Barry Alan Richmond (born c. 1933),[1] a stage actor/director,[2][3][4] theatrical designer,[5][6] author of articles on the Grand Guignol,[7] proclaimed the Most Serene Federal Republic of Montmartre's existence and borders c. 1965[8] (mostly within Manhattan's Theatre District, "roughly 39th to 59th Street with a strip up the Hudson River to where the boat basin is, and from the middle of Fifth Avenue over to what international laws call the thalweg, which is the navigable channel in the middle of the Hudson River")[8][5]... but set its origin at 1636.

To some extent this may have been a piece of performance art in itself;[9] but it exchanged mutual recognition with other such small organizations (micronations and governments-in-exile), and was acknowledged by the International Micropatrological Society.

[12] On June 24, 1977, a New York Public Service Commission hearing was held in the World Trade Center's South Tower to resolve a dispute between Richmond and New York Telephone (NYTel), concerning the "Montmartre Govt Of" listing in the blue-pages (government) section of the phone book, as depicted to the right.

[16][17][18] In a January 2001 article for the Financial Times, Mark Wallace reported that Richmond was focusing on a revival of the Grand Guignol (a grotesque theatre style from the original Montmartre in Paris), to which he then held the rights.

[1][19][20] The project was to be funded by selling Richmond's extensive collection of theatre and movie memorabilia, including original film programs, e.g. from Star Wars and Gone with the Wind.