Théâtre Robert-Houdin
Eager to solidify his work as a stage performer, he leased assembly rooms in the Palais-Royal and had them converted into a small but elegant proscenium theatre auditorium.
After a rocky start, his theatre gained critical respect, and boomed in popularity with the introduction of Robert-Houdin's mind-reading illusion "Second Sight".
In early 1852, Robert-Houdin transferred the theatre's directorship to his former pupil Hamilton (born Pierre Etienne Chocat), who continued its success.
In its new permanent location, the theatre continued to run for the next few decades, under directors including Cleverman (born François Lahire), Pierre Edouard Brunnet, and Émile Voisin.
A drastic refreshing of the theatre's repertoire in the mid-1870s gave it a major financial boost, with the added box-office takings allowing it to start hosting guest artists.
His first major innovation was to conclude each evening's entertainment with a spectacularly staged, lavishly advertised illusion, telling a miniature story complete with original scenery and costumed characters.
At the onset of the First World War, the theatre was closed; Méliès, now severely in debt from a series of filmmaking-related troubles, was unable to keep it going, and sublet it as a full-time cinema.
In the early 1840s, the innovative magician Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin was well-regarded, particularly for the mechanical curiosities he exhibited to audiences and sold to rich patrons.
[1] He was keen to expand his magical performances by opening his own venue, and a nobleman who had hired him for private parties, the Count de L'Escalopier, invested fifteen thousand francs into the project.
[4] The decorations were in the Style Louis XV, with white walls and gold trim, and Robert-Houdin's proscenium stage was set up as an elegant drawing-room, complete with candelabras and drapery.
[2] Robert-Houdin set himself apart from previous magic acts in his stage setting; while some other magicians had tried to dazzle with elaborate, purely ornamental props and lighting effects, and abundant use of tables covered with cloth to the floor, Robert-Houdin hoped to impress by sticking to the relatively simple Style Louis XV and limiting the furniture to the minimum needed for his act.
[10] Reviews in Le Charivari and L'Illustration were favourable, comparing the theatre's offerings to those of famous magicians like Bartolomeo Bosco and Philippe Talon.
[9] Once the theatre had won good business, Robert-Houdin closed it for the summer of 1846 to go on tour, bringing in new tricks for the fall season, including a levitation act,[12] "Ethereal Suspension".
[14] The new location turned the Théâtre Robert-Houdin into a boulevard theatre, one of the entertainment venues that flourished in Paris during and after the city's 1853–1870 urban renewal.
[16] The Théatre Robert-Houdin continued, with Hamilton being replaced first by François Lahire, who performed as Cleverman, and then by Pierre Edouard Brunnet, whose innovations included the locked-trunk escape artist act "Malle des Indes".
The additional funds allowed the theatre to begin hosting a wide variety of guest artists, including mimics, marionette puppeteers, and mental calculator acts.
[20] Méliès was a rising young magician who had performed at salons, at the Galerie Vivienne, and at the Musée Grévin; his father was a shoe manufacturer who had retired earlier in 1888, splitting up his fortune between his three sons.
[20] While his brothers Henri and Gaston took over the shoe business, Georges Méliès used his share of the money to rent the Théâtre Robert-Houdin from the site's owner, the Count de Rohan-Chabot.
Méliès also bought up the theatre's properties from the widow of Émile Robert-Houdin, the magician's son, and retained the whole staff, including performers like d'Alcy, from Voisin's directorship.
[17] He designed new scenery, had the walls repainted and the draperies replaced,[17] and worked with another magician, Duperrey, to plan a performance repertoire with original material.
[23] Illusions were accompanied by piano improvisation; he mentions nine Robert-Houdin pianists in his written recollections, including the composer Caroline Chelu.
[33] Tom Old Boot (1896) captures a performance by a small entertainer of the same name, who was playing at the Robert-Houdin at the time as a "nain americain" ("American dwarf").
[34] The Living Playing Cards (1905) was inspired by an act performed at the Robert-Houdin by Gaston Velle, who would himself later become a director of Méliès-like trick films for Pathé Frères.
Several prominent Paris magicians presented illusions, and Méliès performed with one of Robert-Houdin's original automatons, "Antonio Diavolo".
