Café de Paris (London)
Encyclopedia
Café de Paris is a London
nightclub
, located in the West End
, beside Leicester Square
on Coventry Street
, Piccadilly
.
It opened in 1924 and subsequently featured such performers as Dorothy Dandridge
, Marlene Dietrich
, Harry Gold
, Harry Roy
, Ken Snakehips Johnson
and Maxine Cooper Gomberg
. Louise Brooks
made history when she worked there in December 1924, introducing the Charleston (dance)
to London.
Much of the early success of the Cafe de Paris was due to the visit of the then Prince of Wales
who became a regular guest, often dining with notables from high society across Europe. Cole Porter
was a regular, as was the Aga Khan
.
During the Second World War, on March 8, 1941, the cafe was bombed and eighty people were killed. The venue did not reopen until 1948 but re-established itself as one of the leading theatre clubs in London, playing host to Frank Sinatra
, Tony Hancock
and Grace Kelly
. In the 1950s Sir Noel Coward often performed cabaret seasons at the Cafe de Paris as did Marlene Dietrich
. It was also used in the 2006 music video for I Think We're Alone Now by Girls Aloud
.
In the 1980s the venue experienced a revived popularity, hosting scene locations for films including Absolute Beginners
and The Krays
. Today the venue is used regularly for film location, and has been used for scenes in The Queen's Sister
(based on the life of Princess Margaret) and in The Edge of Love
(based on the life of Dylan Thomas
).
The Cafe de Paris plays host each week to The Wam Bam Club
, a cabaret which has provided a London springboard for the renaissance of burlesque
. As well as host Lady Alex and resident acts Cabaret Rouge and Bunny Galore, contemporary cabaret performers who have appeared there have included Abandoman
, Sarah Louise Young, Pippa Evans
, Wilfredo
, and Josh Howie
.
" by Jill Paton Walsh
. The bombing and its aftermath have a considerable bearing on the investigation carried out by Lord Peter Wimsey
in that book.
The Cafe, and the 1941 bombing, are major plot devices in the 2011 novel "Moon Over Soho
" by Ben Aaronovitch
.
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
nightclub
Nightclub
A nightclub is an entertainment venue which usually operates late into the night...
, located in the West End
West End of London
The West End of London is an area of central London, containing many of the city's major tourist attractions, shops, businesses, government buildings, and entertainment . Use of the term began in the early 19th century to describe fashionable areas to the west of Charing Cross...
, beside Leicester Square
Leicester Square
Leicester Square is a pedestrianised square in the West End of London, England. The Square lies within an area bound by Lisle Street, to the north; Charing Cross Road, to the east; Orange Street, to the south; and Whitcomb Street, to the west...
on Coventry Street
Coventry Street
Coventry Street is a short London street, within the City of Westminster, running from Piccadilly Circus to Leicester Square. The street is the main conduit between Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square and at the weekend up to 150,000 people walk from one to another along the street...
, Piccadilly
Piccadilly
Piccadilly is a major street in central London, running from Hyde Park Corner in the west to Piccadilly Circus in the east. It is completely within the city of Westminster. The street is part of the A4 road, London's second most important western artery. St...
.
It opened in 1924 and subsequently featured such performers as Dorothy Dandridge
Dorothy Dandridge
Dorothy Jean Dandridge was an American actress and popular singer, and was the first African-American to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress...
, Marlene Dietrich
Marlene Dietrich
Marlene Dietrich was a German-American actress and singer.Dietrich remained popular throughout her long career by continually re-inventing herself, professionally and characteristically. In the Berlin of the 1920s, she acted on the stage and in silent films...
, Harry Gold
Harry Gold
Harry Gold was a laboratory chemist who was convicted of being the “courier” for a number of Soviet spy rings during the Manhattan Project.-Early life:Gold was born in Switzerland to poor Russian Jewish immigrants...
, Harry Roy
Harry Roy
Harry Roy was a British dance band leader and clarinet player from the 1920s until the 1960s.-Life and career:...
