The Moulin Rouge is a cabaret in Pigalle, located at the foot of the Butte Montmartre. It consists of a ballroom where at the time the common people and the high society mixed. Its wings, which had been turning for 135 years, fell during the night of April 24 to 25 without causing any injuries, due to a technical accident probably linked to the axle. During the night, around 1:45 a.m. and after the spectators of the second show had left, the metal structure collapsed, taking with it in its fall of about ten meters, the first 3 letters of the sign (MOU) located on the facade.
« Le Moulin Rouge » is so named because the founders had imagined a place enhanced by a large mill painted red and illuminated at night to be clearly visible from the grand boulevards and the bottom of Rue Blanche in the 18th arrondissement.
Founded in 1889 by Joseph Olier and Charles Zidier, the Moulin Rouge suffered a serious fire, due to work, in 1915, leading to its closure for 9 years. It was the same year that the dancers called « les cancaneuses du Moulin Rouge » entered the stage, astonishing spectators and tourists. According to the dancers, the cancan was a way to challenge the established order and some of them became famous like « La Goulue », « Nini pattes en l’air », Grille d’Egout, Jane Avril who served as a muse to the painter Toulouse-Lautrec or Joéphine Baker who made her debut there. Among the men, we can recall the name of « Valentin le désossé ». Big names in song also made their debut there. Among them are Mistinguette, Yvette Guilbert, Since then, each year, the establishment welcomes nearly 600,000 visitors. « Le Moulin Rouge » is also a way to help small crafts like the seamstresses of the Valentin workshop or the Aelier Mine Vergès who make the « blue-white-red » dresses, the embroiderers, the feather workers like the house Février, the shoemakers like the house Clairvoy created in 1945 or other art houses.
It was not until July 8 that the wings were put back in place before the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. On this occasion, a French Cancan show (traditional dance from Offenbach’s operettas from the early 19th century) was performed by about twenty dancers in traditional costume (petticoats and frills) in the middle of the boulevard to celebrate the new blades, more than 2 months after the fall. The reinstallation of the cabaret’s wings began before the passage of the flame in July 2024. They were rebuilt identically and no change in appearance was made.
The Flame Relay, which began on July 26 and will end on August 11 with the lighting of the cauldron, passed in front of the Moulin Rouge on July 15. Dancers took advantage of this event to offer the crowd a superb French Cancan. On this occasion, 2 torchbearers carried out the relay, surrounded by artists proud to have shared this unique moment.
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