Before 1868, when the commune of
Montmartre became part of Paris, the chaussée des Martyrs was exempt from taxes on alcohol, particularly wine. Today's bis rue des Martyrs is known as the Musette Saint-Flour, popular for its cheap alcohol. In 1861, the ballroom
Sant-Flour Musette was transformed into
Brasserie des Martyrs, patronized by people such as
Charles Baudelaire,
Edgar Degas, and
Jules Vallès. In 1871 it became the
café-chantant Divan Japonais, and the owner Théophile Lefort decorated it in
Japanese style. In 1946, Marcel Ouizman (also spelled Oudjman, Ouissmann or Wutsman), a Jewish
pied-noir who owned a club
Le Binocle before the war, chose the song
Madame Arthur as the name of the cabaret he opened at Rue des Martyrs. His business partner, known as Floridor, was also the host, and having died within the first few months, he was replaced by another host, ex-priest and poet Loulou. The venue held shows of 1930s-style
female impersonation done by cisgender
transformistes. The first star of the cabaret was an ex-ballet dancer, who performed under the name Maslowa. Baddabou, Cricri, Chantaline Erika Keller, Estelle Roederer, Angélique Lagerfeld, Chablie,
Yeda Brown,
Dominot and Bambi. One of them,
Antoine le casseur was written for a
transformiste Lucky Sarcell, who danced for
Mistinguett. Several of those songs (
Zita la panthère,
Meximambo,
Tragique cinq à sept),
have not been found.
Bambi's description of Madame Arthur:The entrance is all cramped, and the checkroom below. We find ourselves in a sort of airlock that opens onto the auditorium. At the other end is the stage. Near the entrance, the bar. Be tween the stage and the bar, three vertical rows of adjoining tables. Each table seats four people. Sometimes five, six or even seven people are crammed in, thanks to the addition of stools that clutter up the aisles and impede service. The atmosphere is all the warmer for it. Beyond the hall, the offices and part of the dressing rooms. And on the upper floors of the building, there are other dressing rooms and the sewing workshops. Maslowa was considered Madame Arthur's best revue leader by Bambi: Maslowa would stand in the room as soon as the first customers arrived and acclimatize them to the evening they were about to experience. He was almost always dressed in pink satin pyjamas, didn't wear a wig, and with his naturally blond hair did a hairstyle that had something feminine about it. He always wore make-up, but lightly: little beard. The lips were drawn in a heart shape, as in 1925. What drew the most attention, and even fixed the gaze, were his eyes. Immense green eyes that could take on any expression, from naivety to mischief, from tenderness to indignation, from admiration to mockery. Most often self-mockery. His wit was not the kind of chansonnier of the time, nor of today. His main subject was himself, a character of a giddy, extravagant, good-natured young woman. I thought Loulou and Maslowa's jokes were funny in themselves. And they certainly were. Sometimes they were. But if the biggest puns like "Have you seen Monte Carlo? - No, I haven't seen anyone ride" were infinitely funny, and every day, it was because our hosts, who often repeated the same gags, discovered new ones and lived intensely in front of their audience. A simple routine? No! Every day, every moment, they recreated every expression, every word. Life itself. Twenty years of uninterrupted success, with no vacations. In 1961, Ouizman opened another cabaret called Madame Arthur in
Amsterdam with two artists from Paris, Rita Del Ora and Capucine, and some local talent. It's now the Heineken Music-Hall. Ouizman retired from business in 1985, and
Madame Arthur closed in 1994. == Today ==