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ACAST powers the world's best podcasts. Here's a show that we recommend. This area was sort of a shark tank for predators. Not just the Green River Killer, but others in who Took Misty Copsey? I'm investigating the disappearance of a 14 year old girl who vanished from the Washington State Fair in 1992. How? Why? She was so sweet and so young. What happened to her? Listen to who Took Misty Copsey? Wherever you get your podcasts, ACAST helps creators launch, grow and monetize their podcasts everywhere. Acast.com hello delicious friends, and welcome to who did what Now? The history podcast. That's not your history class. With me, your host, Katie Charlwood, history harlot and reader of books. And my, oh my delicious friends. Will we be leaning into the history harlot this month? I should probably slip into some context here. So I know I've got a lot of new listeners that have come from the concentration camp series. Now, the Oldies and Goldies, they've been here. They, they know this at this point because I talk about it at least once a year. So I have been making social media content as long as I've had the podcast. So I have been making history content to go along with and run parallel to the podcast since. Since its inception. Right. The whole point was it was going to promote the podcast and then it just kind of turned into its own thing. So. So it grew legs and ran. So I, I have been doing that and I've been educating online for five years, give or take. And I have breasts. Oh, no, that's, that's the problem. The problem is I, I have, I have breasts. Right. That is the issue. The amount of men. It's mainly men, some women that get enraged. Some might even go as far as to say livid that I have a fulsome bosom and that I don't work to hide it. Now it's become such a thing. And so people would complain that I couldn't have like a sweet, sweet rack and also a brain, allegedly. And so what would happen was as people would complain about how I dressed, and I am fueled by spite. Like on a scale of zero to Olga of Kyiv, how vengeful are you? Okay, I am a solid Catherine de Medici. Like I, I will play the long game and I will come at you. But I, it, it's, it's there. It's there. It's always there. And so fueled by spite. And so people would complain about how I dressed, whether I was wearing something that was, I don't know form fitting or, or had like the tiniest whisper of a hint of cleavage. And so I would then wear something that was slightly smuttier every video I'm like, I once, I once had a guy complain that all of my videos showed boob, right? And this was back when I only had like 100 or so videos up on Instagram. And I went back through like the last 75 and it was like 59 of them. It was like 59 or 61. It was like that kind of ratio. Ratio is the wrong word. But yeah, it was 59 or 61. I was covered up like I was wearing T shirts, I was wearing high neck jumpers, I was wearing blouses buttoned all the way up like I was covered right? And it was only the remainder that I was showing cleavage in. And apparently the algorithm knows. And so that's what he was focusing on cuz he never went to my page and never looked at all the other ones. And so anyway, haha, pear bear. So what happened was, is people started calling me a whore for how I was dressing. And here's the thing, nothing was that scandalous. I've never worn anything that scandalous in a video, like never ever. And I would be called a whore. And I was like, how dare you? I am not a whore, I am a harlot. And so the history harlot was born out of alliteration and spite. And there we are. But anyway, I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, Katie, quit your jibber jabber and fact me and fact you I will. But first we've got to get our source on our sources are Paris, La Belle Epoque by Richard Wyers dawn of the Belle Epoque the Paris of Monet, Zola, Bernard Ivel, Debussy, Clemenceau and Their friends by Mary McAuliffe the Belle Epoque A Cultural History Paris and Beyond by Dominique Khalifa Lian de Bougie Gordesan Princesse Esseintes by Jean Chalon. We have a series of love letters from Latley, Barney, Clifford and Leanne de Puget. We also have Women Lovers of the Third Women by Natalie Clifford, Barney My Bleu Notebooks, the Memoirs of Leanne de Bruges Sartorial Obsessions, Beardsley and Masquerade by Lorraine Jansen Cuista the Evolution of the French Courtesan Novel from de Chabillon to Colette by Courtney Sullivan Pretty Things by Les Goodwin La Belle Otero by Arthur J. Lewis Eros in La Belle Epoch by Patrick Wahlberg Seductress Women who Ravish the World and Their Lost Art of Love by Elizabeth Proulon. The Book of A Catalogue of Their Virtues by Susan Griffin. The Mistress of Paris, the 19th century courtesan who Built an Empire on a Secret by Catherine Hewitt. And of course, we have our old favourites, biography.com and history.com. are you sitting comfortably? Good. Then let's begin. So, given the heaviness of last month's topic, I wanted to slip into something a little lighter. And what better to share than my love of burlesque? Like, I love, love burlesque, I'm obsessed with burlesque. It is one of those periods of time where it's just. It's beautiful and it's amazing and there's a misrepresentation of what it is or what it was. And I feel like there's such disrespect to this art form. Like, if you've ever seen a Las Vegas showgirl perform, like that is. That is amazing. It is beauty, it is humor, it is everything. Like, one of my favorite performers, her name is Charlie Quinn Starling and I saw her on TikTok and she was one of the ostriches from Fantasia. And that, to me, that is the perfect burlesque thing I have ever seen. It is