Eugénie Fougère

Eugénie Fougère (ca. 1865 - unknown) is the pseudonym of a French vaudeville and music hall singer based out of Paris and the United States. She was known for her eye-catching outfits, frisky movements, suggestive demeanor, and for her rendition of the popular "cakewalk dance," which in her own style included "negro" rhythms and paces.^[2] She should not be confounded with the frequenter of the French demi-monde also named Eugénie Fougère although the two knew each other, mixed in the same circles and even lived in the same street in Paris for a while.^[3][4]

Career

At the age of 15 she started her career at the Ambassadeurs in Paris.^[5] Fougère became a popular and excentric singer and dancer that performed in famous theatres, such as the Folies Bergère and L'Olympia.^[3][6] She became known for her "racially ambiguous" dancing techniques that she applied to ragtime and the popular "cake walk" dance of the time.^[2] A popular theorist of "negro dance," Andre Levinson, complied that it is impossible for Europeans to recreate the moves seen by African dance, and that is why the public is amazed by it.^[7]

While describing a revue at La Cigale near Place Pigalle in Paris, where she appeared in the costume of an American Negro, Rae Beth Gordon, a Professor in French literature, notes that "at least in this original fantasy, she told the journalist, 'I felt my old self again.' The incorporation of blackness by this white singer suggests that the motivations for adopting a black persona and the effects of such a masquerade went beyond the purposes of simple exploitation. Fougère felt more at home in a black body — or, at least, in a body ruled by black rhythms and movements — than she did in a white body deprived of the opportunity to express itself with no holding back." ^[1]

In the United States

The ‘audacious’ Fougère made her debut in the United States in 1893 at Broadway’s Koster and Bial's Music Hall in New York.^[8] She toured the States for many years, but her performance was often too ‘strong’ for the audience. She was hissed of the stage in Kansas City, for example. "The people think I'm — ah — what you say? Naught-ee?," she commented. "Ah. monsieur, they don't understand. They will learn. Ah, these Americans, they are just a little slow, but they all like 'the great Fougere' when they know her. But, o-o-ooh ! I'm all breathless, c'est terrible!"^[9]

She had a small history with The Boston Theatre, appearing on the evening of December 9, 1894 to sing and perform, with renown cornet player Allesandro Liberati appearing onstage later that night.^[10] The theatre would later introduce a summer vaudeville series under the management of one Nagib Hashim to last several months with the goal of boosting profits for the theatre. The series began on April 2, Eugénie appeared during the week of April 30, 1900 and five weeks after the premiere, the series closed.^[10]

While performing at the Salone Margherita a café-chantant in Naples (Italy) in 1902, she contacted Camorra boss Enrico Alfano to ask for help in returning some of her missing jewelry. Within a few days, Alfano tracked down the thieves and restored the jewelry. The case hit the newspapers and Alfano was arrested for complicity with the thieves, but was absolved.^[11]

Shoplifting

In May 1906, Fougère and her husband, the actor Albert Girod, were convicted of shoplifting a night dress, lingerie, and other items one particular night after leaving a London-based textile company, Lewis & Alleby's.^[12] She was performing at the Oxford Music Hall for a substantial salary and claimed she had forgotten to pay. The charges were dismissed on appeal.^[13]

In 1909, she reportedly made an appearance in Montreal to much shock and scandal because of the routines in her performance. A Montreal Gazette article the next day mentioned that, "Mademoiselle Eugenie Fougère, the French music hall actress, who was announced to appear at Bennett's as headliner during this week, made her first and last appearance at that theatre yesterday afternoon. Although such acts as she presented might be quite acceptable in the music halls of London and Paris, they certainly should have no place in the bill of any Montreal theatre." The manager of the theatre told Eugénie that she would not be allowed to appear again.^[14] According to Gordon she returned to stage in 1920 "after a long hiatus."^[1]

Legacy

Gordon notes that "The popularity of performers like Mlle de Tender and Eugénie Fougère was comparable to that of Elvis Presley a little more than half a century later."^[15] She was the inspiration for several noted dancers, actresses, and singers of the time to incorporate the "negro" and African style of dancing she used in their routines and shows. She was also one of the pioneer burlesque music hall and theatre performers.^[1]

She was mentioned by name in the classic Frank Wedekind tragedy Erdgeist (Earth Spirit). During act I, the character Lulu stated in response to a question about her dancing, "I learned in Paris. I took lessons from Eugenie Fougère. She let me copy her costumes too."^[16]

References

• (French) Bossy, Anne-Marie (2007). Les Grandes Affaires Criminelles de Savoie, Romagnat: Editions de Borée, ISBN 978-2-84494-503-7
• Gordon, Rae Beth (2009). Dances With Darwin, 1875-1910: Vernacular Modernity in France, Farnham: Ashgate Publishing, ISBN 978-0-7546-5243-4
• (Italian) Paliotti, Vittorio (2006). Storia della Camorra, Rome: Newton Compton editore, ISBN 88-541-0713-1

External links

• A performance of Eugénie Fougère, the famous Parisian chantuese in the rag-time cake-walk "Hello, Ma Baby," with which she made such a sensation at the New York Theatre from the U.S. Library of Congress.