Le Bar aux Folies-Bergere - Manet
It All Happened On This Day In History
What sort of day was it? A day like all days, filled with those events that alter and illuminate our times... and you were there (Walter Cronkite)
It’s the Montmartre district of Paris in the middle of the nineteenth century. Sophistication and elegance are setting Parisian fashion. Historians referred to it as France’s Golden Years. The year is 1869, and tonight is the opening of Paris’ first Music Hall, the glamorous Folies Bergere Theatre.
Dancing and drinking were only the beginning for patrons who frequented the Folies Theatre in Paris. The Folies became the center of world attention as an entertainment spot for fostering new, upcoming stars. Variety acts and talented young artisans from around the world, names like Maurice Chevalier, Will Rogers, Josephine Baker, the Marx Brothers, Charlie Chaplin, Colette, and Fernandel all made their claim to fame under the glittering marquee of the Folies.
Dancing and drinking were only the beginning for patrons who frequented the Folies Theatre in Paris. The Folies became the center of world attention as an entertainment spot for fostering new, upcoming stars. Variety acts and talented young artisans from around the world, names like Maurice Chevalier, Will Rogers, Josephine Baker, the Marx Brothers, Charlie Chaplin, Colette, and Fernandel all made their claim to fame under the glittering marquee of the Folies.
Josephine Baker
7 comments:
Great video! Fun music and hot dancing.
The dudes at the two tables really need to adjust their choices in hats. Cheers!!
Ah, to have been able to move like that just once in my life! Well, perhaps if I were to get tazered by the local police I could do it but that hardly seems worth it!
She was a remarkable lady. Worked with the French underground which earned her the Croix de Guerre, Adopted children of many races that she called her "rainbow tribe", active in the U.S. with Civil Rights and sang and danced her way through it all.
That vid really did make me feel like I was there (thank you, walter cronkite) ... and it was NOTHING like the Folies Bergere in Vegas (thank heavens)!
Of the Folies Bergere chorus line is JUST like the one in Vegas. The general entertainers usually kept their clothes on, though Baker's most famous dance was wearing a belt of dangling bananas. :-)
Remarkable, Jamie!
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