, Ken Snakehips Johnson
Ken Snakehips Johnson
Ken 'Snakehips' Johnson was a jazz band leader and dancer.Born Kenrick Reginald Hymans Johnson, and originally from British Guiana, Johnson's parents sent him to the UK at the age of 15, where he attended Sir William Borlase's Grammar School, before studying medicine at Edinburgh University...
and Maxine Cooper Gomberg
Maxine Cooper Gomberg
Maxine Cooper Gomberg was an American actress, activist, and photographer. She was perhaps best known for her role as a secretary in the 1955 film, Kiss Me Deadly, which the Los Angeles Times has called a "film noir classic." -Early life and career:Maxine Cooper was born in Chicago, Illinois in...
. Louise Brooks
Louise Brooks
Mary Louise Brooks , generally known by her stage name Louise Brooks, was an American dancer, model, showgirl and silent film actress, noted for popularizing the bobbed haircut. Brooks is best known for her three feature roles including two G. W...
made history when she worked there in December 1924, introducing the Charleston (dance)
Charleston (dance)
The Charleston is a dance named for the harbor city of Charleston, South Carolina. The rhythm was popularized in mainstream dance music in the United States by a 1923 tune called "The Charleston" by composer/pianist James P. Johnson which originated in the Broadway show Runnin' Wild and became one...
to London.
Much of the early success of the Cafe de Paris was due to the visit of the then Prince of Wales
Edward VIII of the United Kingdom
Edward VIII was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth, and Emperor of India, from 20 January to 11 December 1936.Before his accession to the throne, Edward was Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall and Rothesay...
who became a regular guest, often dining with notables from high society across Europe. Cole Porter
Cole Porter
Cole Albert Porter was an American composer and songwriter. Born to a wealthy family in Indiana, he defied the wishes of his domineering grandfather and took up music as a profession. Classically trained, he was drawn towards musical theatre...
was a regular, as was the Aga Khan
Aga Khan
Aga Khan is the hereditary title of the Imam of the largest branch of the Ismā'īlī followers of the Shī‘a faith. They affirm the Imamat of the descendants of Ismail ibn Jafar, eldest son of Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq, while the larger Twelver branch of Shi`ism follows Ismail's younger brother Musa...
.
During the Second World War, on March 8, 1941, the cafe was bombed and eighty people were killed. The venue did not reopen until 1948 but re-established itself as one of the leading theatre clubs in London, playing host to Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
, Tony Hancock
Tony Hancock
Anthony John "Tony" Hancock was an English actor and comedian.-Early life and career:Hancock was born in Southam Road, Hall Green, Birmingham, England, but from the age of three was brought up in Bournemouth, where his father, John Hancock, who ran the Railway Hotel in...
and Grace Kelly
Grace Kelly
Grace Patricia Kelly was an American actress who, in April 1956, married Rainier III, Prince of Monaco, to become Princess consort of Monaco, styled as Her Serene Highness The Princess of Monaco, and commonly referred to as Princess Grace.After embarking on an acting career in 1950, at the age of...
. In the 1950s Sir Noel Coward often performed cabaret seasons at the Cafe de Paris as did Marlene Dietrich
Marlene Dietrich
Marlene Dietrich was a German-American actress and singer.Dietrich remained popular throughout her long career by continually re-inventing herself, professionally and characteristically. In the Berlin of the 1920s, she acted on the stage and in silent films...
. It was also used in the 2006 music video for I Think We're Alone Now by Girls Aloud
Girls Aloud
Girls Aloud are a British and Irish pop girl group based in London. They were created through the ITV1 talent show Popstars The Rivals in 2002. The group consists of Cheryl Cole , Nadine Coyle, Sarah Harding, Nicola Roberts and Kimberley Walsh. They are signed to Fascination Records, a Polydor...
.
In the 1980s the venue experienced a revived popularity, hosting scene locations for films including Absolute Beginners
Absolute Beginners
Absolute Beginners is a novel by Colin MacInnes, written and set in 1958 London, England. It was published in 1959. The novel is the second of MacInnes' London Trilogy, coming after City Of Spades and before Mr. Love and Justice...
and The Krays
The Krays
The Krays may refer to:*Kray twins, 1950s-1960s British organised crime leaders*The Krays , directed by Peter Medak, about the Kray twins*The Krays, a streetpunk band from Brooklyn, New York...