amazing. And so here's the thing. I am an old time, old loving burlesque girlie and I thought if Taylor Swift is going to go full showgirl, then at the least I can do is try to provide a full portrayal of these fabulous and interesting women, right? The majority of the performers were women. There will be some men that we will mention, like throughout the series, but predominantly these amazing women. And before, before we get into the story, right, we. Because I want to do it justice, right? I want to do these people justice. Everything I ever do is about providing, you know, a well rounded, like, fully informed story. Because that history is. Is people. It's not machines and guns and buildings and they're. The buildings are pretty, let's not lie. But people are what make history and it's a disservice to not treat them appropriately. So I need to give you the background, I need to give you the context, but I am going to go cliff note style because I'm going to go deeper into this in other times. So the burlesque scene really originates in France, born out of yet another upheaval in the country. So the second French Empire had collapsed. The country had survived the Franco Prussian War when powers ate a zoo, and the Third French Republic was Established. And burlesque, it was born as an alternative to theater of the bourgeoisie. I mean, burlesque does come from the Latin word burlar. Burlier. B, U, R, L, A, R, E, I. I don't speak Latin. I don't know how the language Alphabet works really. So burlar, it means to laugh, and that is where burlesque comes from. And it. It mixed high and low brow humor, and it was a somewhat accessible feast for the eyes. So during La Belle Epoch, which was the beautiful era. I'm going to apologize for my French pronunciations and my French accent now, but you are gonna have to suffer through it again. Listen. The Germans had to listen to me say words in the last four things I did. And, yeah, they were more considerate than I expected. I don't expect much from the French. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. 70% of the French people I've met have not been terrible. I'm gonna get in so much trouble for this episode. Why did she hate the French? I don't. I'm going to Paris at the end of September with work, like, as my day job. So I'm gonna be. I'm gonna be there. Okay. I love. I love it. I'm trying to convince my boss to go to the Moulin Rouge. I'm like, it'll be fun. Anyway, during La Belle Epoque, the beautiful era, which is from about 1871 to 1914, between wars. So you're between the Franco Prussian War and the Great War, which would go on to become World War I. And this is a time, you know, to quote the movie, Moulin Rouge was a period of freedom, beauty, truth and love. You've got enlightenment, romanticism, innovation, colonialism, because why are we surprised? And the explosion of art and creativity. Now I can talk about all of the beauty and amazing, fabulous, wonderful stuff that happened during this era. However, it would be another disservice if I didn't mention just the impact of colonialism on. On this whole time period, because it seeps in to all of these aspects. And I'll probably touch on that more in another episode, I think. So, yes. You have the Folies Bergere, the first legitimate music hall in Paris. It opened in 1869, showing a variety of acts from trapeze artists, ballets, singers, one act plays, operettas, and even vaudeville acts. And many of the great courtesans of the era. They had careers as performers at the Folies Bergeres with their acts designed to accentuate their talents and this was a form of legitimacy for many courtesans because, you know, it was seen as, this is what they're doing, this is what they're performing. And this ensured them also a long line of admirers because freedom, beauty, truth and love. They're obsessed with the beauty, they're obsessed with attainment, you know, keeping up with the Joneses. And they want the beautiful women on the stage, you know, And Leon de Bougie was one such demi mondaine, and she was a courtesan. And I chose Lian because she's one of the earliest performers and she hits my personal trifecta of gun, guns and girls, girls, girls. So again, listeners of this podcast will know that I've done this. I talk about it all the time. So when I was in la, I was told about the whole thing about the three billboards in America, which are gang guns and girls, girls, girls. And I managed to come across the only guns billboard in all of la. Right? I saw it, I saw guns, I saw a billboard about God, but I did not see one for girls, girls, girls. And I'm mad about it. I want to see a girl. I want to see the God, guns and girls, girls, girls. Like, I feel like that would be the American experience anyway. Liane de Puget. She was born Anne Marie Chassaigne in La Fleche Sarthe, in the west of France on 2 July, 1869, to Pierre Blaise, Georgine Chassin and Amy Lopez, because her mother had the decency to have a shorter name, or at least they didn't write it down. So her dad was like, Frenchy French and her mum was Spanish French, hence Lopez. So she was the second child to the couple. She had an older brother, also named Pierre, because men can't help but name people after them. France during this period is still fairly Catholic. Now, it used to be super Catholic, but it had toned down just a wee bit. And like most French girls, she was sent to a nunnery to be educated. And at this convent school, she learned manners or etiquette. Reading, praying, writing, praying, the devotion of saints, and, of course, praying. Clearly, the convent life wasn't as sheltered as they hoped because she becomes pregnant at 16.
