Olympia Theatre

Olympia is a music hall in Paris, France.

Founded in 1888 by Joseph Oller, the creator of the Moulin Rouge, the Olympia is the oldest music hall in Paris and one of the most famous music halls in the world, today easily recognizable by its giant red glowing letters announcing its name. It opened in 1889 as the "Montagnes Russes" but was renamed the Olympia in 1893.

Beyond musicians, the Olympia played host to a variety of entertainment including circuses, ballets, and operettas. However, following a steady decline in appearances by the great stars, from 1929 until 1944 it served as a movie theater. It may have opened as a music hall under the German occupation of France during World War II, but certainly in 1945 after the Liberation, it was a music hall free to Allied troops in uniform. Thereafter, at times it may have reverted to movies again until Bruno Coquatrix revived it as a music hall with a grand re-opening in February 1954.

Magicians who have performed there have been:

• Leopoldo Fregoli
• Jose Frakson (1913)
• Richiardi Jr.
• Carl Rosini
• Houdini
• John Calvert

References

This page incorporated content from Paris_Olympia, a page hosted on Wikipedia. Please consult the history of the original page to see a list of its authors. Therefor, this article is also available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License

• http://www.olympiahall.com/