Le Monocle was a Parisian lesbian bar, opened in the 1920s by Lulu de Montparnasse. Located on Boulevard Edgar-Quinet, it closed during the occupation of France by Germany in World War II.
The name of the club comes from the fact that the monocle was used as a symbol of recognition among lesbian individuals in the early 20th century. After the "flamboyant 1920s and the retrenchment of the 1930s," the bar was closed during the occupation of France by Germany during World War II. [1]
It was one of the first lesbian clubs in the city. At its peak, Le Monocle was considered a luxurious club where "fashionable" women could dance, talk, and kiss without fearing judgment or persecution. Regarded as a popular venue for lesbians in Paris during the 1920s and 1930s, its reputation as a safe space for women was well-known. There were often long queues to enter the club, which featured an all-female orchestra. [2] It was also a meeting and networking place for artists, intellectuals, and influential women. However, like all lesbian venues, the women who used to work there were "constantly monitored by the police." [3] [4]
It was at Le Monocle that cabaret manager Frede met Anaïs Nin and Marlene Dietrich, with whom she later had a love affair. Frede then opened her own lesbian cabaret with the help of Dietrich. Businesswoman Marthe Hanau also frequented Le Monocle with her partner Josèphe. [5]
The photographer Brassaï was allowed to enter the bar and take photos in 1932. [6] The athlete Violette Morris appeared in one of these photos taken at Le Monocle with Lulu de Montparnasse, and one of the prints was sold for $17,500 at Christie's in 2012. [7]
Lucienne Franchi, also known as Lulu de Montparnasse, gave the spotlight on stage to Line Marsa, the mother of Édith Piaf. After the sale of Le Monocle, she also became the owner of the cabaret La Roulotte. [8]
Le Monocle is mentioned in the works of historian Florence Tamagne, who describes it as a place where "all women dressed like men, in tuxedos, and had their hair cut in a bob." [9]
Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music, song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, a casino, a hotel, a restaurant, or a nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining or drinking, does not typically dance but usually sits at tables. Performances are usually introduced by a master of ceremonies or MC. The entertainment, as performed by an ensemble of actors and according to its European origins, is often oriented towards adult audiences and of a clearly underground nature. In the United States, striptease, burlesque, drag shows, or a solo vocalist with a pianist, as well as the venues which offer this entertainment, are often advertised as cabarets.
Montparnasse is an area in the south of Paris, France, on the left bank of the river Seine, centred at the crossroads of the Boulevard du Montparnasse and the Rue de Rennes, between the Rue de Rennes and boulevard Raspail. It is split between the 6th, 14th, and 15th arrondissements of the city. Montparnasse has been part of Paris since 1669.
Alice Ernestine Prin, nicknamed the Queen of Montparnasse and often known as Kiki de Montparnasse, was a French model, chanteuse, memoirist and painter during the Jazz Age. She flourished in, and helped define, the liberated culture of Paris in the so-called Années folles. She became one of the most famous models of the 20th century and in the history of avant-garde art.
Marie Magdalene "Marlene" Dietrich was a German and American actress and singer whose career spanned from the 1910s to the 1980s.
The Place Pigalle is a public square located in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, between the Boulevard de Clichy and the Boulevard de Rochechouart, near Sacré-Cœur, at the foot of the Montmartre hill.
Schöneberg is a locality of Berlin, Germany. Until Berlin's 2001 administrative reform it was a separate borough including the locality of Friedenau. Together with the former borough of Tempelhof it is now part of the new borough of Tempelhof-Schöneberg.
Jean Gabin was a French actor and singer. Considered a key figure in French cinema, he starred in several classic films including Pépé le Moko (1937), La grande illusion (1937), Le Quai des brumes (1938), La bête humaine (1938), Le jour se lève (1939), and Le plaisir (1952). During his career he twice won both the Silver Bear for Best Actor from the Berlin International Film Festival and the Volpi Cup for Best Actor from the Venice Film Festival respectively. Gabin was made a member of the Légion d'honneur in recognition of the important role he played in French cinema.
