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Folies Bergère

Coordinates: 48°52′27″N 2°20′42″E / 48.8742°N 2.3449°E / 48.8742; 2.3449
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Folies Bergère
Exterior view in 2013, after renovations
Folies Bergère is located in Paris
Folies Bergère
Folies Bergère
Location within Paris
Address32 Rue Richer
Paris
France
Coordinates48°52′27″N 2°20′42″E / 48.8742°N 2.3449°E / 48.8742; 2.3449
DesignationCabaret music hall
Construction
Opened2 May 1869
ArchitectPlumeret
Website
Foliesbergere.com
Le Gaulois - 3 August 1869
Folies Bergère, 1872
Édouard Manet's A Bar at the Folies-Bergère, 1882
Jules Chéret, Folies Bergère, Fleur de Lotus, 1893 Art Nouveau poster for the Ballet Pantomime
Folies Bergère, by Franz Skarbina
Mercedes, Folies Bergère, 1895
Marinett, Folies Bergère, by Walery, c. 1900
Josephine Baker in jewelry and a bikini bottom with rubber bananas attached, from the Folies Bergère production Un Vent de Folie, by Walery, 1927
Lila Nikolska  [fr], La Nikolska, from the Folies Bergère production La grande folie, 1928
Melka Soudani,[1][2][3] by Walery

The Folies Bergère (French pronunciation: [fɔli bɛʁʒɛʁ]) is a cabaret music hall in Paris, France. Located at 32 Rue Richer in the 9th Arrondissement, the Folies Bergère was built as an opera house by the architect Plumeret. It opened on 2 May 1869 as the Folies Trévise, with light entertainment including operettas, 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, an African-American expatriate singer, dancer and entertainer, caused a sensation at the Folies Bergère by dancing in a costume consisting of jewelry and a bikini 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 are Cadet and Grands Boulevards.

History

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Located at 32 Rue Richer in the 9th Arrondissement, and opened on 2 May 1869, the Folies Bergère, as the Folies Trévise, was built as an opera house, and patterned after the Alhambra music hall in London by the architect, Plumeret, who was a building inspector of the 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.

It opened on 2 May 1869 as the Folies Trévise, with light entertainment including operettas, opéra comique (comic opera), popular songs, and gymnastics. The original name derived from the street of that name by the stage door. However, the Duc 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 painting A Bar at the Folies-Bergère which depicts a bar-girl, one of the demimondaines, standing before a mirror.

In 1886, Édouard Marchand conceived a new genre of entertainment for the Folies Bergère: the music-hall revue. 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 show Place au jeûne !, featuring Alice Berthier [fr] and scantily clad chorus girls, was a tremendous success.

In the early 1890s, the American dancer Loie Fuller starred at the Folies Bergère. In 1902, illness forced Marchand to leave after 16 years.[5]

In 1918, Paul Derval [fr] (1880–1966)[6] 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 including Maurice Chevalier, Mistinguett, Josephine Baker, Fernandel and many others.

In 1926, Baker, an African-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 number Fatou wearing a costume consisting of a skirt made of a string of artificial bananas and little else, and Un Vent De Folie(1927).[7] Her erotic 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 of nudity. Shows also played up the "exoticness" of people and objects from other cultures, indulging the Parisian fascination with the négritude of the 1920s.

In 1926 the facade of the theatre was given a complete make-over by the artist Maurice Pico [fr]. The facade was redone in Art Deco style, one of the many Parisian theatres of this period using the style.[8]

Nulls de Folies being followed by Folies en Folie and then En Super-Folies[9]

In 1936, Josephine Baker returned from New York City and Derval signed her to lead the revue En Super Folies.[10]

In 1937, Margaret Kelly hired Constance Tomkinson.[11]

Michel Gyarmathy [de], a Hungarian from Balassagyarmat, designed the poster for En 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 to Hélène 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 with Stage Entertainment like Cabaret (2006–2008) or Zorro (2009–2010).

Filmography

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Similar venues

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The Folies Bergère inspired the Ziegfeld Follies in the United States and other similar shows, including the Teatro Follies in Mexico and a long-standing revue, The Las Vegas Folies Bergere, at the Tropicana Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, which opened in 1959, closed at the end of March 2009 after nearly 50 years in operation.[13][14][15]

In the 1930s and '40s the impresario Clifford C. Fischer staged several Folies Bergere productions in the United States. These included the Folies Bergère of 1939 at the Broadway Theater in New York[16] and the Folies Bergère of 1944 at the Winterland Ballroom[17][18] in San Francisco.

