ΕΛΕΥΘΕΡΟΓΡΑΦΟΣ: Folies-Bergere in 1952 director Paul Derval [ Veronica Bell / Yvonne Menard / Eileen O'Dare ] Life magazine July 1952 Θεάματα

Κυριακή 25 Αυγούστου 2024

Folies-Bergere in 1952 director Paul Derval [ Veronica Bell / Yvonne Menard / Eileen O'Dare ] Life magazine July 1952 Θεάματα

FOLIES-BERGERE

Director: Paul Derval

Veronica Bell

Yvonne Menard

Eileen O’Dare

Life magazine July 1952

Θεάματα

Cage of Love:

This featured beauty, Veronica Bell, sings soprano arias over the spectators’ heads as she drops in her gaudy cage from the ceiling and is hoisted up again.

Folies-Bergere

To obtain the gratifying sensation that they are being devilish, nearly a quarter million American tourists this year will manage during their trip to Paris to buy a ticket for the Folies-Bergere.

This world-famous revue displays the female form in a state that has been roughly computed as 95% nude. Nevertheless the Folies, which began in 1869, seems to Parisians almost as solid an institution as the Bank of France, and is considered practically as respectable in Paris as Radio City Music Hall in New York.

The current show, called Une Vraie Folie (A True Folly), has some 40 scenes including ballets, pageants, musical numbers and skits. It follows the venerable Folies formula, which simply requires that its figurantes, vedettes or cuties be either magnificently overdressed or underdressed. The nudes, who wear nothing more than a variation on a fig leaf, disdain the coy exhibitionism of U.S. strip-teasers and parade with open nonchalance.

But if underdressing is the wine and seasoning of the Folies, the meat and potatoes are the elaborate spectacle numbers, which involve all kinds of kings, queens, devils, mythological creatures and assorted sirens.

To put on this year's super-sumptuous show, Director-Owner Paul Derval, a stolid French businessman who took over the Folies in 1923, spent $428,000. He expects each show to run about three years, often gets 500 standees a night. Monsieur Derval plans to bring his Folies to Broadway next year, feels he can somehow get around the New York censor’s insistence that showgirls wear at least some suggestion of a brassiere.

Because many Folies spectators do not understand French, the show relies mainly on razzle-dazzle visual effects. (In the summer 40% of audiences are Americans; other tourist patrons in order of their numbers are British, Belgian, Scandinavian, Swiss.) What plots there are need little explaining since, like the fable of the lady and the statue shown here, they seem to have been dreamed up by some Parisian cornball for the sole purpose of showing off pretty figures. This kind of fantasy embodies the Folies spirit.

Yvonne Menard

The FOLIES STAR, Yvonne Menard, steps onto an illuminated glass runway in front of orchestra conductor to act as a mistress of ceremonies, chatting with audience, introducing Folies members.

She is Yvonne Menard, who does not sing or dance much, but romps around the stage like a filly just beginning to get her running legs.

Eileen O’Dare

Walks on Air:

Every night the loudest applause for the Folies-Bergere goes to the only American girl in the show, 22-year-old Eileen O’Dare, whose amazing flip-flops make her look as if she were walking on air.

Eileen joins a long line of performers who were seen at the Folies in the early stages of their careers, including Charlie Chaplin, Fatty Arbuckle, Maurice Chevalier, Josephine Baker.

Eileen also appears at a other haunt of U.S. tourists, Le Bal Tabarin.

Fantasy in pool