Madame Arthur, rue des Martyrs drag cabaret since 1946

Madame Arthur, a drag cabaret on rue des Martyrs in Pigalle, opened in 1946: it was the first in Paris. Monsieur Marcel, born Marcel Wutsman, named it after a song by Paul de Kock sung by Yvette Guilbert, and set it beside Toulouse-Lautrec’s old Divan Japonais.

Floridor, then Bigoudi, hosted the first evenings; Maslowa followed, the house’s finest revue leader in Bambi’s view. Coccinelle, Bambi, Fétiche and Zaza Dior performed there. At the piano sat Joseph Ginsburg, known as Père Jo; from 1954 his son Lucien, the future Serge Gainsbourg, stood in for him and wrote songs for the revue.

Monsieur Marcel opened a second Madame Arthur in Amsterdam in 1961. In Paris the cabaret aged and closed in 2010. In 2015 the team of the neighbouring Divan du Monde took it over, restored it and joined the two venues into a single cabaret club, under Fabrice Laffon.

At 75 bis rue des Martyrs, a troupe of some fifteen artists presents a new show each week, sung in French and always performed live, never to playback. After the revue the house becomes a club, with three rooms of DJs devoted to French song, between appearances by the artists.