Unpaginated (32 pp.) program completely illlustrated with reproductions from black-and-white photographs. Quarto (9 5/8 x 7 1/2 inches). Original side-stapled cardstock wrappers with cover illustration by Robert Lasquin in the style of Bernard Buffet. Some light spotting and browning to covers, light handling wear, first page with hand-written signatures by Madame Arthur (Maslowa) herself and others. Paris: [Le Revue du Carrousel], n.d. [circa 1960].

Marcel Ouizman, a club owner in Paris, opened Madame Arthur in 1946, taking its name from the famous 1860 song by Paul de Kock, performed by legendary Belle Époque cabaret singer Yvette Guilbert. It was the first gender-twist cabaret in France, located at 75 bis Rue des Martyrs in the heart of the Pigalle district. Ouizman's original business partner and the host at Madame Arthur, Floridor, died shortly thereafter and his place was taken by a poet and ex-priest named Loulou. Just one year later, Ouizman opened Le Carrousel de Paris at 40, rue du Colisée.

Both Madame Arthur and Le Carrousel held revues of 'cross-dressing' and trans performers. Over the years, Madame Arthur was more of a comedic cabaret, where performers would go who aspired to the stage at the more exclusive Le Carrousel. At one point, the French police made Le Carrousel close for three months and banned Madame Arthur from having male cross-dressing, which spurred some of the performers to take hormones and grow out their hair to avoid being accused of cross-dressing.

Some of the transgender and drag artists who performed at Madame Arthur include like Coccinelle (Jacqueline Charlotte Dufresnoy), a French cabaret singer, sex symbol, and transgender woman who was the first widely publicized celebrity to undergo gender reassignment surgery in Europe, Bambi, Fétiche, Baddabou, Cricri, Chantaline Erika Keller, Estelle Roederer, Angélique Lagerfeld, Chablie, Yeda Brown, and Dominot.

The first star at Madame Arthur was an ex-ballet dancer who performed under the name Maslowa. Bambi herself said of Maslowa, "Maslowa would stand in the room as soon as the first customers arrived and acclimatize them to the evening they were about to experience. He was almost always dressed in pink satin pyjamas, didn't wear a wig, and with his naturally blond hair did a hairstyle that had something feminine about it. He always wore make-up, but lightly."

This program from Madame Arthur contains 32 pages of black-and-white glamour shots of male impersonators, with small inset photographs of the men without costumes and makeup. The first half is photographs from Madame Arthur and the second half from Le Carrousel. These include Maslowa, Pepa Darena, Hula, Michou, Violetta, Claude André, Gina Ginn's, Jan Carlove, Lucrece, Lucky Sarcell, Toinou Costes, Micaëlli, Cora Delli, Dany Dan, Pamela, Rubis, Coccinelle, Sophia, Les-Lee, Audrey, Capucine, Regine, Kiki Moustic, Lana, Fétiche, Tony April, Karina, Rolandys, Claude Cristy, Everest, Dominique, and Bambi, along with a handful of male performers and dancers. Most of the photographs were taken by Paul Koruna and MARTI, along with Bernheim, Iris, Chevert, and Nisak.

The back cover of the program indicates that the revue was conceived, written, designed, and directed by French artist Robert Lasquin, with choreography by Albert Morandi and musical arrangements by Sam Stinn. Very rare; as of August 2026, OCLC locates only a single copy in a North American library.

Book ID: 53752

Price: $850.00