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Café des Ambassadeurs

Café-Concert at Les Ambassadeurs by Edgar Degas, 1876–77
Café des AmbassadeursLocation within Paris
Address	1 Avenue Gabriel 8th arrondissement of Paris France
Coordinates	48°52′02″N 2°19′18″E / 48.86732°N 2.32155°E / 48.86732; 2.32155
Designation	Café-concert
Opened	1857
Closed	1929

The Café des Ambassadeurs, also known as Les Ambassadeurs or Les Ambass', was a café-concert located in the Champs-Élysées district, at 1 Avenue Gabriel, in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, which opened in 1857 and closed in 1929.

Early years

The Café des Ambassadeurs was founded in 1764 as an open-air café near the hotels designed to house foreign ambassadors in Paris, built to the designs of the architect Ange-Jacques Gabriel. In 1772, a small pavilion was added, and around 1830, it became a café chantant when a few singers were allowed to entertain the public on a more or less improvised stage. Shortly before 1843, a new pavilion replaced the existing one, this time with an outdoor stage and in 1848 a roofed bandstand to protect the artists was added.

In 1847, three authors and composers of music, Paul Henrion, Victor Parizot and Ernest Bourget refused to pay for their drinks because their music was played there without them receiving any royalties. They were sued, but they in turn took the manager to court. This was the beginning of the SACEM (Société des Auteurs, Compositeurs et Éditeurs de Musique).

Heyday during the Belle Époque

During the 1850s and 1860s, the reputation of the establishment gradually surpassed that of the nearby Alcazar d'Été, because although it presented more or less the same acts, it was more chic and attracted a more upmarket clientele. With the arrival of Pierre Ducarre, a new director (1874 to 1902), a restaurant was added with the best chef in Paris, which transformed the place into a rendez-vous for gastronomes. The café-concert had its heyday during the Belle Époque in Paris when Les Ambassadeurs became a regular destination of some of the best known figures of art and the demi-monde.

Les Ambassadeurs was situated in one of the most beautiful districts of Paris and in the open air and had the distinct advantage in the summer season of fresh air, whereas the other stuffy indoor, gaslit establishments, generally badly arranged from the point of view of ventilation, became suffocatingly insupportable in the summer months. Most closed their doors for the summer season and the clientele moved to the Champs Elysees, where the cafconc' stars entertained under the trees in the lamplight at the summer Alcazar and Les Ambassadeurs.

Painters such as Edgar Degas (who painted the Café-Concert at Les Ambassadeurs and Singer with a Glove here) and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec portrayed visitors at the night club and almost every vaudeville and music hall entertainer that mattered in those days performed there, such as Aristide Bruant, Zulma Bouffar, Polaire, Paula Brébion, Paulus, Eugénie Fougère, Anna Judic, Fragson, and last but not least Mistinguett and Yvette Guilbert.

The chansonnier Aristide Bruant, a close friend of Toulouse-Lautrec, contributed to the breakthrough of the artist. He insisted that Ducarre should commission a poster of him by Toulouse-Lautrec when he moved to Les Ambassadeurs in 1892. Toulouse-Lautrec painted a very romantic and imposing picture of Bruant, with his cape thrown over his shoulders and his famous red scarf around his neck. Ducarre was appalled by the results and ordered to take it down, but Bruant threatened to not perform if he did so. Instead, he compelled the director to cover the whole venue and the stage with the poster. When the success of the chansonnier, and of his image, was overwhelming, Ducarre had to admit that he had been wrong. Bruant forced him to display the now iconic poster all over Paris.

Decline and closure

The outbreak of the First World War in 1914 changed everything. Les Ambassadeurs reopened in the summer of 1915 with the stars of the moment, but the Belle Époque atmosphere was gone. As the clientele was becoming increasingly scarce, the director of the Casino Kursaal of Ostend, Edmond Sayag, decided in 1925 to transform the place into an American-style music hall, a play garden, a restaurant-theatre, a theatre and then, finally, into anything and everything. It closed in 1929 when it was demolished and replaced by a théâtre built in 1931, also called Les Ambassadeurs, and a new restaurant bearing the same name.

References

1. ^ Leslie, A Hard Act to Follow, p. 65
2. ^ (in French) L'Alcazar d'été et les Ambassadeurs, Du Temps des cerises aux Feuilles mortes (Access date: 20 December 2024)
3. (in French) Ernest Bourget, défenseur du droit d'auteur, par Jacques-Marie Vaslin, Le Monde, 28 September 2009
4. Leslie, A Hard Act to Follow, p. 67
5. (in French) Caradec & Weill (1980). Le café-concert, p. 21
6. Leslie, A Hard Act to Follow, p. 155
7. Néret, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, 1864-1901, pp. 100-102

Sources

• (in French) Caradec, François & Alain Weill (1980). Le café-concert, Paris: Hachette/Massin ISBN 2-01-006940-4
• Leslie, Peter (1978). A Hard Act to Follow: A Music Hall Review, New York: Paddington Press ISBN 0-7092-0466-3
• Néret, Gilles (1999). Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, 1864-1901, Köln: Benedikt Taschen Verlag ISBN 3-8228-6524-9

• Cabarets in Paris
• Entertainment venues in Paris
• Music venues completed in 1860
• Former theatres in Paris