LEGENDS

Mistinguett...

Mistinguett Wardrobe : Price tag of each of Mistinguett’s cabaret show outfit: $35,000 (in today’s money). And she changed outfits, 5 times per show, every single night! Including hats, jewelry, feathers, beads and apparels, a full regalia Mistinguett’s performance dress weighted almost 20 pounds!

Photo: Mistinguett at “Le Casino de Paris”, Paris, France

Maurice Chevalier once said about Mistinguett: “She had a magical way of moving and looking at you which was the pinnacle of style, grace and feminine beauty. Mistinguett was Paris, she symbolized the joy, the gaiety, the good humor, the exemplary determination, the good heart and tenacity. There have been greater performers, cabaret comediennes, singers and music hall dancers in her times and earlier, but all combined in a single package, there has been only one Mistinguett. The entire shows were built and choreographed around her. She was the whole show by herself.” Jean Gabin was the first actor and showbiz giant to use the word “divine” to describe a female star. And when he invented that word, he bestowed it upon Minstinguett.

Rodin said “She has the most beautiful pair of legs in the world.” Tino Rossi said among many other things: “She is the greatest cabaret artist of all time.” Years before Barbra Streisand, Cher, Liza Minelli, Madonna, Ute Lemper, Edith Piaf, Catherine Sauvage, Barbara Cook, Ella Fitzgerald, Bette Midler, there was the first and truly incomparable queen of cabaret, music-halls and shows and her name was Mistinguett, called by the French the "Queen of the Paris Music Hall." Tino Rossi called her “La Reine du Spectacle” meaning the queen of the show or music hall. Mistinguett reigned over the cabaret kingdom as the first, the authentic, the original and the world’s highest paid diva, entertainer, dancer, singer and queen of showmanship. In the 1920s and 1930s, Mistinguett earned as much as Madonna, Jennifer Lopez and Cher earn today combined!

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