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At the age of 16, young Anne Marie elopes with the father of her fetus, the naval officer Joseph Armand Henri Purpet. Everyone's got such long names here. Their son, Marc Marie Edmond Armand Perp was born on the 17th of May 1887. And I mean, you could say at least he married her. At least he was decent enough to do that. Well, let's hold that applause for just a wee second. So she didn't quite take to motherhood. Her maternal instinct was about as sharp as a brick. And like in her notebooks, like her diary, she straight up admitted to being a crappy mum. She even said that she wished she had a girl so she could like dress her up in little gowns and curl her hair and that it was light Gaving like a living doll to a child because, I mean, she grew up in a convent. It's fairly sheltered. And then there's this navel dude and you know, hormones and next thing you know, there you go, there's a baby. And her husband, not great either. A misogynist in the past, groundbreaking. He was violent and abusive and she had a scar on her chest from one of his beatings, a scar that was so prominent that it was clearly seen throughout her life. He even assaulted her on their wedding night. In her diary, she wrote that he took her violently. But we know that that means rape. Like the words, the manner in which events are phrased is very, very important because the correct terminology, I think, is very important when it comes to. Comes to talking about events in history and in life. Because if you're using the right terminology, it is difficult to misinterpret. That being said, as a neurodivergent person, sometimes it doesn't matter how eloquently or accurately you describe something, there will always be someone twisting it and viewing it a different way, you know. So when Armand's naval career took him to Marseille, his wife took a lover, Charles Marie de Maron v Mar of Eiguillet. Anyone who doesn't speak French, or even people who speak French are just like, what are those sounds coming out of her mouth? She can do the G sound. But eh, yeah, I'm sorry, this is my official apology to France Armand. He arrives home one Day unexpectedly and finds his wife and her lover in bed together. And completely not overreacting in any way whatsoever. He shoots her with his revolver. The end. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. Could you imagine if I was like, oh, 20 minutes in, story done. No, no, no, no. Now, I don't know what position they were in, like the. The lovers, but whatever angle they were at, he ends up like Armand. He ends up shooting Anne Marie. And the thigh, right? He ends up winding her. Well, I say that I have read two versions of this story. One is that he managed to wound her thigh. The other is that he wounded her wrist. Now, here's the thing. Logically. Logically, my brain goes, well, surely the thigh has more fleshy bits and could take, like, a bullet one way, like grazing or going through sort of like some soft parts. And that makes more sense to me other than the wrist, because, like, bones, man, there's more likely to get. You know, I just feel like the wrist is more likely to get hurt, you know, or damage to the point of not being able to use it. And there are allegedly. There's an allegedly that she would show the scar on her thigh to her favorite lovers. Now, that's. I mean, maybe she did, maybe she didn't, but I like that story better. So this, you know, wounding is the last straw. She says, fuck this for a game of soldiers and decides to leave her husband. So she sells a Rosewood piano for 400 francs to some dude who was willing to give her 400 francs, and she gets the heck out of dodge. She leaves their infant son with Ammand, as this is the past and legally he is under the guardianship of his father, right? Even if she was a good mum, even if she was the best mum in the world and filled to the brim of motherly love, right? She would not have a chance because if she left with that infant, then Armand could basically do her for kidnapping, right? Because he owned the baby, right? So he gets the baby, whom he swiftly sends to his parents in the sewers. He's like, I'm not gonna deal with a child. No. See, France, it was actually fairly progressive, like, for the time period. So women had acquired very, very recently. Like, this is a very new turn of events. They had acquired the right to a bank account in their own name, not their husbands. The right to own property and the right to divorce. Right? Again, this is all very, very new, right? This is a very new thing that's happened. And unlike other countries, Britain, unlike other countries in the area, like this wasn't a thing. I mean, I'm fairly certain Italy didn't have it at this point because I feel like that's like even more religious than France. But I'd have to look it up actually. So it's still a fairly conservative country because you know, all of the Catholicism. But she managed to get her divorce, I'm gonna assume because of the whole adultery thing. And so, you know, well, how else would I get this ser. In my thigh? So she gets the train to Paris, a hotbed of creativity and debauchery there in their demimonde, the sort of half world, right? What is demi mond? It means half world, right? So it stretches from Montmartre to the Place Madeline. It's filled with cabaret halls, restaurants, bars and smoky cafes. So anyone who was born in the 90s, I should probably tell you, people used to smoke in restaurants. Smoking is when tobacco is wrapped up in paper and people light it to inhale the smoke of the burning leaves. My kids don't know what smoking is. Like they've never seen it. Like they know what vaping is because they've seen it, but they've never seen. I don't think anybody in real life smoke a