Le Palace (Paris)
Encyclopedia
Le Palace is a Paris theatre located at 8, rue du Faubourg-Montmartre in the 9th arrondissement. It is best known for its years as a nightclub where fashion, music, and underground culture intersected in a mythical blend.
Created by impresario Fabrice Emaer
in 1978, intellectuals, actors, designers, and American and European jetsetters adored the place for its flamboyant DJ Guy Cuevas
, extravagant theme parties and performances, and Emaer's rule-breaking mix of clubgoers that threw together rich and poor, gay and straight, black and white.
After Emaer's death in 1985, Le Palace changed hands and names several times before reopening in 2008 as a theater and concert space of the same name.
Baptized Le Palace as early as 1912 , by 1923 it served as a music hall hosted by Oscar Dufrenne and Henri Varna who had already directed le Concert Mayol, l'Empire, le Moncey Music-Hall and the Bouffes du Nord. The two changed the name to Eden en Palace in 1923, and in collaboration with the London Palace, had a long run engaging artists like dancer and singer Harry Pilcer and musical clown Grock
.
In 1931, Oscar Dufrenne took the bold step of changing the theater into a cinema, a move which came to an end when his nude corpse was discovered on site in 1933, inspiring rumors of rough trade gone bad. Shortly afterwards, his partner Henry Varna changed the space back into a music hall which he called the "Alcazar." It became a cinema again in 1946, recovering its original name and gradually fading from view.
The decrepit building was finally acquired by writer and theater director Pierre Laville in 1975. He began producing experimental theater there, and came to the attention of then Minister of Culture, Michel Guy, who used the space for his Festival d'Automne (Autumn Festival).
When impresario Fabrice Emaer decided to open a place large enough to rival Club 54 in New York, it was Michel Guy who suggested he buy Le Palace.
At Club Sept, he was trying to do something totally different from the pick-up club Le Pimm's. The "7" had a restaurant on the ground floor with a small dance floor in the basement simply decorated with mirrors on the walls and a ceiling with multicolored lights that flashed with the music.
The focus was dancing and the Sept quickly became "the epicenter of disco
" in part because Emaer hired a young Cuban DJ Guy Cuevas
, to work the turntable. Cuevas was largely responsible for introducing Paris to funk and soul playing the O'Jays, Billy Paul, Teddy Pendergrass
and Marvin Gaye
.
While some attributed Emaer's success largely to Cuevas who had the crowd pressing at its doors and the packing the dance floor, Emaer also accomplished something new with the clientele. He mixed the "jet set" with kids that just wanted to dance, hets with homos, and artists and intellectuals with anyone who had an interesting look.
The combination of excellent music and clientele worked. And after a visit to Studio 54
in New York, Emaer returned with even greater ambitions to create a space that was more than a club, but an experience.
Delighted with the Palace's decrepit structure which would allow him not just an enormous disco, but the accoutrements of a traditional theater space with stages and an enormous balcony, Fabrice Emaer ordered important construction work, restoring the architecturally classified building, including the decor of the '30s. The colossal expenses which were to be a lasting burden on the future of the club, but in the short term the results were impressive.
Every detail was calculated. The careful interior design extended to the waiters who were dressed in flamboyant red and gold costumes designed by the couturier Thierry Mugler
. And on opening night, 1 March 1978, the Palace set the tone for the future by offering an extravagant spectacle in which Grace Jones
sang La Vie en Rose
surrounded by dry ice and shining roses while perched atop a pink Harley Davidson.
To complete the dramatic experience at the club, the Palace, not content with one laser, had three, along with descending disco balls, and installations by some of the time's most extravagant sculptors and stage designers. There were different lighting effects every night that were so spectaculor dancers would stop mid-gesture to watch what was going on.
Emaer also played careful attention to the music.
Completing the picture was Emaer's talent for creating a compelling crowd. At the entry, Edwige and Paquita Paquin were instructed to mix rich and poor, gay and straight, black and white, the bourgeois, even punk. Above all they looked for attitude and an interesting look.
