The Queen of the Moulin Rouge

Book excerpt: This is the unique story of Louise Weber, better known as La Goulue. She became the undisputed Queen of the Moulin Rouge cabaret and the most famous dancer in France in the late 19th century. Toulouse Lautrec immortalized her in his world renowned poster and paintings of her dancing at the Moulin Rouge. She was the toast of Montmartre and Paris, her fame was tied to her outrageous dancing of the can-can, and she was the highest paid performer of her day. This book is the first fully researched and detailed study of La Goulue. The author Maryline Martin mined the archives of the Moulin Rouge where she found the actual diary of Louise Weber, and the Archive of the Prefecture of Paris to create this enormously entertaining and important biography. What emerges is a portrait of a fearless woman who broke all codes of conduct for a late 19th century woman. She willingly trampled on the social, moral, and religious conventions of her time demanding that women be treated as the equal of men. She created her own legend in her own time.