Racy revue caused a sensation in Jazz Age
It was the place that put the “ooh” in “ooh-la-la!”.
But the Folies Bergere began by offering far more conservative fare than the racy revues for which it became infamous.
Located in the 9th Arrondissement in the heart of Paris, it opened in 1869 as an opera house, the Folies Trevise, presenting light entertainment such as operettas, popular songs and, strangely, gymnastics.
Three years later it was renamed Folies Bergere after a nearby street (“bergere” meaning shepherdess).
It was still operating as a reputable establishment when Manet painted his last great masterpiece there, A Bar At The Folies Bergere, showing a sullen barmaid.
But owner Edouard Marchand then conceived a new genre of entertainment for the Parisian public, the music-hall revue.
Women – scantily-clad – were key to his vision and in November, 1886, the Folies Bergere staged the first of its new revues.
It was an immediate success and things carried on pretty much unaltered for almost 30 years until a new artistic director, Paul Derval, decided things had become too tame for popular tastes changed by the First World War.
He swiftly made his mark on the revues which now featured extravagant artificial bananas. Think Billy Connolly’s big banana boots but, well, entirely different.
But all things must change, and the business eventually passed in the early 1970s to Helene Martini who’d been a showgirl 25 years previously.
This new mistress of the house decided to revert to the Folies Bergere’s original concept and stage musical productions, plus the occasional racy revue, leaving the naughtiness to the likes of the Crazy Horse.
Dubbed in those less politically-correct days the “Black Pearl”, the “Bronze Venus” and the “Creole Goddess”, Baker became the first black person to be a world-famous entertainer and star in a major motion picture.
Her performance in the revue Un Vent De Folie in 1927 caused a sensation even in ultra-liberal Jazz Age Paris as it involved dancing erotically while clad in a “costume” consisting solely of a skirt made of a string of costumes, sets and effects and – in his strange choice of words – “small nude women”.
They became the hallmark of the Folies Bergere under Derval’s stewardship as it became the most-famous music hall in the world.
He launched the careers of many who’d become France’s biggest stars such as Maurice Chevalier and, most notoriously, Josephine Baker.
Baker was an AfricanAmerican singer, actress and dancer who adopted Paris as her new home.
MAIL@SUNDAYPOST.COM