Rodolphe Salis
| Rodolphe Salis | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
29 May 1851 Châtellerault, Vienne, France |
| Died | 20 March 1897 (aged 45) Naintré, Vienne, France |
| Nationality | French |
| Known for | Le Chat Noir |
Louis Rodolphe Salis (29 May 1851 – 20 March 1897) was the creator, host and owner of the Le Chat Noir ("The Black Cat") cabaret (known briefly in 1881 at its beginning as "Cabaret Artistique.") With this establishment Salis is remembered as the creator of the modern cabaret: a nightclub where the patrons could sit at tables with alcoholic drinks and enjoy variety acts on a stage, introduced by a master of ceremonies who interacted with the audience.
The son of a distiller in Châtellerault, Salis came to Paris in 1872, after leaving the regiment in which he had undertaken military service. He moved into the Hotel de Rome on Rue de Seine, in the Latin Quarter.
He founded "L'école vibrante" (The Vibrant School), soon renamed the "L'école iriso-subversive de Chicago" (The Chicago Iriso-Subversive School) in order to draw attention to his artistic group. In fact he was earning a living by making stations of the cross and other religious objects, that he and his friends painted.
"In fact, it [The School] had the overall intended, but not admitted, immediate aim of making a series of Stations of the Cross to sell at eight and fourteen francs each, in a shop selling religious articles in the Saint Sulpice. The very tedious work was divided between the four "students" according to their different natures. Rene Gilbert painted heads; Wagner hands; Antonio de La Gandara draperies; Salis, finally, backgrounds and landscapes ..."
In order to combine art and alcoholic beverage, Salis had the idea of creating a café in "the purest style of Louis XII ... with a chandelier of wrought iron from the Byzantine period, and where the gentry, the burghers and peasants are now invited to drink absinthe after the usual manner of Victor Hugo and Garibaldi, and hypocras in golden bowls. In reality, the first tavern called The Black Cat (Le Chat Noir), opened in November 1881 in a two-room building at 84 Boulevard Rochechouart (a site now commemorated by a plaque), began by serving bad wine and with a rather inferior decor. But from the first, at the door, guests were greeted by a Swiss guard, splendidly bedecked and covered with gold from head to foot, supposedly responsible for bringing in the painters and poets who arrived, while barring the "infamous priests and the military." Salis' tongue-in-cheek admirational piece was on a high marble fireplace: The skull of Louis XIII as a child.
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