Among the regulars or its most famous visitors (to name just a few) were Alain Pacadis, of the newspaper Libération
who frequently evoked le Palace and its regulars in his chronicles; couturier Karl Lagerfeld; semiotician Roland Barthes
, professor at the Collège de France; singer Mick Jagger
; American artist Andy Warhol
; journalist Frédéric Mitterrand
; decorator Andrée Putman; movie producer and illustrator Jean-Paul Goude
; model and singer Grace Jones
; couturier Kenzo; couturier Yves Saint Laurent; the CEO of Yves Saint Laurent and friend of François Mitterrand
, Pierre Bergé
; actress Alice Sapritch; impersonator of celebrities Thierry Le Luron
; publicist and art gallery owner Cyril Putman.
Fashion designers organized theme nights and balls. There were live concerts, fashion shows and private parties. Prince
held his first concert there. And in 1980, in the basement, Fabrice Emaer opened beneath Le Palace a private restaurant/discothèque, Le Privilège, reserved for the jet set and for princes and princesses of the night for whom the excessive social diversity of the Palace broke rules.
The decoration of the place was entrusted to Gérard Garouste
, the creation of the furniture to Elisabeth Garouste.
All that ended when Fabrice Emaer died in 1983.
Nevertheless, le Palace of the years 1983/1989 gave birth to the Parisian infatuation with House Music
with the parties of Jean-Claude Lacreze or of La Nicole (Nicolas), but specially the Pyramid parties around 1987, organized by the English of S-Express. The American artist Leigh Bowery
was frequently invited there. Also, the Gay Tea Dance that originated with the openly gay Emaer received two to three thousand participants each Sunday afternoon.
In 1992, Régine herself, former 'rival' of the night of Fabrice Emaer, "Queen of the Parisian Night", tried to take over the site, followed in 1994 by the couple David
and Cathy Guetta who tried to relaunch it with le Privilège, renovated and renamed Kitkat. The decorations of Garouste disappeared.
The place closed definitively in 1996, and was occupied by squatters for several years. In 2007, the brothers Alil and Hazis Vardar, Belgians of Albanian origin purchased the hall with the money of Francis and Chantal Lemaire, proprietors of Radio Contact in Belgium. The Vardar brothers already owned Comédie République and Grande Comédie, Parisian halls with 200 and 400 seats which were filled every night because of good comedies. After its remodeling, they reopened Le Palace (970 seats) to offer, since 2007, popular comedies, one-man shows, and television broadcasts.
Created by impresario Fabrice Emaer
Fabrice Emaer
Fabrice Emaer called "The Prince of the night" was an impresario whose nightclubs le Sept, and le Palace, were the premier spots in Paris nightlife in the 1970s and early 1980s, celebrated in memoirs and songs like Amanda Lear's 1979 song "Fashion Pack" which declared, "In Paris you got to be seen...
in 1978, intellectuals, actors, designers, and American and European jetsetters adored the place for its flamboyant DJ Guy Cuevas
Guy Cuevas
Guy Cuevas is a Cuban-born writer, musician, and legendary Paris disc jockey. Born Guillermo Cuevas Carrión, he worked the turntables and the crowds at Club Sept, and Le Palace before becoming the artistic director, first of Les Bains Douches, then the Barrio Latino.As a DJ he was known for a...
, extravagant theme parties and performances, and Emaer's rule-breaking mix of clubgoers that threw together rich and poor, gay and straight, black and white.
After Emaer's death in 1985, Le Palace changed hands and names several times before reopening in 2008 as a theater and concert space of the same name.
History: The Palace Theater
Constructed in the 17th century , the building on rue on Faubourg Montmartre already had a modern history as theater and dance hall before Fabrice Emaer turned it into one of the hottest nightclubs in Paris.Baptized Le Palace as early as 1912 , by 1923 it served as a music hall hosted by Oscar Dufrenne and Henri Varna who had already directed le Concert Mayol, l'Empire, le Moncey Music-Hall and the Bouffes du Nord. The two changed the name to Eden en Palace in 1923, and in collaboration with the London Palace, had a long run engaging artists like dancer and singer Harry Pilcer and musical clown Grock
Grock
Grock , born Charles Adrien Wettach, was a Swiss clown, composer and musician. Called "the king of clowns" and "the greatest of Europe's clowns", Grock was once the most highly paid entertainer in the world....
.
