Rodolphe Salis

{{Infobox person

| name = Rodolphe Salis

| image = Salis Rodolphe.jpg

| alt =

| caption =

| birth_date = {{Birth date|df=y|1851|5|29}}

| birth_place = Châtellerault, Vienne, France

| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=y|1897|3|20|1851|5|29}}

| death_place = Naintré, Vienne, France

| known_for = Le Chat Noir

| occupation =

}}

Louis Rodolphe SalisNamed Constant Maximin Rodolphe Salis on his birth certificate, dated 30 May 1851.{{full citation needed|date=March 2025|reason=Claiming that the birth cert. exists is not citing a source. WP does not cite original manuscript documents, only publications. So, cite a book, website, or other source that provides a copy of this birth certificate or at least is a secondary source for the claim of what the b.c. says on it.}} (29 May 1851 – 20 March 1897) was the creator, host and owner of the {{lang|fr|italic=unset|Le Chat Noir}} ('The Black Cat') cabaret (known briefly in 1881 at its beginning as {{lang|fr|italic=unset|Cabaret Artistique}}) in the Montmartre district of Paris. With this establishment, Salis is remembered as the creator of the modern cabaret: a nightclub where the patrons could sit at tables with alcoholic drinks and enjoy variety acts on a stage, introduced by a master of ceremonies who interacted with the audience.

Biography

The son of a distiller in Châtellerault, Salis came to Paris in 1872, after leaving the regiment in which he had undertaken military service. He moved into the Hôtel de Rome on Rue de Seine, in the Latin Quarter.

He founded {{lang|fr|italic=unset|L'école vibrante}} ('The Vibrant School'), soon renamed the {{lang|fr|italic=unset|L'école iriso-subversive de Chicago}} ('The Chicago Iriso-Subversive School'){{cite web |title=Autour du Chat Noir : ce spectacle a été représenté 71 fois (près de 6000 spectateurs) |language=fr |trans-title=Around the Black Cat: This show was performed 71 times (nearly 6000 spectators) |date=2014 |work=TPC86.info |publisher=Théâtre Populaire de Châtellerault |author= |url= http://tpc86.info/chat_noir.htm |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20230329200607/http://tpc86.info/chat_noir.htm |archive-date=29 March 2023}} in order to draw attention to his artistic group. In fact, he was earning a living by making Stations of the Cross and other religious objects, that he and his friends painted.

"In fact, it [the school] had the overall intended, but not admitted, immediate aim of making a series of Stations of the Cross to sell at eight and fourteen francs each, in a shop selling religious articles in the Saint Sulpice. The very tedious work was divided between the four 'students' according to their different natures. Rene Gilbert painted heads; Wagner hands; Antonio de La Gandara draperies; Salis, finally, backgrounds and landscapes ...."{{cite book |last=Herbert |first=Michel |title=La Chanson à Montmartre |language=fr |trans-title=The Song in Montmartre |publisher=Le Table Ronde |date=1967}}

File:CHAT NOIR journal, number 152, 6 Decembre 1884.jpg

In order to combine art and alcoholic beverage, Salis had the idea of creating a café in "the purest style of Louis XII ... with a chandelier of wrought iron from the Byzantine period, and where the gentry, the burghers and peasants are now invited to drink absinthe after the usual manner of Victor Hugo and Garibaldi, and hypocras in golden bowls".{{cite book |last=Noël |first=Benoît |title=L'Absinthe : Une fée franco-suisse |language=fr |trans-title=Absinthe: A Franco-Swiss Fairy |series="Archives vivantes romandes" ser. |publisher=Cabédita |date=2001 |isbn=9782882953131}} In reality, the first tavern called {{lang|fr|italic=unset|Le Chat Noir}} ('The Black Cat'), opened in November 1881 in a two-room building at 84 Boulevard Rochechouart (a site now commemorated by a plaque), served bad wine, and had rather inferior décor. But from the first, guests were greeted at the door by a Swiss guard, splendidly bedecked and covered with gold from head to foot, supposedly responsible for bringing in the painters and poets who arrived, while barring the "infamous priests and the military". Salis's tongue-in-cheek admirational piece was on a high marble fireplace: The Skull of Louis XIII as a Child.{{cite book |last=Baldran |first=Jacqueline |title=Paris, carrefour des artes et des lettres (1880–1918) |language=fr |trans-title=Paris, Crossroads of Arts and Letters (1880–1918) |publisher=L'Harmattan |date=2002 |isbn=978-2-7475-3141-2 }}

The first site's success was assured with the wholesale arrival of a group of radical young writers and artists called {{lang|fr|Les Hydropathes}} ('those who are afraid of water'), led by the journalist Emile Goudeau. The group claimed to be averse to water, preferring wine and beer. Goudeau's club first met in his house on the Rive Gauche (left bank), but had become so popular that it outgrew its meeting place. Salis, on meeting Goudeau, convinced him to transfer the club across the river Seine to 84 Boulevard Rochechouart.{{cite web |last=Meakin |first=Anna |title=Le Chat Noir: Historic Montmartre Cabaret |date=19 December 2011 |work=Bonjour Paris: The Insider's Guide |url= http://www.bonjourparis.com/story/chat-noir-montmartre-cabaret/ |url-access=subscription}}{{better source needed|date=March 2025|reason=This is some rando's travel blogger, not a reliable source for historical information.}}

{{lang|fr|italic=unset|Le Chat Noir}} also soon outgrew its first site. On 10 June 1885, with great fanfare, Salis moved to new premises located 12 Rue Victor-Masse (which before 1885 had been 12 Rue de Laval). Very quickly, poets and singers who performed at The Black Cat found the best practice for their craft to be had in Paris. {{lang|fr|italic=unset|Le Chat Noir}} eventually closed down in 1896.

