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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 January 2009
The Café-Concert as an object of study has tended to attract the interest of art rather than theatre historians, despite the fact that it was the major form of popular entertainment in France during the nineteenth century. Similar but not identical to the English music hall of the same period, the Café-Concert produced a number of stars of national importance, a large majority of whom were women. Through the writings of journalists and commentators of the period, this article explores how these female performers were perceived and constructed as objects of the public gaze. The author, Geraldine Harris, is a Lecturer in Theatre Studies at the University of Lancaster, with interests in both popular and feminist theatre.
1. Véron, Pierre, Paris s'amuse (Paris, 1861), p. 87Google Scholar.
2. ‘Thérésa’ was Emma Valadon (1837–1913).
3. The Café-Concert was an intensely parochial form that reflected historic attitudes towards the chanson, which always had greater artistic status in France than the popular song achieved elsewhere. The music hall only developed in France in the late 1880s, one of the first being the Folies Bergère. ‘Le Music Hall’ was more spectacular than the Café-Concert. It was variety based, and had strong international influences.
4. Yvette Guilbert (1867–1944).
5. ‘Paulus’ was Jean Paul Habans (1845–1908). It was often claimed that Paulus helped give momentum to the Boulangerist movement that ended in an abortive coup d'état in 1886. On 14 July that year, he was appearing at the Alcazar d'Été Café-Concert. In a topical reference to the annual Military Review that took place on that day, Paulus sang Delormel and Gamier's En Revenant de la revue, slipping Boulanger's name into the chorus. The audience went wild with enthusiasm. This became one of Paulus's greatest hits, and a host of Boulanger songs sprang up in the Café-Concert, greatly enhancing the General's popular appeal.
6. Discuses/diseurs (speakers) are recognized as a specific category of singer in France. A diseuse may lack a strong singing voice but tend to concentrate on words rather than music, and to be skilled in phrasing, variety of tone, and the conveying of emotion. Yvette Guilbert was a diseuse while Thérésa was a chanteuse (singer).
7. ‘Paulus’, Trente ans du Café-Concert: souvenirs recueillis par Octave Pradels (Paris, 1808), p. 189.
8. In the 1890s, Madame Saint-Ange was the owner-director of the Eden Café-Concert, and Madame Allemand co-directed a number of concerts with her husband and son-in-law, M. Marchand, including the Eldorado and the Scala. ‘Severine’, quoted in this article, was a woman journalist, and Yvette Guilbert wrote at least one of her own songs, La Sôularde (‘The Drunkard’). These are the only concrete examples I have found of women connected with the Café-Concert who were not performers.
9. The ‘savage’ was said to be fake – an ex-coachman once employed by Robespierre, dressed up in feathers and paint.
10. Paulus, op. cit., p. 248–9.
11. Jollivet, Gaston and Jonciéres, Victorian, ‘Numéro Spéciale: les Café-Concerts’, Figaro Illustré 06 1896, p. 101Google Scholar.
12. Paulus, op. cit., p. 124. ‘It was difficult to keep attention whilst they [the corbeille] were there, difficult to make oneself heard’.
13. , Paulus and Chevalier, Le, Guide des théâtres de Paris (Paris, 1855)Google Scholar.
14. , E. A. D., Les Café-concerts (Paris, 1866), p. 142Google Scholar.
15. Ibid., p. 142.
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18. Fournel, Victor, quoted by Hugonis, L., L'Eldorado et le question des café-concerts (Paris, 1875), p. 28Google Scholar.
19. Apparently Doucet, the Minister of Beaux Arts, changed the law under pressure from the press. Influential critics such as Fransique Sacrcey took up the Café-Concert cause when the Comédie Francaise attempted to stop Mme. Comelié, an ex-sociétaire, from performing extracts from Racine at the Eldorado Café-Concert.
20. Paulus, op. cit. p. 18.
21. Chardourne, André, Les Café-concerts (Paris, 1889), p. 15Google Scholar.
22. Victor Fournel, op. cit., p. 28.
23. Talmayer, Maurice, ‘Café-concerts et music halls’, Revue de Deux Mondes (Paris, 1902), p. 163Google Scholar.
24. Ibid., p. 163.
25. Ibid., p. 163.
26. Paulus, op. cit., p. 187.
27. Talmayer, op. cit., p. 174.
28. Chardoume, op. cit., p. 44.
29. Ibid., p. 44.
30. ‘Dranem’ was Amaud Menard (1869–1933).