In 1931, Oscar Dufrenne took the bold step of changing the theater into a cinema, a move which came to an end when his nude corpse was discovered on site in 1933, inspiring rumors of rough trade gone bad. Shortly afterwards, his partner Henry Varna changed the space back into a music hall which he called the "Alcazar." It became a cinema again in 1946, recovering its original name and gradually fading from view.
The decrepit building was finally acquired by writer and theater director Pierre Laville in 1975. He began producing experimental theater there, and came to the attention of then Minister of Culture, Michel Guy, who used the space for his Festival d'Automne (Autumn Festival).
When impresario Fabrice Emaer decided to open a place large enough to rival Club 54 in New York, it was Michel Guy who suggested he buy Le Palace.
Trial Runs: Le Pimm's, Le Sept
Fabrice Emaer (1935-1983) was already a proven success when he opened Le Palace. He created Le Pimm's, the premier gay club on Saint-Anne Street in 1964. And in 1968, while other young Parisians were out on the streets throwing cobblestones, he took over le Sept down the block.At Club Sept, he was trying to do something totally different from the pick-up club Le Pimm's. The "7" had a restaurant on the ground floor with a small dance floor in the basement simply decorated with mirrors on the walls and a ceiling with multicolored lights that flashed with the music.
The focus was dancing and the Sept quickly became "the epicenter of disco
Disco
Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...
" in part because Emaer hired a young Cuban DJ Guy Cuevas
Guy Cuevas
Guy Cuevas is a Cuban-born writer, musician, and legendary Paris disc jockey. Born Guillermo Cuevas Carrión, he worked the turntables and the crowds at Club Sept, and Le Palace before becoming the artistic director, first of Les Bains Douches, then the Barrio Latino.As a DJ he was known for a...
, to work the turntable. Cuevas was largely responsible for introducing Paris to funk and soul playing the O'Jays, Billy Paul, Teddy Pendergrass
Teddy Pendergrass
Theodore DeReese "Teddy" Pendergrass was an American R&B/soul singer and songwriter. Pendergrass first rose to fame as lead singer of Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes in the 1970s before a successful solo career at the end of the decade...
and Marvin Gaye
Marvin Gaye
Marvin Pentz Gay, Jr. , better known by his stage name Marvin Gaye, was an American singer-songwriter and musician with a three-octave vocal range....
.
While some attributed Emaer's success largely to Cuevas who had the crowd pressing at its doors and the packing the dance floor, Emaer also accomplished something new with the clientele. He mixed the "jet set" with kids that just wanted to dance, hets with homos, and artists and intellectuals with anyone who had an interesting look.
The combination of excellent music and clientele worked. And after a visit to Studio 54
Studio 54
Studio 54 was a highly popular discotheque from 1977 until 1991, located at 254 West 54th Street in Manhattan, New York, USA. It was originally the Gallo Opera House, opening in 1927, after which it changed names several times, eventually becoming a CBS radio and television studio. In 1977 it...
in New York, Emaer returned with even greater ambitions to create a space that was more than a club, but an experience.
Emaer's Palace
Le Palace "wasn't a club like the others, it gathered together in an original place pleasures ordinarily scattered: that of the lovingly preserved theater, performing the gaze; the excitement of the Modern, the exploration of new visual sensations due to new technologies; the joy of the dance, the charm of possible encounters. All of that together offers something incredibly ancient which is called the Celebration, and which is entirely different from Entertainment: a whole range of sensations designed to make people happy during the space of a night. The novelty was that impression of synthesis, of totality, of complexity: I am in a place which is sufficient unto itself.
—Roland BarthesRoland BarthesRoland Gérard Barthes was a French literary theorist, philosopher, critic, and semiotician. Barthes' ideas explored a diverse range of fields and he influenced the development of schools of theory including structuralism, semiotics, existentialism, social theory, Marxism, anthropology and...
, Au Palace ce soir, 1978.
Delighted with the Palace's decrepit structure which would allow him not just an enormous disco, but the accoutrements of a traditional theater space with stages and an enormous balcony, Fabrice Emaer ordered important construction work, restoring the architecturally classified building, including the decor of the '30s. The colossal expenses which were to be a lasting burden on the future of the club, but in the short term the results were impressive.
