Category Archives: Paris

To March or not to March: La Marche de l’Armée

Sheet music cover for Marche des Chauffeurs
Marche des Chauffeurs‘ composed and published by Auguste Bosc (Paris, s.d.). Cover illustration by Léonce Burret.

Isn’t it ironic? Composing a march to celebrate another form of locomotion, really! The lady reading a book in her automobile has no intention at all to set foot on the ground, let alone to walk. Her chauffeur seems to question her attitude. Thank you Léonce Burret for this quizzical image.

A marche that wasn’t composed to accompany a brisk walk or hike. We found this same kind of contradiction for ‘marches‘ that praise cycling,…

Sheet music cover illustrating the Marche des Cyclistes
Marche des Cyclistes‘ by Louis Desvaux, published by Emile Gallet (Paris, s.d.) and illustrated by Hyacinthe Royet.

salute ballooning,…

Sheet music cover for 'Marche des Aëronautes'
Marche des Aëronautes‘ by Charles Grelinger. Published by Portius (Leipzig, 1907), unknown illustrator.

or cheer the enjoyment of gliding on ice…

Illustration for 'Skating March', a composition by Cécile Reubère, published by Fatout & Girard in Paris
Skating March‘ by Cécile Reubère, published by Fatout & Girard (Paris, s.d.). Unknown illustrator.

or over snow.

illustration by Georges Desains for the sheet music cover 'Skiers Marche' by Adolphe Gauwin
Skiers Marche‘ by Adolphe Gauwin. Published by L. Paroche (Paris, 1906) and illustrated by Georges Desains.

We recognise a good old-fashioned march when we hear or see one. Something that encourages a fast pace in a military spirit, and that goes a long way, on foot of course!  Here it is, the Marche du Matin strongly illustrated by Lucien Faure-Dujarric. 

Sheet miusic cover for 'Marche du Matin' by Léon Fontbonne. Illustration by Lucien Faure-Dujarric
Marche du Matin‘ by Léon Fontbonne. Published by Société Musicale G. Astruc & Cie (Paris, 1904) and illustrated by Lucien Faure.

I mistakenly assumed that the Marche du Matin was composed to hearten the soldiers during their daily early morning exercise. No, the title of the march refers to Le Matin, one of the four big French newspapers before WWI.

Front page of Le Matin newspaper in 1904
Front page of ‘Le Matin’ on the next day of the contest. (source: gallica.bnf)

On the 29th of May in 1904 Le Matin organised a promotional stunt: with the encouragement of the Minister of War and the cooperation of the Army top, each French regiment selected 10 of its men to participate in the big Marche de l’Armée. The walking contest started at the Place de la Concorde at 7 am, with the playing of a military march. Then the 2000 men in battle dress and heavy boots assembled in two long columns and charged up the Champs-Elysées to commence the 45 km (!) long itinerary that would bring them through Paris as far as St-Germain-en-Laye and back. Large crowds, cheers and flags accompanied the men.

Postcard (1904) showing the Marche de l'Armée
Postcard illustrating the festive ambiance at one of the checkpoints on the Marche de l’Armée. (source: eBay)

France’s Bibliothèque nationale is a real treasure trove.  After some digging we were lucky to find interesting pictures of this arduous march by the photographic agency Rol.

Photo of the Marche de l'Armée
Lutte pour la première place, passage sur le pont de Saint-Cloud.‘ [Battle for the first place on the Saint-Cloud bridge.] – Photo Agence Rol (source: gallica.bnf)

Photographic picture of La Marche de l'Armée (1904)
Caporal Piscau dans la montée du Coeur Volant, à Marly.‘ [Corporal Piscau on the Coeur Volant slope at Marly.] – Photo Agence Rol (source: gallica.bnf)

Photo of La Marche de l'Armée (1904)
St-Germain: arrêt des soldats à la buvette, place du Marché Neuf.‘ [In St-Germain: the soldiers at the refreshment bar on the Marché Neuf square.] – Photo Agence Rol (source: gallica.bnf)

