Moulin Rouge

It was on this day in 1889 that the famous cabaretMoulin Rouge opened its doors. It was in the Montmartre district of Paris, a district that had been historically outside the city limits, where the local nuns made wine and Paris taxes did not apply. It evolved into a center of entertainment and drinking, the home of artists, and a popular locale for nightclubs like the Moulin Rouge.

Moulin Rouge means "red windmill," because the building itself had a giant red windmill on top. The cabaret was at the base of the large Montmartre Hill, and in the days of Louis XIV, the hill had been covered with windmills. In the early days of the Moulin Rouge, one of its attractions was a giant stucco elephant as tall as a building, and for a franc, men could go inside one of its legs and watch belly dancers. The can-can is said to have originated at the Moulin Rouge.

The artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec made the Moulin Rouge famous with his posters for the cabaret, featuring showgirls and customers at the bar.