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Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec - Moulin Rouge: La Goulue
It was on this day in 1889 that the famous cabaret Moulin Rouge opened its doors.
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In the early days of the Moulin Rouge, one of its attractions was a giant stucco elephant as tall as a building, and for a franc, men could go inside one of its legs and watch belly dancers. The can-can is said to have originated at the Moulin Rouge.
There's more, much more in today's post at the The Writer's Almanac, including a lovely poem by Howard Nelson, titled "The Man in the Yard", and tidbits on the history of early opera. Today's date was eventful over the years of history, as you will see if you check the link.
The powers at the website post strict rules about what can or cannot be copied, (apparently, nothing can be copied!) but the rule of fair use does not, or so I believe, exclude them. We shall see. The powers may come after me for my brief quote above. I'm quite careful not to use the words of others without attribution.
Image from Wikipedia Commons, not from "The Writer's Almanac".
Think I've posted in the past about much of the naughtiness of the can-can lying in the fact that the ladies of the 1880's & 90's wore split drawers.
ReplyDeleteWhoa! Big ones.
ReplyDeleteWe are not amused!
ReplyDeleteI heard they wore no drawers, but that story may have been the unexpurgated version.
ReplyDeleteI love the Writer's Almanac.
Cathy, me, too, despite their too strict warnings about use of their material. I know why they do it, though, because certain unscrupulous folks copy entire pages with no attribution at all.
ReplyDelete