cigarette. So I'm trying to watch old timey movies and they're like, why is that baby holding a cigar? You know what? Because he's stressed, guys, he's stressed. Anyway, so you have this, this, this place where worlds collided. La belle epoch Paris. The novoriche, the bourgeoisie, the bohemians, the artists, patrons and the courtesans. Rich men, kept women. They showered them with jewels, couture clothes and champagne dinners. And it is here where 18 year old Anne Marie finds herself. She lands in gay Paris and lodges with a friend in the rue de Chazelle, which is in the demimonde, which it's just this like explosion of just art and performance and literature. It's just this amazing place. And her apartment was opposite that of Madame Barty, a celebrated courtesans. And like courtesans for the record, weren't just smoking hot babes. They were of course stunning and, and especially stunning for the era because our modern perception of beauty, the iPhone face, that's. That's a modern thing. But anyway, they also had to be able to move within the circles of the thinkers, the poets, the artists and be able to hold their own. Like you were shown off, right? And I think this is where part of my obsession of courtesans has come from. Ever since I learned about them after watch the movie Moulin Rouge and then obsessively hyper fixated on turn of the century Paris. Anywho, they were celebrated. And like, I have never had. Sidebar. I have never had a romantic partner, like, celebrate me. Like, not publicly in any way. Like, it's never happened. It's always been like, I don't know, I don't want to say shameful. Like, I know I'm a lot, I know I'm a lot, but I've never had someone be like, wow, this is my person. Aren't they amazing? Even though that's what I'm like when I really like someone, because obviously they are amazing, otherwise why would I like them? You know what I mean? Anyway, and like, that is the bar I hold people to because, like, my friends do that. Like, I have never had a romantic partner post me on their Instagram with as much joy or love as any of my friends have. Like, and that, that says a lot about who I date. But anyway, back to the courtesans who are not hidden away. And that is what Anne Marie, what she sees when she reaches Paris. The elegant woman draped in high fashion and fancy jewelry, leaving her home via a beautiful carriage and living a life of luxury, heading out to operas and dinners and all that jazz. And she's watching her and she's like, I mean, she wants it. She's 18 and she's not poor poor because, you know, she's come from a fairly decent life, but she wants the good life. She knew that she wanted to be one of the demimandanes, the women of the underworld. Yes, that's what they call them, which are mainly actresses and courtesans. Now. There is a fine line between the two, and it's one of the reasons why being on the stage was kind of seen as being less reputable and sometimes seedy. So ballet performers, dancers, singers, actors, it was all kind of seen as kind of, oh, in order to get by in this life, you have to be kept, you have to be paid for and mate. Isn't that what marriage was back in the day? Like, it's the same thing. Don't, don't get mad at one, except one has more security than the other. Right? If you really wanted to be a demi mondaine, you needed charm and intelligence. And, oh, did this woman radiate joy. And this is when she transformed from Anne Marie Perpet to Liane de Puget. She cluttered. She was sort of androgynous, like, in her style, which was emerging at the time. It was this sort of more fluid, sort of idea, as opposed to the stiff, rigid. I want to say. I don't want to say Edwardian, because we're in Paris, but you know what I mean, The Victorian sort of stiffness. And she was sort of. Yeah, she was androgynous, but that didn't stop her wearing jewels. Now, it wouldn't be like what we would term as androgynous today. It was more of a pushback towards traditional femininity. So it's one of those things where when you see someone described as more masculine in the past in their attire, like, they wouldn't be wearing men's clothes. They would be wearing a men. A men's cut, like the way the collar was cut. It would be a different style to what women would traditionally be wearing, but it wouldn't be men's clothing. And a lot of period dramas, you know, they don't think. I don't. I don't know whether they don't think that will translate or they're just too lazy or cheap to do that in their costuming, but give costumers stuff to work with guys anyway. She was smart. She knew how to budget and manage her finances. She knew how to smooze and hobnob, and she knew how to draw a crowd. Well, she would learn. She didn't start off being good. She was under the teaching, the tutelage, if you will, of Countess Baptiste de la Bignier, the premier courtesan of Paris. She learned the ropes and made a name for herself. Like Liane. Actually, when she changes her name, she gets it from one of her lovers, who was either a Comte or the Vicomte de Pourget. And so she's like, I will be Leanne de Proget. And nobody stopped her, which is amazing. So she only goes up from here. But courtesans are really fascinating, like, when you take the core concept of it right, Men absolutely bankrupting themselves for the chance, the chance to shag a beautiful woman. Because a lot of the time they're literally paying for them to, you know, have a drink with them, to converse, you know, like, the way the etiquette was at the time. Like, there was no guarantee that your diamonds and your jewels were going to get her into your bed. The diamonds and the jewels were going to be a stepping stone because you're given diamonds and jewels, and so is the