Photo of La Marche de l'Armée
Les soldats place du Marché Neuf, à Saint-Germain-en-Laye.‘ [The soldiers at the Marché Neuf square in Saint-Germain-en-Laye.] – Photo Agence Rol (source: gallica.bnf)

Marche de l'Armée, photo Agence ROL
Le premier: soldat Girard, vainqueur de la Marche de l’Armée, arrivée à la Galerie des Machines.‘ [The winner: soldier Girard, champion of the Marche de l’Armée, arrives at the Galerie des Machines.] – Photo Agence Rol (source: gallica.bnf)

Marche de l'Armée, photo by Agence Rol
Stade Buffalo: Rodolphe Muller serrant la main du soldat Girard, vainqueur de la Marche de l’Armée.‘ [Stade Buffalo: Rodolphe Muller shakes hand with soldier Girard (left), the winner of the Marche de l’Armée.] – Photo Agence Rol (source: gallica.bnf)

I won’t recount the whole day, nor the numerous incidents and accidents. After more than 5 hours the first contestant arrived at the finish. That day the weather was abnormally hot, and the men suffered. Many abandoned the march. Some soldiers were taken to hospital, at least one died. What should have been a festive day became a painful spectacle. The next day L’Humanité, the communist newspaper would report: “The sight of Gerard, the winner, had made the crowd cry out in pity. The unhappy boy could not even, at the end, lift his painful feet swollen with fatigue. The sight of the last groups deeply moved the spectators. The sturdy lads, who had left so happily in the morning, returned broken with fatigue, devastated, drenched in sweat, haggard eyes, clenched hands, clenched jaws, stumbling at every step, threatening continually to fall on the pavement.

A small marine infantry soldier, seized by a dizzy spell, takes two steps back. An officer holds him and shakes him. Another one shouts at him: “Hold on, no more than 25 meters left!”. Hardly recovered, the poor child, he is not yet twenty, continues on his way staggering. A hundred meters from the checkpoint, he stops again and brings his clenched hands to his throat. But an officer motions him forward, giving him a word of encouragement. He stiffens then, and feeling his strength completely abandon him, he rushes in a last effort towards the finish post near which he comes crashing down.
And these sorrowful scenes went on and on …

Hm… I think that white fatigue trousers will forever remind me of the deplorable scenes above.

Charlotte Wiehe: From Mimodrama to Graphical Muse of the Belle Epoque

‘La Main’ by Henri Berény, published by Albert Ahn (Berlin, 1903) and illustrated by Chéret.

The woman on this cover is holding a key while threatened by scary hands around her. She is the Danish dancer, actress and singer Charlotte Wiehe (1865-1947). Charlotte was first married to the celebrated Danish silent actor, Wilhelm Wiehe, whose name she kept after their divorce. She made her first successes in comedy and light opera in Copenhagen. According to the press of that time “she was a singer of ability and a graceful dancer”. Charlotte Wiehe remarried with the Hungarian violinist and composer Henri Berény.

‘Den Sande Kaerlighed’ by François Perpignan, published by Wilhelm Hansen (Copenhagen, 1904) and illustrated by Valdemar Andersen.

Charlotte Wiehe-Berény in ‘Den Lilla Drottningen’, 1905. Source: Wikipedia.

Together they moved to Paris and started an international career. Around 1900 Charlotte took up a new line of performance: mimodramas (pantomime acts with dance and musical accompaniment) written and composed by her husband Berény. Two of his mimodramas (L’Homme aux Poupées and La Main) were successful on the Parisian stages and were later adapted for the cinematograph in 1909 by Le Film d’Art.

L’Homme aux Poupées by Jean Veber. Source: Wikipedia.

The mimodrama L’Homme aux Poupées is based upon a book by Jean-Louis Renaud, beautifully illustrated by Jean Veber. It tells the strange obsession of a man in love with his dolls. The eccentric has only eyes for his dolls and not a blink for this woman, an actress he met one evening at the opera. Since nothing helps to draw his attention, she undresses in front of him. But even that has not the desired effect. Vindictive, she tears the man’s dolls to pieces under his bewildered eyes. Then, seized with remorse, the actress turns herself into an automaton, a mechanical doll. What a great opportunity for Charlotte to show her miming skills.

