June 24 was the birthday of dancer/choreographer/impresario Margaret Kelly (1910-2004); June 20 was the opening day in 1946 of the Paris venue she was long associated with, Le Lido.
Four nations can each possess a grateful claim on Kelly: Ireland, where she was born and spent her first six years; the U.K., where she spent the rest of her childhood, began her professional career, and was made an O.B.E.; France, where she moved in 1930 and spent the rest of her life; and the USA, where touring versions of her productions were hugely influential. She also lived and worked in Germany for five years, though the identification is much less strong in that case.
Born in Dublin, Kelly left her native land with her adopted mother in 1916 at the time of the Easter Uprising and settled in Liverpool. She was initially enrolled in childhood dance classes to fortify her weak and spindly legs, but her obvious gifts suggested something on the order of a true calling. At fourteen, she joined the Hot Jocks, a Scottish dance troupe. In less than a year she was able to parlay that experience into a job as one of The Jackson Girls at the Scala in Berlin, a gig that lasted five years.
In 1930 she was hired for the chorus at the Folies Bergere. She formed her own troupe, The Bluebell Girls only two years later. (Kelly's nickname had been Miss Bluebell since childhood). She was to marry one of the club's musical staff, Marcel Leibovici (1904–1961) at the end of the decade. Leibovici was a Romanian Jew. The couple had been married only a few months when the Nazis invaded Paris. As a foreigner and the spouse of a Jew, Kelly was detained by the authorities for a time and finally released through the intercession of the Irish government. As for Leibovici, he hid out for months, with Kelly looking after him, feeding him, keeping his whereabouts secret. This story became the basis of the 1980 Trauffaut film The Last Metro with Catherine Deneuve and Gérard Depardieu.
In 1946, just about a year after the end of the war, Le Lido was born on the Champs-Élysées. Shortly after its opening, in collaboration with American choreographer Donn Arden, Kelly brought her Bluebell Girls there as the floor show. Each year they would premiere a new revue, featuring the tall, statuesque, sequined, feathered Bluebell Girls, as well as singers, comedians, acrobats, magicians, and quirky features such as water ballets. These shows were so successful that, starting in the 1950s, versions of the show became a staple of Las Vegas casinos like the Desert Inn, The Stardust, Bally's, and the MGM Grand. The aesthetic of the show -- and of her showgirls -- was widely emulated, and remains a cherished feature of Las Vegas entertainment culture to this day.
In 1986 George Perry published Bluebell: The Authorized Biography of Margaret Kelly, Founder of the Legendary Bluebell Girls. That same year, it was adapted into a BBC mini-series starring Carolyn Pickles (niece of Christina Pickles from St. Elsewhere) as Kelly.
Sadly, in 2021, corporate interests purchased the original Lido in Paris, which had hosted such legendary entertainers as Edith Piaf, Maurice Chevalier, Josephine Baker, Eartha Kitt, Marlene Dietrich, et al. In 2022, they discontinued the famous floor show (which had been carried on by others since Kelly's retirement in 1986) and replaced it with touring productions of musicals and the like. Instead of America emulating the class, elegance, and tradition of Paris, we now have Paris echoing the bloodless, unsentimental, profit-making mentality of America. I'd rather import jewels than export junk, but to use a handy casino metaphor, the die is cast.
The University of Nevada, Las Vegas has a Margaret Kelly/ Bluebill Girls collection in their archives, accessible here. She is also represented in their Showgirls collection here.
For more on the history of show business, consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous,
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