vagant down the street, and so is the owner of all of these factories. And, you know, you have all of these men vying for these beautiful women's attention, and it's just wild and the Vertes de la Bignier showed her all the hotspots, like Restaurant Maxime, an art nouveau, gilded mowers, opulent, decadent restaurant where the high class and the popular hung out. So you've got all of these, like, poets and artists and, you know, the rich and the beautiful. So you have people like Labelle Otero, who is going to be Leanne's main rival, right? But we'll get back to her in a wee second because the Vertis is basically aging out of the game, right? And she wants Liane to be her successor. And she's trying to get her to, like, be the best courtesan she can be. She encourages her to read more classical texts, poetry, and she wants her to become more cultured, right? And Leanne de Bourget, she isn't even 20 years old yet. And so she. She thinks this is like, a bit boring. Like it's. It's not fun or exciting. But she does take the advice seriously. She becomes street smart and she cultivates an image for herself. Like, she gets like, a statement piece. Like, at one point, she wears one pearl earring, like Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring. Like, like just one. And that becomes like her thing for a while. And the life of a corazant that, like, you get up at midday, like you're not getting up first thing in the morning. Why would you. There is no purpose for that, right? You get up, you have, you know, a light breakfast, you get dressed, you prominade, you go to the shops, you go here, you go there, you have. You meet for tea with some ladies, you go back home. Home, you get dressed for the evening, into your finery, and then you go out again, you know, wined and dined and whatnot, right? And. And here's. Here's the thing. So her and the Valtes, they are like super close. They would dine together, they would frequent Nice and Monaco together. And of course, they would have an aperitif or two together. And it's this association that leads her to be invited to headline at the Folies Bergeres. Ah, the Folies Bergeres, where the novoriche and the bourgeois and the artiste and you know, Joseph over there, they can, for was it 3, 4 francs each, can go and enjoy the beautiful show in front of them. Because, like the Folies Bergere, it would have all manner of beautiful women and dazzling costumes. It was, I'm gonna say, slightly more highbrow than the Moulin Rouge. The Moulin Rouge was like. Like less sophisticated little cousin. It was just a bit more raucous and a bit more out there. And at this point as well, nobody ever got fully nude on stage. Like, this was not a time period where you got naked. The laws didn't allow for that. And so you'd have to be very careful about what you were doing. So Liane de Poujet, she was not a great actress. That was not a talent she possessed. And according to Sarah Bernard, yes, the great Sarah, she would be better to keep her pretty mouth shut when she was on stage because, like, she was brought in to teach her how to act. And again, apparently not something she was that good at. And, oh, the revues of the Folies Bergeres, they were spectacles. They were fabulous costumes, gorgeous performers and extravagant sets. And fun fact, this is also where Josephine Baker would perform in the 1920s. So after realizing acting not super, she, Leanne, she kept acting in minor parts for a while, just long enough for Herbert Charles Paulet, I think. No, wait, isn't he English? Herbert Charles Pollitt, to use horror's inspiration for his drag performance? Yes, indeed. He was known at the time as a female impersonator. So he has this drag Persona. Diane de Roger, like, good. You know, here's the thing, though. If a drag queen names themselves after you, you're an icon, right? That's. That's just how it is. I don't make the rules, right? You have to be iconic in some way for a drag queen to name a Persona after you. That's just how it is. So, anyway, my favorite part of this. Let me tell you about the rivalry between Leran Depus and Labelle Otero. So Otero, she was a Spanish dancer who was one of the highest earners in the scene. So I think she had, like, the richest patrons out of all the other courtesans. And although she did earn the most, she lost most of it by her favorite pastime, gambling. Just like hot tense Mancine. It probably didn't help that everybody was on drugs. Like, listen, Listen, it's the 1800s in Paris. Like, everyone is on tonic wine. What's the thing that's not tonic wine? That is the wrong term for it. There's a sort of as like, coca wine, I believe it was. So there was wine with cocaine in it, which was like, all the rage, by the way. And then you've got opium, you've got cocaine again. Honestly, cocaine was everywhere. And you have absinthe, which is. I don't think you can legally Purchase absinthe anymore, you get stuff that says it's absinthe, but real absinthe because of the chlorophyll in it. I'm fairly certain you cannot purchase today. If you happen to be some kind of, I don't know, spirit sommelier, feel free to correct me on this. Not that I really drink much anymore anyway, but, yeah, yeah, there we go. So anyway, her and Otero, they are Otero Aotero. That. No, that sounds more racist if I say it like that. So between Labelle Otero and the Lian de Pourcher, they're kind of like. It seems like a more fun rivalry for the most part. Although they did, like, embarrass each other every now and again. So they would keep a tally on who had the most jewels because, like, people would gift them, like, diamonds and rubies and pearls and, like, chokers and necklace and diadems and other pieces of jewelry that I don't know