Charlotte Wiehe in L’Homme aux Poupées, illustrated by Cheret. From L’Illustration, December 1900.

Charlotte Wiehe and the hand of Max Dearly in the film La Main by Film d’Art. Source: Jeux de mains, by Ariane Martinez (2008)

The mimodrama La Main is the story of a burglar who gets into a dancer’s dressing room to steal her jewels. But as the young woman returns into her room, the thief hides behind a curtain. And after removing her costume and standing in her negligee before a mirror she sees the presence of his hand in the folds of her curtain. Ooh la la, quite alarming…

Charlotte Wiehe  having seen the hand of the burglar in the mimodrama ‘La Main’ . The Sphere, November 1900. Source: eBay.

We spare you the rocambolesque end of the plot in which the key —emphatically shown on the sheet music cover— plays an important role. Far more interesting is that Charlotte Wiehe was the muse of Jules Chéret, the master of the belle-époque poster art.

‘You know that this exquisite actress was nicknamed Chérette. Indeed, graceful and mischievous, she seems to be the dream model of the famous ‘maitre de l’affiche’ “.  In Journal Amusant (26 January 1901).

They really have a point.

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Posters by Chéret with Charlotte Wiehe as his model. Source: eBay.

Charlotte Wiehe was not only pictured by Chéret, but by a lot of contemporary artists. You can see some examples by Adrien Barrère, Knut Hansen, De Losques and Capiello.

Charlotte Wiehe. Left: by Barrère. Right: by Knut Hansen. Source eBay.

Charlotte Wiehe by de Losques, in Le Rire – January 1905.

Charlotte Wiehe by Capiello (from Le Théâtre de Capiello, April 1904).

The Hen with the Golden Eggs, a Féerie

'La Poule aux oeufs d'or. Grand Quadrille Féerique' by Paul Henrion,sheet music published by Colombier (Paris, 1850) and illustrated by Victor Coindre.
La Poule aux oeufs d’or. Grand Quadrille Féerique‘ by Paul Henrion, published by Colombier (Paris, 1850) and illustrated by Victor Coindre.

17th century Jean de la Fontaine wrote the fable La Poule aux oeufs d’or (The Hen with the Golden Eggs). It tells about a farmer with a hen that lays an egg made of gold, every single day. To discover the source of his good luck —and hoping to increase his prosperity— he opens the hen thus killing the animal without finding anything. The moral conclusion is that greed can ruin one’s good fortune.

The sheet music above was composed for a play that diverges entirely from the original moral tale. This quadrille is part of a féerie, or fairy play. In a féerie the plot is subordinate and auxiliary to the spectacle and the stage effects.

This typical French theatrical genre was known for its fantasy plots and spectacular visual effects. Think smoke machines, stunning lightning and sound, and mechanical contraptions to magically change stage sets. Féeries combined captivating music, colourful ballet, pantomime and acrobatics. They developed in the early 1800s and became hugely popular in France throughout the nineteenth century. Their stories were melodramas borrowed from fables and fairy tales, with a penchant for the supernatural. A full-length féerie often ran for several hours.

People queuing at the opening of ‘La Poule aux oeufs d’or’ at the Theatre National in Paris. Source BNF.

The 1848 premiere of La Poule aux oeufs d’or was at the Théâtre National on the famous Boulevard du temple, now gone but at that time the Parisian Broadway. The Théâtre National was previously a circus, and therefore commonly called Cirque national. La Poule aux oeufs d’or was a great success, if we can rely on the drawing of the crowd on the opening night. And it was relaunched in 1859.

The actor René François Boutin as Cocorico in La Poule aux oeufs d’or. Circa 1859. Source: eBay.

I started reading the scenario but gave up after two pages. It was enough to realise that the play was rocambolesque: an absurd mix of ridiculous adventures, burlesque characters and the obligatory ingenue. In the mocking words of the French writer and critic Théophile Gautier: “The characters, brilliantly clothed, wander through a perpetually changing series of tableaux, panic-stricken, stunned, running after each other, searching to reclaim the action which goes who knows where; but what does it matter! This dazzling feast for the eyes is enough to make for an agreeable evening.”