Everything was excessive at the Palace. The club opened onto a long hallway that descended into a foyer that guided clubbers to the main room. It had a bar, tables, some couches and a huge dance floor facing a stage. On the first floor, a second bar gave access to another floor with another bar, in addition to nooks along the balcony. From the beginning, the particularity of the Palace was that it offered several zones reserved for VIPs, which influenced the movements of club-goers and the general circulation of the place.
Every detail was calculated. The careful interior design extended to the waiters who were dressed in flamboyant red and gold costumes designed by the couturier Thierry Mugler
Thierry Mugler
Thierry Mugler is a French fashion designer and creator of several perfumes.-Childhood:Mugler was born in Strasbourg, France on 21 December 1948. His passion led him to focus more on drawing than on school and at the age of 9, he began to study classical dance...
. And on opening night, 1 March 1978, the Palace set the tone for the future by offering an extravagant spectacle in which Grace Jones
Grace Jones
Grace Jones is a Jamaican-American singer, model and actress.Jones secured a record deal with Island Records in 1977, which resulted in a string of dance-club hits. In the late 1970s, she adapted the emerging electronic music style and adopted a severe, androgynous look with square-cut hair and...
sang La Vie en Rose
La vie en rose
"La Vie en Rose" was the signature song of French singer Édith Piaf.-Signature song of Édith Piaf:Édith Piaf first popularized La Vie en Rose in 1946. The lyrics were written by Piaf and the melody of the song by "Louiguy" . Initially, Piaf's peers and her songwriting team did not think the song...
surrounded by dry ice and shining roses while perched atop a pink Harley Davidson.
To complete the dramatic experience at the club, the Palace, not content with one laser, had three, along with descending disco balls, and installations by some of the time's most extravagant sculptors and stage designers. There were different lighting effects every night that were so spectaculor dancers would stop mid-gesture to watch what was going on.
Emaer also played careful attention to the music.
Guy CuevasGuy CuevasGuy Cuevas is a Cuban-born writer, musician, and legendary Paris disc jockey. Born Guillermo Cuevas Carrión, he worked the turntables and the crowds at Club Sept, and Le Palace before becoming the artistic director, first of Les Bains Douches, then the Barrio Latino.As a DJ he was known for a...
had followed Emaer to the Palace, and there his selection was the same: flamboyant. For the first time people danced all the time, not leaving the dance floor except for a quick trip to the toilets or the bar. The music was so sensational that it gave the impression that the Palace was a trampoline in the middle of the Atlantic : Let's All Sing by the Michael Zaeger Band was a hit in France at the same time as the U.S. Suddenly dancing became a lifestyle.
Completing the picture was Emaer's talent for creating a compelling crowd. At the entry, Edwige and Paquita Paquin were instructed to mix rich and poor, gay and straight, black and white, the bourgeois, even punk. Above all they looked for attitude and an interesting look.
Among the regulars or its most famous visitors (to name just a few) were Alain Pacadis, of the newspaper Libération
Libération
Libération is a French daily newspaper founded in Paris by Jean-Paul Sartre and Serge July in 1973 in the wake of the protest movements of May 1968. Originally a leftist newspaper, it has undergone a number of shifts during the 1980s and 1990s...
who frequently evoked le Palace and its regulars in his chronicles; couturier Karl Lagerfeld; semiotician Roland Barthes
Roland Barthes
Roland Gérard Barthes was a French literary theorist, philosopher, critic, and semiotician. Barthes' ideas explored a diverse range of fields and he influenced the development of schools of theory including structuralism, semiotics, existentialism, social theory, Marxism, anthropology and...
, professor at the Collège de France; singer Mick Jagger
Mick Jagger
Sir Michael Philip "Mick" Jagger is an English musician, singer and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist and a founding member of The Rolling Stones....
; American artist Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol
Andrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
; journalist Frédéric Mitterrand
Frédéric Mitterrand
Frédéric Mitterrand , a Franco-Tunisian citizen, is the French Minister of Culture and Communication. Throughout his career, he has been an actor, screenwriter, television presenter, writer, producer and director.-Biography:...
; decorator Andrée Putman; movie producer and illustrator Jean-Paul Goude
Jean-Paul Goude
Jean-Paul Goude is a French graphic designer, illustrator, photographer and advertising film director. He created several well-known campaigns for brands such as Perrier, Citroën and Chanel....