31. Félix Mayol (1872–1941).
32. Montorgeuil, Georges, ‘Le Café-concert’, L'Echo de Paris, 19 12 1893Google Scholar.
33. Veuillot, Louis, Les Odeurs de Paris (Paris, 1866), p. 149Google Scholar.
34. , Thérésa, Les Mémoires de Thérésa (écrit par elle-même) (Paris, 1865), p. 30Google Scholar. A number of sources insist that her memoirs were in fact written by two ‘ghosts’, Wolf and Blum.
35. de Banville, Théodore, quoted by Delvau, A., Les Lions du jour: physionomies parisiens (Paris, 1867), p. 259Google Scholar.
36. Veuillot, op. cit., p. 150.
37. ‘Severine’, ‘Obituary on Thérésa’, Gil Bias, 16 May 1913.
38. Théodore de Banville, op. cit., p. 259.
39. ‘Severine’, op. cit.
40. Baisson, A. D., Le Temps, 19 05 1913Google Scholar.
41. ‘Une Lettre au peuple de Marseillaise’ (Paris, 1866). Uncredited article from press cutting collection on Thérésa at the Biblioth`que de L'Arsenal, Paris.
42. Rein n'est sacré pour un sapeur (‘Nothing is sacred to a sapper’), by Housset, L. and Villebichot, M. A., 1865Google Scholar.
43. La Gardeuse d'Ours, by ‘Herve’ (Florimond Rouge).
44. La Femme au Barbe, by Elie Frebault and Paul Blanquaire.
45. E.A.D., op. cit.
46. Jahyer, Félix, ‘Camées artistiques: Thérésa’, Paris Théâtre, 17 09 1874Google Scholar.
47. Guilbert, Yvette, trans. de Holthoir, Béatrice, The Song of My Life (London, 1929), p. 60Google Scholar.
48. Lorrain, Jean, quoted and translated by Leslie, Peter, A Hard Act to Follow (London, 1978), p. 99Google Scholar.
49. Symons, Arthur, From Toulouse Lautrec to Rodin (London, 1929), p. 86Google Scholar.
50. Henri Lavedon, quoted by Paul Clerouc, ‘Yvette Guilbert, sa carrière ses chansons’ (n.d.). Press-cutting collection on Yvette Guilbert, Bibliothèque de L'Arsenal, Paris.
51. Symons, Arthur, quoted by Chapman, Myra and Knapp, Bettina, That was Yvette: the Biography of the Great Diseuse (New York, 1965), p. 129Google Scholar.
52. Le Chat Noir was opened in 1881 by Rodolph Salis, and was one of the first of the ‘artistic cabarets’. These were essentially informal ‘clubs’ for writers and artists who often gave readings or performances of their work in these venues. Regulars at the Chat Noir included Ernest Chebroux, Emille Goudeau, Jehan Rictus, Georges Fragerolles, Willette, Steinlen, Henri Rivière, Charles Cros, Maurice Rollinat, Alphonse Allais, and Eric Satie, as well as those cited in the text.
53. Mistinguett was Jeanne Bourgeois (1873–1946). Like Maurice Chevalier, she started her career in the Café-Concert, but was really a star of the music hall. She created the apâche dance (or the valse chalopée) in 1909.
54. Casque d'Or (Amélie Hélie) was so-called because of her red gold hair, and rose to fame during the trial of a case of robbery with violence in the 1890s. She appeared in Casque d'Or et les apâches' in 1902. (Les apâches was a slang term for street gangs.)
55. Jeanne Bloch (1858–1916).
56. Vaucaire, M., ‘Les Café-Concerts’, Paris Illustré, 08 1886, p. 113Google Scholar.
57. Ibid., p. 133.
58. Charles, Jaques, Le Caf'Conc (Paris, 1966), p. 37Google Scholar.
59. ‘Polaire’ was Emilie-Marie Bouchard (1877–1939).
60. Weyl, Fernand, ‘Notre génie nationale et les café-concerts’, Revue d'Art Dramatique, 10 1899, p. 112Google Scholar.
61. ‘Le Pétômane’ (‘The Farter’) was Jean Joseph Pujol (1857–1945). Due to a physical irregularity, Pujol was able to perform an act that included animal impersonations and playing musical instruments, all achieved through his anus.
62. The Coucher d'Yvette was first performed at the Divan Japonais in Montmartre before reaching a wider public at the Alcazar d'Été in 1894.
63. E.A.D., op. cit., p. 36–7.
