Tag Archives: Clifford Fischer

Cafe des Ambassadeurs

Cafe des Ambassadeurs

The Café des Ambassadeurs was one of most fashionable and best-known summer venues in Paris situated on the Avenue Gabriel at the entrance to the Champs-Elysées near the Place de la Concorde. Named after the nearby Hotel Crillon that had become the residence of foreign ambassadors, it was founded in 1764 as a simple open air bar, a small pavilion was added in 1772 and it evolved into one of the most famous of the Parisian café concerts.

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The London Casino

The London Casino

The Prince Edward Theatre on Old Compton Street, named after Edward Prince of Wales, opened on the 3rd April 1930 on the site of a drapers business called The Emporium. The area was soon to be known as London’s Quarter Latin now simply Soho and the venue later became The London Casino. The exterior was in the style of an Italian Palace, and the foyer pure art deco. The auditorium was on two levels (stalls and dress circle) and seated 1,650. From its inception the shows staged (Rio Rita, Nippy, Fanfare) did not do well and even an appearance of the famous Parisian music hall star Josephine Baker failed to click. After the pantomime Aladdin the theatre was forced to close in January 1935.

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The French Casino

The French Casino

In December 1934, the refurbished Earl Carroll Theatre located on the south-east corner of 7th Ave and 50th Street, New York City, opened as the French Casino. This glittering supper club was described by Fortune magazine as ‘a vast scarlet and silver restaurant which, in terraced rows of tables, seats fifteen hundred people without any crowding.’ For a short three year period it became the unrivalled premier nightspot in New York.

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Folies de Femmes

Folies de Femmes

The Folies de Femmes revue was the third show launched at the French Casino New York in February 1936 with an array of talent and spectacular scenes that included the Women from Paris, Military Fashions, Music of the Accordians and Supper in Paris.

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The Revue Folies Bergere

The Revue Folies Bergere

The first spectacular and sumptuous stage show produced by Clifford Fischer for the French Casino project in Chicago and New York in 1934 was the Revue Folies Bergere.

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Folie Parisienne

Folie Parisienne

Folie Parisienne was the second presentation at the French Casino New York in September 1935. It was transferred to the Miami Beach French Casino in January 1936 and was then the opening show at the London Casino in April 1936. It was a highly elaborate mix of spectacle, ballet and speciality acts with fashion shows, dog shows, butterflies, fountains, a carpet of roses, aerialists, dancers and as usual a magnificent array of mannequins and chorus girls.

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Clifford Fischer

Clifford C. Fischer, the originator of the French Casino Project

One of the most picturesque figures in show business, Clifford C. Fischer was an internationally distinquished booking agent and producer who really made a name for himself staging spectacular stage shows as part of the French Casino theatre-restaurant project in the mid 1930s.

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