; model and singer Grace Jones
Grace Jones
Grace Jones is a Jamaican-American singer, model and actress.Jones secured a record deal with Island Records in 1977, which resulted in a string of dance-club hits. In the late 1970s, she adapted the emerging electronic music style and adopted a severe, androgynous look with square-cut hair and...
; couturier Kenzo; couturier Yves Saint Laurent; the CEO of Yves Saint Laurent and friend of François Mitterrand
François Mitterrand
François Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand was the 21st President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra, serving from 1981 until 1995. He is the longest-serving President of France and, as leader of the Socialist Party, the only figure from the left so far elected President...
, Pierre Bergé
Pierre Bergé
Pierre Bergé is a French industrialist and patron. He is perhaps best known as the co-founder of Yves Saint Laurent Couture House and former partner of fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent.-Early life:...
; actress Alice Sapritch; impersonator of celebrities Thierry Le Luron
Thierry Le Luron
Thierry Le Luron was a French impersonator and humorist.-External links:*...
; publicist and art gallery owner Cyril Putman.
Fashion designers organized theme nights and balls. There were live concerts, fashion shows and private parties. Prince
Prince (musician)
Prince Rogers Nelson , often known simply as Prince, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Prince has produced ten platinum albums and thirty Top 40 singles during his career. Prince founded his own recording studio and label; writing, self-producing and playing most, or all, of...
held his first concert there. And in 1980, in the basement, Fabrice Emaer opened beneath Le Palace a private restaurant/discothèque, Le Privilège, reserved for the jet set and for princes and princesses of the night for whom the excessive social diversity of the Palace broke rules.
The decoration of the place was entrusted to Gérard Garouste
Gérard Garouste
Gérard Garouste is a French painter, illustrator, and decorator. Since 1979, he has lived and worked in Marcilly-sur-Eure in the department of Eure, where he founded an educational and social action group to help children with art called La Source.-Biography:Gérard Garouste was born in Paris...
, the creation of the furniture to Elisabeth Garouste.
All that ended when Fabrice Emaer died in 1983.
After Emaer
Le Palace was taken up by ex-associates of Fabrice Emaer who were burdened with his accumulated debts. On several occasions, drug trafficking led to the administrative closure of the place for periods of three to six months, further weakening the financial situation.Nevertheless, le Palace of the years 1983/1989 gave birth to the Parisian infatuation with House Music
House music
House music is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in Chicago, Illinois, United States in the early 1980s. It was initially popularized in mid-1980s discothèques catering to the African-American, Latino American, and gay communities; first in Chicago circa 1984, then in other...
with the parties of Jean-Claude Lacreze or of La Nicole (Nicolas), but specially the Pyramid parties around 1987, organized by the English of S-Express. The American artist Leigh Bowery
Leigh Bowery
Leigh Bowery was an Australian performance artist, club promoter, actor, pop star, model and fashion designer, based in London. Bowery is considered one of the more influential figures in the 1980s and 1990s London and New York art and fashion circles influencing a generation of artists and...
was frequently invited there. Also, the Gay Tea Dance that originated with the openly gay Emaer received two to three thousand participants each Sunday afternoon.
In 1992, Régine herself, former 'rival' of the night of Fabrice Emaer, "Queen of the Parisian Night", tried to take over the site, followed in 1994 by the couple David
David Guetta
Pierre David Guetta , known professionally as David Guetta , is a French house music producer and DJ. Originally a DJ at nightclubs during the 1980s and 1990s, he co-founded Gum Productions and released his first album, Just a Little More Love, in 2002. Later, he released Guetta Blaster and Pop Life...
and Cathy Guetta who tried to relaunch it with le Privilège, renovated and renamed Kitkat. The decorations of Garouste disappeared.
The place closed definitively in 1996, and was occupied by squatters for several years. In 2007, the brothers Alil and Hazis Vardar, Belgians of Albanian origin purchased the hall with the money of Francis and Chantal Lemaire, proprietors of Radio Contact in Belgium. The Vardar brothers already owned Comédie République and Grande Comédie, Parisian halls with 200 and 400 seats which were filled every night because of good comedies. After its remodeling, they reopened Le Palace (970 seats) to offer, since 2007, popular comedies, one-man shows, and television broadcasts.