THE MOULIN ROUGE
Location: Considered the center for nighttime entertainment and a worthy destination for wealthy vacationers, the Moulin Rouge is situated in the red-light district of Pigalle on Boulevard de Clichy in the 18th Arrondissement near Montmartre Hill in Paris, France.
Description of Place: The Moulin Rouge has had varied looks over the years, but the elaborate cabaret and nightclub structure has been somewhat distinctive in its existence. With a front courtyard and windmill front, the elaborate theatre and dance hall is one of the most featured locations in Paris and a prime Parisian attraction. Two stories high and flanked tightly by two three-story structures, it is recognized by the large red imitation windmill on the roof. ("Moulin Rouge" translates to English as "red mill.") Over the past hundred years, is has remained a popular tourist destination, offering musical dance entertainment for adult visitors from around the world, inspiring and attracted attention in paintings and the motion pictures.
Ghostly Manifestations: Beyond the intense dances and shows that fill and echo the halls of the famous landmark, it would be hard to believe that even in this location that there just might be a ghost left over from the structure's existence as a cabaret. She has not been seen or felt since 1943, and a full serious investigation is not allowed if not possible. The only source to confirm that the ghost exists or once existed comes from the papers of paranormal researcher Plato Zorba who read about it from the diary of Lili Deneuve, found in a trunk once belonging to alleged former owner Harold Zidler.
In 1900, Zidler had lost custody of the Moulin Rouge to the Duke of Monrouth, a rather obscure but despicable character otherwise erased from history through the passage of time. Zidler had owned the cabaret in the days that Toulouse-Lautrec frequented the locale while dabbling into the vices and fetishes of mankind. The consequences of why Zidler lost his beloved cabaret are buried in the mists of time, but from 1900 to 1913, the temporarily silenced cabaret was the scene of a few incidents of an otherworldly nature. Deneuve had been one of Zidler's dancers and she secretly lived here in the otherwise empty structure after the shows stopped, but while she lived here, she kept a written record of occurrences that made her believe the structure was haunted.
In her written musings, Lili referred to the ghost as Satine; sometimes writing of her in the present tense as if she were still alive and communicating. While she lived in the closed cabaret, she described sounds of music playing in the structure late into the evening. She'd hear voices whispering close to her and following her through the empty and deserted halls. The fleeting figure of a shadow was hiding in the shadows, rushing past doorways and vanishing into sealed rooms. Another dancer sneaking into the closed Moulin claimed she pushed open a door and was confronted by Satine standing before her, her skin a pale white, her long red hair more brilliant than in life and her blue eyes brighter than ever. She screamed in sight at the surprise of the image of her, turned and ran down the corridor and then stopped and looked back, but she had vanished without a sound.
Satine's fans who were unaware of her death reportedly saw her peering out from the windows of the Moulin. She would come to the empty windows and stand looking out as if trapped in thought, and if she was discovered, she'd drift back from the window without saying a word or another movement. Eventually, as rumors and stories passed around, people started realizing that Satine was long gone and barely anyone saw her looking out from the Moulin. In her last mention of the ghost, Lili writes she was entering into the deserted dance hall through a secret underground entrance beneath the street with several other of the old Moulin dancers. Accompanied by a retinue of friends and former Moulin associates, they were coming up to the main floor and were advancing upon the old dressing rooms when they became aware of a tall figure gliding along the upstairs balcony. In life, Satine had been five-feet, ten-inches tall and this scantily clad red-haired beauty was easily over six feet tall, but as Lili and this crowd of witnesses watched, they realized that this figure was floating at least a foot off the upstairs floor!
Considering this is the last mention of Satine's apparition in Lili's diary, it is a reasonable guess she stopped living in the Moulin and fled the location to never return. It should be noted, though, that beyond the Deneuve letters, there is no historical evidence validating the existence of anyone named Satine much less her ghost haunting the Moulin. However, there is an independent German document found in Heidelberg by Zorba which directed him to the location of the Deneuve diary.
The document was written by Nazi officer Erich Harold Lutz, adjutant to the office of General Albert Burkhalter of the Luftwaffe. In 1943, during the Nazi occupation of Paris, a gathering of German officers had seized the Moulin Rouge as a strategic post and temporary base. during their war-planning, they were constantly sending guards to inspect creaking floorboards and the image of a woman lurking through the structure. As to why the generals soon vacated the deserted theatre, Lutz only makes the note that "it was a matter of security. Apparently there is a presence here that is not intimidated by the strength of the German armies."
History: The Moulin Rouge was built in 1889 by Joseph Oller, the owner of the Paris Olympia. Publicly, it has been a dance hall ever since, but there is no record of anyone named Harold Zidler of ever having owned the place, except for the Deneuve diaries. He might have been a floor manager or a employee in some extent, but this is not for certain. Zidler reportedly gave several homeless girls a home here, adopting them as would-be daughters, and making them part of his show, later turning a blind eye to their backstage chicanery. During this time, the Moulin became the center of the Bohemian sub-culture, as male guests explored every vice from sex to love and substance-abuse. Playwright James Edward Christian in his auto-biographical novel comments that during his visits that the Moulin Rouge was "a dance hall where the dancers and courtesans participated in every decadent relationship possible with their customers behind closed doors, engaging in every fetish possible." With this sort of whorehouse mentality, it is no wonder that all traces of this period in the Moulin Rouge's existence would be erased from existence. Publicly, none of these events ever happened.
Identity of Ghosts: The disappearance of Harold Zidler in 1903 prevents identification of the dancer known only as Satine, but one of her peers thought she had family in Southern England. Nobody knows how she died, but going by his novel, Christian was very much in love with her up to her death. Although he is vague on the details of her demise, theoretical conclusions from her symptoms suggest it may have been consumption (tuberculosis).
Source/Comments: Moulin Rouge (2001) Phenomenon based on Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee and the Lambert-Winters House in Greencastle, Indiana.
Nazi officer Erich Harold Lutz and General Albert Burkhalter from Hogan's Heroes (1965-1971)
Moulin Rouge non-fictional data and facts from Wikipedia.