Georges Baltha

Cabaret des Arts (1898) — the origin at no. 36

In 1898, under the direction of Gaston Sécot, a group of chansonniers breaking away from François Trombert's Cabaret des Quat'z'Arts opened a new artistic cabaret at 36 boulevard de Clichy, named the Cabaret des Arts. Among its founders and regular performers: Dominique Bonnaud, Xavier Privas, Numa Blès, Jean Varney, Georges Baltha. The Cabaret des Arts operated until 1904, when it was taken over and rebranded by Numa Blès and Dominique Bonnaud as Logiz de la Lune Rousse (very quickly shortened to La Lune Rousse) — still at 36 boulevard de Clichy, that is, in the building adjoining no. 34.

No. 34 as editorial address — the Société d'éditions de la Lune Rousse

While the performance hall stayed at no. 36, the publishing activity of the cabaret's chansonniers settled at 34 boulevard de Clichy, "staircase B on the right" — as is still attested by an enamel plaque visible next to the storefront of the Café-Brasserie Reichshofen. The Société d'éditions de la Lune Rousse published, under the imprint "Les Chansons de Montmartre", the scores and booklets of the chansonniers from the cabaret next door. Georges Baltha's songs were published there, under the joint imprint "34 and 36 boulevard de Clichy", as evidenced by the holdings preserved at the Bibliothèques spécialisées de la Ville de Paris.

It is this dual address 34 and 36 that clarifies Baltha's exact place in the life of no. 34: he did not live there as a tenant in the sense of the censuses, but his editorial production was made there and bore, through his scores, the imprint of number 34. The cohabitation of nos. 34 and 36 boulevard de Clichy at this period thus functioned as a single cultural ecosystem: the hall at 36, the printshop-publishing house at 34, the artists circulating continuously between the two doors.

Cabaret des Quat'z'Arts (62 boulevard de Clichy)

Before and during his activity at the Cabaret des Arts and then at La Lune Rousse, Baltha was also a chansonnier at the famous Cabaret des Quat'z'Arts, founded by François Trombert in 1893 at 62 boulevard de Clichy — in the immediate vicinity of the Moulin Rouge. According to the compilation work of marcel-legay.com, Baltha is listed among the cabaret's chansonniers alongside Marcel Legay, Lucien Boyer, Numa Blès, Jehan Rictus, Théodore Botrel, Xavier Privas, Mévisto, Fragson and practically all the major chansonniers of the Belle Époque. The same site indicates that, at a certain point, Baltha assisted François Trombert in directing the cabaret, alongside Jean Varney and then Léon de Bercy — a co-direction role that distinguished him from the simple song performance.

La Lune Rousse — co-direction with Bonnaud (from 1914)

When La Lune Rousse was transferred in 1914 from its original address at 36 boulevard de Clichy to 58 rue Pigalle (the street that would later be renamed Victor-Massé, in the 9th arrondissement), Dominique Bonnaud directed the new establishment in collaboration with the chansonnier Georges Baltha, then with Léon Michel — who took sole command in the following years. This co-direction is explicitly confirmed by the Wikipédia entry on La Lune Rousse, by Léon de Bercy (Montmartre et ses chansons) and by the authority record at the Bibliophile Heurtebise blog. An Abel Faivre (1867-1945) poster for La Lune Rousse, dating from the 1910s, mentions the names "Bonnaud, Baltha and Michel" — iconographic confirmation of this co-direction period.

Boulevard de Clichy as the circuit of Montmartre song

Georges Baltha's itinerary — Cabaret des Arts at no. 36, Cabaret des Quat'z'Arts at no. 62, La Lune Rousse at no. 36 then 58 rue Pigalle, scores published at no. 34 — maps the exact social geography of Montmartre song around the turn of the 19th-20th century. No. 34 boulevard de Clichy, in this geography, is not an artist's residence like Marre's studio 4 or Pottier's studio; it is a place of editorial production — the industrial backstage of a neighbourhood that, on its façade, displayed cabarets, café-concerts and lyric theatres.

This logic also clarifies the trajectory of other figures on the site. The Société d'éditions de la Lune Rousse did not publish Baltha alone: it issued the scores of Lucien Boyer, Vincent Hyspa, Marcel Legay, Xavier Privas, Numa Blès, Dominique Bonnaud — all chansonniers extended today by the dedicated entry on this site. Baltha's presence in the catalogue confirms the scale of the "34 and 36 boulevard de Clichy" collection as one of the most important publishing centres of Belle Époque Montmartre song.

Main works

• Chansons de Georges Baltha — collection published by the Société d'éditions de La Lune Rousse, 34 and 36 boulevard de Clichy, Paris. Holdings preserved at the Bibliothèques spécialisées de la Ville de Paris.
• Contributions to the collective revues of the Cabaret des Arts, Cabaret des Quat'z'Arts and La Lune Rousse — programmes and booklets distributed across the Montmartre cabaret network.

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