Pigalle (Parisian district)

See also: Pigalle

Pigalle is the name of a district of Paris, located around the Place Pigalle, it includes/understands the streets located on the two sides of the boulevards of Clichy and Rochechouart, and extends on the IXe and XVIIIe districts.

The place owes its name to the sculptor Jean-Baptiste Pigalle (1714 - 1785). The district is famous to be a high tourist place (it is located below the Hillock Montmartre), and a “Hot district”, i.e. presenting trade in erotic matter.

Even if the time when crossed in Pigalle, the gangsters, the police officers and the customers, seems remote, one still finds there many Sex shop S, specialized bars - brothels - some Prostituée S. Cependant, the nightclubs, the famous cabarets, the multicoloured signs and neons which give the indication of an hot district are for much today a decoration for tourists.

The Pigalle district includes/understands several theaters, cabarets:

Some stores of musical instruments (Guitar S, keyboard S…), and of the schools nowadays settled in particular in the south of the Pigalle place.

The district is served by the subway station same name, with the crossing of the lines 2 and 12 (North-South).

History of the hot district of Pigalle

The history of Pigalle, as an hot district, begins in 1881 with the opening, in a room occupied before by a post office, cabaret the black Cat of Dirtied with the " 84, boulevard Rochechouart " in which Aristide Bruant works. Cantor of shady Paris, around him settles the Bohème . Bunting takes again the cabaret in 1885, moves it street Victor Massé and the Eunuch flute re-elects it. In October 1885, Maxime Lisbon, of return of New Caledonia where it purged a sentence life, amnestied in 1880, opens " Marmite" , it presents dared spectacles to it and will invent the Striptease with the Japanese Divan .

In 1889, another cabaret the Moulin-Rouge settles with the bottom of the Butte Montmartre and quickly it is followed by many restaurants and bars. Little by little, it attracts the customers of the usual districts of the night pleasure around the Porte Saint Martin's day and of the Porte Saint-Denis, the upholders follow them and attend the ball of night of the Elysium-Montmartre, with the " 80, boulevard Rochechouart ".

Towards 1910, the “medium of the crime” definitively throws its reserved on the districts of Pigalle and Montmartre. Place Pigalle, the coffees, the News Athens , the Village fair , Small Maxim' S , the Slow train , accommodate each night the gangsters and the upholders. With the Village fair reign the team of Coconut Cake. The upholders seek girls, to make of them Prostituée S which will be sent in the brothels until in Argentine and with the the United States. The tables of play settle everywhere, of the professional players, use made up charts. Famous Tribout begins its career with the Slow train ; after the war it will hold Frolic' S .

In 1918, with the restrictions, on alcohol and the light, only the Bordel S remain open after 9 p.m., but they are from now on with the hands of truths men of the “medium”. The customers find there with profusion of the prostitutes and alcohol in hiding-place. In the Years 1930, Pigalle becomes the epicentre of the Pègre, the gangsters install there their businesses, the place Blanche, the place Pigalle, the streets surrounding (street Fontaine, street of Brussels), see flowering their bars and they regulate there also their accounts. Their closed houses is primarily in the IX {{E}} district. Two thousand girls work in the 177 brothels. In the streets, the Prostituée S align every five meters.

The caïds of the Traite white find White Place, with the brewery Graff and the coffee of the White Place which accommodates in its basement a private box the Aquarium where the gangsters find themselves. One also finds them at the dead Rat , Pigall' S and Monico , they make run the Champagne with flood. They appreciate also the dance hall the Small Garden with “26 boulevard de Clichy”. The Tahiti one of the places of hunting is preferred of the upholders. The artists like Joséphine Baker, Duke Ellington, Ernest Hemingway, Pablo Picasso and John Steinbeck encanaillent themselves and are also very present. With “66 rue de Pigalle”, the Bricktop' S becomes one of the cabarets of Jazz among most famous of the Années 1930.

In 1932, begins a war in the medium, the “Corsican” gangsters are caught some to the “Parisian” gangsters. Murders take place in front of the red Angel (removal and liquidation of Enoch Poznali, known as the Volga), the black Ball and the Zelly' S . The police force multiplies the descents, the raids and closings of the cabarets. Little before the war, heroin arrives in mass. It is sold in the bars and the restaurants, and its trade is controlled by gangsters as Joseph Rocca-Tightened, Vincent Battestini and André Antonelli.

The Second world war and the German occupation do not bring much of change to the businesses of the gangsters of the district. The private circles, the clandestine gambling dens, the cabarets, the dance halls, the nightclubs and the brothels continue to receive from the customers. The members of the Gestapo like to find Pigalle place, with the Dante and the Chapiteau , and street of Pigalle, with the Chantilly and the Blue Hour .

With the release, the new law Marthe Richard prohibited from now on in France the closed Houses, but this decision does not make disappear the Prostitution. The prostitutes find themselves in the street or work in the hotels used by prostitutes. At the end of the Years 1950, the band of Three Ducks, name of the bar which was used to them as general headquarter, rackettent the hotels used by prostitutes and the girls who work there. The most run bars are Charly' S and Small Noailles .

In the Years 1960, many hotels used by prostitutes are continued for procuring and their owners are obliged little by little to close them. The number of prostitutes falls in the same way, however the district remains very popular to have fun the festival with its fun fairs, its huts of Striptease and its bars with hostesses. As of the beginning of the Years 1970, with the release of manners, the first cinemas porns settle, the shops of sex shops multiply as well as the living rooms of massages, and the first live-shows appear, in which couples make love in public.

  • Sources: Civic n°155

Catalog of films

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