Louise Weber was a French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 can-can

Can-can

The can-can is a high-energy and physically demanding music hall dance, traditionally performed by a chorus line of female dancers who wear costumes with long skirts, petticoats, and black stockings...

 dancer who performed under the stage name

Stage name

A stage name, also called a showbiz name or screen name, is a pseudonym used by performers and entertainers such as actors, wrestlers, comedians, and musicians.-Motivation to use a stage name:...

 of La Goulue ("the glutton"). She also was referred to as the Queen of Montmartre.

Childhood

Very little is known about her early childhood, but it is believed that Louise Weber was born into a Jewish family from Alsace

Alsace

Alsace is the fifth-smallest of the 27 regions of France in land area , and the smallest in metropolitan France. It is also the seventh-most densely populated region in France and third most densely populated region in metropolitan France, with ca. 220 inhabitants per km²...

 that eventually moved to Clichy

Clichy, Hauts-de-Seine

-Administration:The canton covers a part of the commune; the other is in the northern part of Levallois-Perret-Twinnings: Heidenheim, Germany, since 1959 Sankt Pölten, Austria, since 1968 Santo Tirso, Portugal, since 1991 Rubí, Spain, since 2005 Southwark, United Kingdom, since 2005Clichy has also...

, near Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

. Her mother worked in a laundry. As an impoverished young girl who loved to dance, Weber is said to have enjoyed dressing up in laundry customers' expensive clothing and pretending to be a glamorous star on a great stage. At age 16, she was working with her mother in the laundry, but behind her mother's back began sneaking off to a dance hall dressed in one of their customer's "borrowed" dresses.

Early career

Dancing at small clubs around Paris, Louise Weber quickly became a popular personality, liked for both her dancing skills and her charming audacious behavior. In her routine, she teased the male audience by swirling her raised dress to reveal the heart embroidered on her panties and would do a high kick while flipping off a man's hat with her toe. Because of her frequent habit of picking up a customer's glass and quickly downing its contents while dancing past their table, she was affectionately nicknamed "La Goulue" (The Glutton). Eventually she met the Montmartre

Montmartre

Montmartre is a hill which is 130 metres high, giving its name to the surrounding district, in the north of Paris in the 18th arrondissement, a part of the Right Bank. Montmartre is primarily known for the white-domed Basilica of the Sacré Cœur on its summit and as a nightclub district...

 painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Pierre-Auguste Renoir was a French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty, and especially feminine sensuality, it has been said that "Renoir is the final representative of a tradition which runs directly from Rubens to...

 who introduced her to a group of models who earned extra money posing for the community's artists and photographers. Achille Delmaet, husband of Marie Juliette Louvet

Marie Juliette Louvet

Marie Juliette Louvet was the mistress of the then unmarried Prince Louis II of Monaco and was the mother of his only child, Princess Charlotte of Monaco....

, would later find fame as the photographer who had taken many nude photographs of La Goulue.

Star of the Moulin Rouge

Louise Weber was taken under the wing of Jacques Renaudin (1843–1907), a wine merchant who danced in his spare time under the stage name

Stage name

A stage name, also called a showbiz name or screen name, is a pseudonym used by performers and entertainers such as actors, wrestlers, comedians, and musicians.-Motivation to use a stage name:...

 "Valentin le Désossé". They danced at the renowned Moulin Rouge

Moulin Rouge

Moulin Rouge is a cabaret built in 1889 by Joseph Oller, who also owned the Paris Olympia. Close to Montmartre in the Paris district of Pigalle on Boulevard de Clichy in the 18th arrondissement, it is marked by the red windmill on its roof. The closest métro station is Blanche.The Moulin Rouge is...

 in Montmartre when it first opened, performing an early form of the Cancan known as the "chahut." The two were instant stars, but it was Weber who stole the show with her outrageously captivating conduct. Booked as a permanent headliner, La Goulue became synonymous with the Cancan and the Moulin Rouge nightclub. The toast of Paris and the highest paid entertainer of her day, she became one of the favorite subjects for Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa or simply Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec was a French painter, printmaker, draughtsman, and illustrator, whose immersion in the colourful and theatrical life of fin de siècle Paris yielded an œuvre of exciting, elegant and provocative images of the modern...

, immortalized by his portraits and posters of her dancing at the Moulin Rouge.

Decline

Having achieved both fame and fortune, in 1895 Weber decided to part company with the Moulin Rouge and strike out on her own. She invested a considerable amount of money into a show that traveled the country as part of a large fair; but her fans who had lined up to buy tickets at the Moulin Rouge did not take to the new setting, and her business venture turned into a dismal failure. Following the closure of her show, La Goulue disappeared from the public eye. Suffering from depression, she drank heavily and dissipated the small fortune she had accrued while dancing.

Alcoholic and destitute, La Goulue returned to Montmartre in 1928. Selling peanuts, cigarettes, and matches on a street corner near the Moulin Rouge, no one recognized the severely overweight and haggard former Queen of Montmartre. She died a year later and was buried in the Cimetière de Pantin

Cimetière de Pantin

The Cimetière de Pantin in the town of Pantin in the suburbs of Paris, France opened on November 15, 1886 and is the largest cemetery in the city, occupying 1.07 km². Located in the north-eastern section of the city, Pantin is a garden style burial grounds with more than 8,000 trees and streets...

 in the Paris suburb of Pantin

Pantin

Pantin is a commune in the northeastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris. It is one of the most densely populated municipalities in Europe. Its post code is 93500.Pantin was once the site of Motobecane's operations...

, but later her remains were transferred to the Cimetière de Montmartre.