Cabarets of Death

Cabarets of Death, published by Strange Attractor Press with 180 pages and 112 pages of musical scores, documents three Montmartre cabaret restaurants operating between 1892 and 1954 that specialized in grotesque death-themed spectacles. These establishments—Cabaret Du Néant and others—captivated audiences with morbid visual displays, shocking illusions, nudity, and theatrical representations of Hell, Heaven, and the afterlife across specialized cuisines. Cultural historian Mel Gordon, known for scholarship on Grand Guignol theater and Weimar-era deviance, curates original period materials including postcards, menus, drawings, and journal illustrations documenting these controversial attractions. Co-editor Joanna Ebenstein, founder of the Morbid Anatomy project, contributes to this examination of transgressive popular spectacle. The book explores a now-vanished form of underground entertainment that merged theatrical transgression with visual transgression, representing distinctive European counter-cultural amusement practices rooted in fin-de-siècle decadence and interwar experimentation.

Published by Strange Attractor Press — AI-generated summary. Visit the publisher to learn more.