Inside the Moulin Rouge
4/10/202637 min
The Moulin Rouge opened its doors in 1889, at the height of the Belle Epoch - 'the Beautiful Age'.
Its famous windmill structure stood on the fringes of Paris, where intellectuals and artists mixed with thugs and criminals in a hedonistic neighbourhood.
What really went on inside the Moulin Rouge? Why was there a giant elephant in the garden? And did sex workers really solicit business while riding donkeys?!
Joining Kate today is the wonderful Mike Rapport, author of ‘City of Light, City of Shadows: Paris in the Belle Epoque’.
This episode was edited by Hannah Feodorov. The producer was Stuart Beckwith. The senior producer was Freddy Chick.
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First 90 secondsKate Lister· Host0:00
Do you want even more shocking and scandalous history? Like why the ancient Greek statues had such small manhoods, or what went on behind closed doors in the Georgian era. Well, sign up to History Hit, where you can see me discover the scandalous side of history as well as hundreds of hours of original documentaries, plus new releases every week, covering everything from prehistoric Scotland to the Treaty of Versailles. Sign up to join me in locations around the world and explore the past. Just visit historyhit.com/subscribe. Hello, my lovely Betwixtors. It's me, Kate Lister. You are back once again. Hooray. I'm so pleased to see you. But before we can go any further, I do have to let you know, just in case you've forgotten everything that I've been telling you over the past three years, this is an adult podcast spoken by adults to other adults about adulty things in an adulty way, covering a range of adult subjects, and you should be an adult too. Right. Can you tick all of that off? Can ya? Can ya? 'Cause if you can't, you can't come in. I won't let ya. Right. Okay. Let's get on with it. [upbeat music] Well, fancy seeing you here, Betwixtors. We are at the Moulin Rouge at the end of the nineteenth century, and what a night. What a time to be alive. We are out in the back garden, and we will acknowledge the elephant in the room. No, literally, there is a massive elephant out in this garden, and patrons climb into it, and, well, you'll have to keep listening if you want to know what they get up to there. There is so much to see and do