A recent example is Faceboyz Folliez, a monthly burlesque and variety show at the Bowery Poetry Club in New York City.[19][20]

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Folies Bergère is mentioned in the movie, The Last Time I Saw Paris.

It is also mentioned in the movie, Nine.

See also

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Venues:

Theatre groups:

Shows:

Notes

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  1. ^ Smalls, James (2017). "Féral Benga: African Muse of Modernism". Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art. 41 (1): 44–59. ISSN 2152-7792 – via Project MUSE. 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.
  2. ^ Coutelet, Nathalie. Étranges artistes sur la scène des Folies-Bergère, 1871-1936. Presses Universitaires de Vincennes. doi:10.3917/puv.cout.2015.01. ISBN 9782842924164.
  3. ^ Smalls, James (15 February 2013). "Féral Benga's Body". Africa in Europe: 99–119. doi:10.5949/liverpool/9781846318474.003.0006. Retrieved 7 July 2025 – via Oxford Academic. Book
  4. ^ A Brief History of the Folies-Bergère Archived 8 November 2016 at the Wayback Machine Art & Architecture
  5. ^ "Édouard Marchand et les Folies Bergère". www.foliesbergere.com. Archived from the original on 26 April 2014. Retrieved 9 June 2014.
  6. ^ Derval, Paul (1956). Folies-Bergere. New York: Popular Library. LCCN 55-5352. Translated by Lucienne Hill (c) E.P. Dutton & Co
  7. ^ "Two Folies-Bergère programs". aspace.library.jhu.edu | Johns Hopkins University Libraries Archives Public Interface. March 1926. Retrieved 7 July 2025.
  8. ^ "Paris, the Birthplace of Art Deco". Minor Sights. Retrieved 23 November 2016.
  9. ^ "Full text of 'The Times '". The Times. UK. 16 January 1986. Retrieved 7 July 2025 – via archive.org. 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
  10. ^ "FOLIES BERGÈRE 1937 EN SUPER FOLIES. Program". aspace.library.jhu.edu | Johns Hopkins University Libraries Archives Public Interface. 1937. Retrieved 7 July 2025. 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.
  11. ^ Tomkinson, Constance (1 July 1955). "Les Girls". The Atlantic.
  12. ^ "Du travail pour les historiens" [Work for Historians] (PDF). La Sentinelle (in French). No. 297. La Chaux-de-Fonds. 23 December 1958. p. 3. Retrieved 10 August 2023.
  13. ^ Prentice, Claire (28 March 2009). "BBC: Folies bows out amid credit crisis". BBC News. Retrieved 9 June 2014.
  14. ^ "Folies Bergere To Close in Las Vegas". NPR. 23 February 2009. Retrieved 9 June 2014.
  15. ^ John Palmer (15 January 2009). "'Les Folies Bergere' to end run at Tropicana". Las Vegas Sun. Retrieved 9 June 2014.
  16. ^ "Folies Bergère 1939". Playbillvault.com. Archived from the original on 25 December 2014. Retrieved 9 June 2014.
  17. ^ "Poster, card, and photo from The Folies Bergere of 1944 in San Francisco". Glopad.org. Retrieved 9 June 2014.
  18. ^ "Folies Bergere Opens Soon at Winterland". Berkeley Daily Gazette. 23 November 1943.
  19. ^ "Just Do Art! | The Villager Newspaper". Thevillager.com. Archived from the original on 10 May 2012. Retrieved 9 June 2014.
  20. ^ Lewis, Steve (3 February 2012). "Faceboyz Follies at Bowery Poetry Club, Don Cornelius Tribute at Submercer, Goodbye to Ben Barna". BlackBook magazine. Archived from the original on 10 March 2012.

Further reading

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Folies Bergère.
Mr. Paul Derval, Directeur des "Folies Bergére" passe commande a Mr. (Maurice) Hermite de la Grande Revue "EN SUPER FOLIES"
Mr. Paul Derval, Director of the "Folies Bergére," commissions Mr. (Maurice) Hermite to produce the Grand Revue "EN SUPER FOLIES"
with Josephine Baker and the Bluebell Girls
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