As the French daily newspaper “Le Figaro” reports, there was an incident at the world-famous variety show in the Montmartre district of Paris on Thursday night for unknown reasons. It is said that the rotor blades of the red mill were already on the ground in the morning, and when they crashed they apparently damaged the restaurant’s sign and the first three letters “Mou”.
Media reports that the wings must have fallen off shortly before two in the morning. How this came about must now be clarified. The Paris fire department has already announced that there were no injuries and that there was no further risk of collapse.
According to “Le Parisien”, the Moulin Rouge team also has to sort itself out first. Press spokeswoman Fanny Rabasse is quoted as saying: “At the moment I have no explanations for what happened. The wings are very well maintained, a technician comes once a week to check the mechanics.”
There are numerous photos of the broken Moulin Rouge on social networks. You can see that at least two rotor blades have been severely damaged and are now bending inwards. In the meantime the bike was dismantled and stored under tarpaulins.
The variety show was founded in 1889 and, unsurprisingly, takes its name from the red mill on the roof. The song “Lady Marmalade” was probably the best-known song about the landmark to date. In 2001, the US singers Pink, Christina Aguilera, Lil’ Kim and Mýa sang and lounged in the video for the now world-famous hit. The cabaret celebrates its 135th anniversary on October 6th.
The Moulin Rouge is considered the birthplace of can-can dance and has offered the so-called aquarium on stage since 1964. Not only wild animals, such as crocodiles and snakes, but also naked dancers swam in numerous shows. The shows with animals in particular were repeatedly criticized. The snake show was banned in May 2023.
In 1952, the film “Moulin Rouge” by director John Huston was released, in which Zsa Zsa Gabor played one of the main roles. In 2001, Nicole Kidman played the dancer “Satine” in Baz Luhrmann’s Hollywood film of the same name.