the name of. And they would often try and outshin each other, literally, because they were so bejeweled. Yeah, I did get a Taylor Swift reference. And listen, right? What can I say? Some like it hot. I regret nothing. I regret nothing. So, like, they were, like, sparkling and glittering. A lot of the time. It was all about showing. It was about opulence and extravagance and showing what you had. And. And so being a sneaky, tiky little one, right, Leanne de Bourget decided to flip the script. And one evening she goes to the opera, knowing that La Belle Otero is going to attend. And so Liane arrives in a black velvet gown and, gasp, a completely bare neck. Her maid follows her with a selection of jewelry on this, like, plush pillow, right? Like, just jewels and diamonds and. And, like, rings and just all this stuff on this pillow. Just, like, following her. Meanwhile, Otero has a ring on each finger. She's got diamond necklaces, she's got bracelets, one on each wrist, and she has a diadem on. And by comparison, she just looked vulgar because she's covered in all of these adornments. And here walks in Leanne Depujet, not a scrap of jewelry on her. And really, I mean, that is a power play. Like, that is a power play. And of course, Leanne de Pogier, being a courtesan, being of the Folies Bergeres, she is. She is. How do I put this? Pursued by many, many wealthy men, one of which is one of the worst people ever to exist in the world. Leopold II of Belgium, if you don't know who he is, feel free to look him up. I will be covering him at some point because he was the worst, okay? Like, genuinely awful, awful human. And I've spoken about him before on, like, on the socials, but I haven't done like a full episode on him. And her admirers were men of means. Now, other ladies, they were also pursued by kings and princes and diamond mined owners. And Lian, I mean, she might not have had, you know, emperors crawling on their knees to her, but she did have a decent, decent, you know, collection of men who were willing to treat her well, you know, and. And unlike a lot of the other ladies, she was much better at managing her money. Right? She is just careful. And like, one of the ways she makes money is she gets put on a postcard. So like, her and Otero and other Bolesque performers, the. Their image, their photo ends up on a postcard. And other burlesque performers, they had these sort of more risque images. They're a little bit more like cheeky for the time. Whereas Leanne's like, there are these, like, quite lovely portraits. Like, they're very beautiful photos of her. And like, she's so famous that people are buying these postcards over and like, that's just another form of revenue for her, which is like, good for you, girl. Good for you. So one evening, Liane de Poujet, she was seen performing at the Folies Bergere by writer Natalie Clifford Barney, who then showed up at Depuzi's home dressed as a page and announced that she was a page of love sent by sao. Like, you have game if you do that to one of the most famous women in France. I'm sorry, you can't buy a woman a bouquet of flowers. She showed up dressed as a page, a page of Sappho, like, oh, my God. Effort, effort, boys. Anyway, to all the men who listen to my podcast, I'm. Or to the women who are playing this podcast in front of boyfriends who are not doing enough. So, yeah, so this is, this is such an extra story actually, because, like, everyone in the household knew they were coming. So Vitess knew she was coming. Sorry, Valdes. She knew she was coming. The maid knew, like, they had set this whole thing up, right? And they decide they're gonna trick her. So Natalie Clifford Barney, she shows up at the door, says that she's like a page of love sent by Sappho. And the maid brings her into a dimly lit room where there's a figure lounging on, on a chaise and so in she comes, kneels at the figures feet and kisses their hand and surprise, it's Valtes and Lehan. She pops out from behind a curtain dressed as this like diaphanous, like gown, right? It's. It's just so extra. And so they end up together for at least a year after this. And Leanne de Pouget, she writes about their affair in her book Idele Saifique, which is published in 1901. Um, so, yeah, like 12 months, 13 months, sort of like down the line, the relationship just kind of fizzles out. And yeah, so she writes about it and then Natalie writes about it and then they're love letters to each other. Like they are like discovered posthumously as well. So the thing about Idil Safique, the book, right, it wasn't the only one she wrote. So she also wrote, I'm going to do the English names for these ones because it's easier for me. She wrote the elusive one in 1898, Miriel or the lesser portion the following year. And these books, they are the sub genre of novels known as courtesan novels. So like a sub genre, like Romantasy or some kind of other sub genre, like, I don't know, paranormal crime? I don't. I don't know. Is that a thing? Ghost crime? No, no, no, no, no, no. Werewolves solving crime. Oh, that's just. That's just grim, isn't it? Like the TV show, anyway, Supernatural. No. Is it? No. It was a bit though, for a while. No. Sleepy Hollow. I gotta stop, sorry. I'm like, what is in this sub genre? So a lot of these books came about, right, during this era. It was very popular because, you know, these little books. And a lot of her books came about because of the man who keeps showing up in this history. I have mentioned him many times before. The king of fanfiction, Alexandre Dumas. The. The man, he wrote fanfiction. I don't care what you say, Right, the the Count of Monte Cristo fanfiction, right, because that's based on. It's based on sort of. It's based on a story. You have the Three Musketeers trying to tell me that's not a thing. Queen Margot. Okay, yeah, exactly. Right, exactly. So you have that going on. And he writes this book, La Dame aux Camelia, which. It's about a courtesan. And she believes that this is harmful and unreliable. Like, it's a harmful and unreliable portrayal of courtesans. And she was like, no, this is nonsense. Let me fix it. Because she did something that was incredibly shocking as well, right in her books is that when she wrote about a courtesan, instead of having them like suffer and die like in every single other novel ever, she let them have a happy ending, which, ah, was so scandalous for the time. How dare they? A woman of ill repute. Oh, no.
