Windmill Theatre
| 1909 Palais de Luxe 1931 Windmill Theatre 1964 Windmill Cinema 1974 Windmill Theatre 1982 La Vie en Rose Show Bar 1986 Paramount City |
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| Address | 17-19 Great Windmill Street Westminster, London |
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| Coordinates | 51°30′41″N 0°08′03″W / 51.5113°N 0.1341°W |
| Type | Playhouse, variety and nude revue |
| Capacity | 320 (1964) |
| Current use | 1994.The Windmill International. Table dance club |
| Construction | |
| Opened | 22 June 1931 |
| Closed | 31 October 1964 |
| Rebuilt | 1931 F. Edward Jones |
| Years active | 1931 - 1964 |
The Windmill Theatre — now The Windmill International — in Great Windmill Street, London was for many years both a variety and revue theatre. The Windmill remains best known for its nude tableaux vivants, which began in 1932 and lasted until its reversion to a cinema in 1964. Many prominent British comedians of the post-war years started their careers working at this theatre.
Great Windmill Street took its name from a windmill that stood there from the reign of King Charles II until the late 18th century. In 1909 a cinema, the Palais de Luxe, opened on the site. It stood on the corner of a block of buildings that included the Apollo and Lyric theatres, where Archer Street joined Great Windmill Street, just off Shaftesbury Avenue. The building complex incorporates Piccadilly Buildings, an 1897 building which housed the offices of British Mutoscope and Biograph Company, an early producer of films.
The Palais de Luxe was one of the first places where early silent films were shown. As larger cinemas were opened in the West End, business slowed and the Palais de Luxe was forced to close.
In 1930, Laura Henderson bought the Palais de Luxe building and hired Howard Jones, an architect, to remodel the interior to a small 320-seat, one-tier theatre. It was then renamed the Windmill. It opened on 22 June 1931, as a playhouse with a new play by Michael Barringer called Inquest. Its existence as a theatre was short and unprofitable, and it soon returned to screening films, such as The Blue Angel (1930) starring Marlene Dietrich.
Henderson hired a new theatre manager, Vivian Van Damm, who developed the idea of the Revudeville—a programme of continuous variety that ran from 2.30pm until 11pm. They began to put on shows with singers, dancers, showgirls, and specialty numbers. The first Revudeville act opened on 3 February 1932, featuring 18 unknown acts. These continued to be unprofitable; in all, the theatre lost £20,000 in the first few years after its opening.
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