Salis acted as impresario and (along with cabaret singer Aristide Bruant) as emcee or {{lang|fr|conférencier}}. The greetings from Salis rang out often at the expense of customers. Those who left early were insulted, and those who arrived late were banished to a corner. Salis would arrest a customer with a "Well, you're finally out of prison?" or comment "What have you done with your chick from yesterday?" to a new client obviously accompanied by his wife. One evening, the future British king Edward VII was addressed by Salis: "Well, look here: it looks like the Prince of Wales all pissed!"

Every Friday, luncheon was an opportunity to prepare for performances and the editing of a humorous magazine. With legendary stinginess,Le Châtelleraudais magazine, December 2007.{{full citation needed|date=March 2025|reason=Periodical citations require article title, author name(s), and page numbers. Magazines are usually not considered reliable sources anyway, so a better source will likely be needed.}} Salis found every excuse for not paying his staff, suppliers and artists. With some success he even asked to be paid by those whom he hosted at The Black Cat. But his patter to the guests and his organizational skills and personality attracted exceptional artists of all kinds, and a large crowd. The combination of a bar with entertainment (now the standard cabaret theme), was novel. In addition, Salis had the idea of playing music in his tavern by installing a piano,{{cite book |last=Thiollet |first=Jean-Pierre |author-link=Jean-Pierre Thiollet |chapter=Hommage à Salis le Grand |title=88 notes pour piano solo |publisher=Neva Editions |date=2015 |pages=146 |isbn=9782350551920 |url= https://archive.org/details/88notespourpiano0000thio/mode/2up |url-access=registration |via=Internet Archive}} at that time an innovation which was soon banned for a while in newer establishments, and which thereafter allowed him to gain an advantage over the competition.

"Male, square-shouldered, red hair dyed vermilion", Salis was described by Laurent Tailhade, "ageless, though stout, his face channelled by many wrinkles, his chest in a romantic doublet whose floral satin contrasted with the sobriety of a dark coat. Intact, his tawny hair was consistent with his coppery beard and gave him the air of a Flemish trooper .... [He had] a bronze baritone, emphatic, biting and sarcastic, whose thunders cynically put down the Philistines .... [He had] a prodigiously charlatan nature."{{cite book |last=Picq |first=Gilles |chapter=Lawrence Tailhade disliked because of Salis; Salis mockery made Public |title=Laurent Tailhade, ou De la provocation considérée comme un art de vivre |language=fr |trans-title=Lawrence Tailhade, or Provocation Considered a Lifestyle |publisher=Maisonneuve & Larose |series="Le Carnet du mouvement social: Les Champs de la liberté" ser. |date=2001 |isbn=9782706815263}}

File:Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen - Tournée du Chat Noir de Rodolphe Salis (Tour of Rodolphe Salis' Chat Noir) - Google Art Project.jpg, advertising the approaching tour of The Black Cat show, 1896.]]

In the 1890s, Salis took his Black Cat entertainment company touring through France, hiring theatres and venues, a practice that was not current at that time. He often refused, under various pretexts, to pay a venue's hire charge.{{Citation needed|date=February 2010}}

Salis died in Naintré in 1897. A decade later, a third {{lang|fr|italic=unset|Le Chat Noir}} was opened in 1907 at 68 Boulevard de Clichy.

Tributes

In the department of Vienne to: Châtellerault Naintré Marigny-Brizay a street bears his name.
18 Boulevard de Clichy in Paris bears a plaque: "Here was the tomb of the Black Cat founded by Rodolphe Salis ...."{{cite book |editor-first=Dautriat |editor-last=Alain |title=Sur les murs de Paris...: Guide des plaques commemoratives |language=fr |trans-title=On the Walls of Paris...: Guide to Commemorative Plaques |publisher=Evergreen |date=1999 |isbn=9782910490201}}

References

External links

{{Internet Archive author |sname=Rodolphe Salis}}
{{cite web |first1=Paul |last1=Dubé |first2=Jacques |last2=Marchioro |title=Rodolphe Salis |date=19 May 2008 |language=fr |work=Du temps des cerises aux feuilles mortes |publisher= |url= http://www.dutempsdescerisesauxfeuillesmortes.net/fiches_bio/salis_rodolphe/salis_rodolphe.htm}} A short biography of Salis, with some photos of the {{lang|fr|italic=unset|Chat Noir}} venue, and a list of associated performers.

Category:1851 births

Category:People from Châtellerault

Category:1897 deaths

Category:Cabaret

Category:French theatre directors

Category:People of Montmartre

Rodolphe Salis

Biography

Tributes

References

Further reading

External links