L’empire des animaux‘, one of the 24 tableaux in La Poule aux oeufs d’or, at the Cirque national. Lithograph by Alexandre Lacauchie, 1848. (source BNF)

In La Poule aux oeufs d’or the characters were brilliantly clothed indeed as shown by the pretty costume drawings.

Costumes for ‘La Poule aux oeufs d’or’ by E. Bourdillat, 1848. Source: BNF.

An angel and Satan provided the essential magic in La Poule aux oeufs d’or. In a féerie such supernatural forces used to drive the characters through fantastic landscapes and amazing adventures, typically with magic totems (in this case the golden eggs) used to transform people, things, and places. Wow!

Améline, Satan, in ‘La Poule aux oeufs d’or’ at the Cirque national. Lithograph by Alexandre Lacauchie. Source BNF.

But in the first place the audience came to see and appreciate the tricks. For La Poule aux oeufs d’or 24 elaborate stage settings or tableaux were built. Each one created an enchanted universe of dazzling attractions, spectacular effects and sophisticated optical illusions. In full view of the audience a cottage would transform magically in a palace. In another scene windmills would turn into gondolas while a lake emerged from the ground. Of course a large crew in charge of design and stagecraft was needed.
The grand finale stage led to the apotheosis: all actors, dancers, musicians and extras were united on the Île de l’harmonie (the isle of harmony) with a musical flourish.

The grand finale: stage setting for the 21th scene, L’Île de l’Harmonie. Source: BNF.

A colourful drawing shows a detail of this tableau illustrating the clever design of the costumes and props.

Le royaume de la musique, ‘La Poule aux oeufs d’or’ at the Cirque national. Lithograph by Alexandre Lacauchie, 1848. (source BNF)

La Poule aux oeufs d’or was later staged in other productions. In the 1870s version, even the grande vedette and forcefull singer Mademoiselle Thérésa, played a role in La Poule aux oeufs d’or. This production was so successful that it would travel to London.

Left: ‘Couplets de l’effet’. Right: ‘La Boite à musique’. Both by Albert Vizentini, Ennery & Clairville and sung by Thérèsa. Published by Choudens (Paris, 1873). Source: Gallica.fr.

Ten years later La Poule aux oeufs d’or was restaged at the Théâtre du Chatelet.

Poster for La Poule aux oeufs d’or, Theâtre du Chatelet, 1882. Source: BNF.

An Italian journalist reviewing that performance reported that his jaw dropped when he saw a hundred and fifty bricklayers and carpenters, all played by children between six and twelve years, constructing a house. But what most impressed him was a house on fire extinguished by a regiment of firefighters acted by persons of short stature and he was overwhelmed by the indescribable effects of the electric light. A real nouveauté at that time. He wrote: “Just take a look at our illustration to understand how much enticement it provided to the spectator.”

Front page of ‘Il Teatro Illustrato’ – November 1884. Source: BNF.

In the 1890s La Poule aux oeufs d’or became a pretext to bring a little bit of nudity at the Folies Bergère. Yes, the end of the live feérie was in sight

Left: Bonnet. Right: Couralet. In ‘La Poule aux oeufs d’or’ at the Folies Bergère. Photographs by Nadar, 1900. Source: BNF.

It fell out of popularity by the end of the 19th century, by which time it was largely seen as entertainment for children and disappeared from French stages.

The féerie quickly reincarnated as a popular cinema genre in the 1900s. The forerunner in the genre, was Méliès but the French Gaston Velle was also a prominent pioneer of special effects. He began his career as a travelling magician, before applying his illusionist skills to the cinema.

Poster for Velle’s film ‘La Poule aux oeufs d’or’ by Faria (1905). Source: Wikipedia – EYE Film Instituut Nederland.

Velle’s silent short La Poule aux œufs d’or (16 min) was produced by Pathé Frères in 1905. The scenario of the film is much simpler than for the theatrical féeries and it goes back to the roots of the story. You can watch the complete film on YouTube, but we start at the apotheosis. If you haven’t time to watch the complete sequence, may we suggest to at least watch the strange 3:40 scene? Though at 7:55 (and at 8:48) you will not be less baffled…