with the majority of those who gathered that evening at the Moulin Rouge.

Given the puritanical mores that prevailed at that time even in Paris, it is not surprising that the police opened a case against the participants in this ball, and the court sentenced some of its participants to various monetary fines. This caused a terrible indignation among the Parisian students. It even came to clashes with the police, during which one student was killed. But, as it turned out now, young Parisians knowingly went to their death then - the taboo on striptease was lifted!

First of all, those who came to the Moulin Rouge during the opening years were stunned by the interior - bizarre combinations of the old and antique with modernity and surrealism, oriental with European. The Moulin Rouge embodied the creed in the air of the then life in Paris - "the right to be lazy." Everything was possible here - crying and laughing, dancing all night long and sleeping on one of the sofas. Art and fraud intertwined and created a special atmosphere of the Moulin Rouge: somewhere they played cards, somewhere plans were made to conquer the city, and in one of the halls a funny short man - the artist Lautrec immortalized this "carnival of life." In many ways, it was thanks to the art of Toulouse-Lautrec, who captured the eccentric dance on his posters and drawings, the Moulin Rouge owes its fame and fame. Toulouse-Lautrec was a descendant of an ancient aristocratic family - his ancestors once headed Crusades and entered into family ties with the kings of France.

Moulin Rouge, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

He was born in the southern French city of Albi, and at the age of fourteen, due to a broken leg caused by a congenital bone disease, he was forever crippled. This tragic circumstance prompted his desire to completely surrender to the passion for art that manifested itself in childhood. In 1885, Lautrec settled in the very center of Montmartre, and from now on all of it creative life turns out to be inextricably linked with this area of ​​Paris, which still retained the features of a semi-rural suburb in that era.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

In the 80s and 90s, cabarets opened here one after another - "Elysé-Montmartre", "Merliton", "Moulin de la Galette", "Japanese Sofa" and of course "Moulin Rouge" - where the public could dance or, sitting at cafe tables, watch professional dancers and listen to the songs of fashionable singers. It was the cabaret actors and their audience, which consisted of artistic bohemians, common people and representatives of the very bottom big city, became the main characters of Lautrec. From 1889 to 1892, the artist creates a series of paintings in which, as it were, the life of the Montmartre cabaret was fixed from different angles.

The most characteristic in this respect is the painting At the Moulin Rouge (1892). Before us is an image of a part of the cabaret, separated from the dance hall by a balustrade. Dynamic diagonal constructions, as it were, bring the composition outward, beyond the limits of the canvas, while elements of reverse perspective turn it on the viewer - techniques that Lautrec resorted to to one degree or another in almost every of his works. The group of the artist's friends, critics and actresses sitting at the table is relegated to the background, and on the first one there is a figure of a girl, existing as if out of time and space, cut off by a frame, with a bizarre silhouette and a face-mask, colored by the reflections of gas jets. Unusual angles and interpretation of figures, color and light contrasts - everything here is subordinated to the task of conveying the elements of cabaret and Montmartre at night.

At the Moulin Rouge, Henri Toulouse-Lautrec

If in the Moulin Rouge the dancer La Goulue was depicted in the background, then in a number of other paintings of the early 1990s, Lautrec shows close-ups of the "stars" of the cabaret, without, however, extracting them from the "habitat". Such, for example, is the canvas on which La Goulue enters the cabaret, hand in hand with her sister and a young debutante. The dancer is dressed provocatively. open dress, painted in transparent strokes of blues and greens contrasting with the dull grays, blacks, and greens of the other two women's clothing and the red of the wall panels. In the sharp bend of La Goulue's body, the expression of her face is a mixture of vulgarity and artistry, arrogance and bitterness. In the picture, everything is full of movement and at the same time hieratic immobility, emphasized by the frozen profile of the girl on the right.

Toulouse-Lautrec. La Goulue at the entrance to the Moulin Rouge, 1892

In 1891, the artist creates the first lithographic poster for the Moulin Rouge. Behind this work, which was in fact one of the first posters in history contemporary art, followed by other posters, easel lithographs, color and black and white; album series ("Yvette Guilbert", "They"), theater programs And book illustrations. In his lithographs, Lautrec immortalized the bright but ephemeral stars of Montmartre, grotesquely sharpening their essence. creative individuality, passing the rhythms of their dances and songs

And then in 1915 there was a grandiose fire in the Moulin Rouge, and a little later - there was a grandiose fire all over the world - the first, and then the second world war began ... The wings of the Moulin Rouge drooped gloomily and to them, it would seem, always cheerful Parisians, somehow suddenly there was no time for dancing ... The Moulin Rouge fell into decay ... During the years of the Second World War and the German occupation, the Moulin Rouge was closed again, but shortly before the liberation of Paris, in 1944, the famous Yves Montand ) and Edith Piaf.

In 1937, Robert Harman turns the Moulin Rouge into a nightclub, making it even more fashionable and modern.

Opened in 1959, the new hall allows for the organization of a well-equipped kitchen to offer customers who come here from all over the globe, "dinner performance" with great choice dishes and, of course, a concert that already at that time had a high world reputation

The famous wings of the Red Mill were launched again in 1951, when the cabaret changed ownership and underwent a complete restoration. And in 1957, choreographer Doris Haug with his four Doris Girls signs a two-month contract with the Moulin Rouge...and remains choreographer and director for 40 years, until 1997. During this time, Doris not only increased his contract, but also increased his troupe - today Doris Girls already has more than 80 girls.

In 1962, the legendary Jacki Clérico became the manager of the cabaret, and with his name, the history of the Moulin Rouge begins " new era". Jacqui proposes for a resurgent cabaret this new formula- dinner + show, which then spread everywhere. Perhaps Jacqui picked up this concept in one of the many restaurants in what was then still the Red Light District? Yes, and in our time in Paris you can find the following menus:

Pyotr Ustinov, Charles Aznavour, Jerry Lewis performed at the gala concert dedicated to the 90th anniversary of the Red Mill.

With the advent of Jackie Clerico, a new era of the Moulin Rouge began - the expansion of the hall, a giant aquarium and the first water ballet with naked dancers.

Opened in 1963 new program"Frou-frou" made an indescribable sensation. The performance was a huge success. Superstitious Jackie now chooses names for his programs that begin only with the letter "F" ("Frou-Frou" (Rustle), "Frisson" (Trembling), "Fascination" (Charm), "Fantastic" (Fiction), "Festival" ( Festival), "Follement" (Madness), "Frenesie" (Fury), "Femmes, Femmes, Femmes" (Women, women, women), "Formidable" (Magnificent)). "Feerie" (Fairy)

In the show "Feeriya" a girl swims in such an aquarium with real snakes.

In 1964, a giant "aquarium" was built on the stage, in which naked dancers swam / performed.

And, of course, in each program there is a special place for the legendary French cancan.

And only once, on one of the November evenings in 1981, the Moulin Rouge closed its doors. The Moulin Rouge Company was given the great honor of being invited to London to perform before Her Highness Queen Elizabeth II.

For 112 years now, the most legendary cabaret hall in the world has been hosting millions of spectators who have come to enjoy the famous performances! Of course, now the Moulin Rouge has ceased to be the place where the bohemia of Paris gathered, where absinthe, which was forbidden everywhere, was sipped in smoky halls, and where you could invite a vending corps de ballet dancer to your home. In those days, there were no backstage or rehearsals at the Moulin Rouge at all: the stage and life merged in a noisy merry festivity, with courtship and love stories.