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So Leanne, she would garner a female clientele after her relationship with Barney, right? Now, some people say that she had it beforehand, but it's more noticed now. And this really sets her apart in the scene because, like, in France, right, there were no laws that forbade lesbianism, right? Like, when it came to homosexuality, like, whatever you did behind closed doors, like sin, sin, sin, sin, sin. Sodomy was against the law, right? There were no laws against, like, lesbian sex. Like, there wasn't any. Um, and so, like, you had lesbian bars and powers. Like my favorite one is called Le Ra, which is the Dead Rat, which is like, why is it called the Dead Rat? Because apparently two female bar owners, or like two women of some kind, they were in a relationship, they were getting down to the hanky panky and a rat startled them and one of them kills the rat and they're like, let's name a bar after this, which is an alleged Lise, but it's an alleged Lise, I'd like to believe. So here's the thing. There was probably gay bars as well in Paris. They just weren't as celebrated, shall we say? So, yeah, you have this new social scene in Paris happening as well, because the Valtes, she, she likes to, to like, just encourage growth in culture, you know, and there's this whole thing called like the 5o', clocks, which is like an afternoon tea, but it's just for ladies to meet and converse without men. So these gatherings were seen as a dangerous activity by the men folk because women were thinking, right? So they were worried that. Because women would talk and they would talk candidly, right? They would talk about men, they would talk about relationships, they would talk about finances, they would talk about the political state of the country and the economy and the art scene, like, like how women have conversations about life the way men have conversations about life. Because I don't know if you know this, but women are people too. Anyway, like this caused like such a ruckus. Like they were like, oh, it's dangerous. The women are thinking again. And there was also a legitimate scare about digestion. Medical doctors were worried about women's digestion because of an afternoon nibble, right. I mean, these are the same people that thought beards could prevent diseases. So I feel like a pinch of salt with these doctors, right? The Victorian era, doctors. Like, I don't know how it was in France, right? But in the Regency, right, to become a doctor you had, I don't know, it was like, I can't remember if it was eight or 13, like eight years. Like it was a fairly decent period of time that you had to study to become a doctor. And then in the Victorian era it was like four or like two. It was like really short. I can't remember exactly, but I do have it in a notebook somewhere in my house. But it's such a tiny period, like in, you know, in England it's like, oh, and now you're a doctor. It's like, what I just got here. And it's like stamp approved. Like, okay, like these salons, like what they wear, which is. Yeah, they're effectively like a continuation of the salons that you would have in sort of renaissance or like the late modern period, like when that was coming into play, where you would have gatherings and discussions between intellectuals and artists and the, the rich, the not rich people would like discuss things together. And that was kind of what this was, except this was just for women. And men didn't like being excluded because apparently excluding one gender from things is bad. Whoms to say, oh, this is, this sounds like such a man hating episode. Listen, some of my best friends are men. Okay, so we're gonna skip forward now to the 1910s, right? So we've, we've lived through that turn of the century era. We're coming close to the end of la belle epoch. And she's in her 40s, Leon de Pourget, she's like 40 something and she thinks maybe it's time to settle down. And on 8 June 1910, she marries Prince George Gika, making her Princess Anne Marie Ghika of Moldovia. Yes, Moldovia is a real place. You're welcome. So they end up having a civil ceremony because she's not allowed to get married in a church because she's divorced. That's. That's kind of like a whole Catholic thing. It's like, yeah, you can't do that. So they end up having a civil ceremony instead. Instead. So the day before her wedding though, because she wants to like make it good, she goes to church for confession. For the non Catholics out there, it's when you sit in a box, right, and you admit all the bad stuff you've done or consider doing because sometimes even thinking about it is a sin. And you, you say this to a man behind a screen in a box and then you say three Hail Marys and an her father and you're absolved of all your sins. That's how that works now? No, no, sometimes you do have to do an act of contrition. But yeah, so she wants to start her life fresh, you know, and so she confesses to everything apart from robbery and murder. You