Eugénie Buffet (1866–1934) was a French singer who rose to fame in France just prior to World War I. She has been called one of the first, if not the first, performer of the chanson réaliste genre. She became a national sensation in France, performing in the fashionable cafés-concerts of Paris as well as embarking on both national and international tours. Her biggest success is said to be her performance of the song "La Sérénade du Pavé", written by Jean Varney in 1895. She was also known to perform in the street for charity in the poorer areas of Paris – work for which she was awarded the Légion d'honneur.
Jeunes filles en serre chaude is a 1934 novel by the French author Jeanne Galzy. Its protagonists are young women at the École normale supérieure de jeunes filles in Sèvres, a suburb of Paris, at the time a girls-only school. The school, which Galzy herself attended, trained girls especially as teachers for the secondary education system. The background for the events in the novel is the 50th anniversary of the secondary school system for women; it is one of many French novels and other (autobiographical) texts of the period in which authors' school and university experiences were recounted.
Paris, the capital of France, has an active LGBT community. In the 1990s, 46% of the country's gay men lived in the city. As of 2004, Paris had 140 LGBT bars, clubs, hotels, restaurants, shops, and other commercial businesses. Florence Tamagne, author of "Paris: 'Resting on its Laurels'?", wrote that there is a "Gaité parisienne"; she added that Paris "competes with Berlin for the title of LGBT capital of Europe, and ranks only second behind New York for the title of LGBT capital of the world." It has France's only gayborhoods that are officially organized.
The Années folles was the decade of the 1920s in France. It was coined to describe the social, artistic, and cultural collaborations of the period. The same period is also referred to as the Roaring Twenties or the Jazz Age in the United States. In Germany, it is sometimes referred to as the Golden Twenties because of the economic boom that followed World War I.
A lesbian bar is a drinking establishment that caters exclusively or predominantly to lesbian women. While often conflated, the lesbian bar has a history distinct from that of the gay bar.
La Coupole is a famous brasserie in Montparnasse in Paris. It was opened on December 20, 1927 by Ernest Fraux and René Lafon during the Roaring Twenties when Montparnasse housed a large artistic and literary community – expatriates and members of the Lost Generation. They decorated the place in the contemporary art deco style. Artists of the School of Paris and intellectuals frequented the brasserie in the interwar period.
Rogi André was a Hungarian-born French photographer and artist. She was the first wife of André Kertész.
Frede was a French host and manager of cabarets in Paris and Biarritz. Openly lesbian, Frede was the first to allow women to dance together in a classic cabaret. She is known for her relationships with actresses Marlene Dietrich, Zina Rachevsky, Lana Marconi, and María Félix. She has been featured as a character in Patrick Modiano's books.
New Moon was a Parisian nightclub, located at 66 Rue Pigalle in the Place Pigalle, that started in the late 19th-century as a headquarters for Impressionist artists. In the 20th century, it became a jazz club and then a lesbian cabaret, before converting to a well-known alternative rock club in the 1980s. It closed in 1995.
Chez Moune is a Parisian nightclub that originally opened as Le Fetiche in 1936 in the Place Pigalle. It has been described as the first lesbian club with dancing and cabaret in Europe. Since the late 1980s, it has been a nightclub for mixed clientele.
Le Hanneton was a popular Parisian lesbian bar of the 1890s and early 1900s at 75 Rue Pigalle in the Montmartre district. It was owned and run by Madame Armande Brazier, who was the subject of a well-known lithograph by Toulouse Lautrec, Au Hanneton.
Le Select is a Parisian brasserie founded in 1923 in the 6th arrondissement at 99 Boulevard Montparnasse, in the Notre-Dame-des-Champs neighborhood. It was one of the more prominent meeting places of the Parisian intellectuals between the two world wars, with a significant place in the Bohemian Culture of the period.