Folies d’Amour
The 4th production at the French Casino, New York was Folies d’Amour launched in late August 1936 and transferred to the London Casino in January 1937. Once again Clifford Fischer presented an excess of scenic artifice, flamboyant costumes and feminine pulchritude to such an extent that the New York Times said he was following in Ziegfeld’s footsteps with such tableaux as the Flowers of Paris, the old Jewel Box, the Metal Age and naughtiness of Goodnight.
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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
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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Information about the 1920s and the Jazz Age
