22 April 2011

in your Easter bonnet I


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Mistinguett


by Nadar


When Mistinguett hiked up her skirts to expose her well-publicized legs (she once insured them for $3,000,000), even the sober members of her audience remarked that they were extraordinarily well preserved. In her comic numbers, Titina and Je Cherche un Millionaire, her Parisian brashness and high spirits seemed unimpaired. She kidded with the audience, snatched women's hats, put them on bald-headed ringside patrons, succeeded in getting nightclubbers to stand and join her in singing a final round of Paris.
"It's something electric," Mistinguett explains. "I take them like this. 'Come near me,' I say, and I draw them to me."
Why had she decided to come to the U.S.? "I like to move. I love New York. Everyone goes so fast. I do not like that people go slow." Mistinguett, whose shrewd business head has left her with a bulging bankbook, a safeful of jewels and three big houses, had another reason. "I love money. Not just to spend. I like to keep it—wash my hands in it." For her Manhattan engagement, the Martinique nightclub is paying her $4,000 a week.  Time magazine here (from 1951,Manhattan gets its first look in 28 years at Mistinguett)

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2 comments:

  1. Although I do not appreciate the "fascinators" that are now so popular in England, ladies in hats are usually particularly lovely.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I do like the little fascinators perching on ladies heads- I do love the hats of the Belle Epoque much more. Happy Easter DC.

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