The Moulin Rouge was built to let rich Parisians go slumming in Montmartre
When Joseph Oller and Charles Zidler opened the Moulin Rouge on 6 October 1889, the idea was to lure wealthy visitors into raffish Montmartre, where they would mix with workers, artists and tourists under a red windmill. Its dancers turned the can-can into a revue, and Toulouse-Lautrec's posters carried the place abroad.
The cabaret stands on the Boulevard de Clichy at Place Blanche, in Pigalle in the 18th arrondissement, with its landmark windmill on the roof. Oller, who also owned the Paris Olympia, and his manager Zidler dressed the garden with a giant elephant and billed the venue as the First Palace of Women. Champagne nights mixed dancing with novelty turns such as Le Pétomane, and the modern can-can, a riff on the quadrille danced in provocative costume, was born there.
Stars arrived fast. La Goulue greeted the visiting Prince of Wales, the future Edward VII, in October 1890 by telling him the champagne was on him, and in 1891 Toulouse-Lautrec made his first poster for the house, featuring her. The painter kept a permanently reserved table; his group portrait At the Moulin Rouge, painted 1892–95, shows La Goulue, Jane Avril and the artist himself beside his much taller cousin, with singer May Milton lit an acid green by the electric light. Zidler died in 1897, and the cabaret shut for the first time to mourn him.
Scandal and fire marked the following decades. A 1907 kiss between Colette and the Duchess of Morny got a show banned, and that same year Mistinguett made her debut, going on to become its biggest draw. Fire destroyed the building on 27 February 1915 during works, and it reopened in 1925. After Mistinguett retired in 1929 the ballroom became a modern nightclub; German occupiers later listed it as a must-see, and Edith Piaf returned there with the young Yves Montand in 1944.
Jo France bought the venue on 22 June 1951 and commissioned the décor, largely by Henri Mahé, that survives today. From 1962 Jacki Clérico enlarged the hall, installed a giant aquarium and staged the first aquatic ballet, and after the 1963 hit Frou-Frou every revue title began with F. The house celebrated its 90th anniversary in 1979, gave a special show for Queen Elizabeth II in 1981 and hosted Frank Sinatra in 1984.
Source: Moulin Rouge
