The main attraction in it was not in the richly decorated rooms with air conditioning[3] and nickel-plated beds, but in the dance bar on the first floor, where you could also make a haircut or a pedicure.

Well-known journalists: Albert Londres, André Salmon, Pierre Bénard, Georges Simenon and Brewford transformed the "house" into a branch of their offices.

The decoration, more flashy and tasteless than the interiors of Sacré Coeur, light, half-naked women in their airy multi-colored tunics, all seemed much more decent than idiotic pictures and parks with entertainment institutions that Rimbaud liked so much."

A few months before the Wall Street crash and the beginning of the Great Depression, she sold the bar, which gave her start-up capital to start a new business.

Moving to Paris, Madame Martuna decided not to convert an existing building to a brothel, as was done by the owners of "One Two Two" and "Le Chabanais", and built a new five-story mansion in the Art Nouveau style, decorating its facade with a gypsum mask of the Sphinx, from which institution and got its name.

The absence of trouble with the law was guaranteed by the secret protection of the Préfet de police Jean Chiappe and Minister Albert Sarraut.

[3] The public were informed that the bar is located on the site of the former workshop of the cemetery masons, and is connected by an underground passage to the famous Parisian catacombs.

Eva Braun and her friends were reported to have visited Le Sphinx, and Hitler supposedly ate in the brothel's restaurant in June 1940.

La Brigade Mondaine (National Police Department responsible for the surveillance of prostitution) monitored "Le Spinx" during the 1930s.

Snapshots of the hygiene record drawn up during a health check on November 10, 1936, show that the house employs 5 sub-mistresses and 65 boarders in fancy outfits.

The house opened from 3 pm to 5 am, with 3 passes per woman per day during the week, 2 on Sunday, for a single rate of 30 francs plus tip.

I took them first to a cellar near Notre Dame frequented by gangsters and their molls where I knew the proprietor, and he made room for us at a long table at which were sitting some very disreputable people, but I ordered wine for all of them and we drank to one another's healths.