The theme eating house of today ’s Times Squareowe a debtto the cabarets of nineteenth - century Paris , particularly a ternary of demise - obsessed locations in the violent light territorial dominion of Montmartre . These club feature over - the - top ribbon and elaborately attired waiters , plus unusual performance with enthralling illusions .
The Cabaret du Néant ( " Cabaret of Nothingness " ) , whichopened in 1892 , was perhaps the most famous . The entrance was draped in black mourning crape with white trimming , and or else of a bouncer , a pallbearer dressed in a fatal ness and top chapeau stood outside . The 1899 bookBohemian Paris of To - dayby W.C. Morrow and Édouard Cucuel , whichcalledit a " grisly caricature of eternal malarky , " described the inside this way :
As Morrow ’s group select their place , a half - twelve monotonic voice drone : " Enter , mortals of this extraordinary world , come in into the mist and shadows of eternity … and may God have mercy on your souls ! " No particular was ignore : bells tolled , a funeral marching act , and the topographic point even smelled like a charnel house family , according to Morrow . The waiters were also dress like bearer , and address the juicer asmacchabées — French slang for a stiff , particularly those found drowned in the Seine . A drinking order was relayed to the bar as " One germ of Asiatic cholera from the last cadaver , one stage of a springy Cancer the Crab , and one sampling of our consumption source ! "
While seating at the candlelit coffins and delight their toxicant , guests were treated to a " discourse on death , " which cease with a salmagundi of blinking paintings that seemed to glow and then cut down their subjects ( soldiers on a battlefield , an execution by closure by compartment ) to skeletons . But these ocular illusions were just a taste of the delight that await them in a second room . There , seated on small black caskets , they watched as a member of the audience ill-treat into an illuminated coffin at the front of the room and seemed to be transform into bones right in front of their eye .
This was in reality a famous Victorian illusion known as " Pepper ’s Ghost , " and wasaccomplishedby shrouding the underframe - to - be in textile , fitting him or her precisely into the coffin , and using a serial publication of lighter and glass plate to excogitate the image of a underframe from one side of the room onto the person in the casket . Named for eighteenth - C British scientist John Henry Pepper , who developed the trick , it is still used at theme parkland , and was thetechnique behindMichael Jackson ’s appearance at the 2014 Billboard Awards .
dauntless souls appear for more morbid delectation could also jaw the Cabaret de L’Enfer ( " The Cabaret of Hell " ) , whose entrance take the form of an tremendous , fanged mouth . The doorman greet guest byshouting"Enter and be damned ! " while in spite of appearance , molten streams of gold and silver beautify walls that would sometimes catch fire in flaming and thunder . When Morrow visited , a server dressed as a heller relayed his group ’s fiat of three black umber with cognac as " Three seething bumpers of molten sin , with a dash of brimstone intensifier ! " The drink go far glowing with a phosphorescent Light Within , while musicians bet choice from " Faust . "
Just next threshold was Cabaret du Ciel ( " The Cabaret of the Sky , " sometimes come to to as " The Cabaret of Heaven " ) , with gilded gates , smooth drab lighter , and a crew of angels dressed in gauzy robe and sandal . This metre , drunkenness were referred to as " sparkling draughts of heaven ’s own brewage , " but the rumpled Angel Falls do n’t seem to have been as effective as the inhabitant of Montmartre dressed as devils . Still , Morrow reported that a ceremony where St. Peter blessed the assembled with holy piddle was enjoy by all .
woefully , none of these cabarets survive World War II — which may have rendered their offerings a little tasteless by comparison . But a selection of their prototype and ephemeral still outlive ( and periodically resurface on the net ) , some of which can be seen below .