. Today the venue is used regularly for film location, and has been used for scenes in The Queen's Sister
The Queen's Sister
The Queen's Sister is a 2005 British television movie directed by Simon Cellan Jones. The teleplay by Craig Warner is a semi-fictionalized account of the life of Princess Margaret, the younger sister of Queen Elizabeth II, from 1952 until the mid-1970s. It was produced by Touchpaper Television,...
(based on the life of Princess Margaret) and in The Edge of Love
The Edge of Love
The Edge of Love is a 2008 John Maybury film starring Keira Knightley, Sienna Miller, Cillian Murphy and Matthew Rhys from a script by Sharman Macdonald, Knightley's mother...
(based on the life of Dylan Thomas
Dylan Thomas
Dylan Marlais Thomas was a Welsh poet and writer, Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 11 January 2008. who wrote exclusively in English. In addition to poetry, he wrote short stories and scripts for film and radio, which he often performed himself...
).
The Cafe de Paris plays host each week to The Wam Bam Club
The Wam Bam Club
The Wam Bam Club is a weekly cabaret and burlesque show at the Café de Paris in London with host/curator Lady Alex and resident acts Cabaret Rouge and Bunny Galore...
, a cabaret which has provided a London springboard for the renaissance of burlesque
Burlesque
Burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects...
. As well as host Lady Alex and resident acts Cabaret Rouge and Bunny Galore, contemporary cabaret performers who have appeared there have included Abandoman
Robert Broderick
Rob Broderick is an Irish stand-up comedian who was born in Dublin but who now lives and works in London. He improvised his way into the final of the prestigious So You Think You're Funny competition at the 2005 Edinburgh Festival Fringe....
, Sarah Louise Young, Pippa Evans
Pippa Evans
Pippa Evans is a British comedian, known for her work in character and improvisational comedy.Having studied Drama and Theatre Arts at Birmingham University, she became a member of Scratch improvisation comedy troupe, and appeared in Newsrevue, a topical comedy show at London's Canal Cafe Theatre...
, Wilfredo
Matt Roper
Matt Roper is a British comedian, writer and musician who made his stand-up debut in the mid-1990s.He is an alumnus of the young people's theatre company Oldham Theatre Workshop, where his contemporaries included the actors Anna Friel and Suranne Jones....
, and Josh Howie
Josh Howie
Joshua Howie is an English stand-up comedian, raised in London by his mother Lynne Franks.-Career:Howie started performing comedy on the London comedy circuit in 2002...
.
In Fiction
The 1941 bombing of the Café de Paris is described in a chapter of "The Attenbury EmeraldsThe Attenbury Emeralds
The Attenbury Emeralds is the third Lord Peter Wimsey detective novel to be written by Jill Paton Walsh. It was published by Hodder & Stoughton in September 2010.Closely following Lord Peter creator Dorothy L...
" by Jill Paton Walsh
Jill Paton Walsh
Jill Paton Walsh, CBE, FRSL is an English novelist and children's writer.Born as Gillian Bliss and educated at St. Michael's Convent, North Finchley, London, she read English Literature at St Anne's College, Oxford...
. The bombing and its aftermath have a considerable bearing on the investigation carried out by Lord Peter Wimsey
Lord Peter Wimsey
Lord Peter Death Bredon Wimsey is a bon vivant amateur sleuth in a series of detective novels and short stories by Dorothy L. Sayers, in which he solves mysteries; usually, but not always, murders...
in that book.
The Cafe, and the 1941 bombing, are major plot devices in the 2011 novel "Moon Over Soho
Moon Over Soho
Moon Over Soho is the second novel in the Rivers of London series by English author Ben Aaronovitch. The novel was released on 21st April 2011 through Gollancz and was well received.-Plot:...
" by Ben Aaronovitch
Ben Aaronovitch
Ben Denis Aaronovitch is a London-born British writer who has worked on television series including Doctor Who, Casualty, Jupiter Moon and Dark Knight...
.