ARISTIDE BRUANT

Photo, left: Poster of Aristide Bruant, father of the modern cabaret,  in his Cabaret by  Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, 1892.  Photo, right: Bruant.

Le Chat Noire was mystified and imbibed by the character and personality of his co-founder, the legendary Aristide Bruant who is considered as the Father of Modern Cabaret. To all its customers, Le Chat Noire was Aristide Bruant in persona. This landmark Cabaret opened its doors in 1881 in Montmartre, Paris, France. And with its opening night, the first chapter of Cabaret was written. Among its illustrious clients were Guy de Maupassant, and Debussy. The founders of Le Chat Noire were Aristide Bruant (1851-1925), Rodolphe Salis (1852-1897) and our famous Emile Goudeau (1849-1906), the flamboyant and daring character we met before! Aristide Bruant was a character, a flamboyant bon-viveur and a master of sarcasm. When  “La Haute Societe “ (High Society) and the Parisian bourgeoisie came to his cabaret, he addressed them as “Cochons” (Pigs) and asked them to save their money and spend it in his place. Yet, he was generous to a fault. He loved life, adventures and celebrated the anarchists, the rebels, the free-spirited, the liberals, the outlaws and the prostitutes. He was perfect for the cabaret business at that time and place in history. He was the champion of the underdog, the poor, the working class and the persecuted. He made fun of the famous and the rich and ridicule the fashionable Parisian women.   He made a fortune and a fortune he spent on his friends and the needy. He retired from the cabaret scene and devoted himself to farming, writing books and publishing novels. In 1924, at 73, he made a brief comeback at the Parisian theater “Theatre Empire”.

 

THE SONGWRITERS (LES CHANSONNIERS) OF LE CHAT NOIRE

Photos from L to R: #1.Gaston Couté (1880-1911). #2. Jules Jouy (1857-1898). #3.Maurice Rollinat (1846-1903). Others songwriters were: Léon Durocher (1862-1918), Jean Goudezki (1866-?), Vincent Hyspa ((1868-1914), Maurice Mac-Nab (1856-1889),  René Ponsard (1830-1894), Léon Xanrof (1867-1953). 

 

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