Le Palace (Paris)

Le Palace is a Paris theatre located at 8, rue du Faubourg-Montmartre in the 9th arrondissement. It is best known for its years as a nightclub where fashion, music, and underground culture intersected in a mythical blend.

Created by impresario Fabrice Emaer in 1978, intellectuals, actors, designers, and American and European jetsetters adored the place for its flamboyant DJ Guy Cuevas, extravagant theme parties and performances, and Emaer's rule-breaking mix of clubgoers that threw together rich and poor, gay and straight, black and white.

After Emaer's death in 1985, Le Palace changed hands and names several times before reopening in 2008 as a theater and concert space of the same name.

Constructed in the 17th century, the building on rue on Faubourg Montmartre already had a modern history as theater and dance hall before Fabrice Emaer turned it into one of the hottest nightclubs in Paris.

Baptized Le Palace as early as 1912, by 1923 it served as a music hall hosted by Oscar Dufrenne and Henri Varna who had already directed le Concert Mayol, l'Empire, le Moncey Music-Hall and the Bouffes du Nord. The two changed the name to Eden en Palace in 1923, and in collaboration with the London Palace, had a long run engaging artists like dancer and singer Harry Pilcer and musical clown Grock.

In 1931, Oscar Dufrenne took the bold step of changing the theater into a cinema, a move which came to an end when his nude corpse was discovered on site in 1933, inspiring rumors of rough trade gone bad. Shortly afterwards, his partner Henry Varna changed the space back into a music hall which he called the "Alcazar." It became a cinema again in 1946, recovering its original name and gradually fading from view.

The decrepit building was finally acquired by writer and theater director Pierre Laville in 1975. He began producing experimental theater there, and came to the attention of then Minister of Culture, Michel Guy, who used the space for his Festival d'Automne (Autumn Festival).

When impresario Fabrice Emaer decided to open a place large enough to rival Studio 54 in New York, it was Michel Guy who suggested he buy Le Palace.

Fabrice Emaer (1935-1983) was already a proven success when he opened Le Palace. He opened in Paris Le Pimm's, the premier gay club on rue Sainte-Anne in 1964. And in 1968, while other young Parisians were out on the streets throwing cobblestones, he took over le Sept down the block.

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Wikipedia