1920’s Paris

• eroticism, permissiveness, sin flourishing
• “restraints” of WW1 ripped off
• 4 years through WW1
• “pulsating center of modernity and artistic creativity”
• expats from America, Spain, Germany, Britain, Canada to Paris
• les annees folles — the crazy years
• artistic/culture revolution in Europe
• rebellion against WW1 rules; music, talent, sex, anything could be done at any time
  • sex pervaded life: bare breasts in evening entertainment, legalized prostitution, heavy brothel service
    • Salvador Dali at 12 Rue Chabanais peepholes
    • 221 registered brothels; 15 designated as deluxe houses
  • American troops; strong economical conversion, cheap prices via franc and cheap wine
    • indulgence to excess vs. the American prohibition
• dissatisfaction with America; “dry, prudish” environment vs. newness, modernism, avant-garde of France
• foreign artists: city of sin; free to have sexual relationships, alcohol, drugs
  • Ernest Hemingway
  • “it mattered that you were an artist”

Montparnasse

• Left Bank of Seine River: “cauldron of creativity”
  • artistic center
  • Picasso, Chagall, Hemingway, Callaghan, Joyce, Fitzgerald
  • large cafe service: “combination of office, living room, stage”
    • no identity asked; merging of artists and cultures
• Manny Radnitzky — Man Ray
  • Brooklyn, NY
  • from surrealist art to tourist/cultural photography
  • carriage trade/”court” photographer to the Parisian elite
  • invented surrealist-erotic photography with Kiki, then others
    • fetishist photography; William Seabrook
• “Queen of Montparnasse” — Alin Prin/Kiki
  • exhibitionist, live model, prostitute
  • modeled for Foujita
  • “free woman; first feminist”
  • posed only for Man Ray after meeting
• 12 Rue Chabanais, near Bibliotheque Nationale
  • one of the most luxurious/high class brothels; famous
  • Bibliotheque Nationale — National Library of France
• lower end brothels: “charmless seedy dumps” with high exploitation rates
  • expected 100+ times/day
  • religion looked the other way regarding sex
• “unusual” perversions
  • “hot omelet” on flesh
  • “la partouze” (“dirty party”)
    • group sex with 3+ people; orgies
    • essential to Paris; normalized with close friends
    • Ball of the Quatres Arts, Ecole des Beaux-Arts arts students
      • elaborate naked/painted dress code, alcoholic and sexual encounters
• Harry and Caresse Crosby; scandalized marriage in Boston → Paris
  • Harry: decadent writer/publisher/Black Sun founder
  • womanizer + affairs; large alcohol/drug indulgence
  • open relationship
  • published self experimental poetry, James Joyce and D.H. Lawrence (also in Paris)
• freedom for expatriate women from conventions, pressure to marry, pressure of childbirth
  • disproportionate numbers of creative women
  • speculated many lesbians
  • lived freely as foreigners without non-favorable view of hometown
  • “community of intelligent, chic, artistic lesbians”
• Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas
  • two Jewish women from California
  • Rue de Fleurus apartment
  • interest in literature and visual arts
  • weekly salons for literary and artistic publishers from America
  • traditional marriage/relationships
  • fascinated by avant garde
• Natalie Barney
  • Cincinnati
  • “Amazon of Letters”
  • novelist
  • torrid affairs; “I will live as I choose”
  • open lesbian
  • Rue Jacob house
    • Friday salons for artistic geniuses and open lesbianism
    • “temple to friendship” behind house; garden and temple for women
• gay men met at select gardens/parks for sexual encounters
  • Luxembourg Garden railings at night, Rue Vaugirard: place for sadomasochists
  • Tuileries Gardens area, “Tata Beach”: “meat rack” for gays and male prostitutes
    • tata referring to slang for male homosexuals
• John Glassco
  • Montreal; fled from “lingering Victorianism”
  • expatriate community on Left Bank
  • wanted to become “literary lion”; poet
  • born to money; lifestyle supported by family
  • went with Graeme Taylor; “The Clever Little Devils”
    • open homosexual relationship
  • allowance cut due to hearing about drink/debauchery; drifted into prostitution and pornographic and lower life circles
  • lived off of money from pornographic photographic posing, male prostitution at brothel for women
  • wrote Memoirs of Montparnasse classic
• spread of syncopation, jazz, black artists in France uptown
• Montmartre: bohemian life → petty haven
  • erotic Moulin Rouge
  • open all-night bars
  • champagne and watered down drinks
  • tourist area
  • congregations in Rue Pigalle, different clubs, etc.
  • bar hopping
  • carrying firearms; gangs
  • cocaine trade center in Paris
    • exponential expoort of absinthe, opium, marijuana with expats/spread of Chinese, Turkish, Arabic art
• Jazz clubs opened and welcomed in Montmarte
  • “exotic” music; “black music” that needed to be played by black artists to be legitimate
  • in demand for black bands and black artists regardless of quality
• mixed-race relationship; white girlfriends or wives
  • “scandalous” quality to Paris
• Josephine Baker
  • St. Louis
  • “Danse Sauvage”; erotic artistic “minstrel” show
  • symbol of liberation and sex
• Cole Porter
  • songwriter
  • Yale graduate; independent wealth
  • “liberation” for cultural expression and beliefs in love and sex
  • speculated bisexual, open relationship with wife
  • “hedonistic frolic” for social elites and cross-dressing or kink communities
  • experiences shaped songwriting and creative life
  • advancements in love songs; erotic and sensual music

end of les annees folles

• late 20s tourism shifted from creative renaissance
• world of drinks vs. world of ideas
• American tourism plain
• economy flourished; “cheap and slightly risque place” to visit
• riots against American tourists due to influx
• late October 1929: stock market crashed in New York
• overnight return of expatriates and tourists
• “Lost Generation”