gotta have a line, you know, you're gonna have a line you won't cross. So marriage number two is much happier than marriage number one. But it's sort of, I don't know, sort of peppered with tragedy. Right? So a month, one month after getting married, her dear friend, her tutor, her possible one time lover, Vertis de la Bignier, she passed away and she wrote her own death cards, Right? Right. So typically during this time period when someone died, a family member would send out a death card notifying like, you know, other members of the family and all of their friends and acquaintances. Right. However, Valtese being the queen that she is, when the doctors told her that she hadn't much time left, she's like, I'm gonna do it myself. And so imagine getting a death card written in your friend's handwriting about their own death. Right? That's, that's gonna be an experience because remember everyone wrote letters back then so you would recognize your friend's handwriting. Because everybody wrote like that's how it is nowadays. Most people don't recognize anyone's handwriting. Whereas I can recognize my grams, my mom's, my dad's, my best friend from school. I know exactly how they write. Exactly. My handwriting changes depending on whether my hand gives up or not. Like I'm either big bubbles or just squiggly scratches that are not dissimilar to hieroglyphics. But yeah, so she gets that. And that's a shock, but it's one last sort of haha from the Valdez. Now about the possible lovers thing. There is a theory that the two of them were romantically linked at one point, which could be true. I'm not going to deny it, but it does seem like a way to dismiss their. Their friendship a little bit, because they had. They both had female lovers, to my knowledge, but, you know, it, not each other. So in 1914, she suffers another loss. Her son Mark was a pilot in the First World War and he died on a reconnaissance mission over the Somme. And she wrote in her diary that she did not love her son enough when he was alive. And this. This was a turning point for her. And it's when she starts looking back at her face and she decides she's going to dedicate herself to good work after this, right? Good works. She's going to try and be better. So another. Was it 12 years after this, in 1926, Prince George leaves her for a younger woman. Like, he just absconds. Like, they don't divorce, they don't do anything, he just leaves. He comes back a year later, right? It's like a year or so later and he's just like, honey, I'm home. And we don't know, like, the reasons for leaving. We don't. Well, we know he left for a younger woman. We don't know the reasons for his return, right? So he comes back and she takes him back. And in 1928, the couple are driving in Savoy and they come across this, like, rundown convent. And by rundown, I mean, like, ruinous. Like it. It's barely standing. And they decide to investigate because apparently that's exactly what you do in a, you know, rundown building in the middle of the French countryside. So they go in and they discover that it is The Asylum of St Agnes, a home for children with disabilities. And the nuns, the nuns are actually doing their best to care for these children, but they're nuns, they're not healthcare professionals. The place is run down. Like, the nuns are struggling, the children are struggling, and they're giving what they can to these children, but they're nuns, they don't have a lot to give. Um, I mentioned this before in the. In the Nuns on the Run episode, right? The Belgian nuns. That is a fun episode, if you want to listen to it. That's full of fun things that happen. And also secret lesbians, which is everybody's favourite plot twist. So nuns, when they become nuns, they have to give a. An oath of poverty. So nuns and monks, they have to do it. Priests don't. Priests are allowed to make a lot of money and own many things, right? Nuns and monks, they're supposed to not have any of that, right? So they don't really have a lot to give. And they are relying on alms. They're relying on, you know, donations, you know, And Princess Kika, as she now is, she dedicates herself to helping them, caring for and educating both the physically and the mentally disabled children who are residents there. She works to provide better care and to actually help. Right. And it's like this calling to heart, like, she's providing funding. She's providing, you know, medical care. Like, she's funding it. Like, she's not doing the nursing herself, but she's funding it. Right. And when Prince George died, she decided that she didn't want to be out with the order anymore, and she entered the Order of Saint Dominique as a tertiary lay sister, which is. She's like sort of a nun, like a kind of nun, but not like a full nun. So a tertiary lay member of. Of any sort of religious group. It's a third order. So the third orders were created so that, like, ordinary people could, like, follow spirituality or the rules of. Of groups like, you know, the nuns and the monks, while still keeping, like, normal jobs, families and daily lives. So what this means is they're kind of like an affiliate to. To the nuns, but not actually like a fully fledged sort of nun. Right. I know that, like, this is a thing in Roman Catholicism, and also I think there's some in Anglican and Lutheranism, if I'm not mistaken. But I'm not fully up on those because I was raised Catholic. And so they don't live, like, in, like, the cloister. They're not in the religious community. They're not secluded. They don't take full vows. Right. So they don't, you know, live with the nuns and the nunnery necessarily. They can live wherever they want. They can live in secular society. Like, some of these third orders are, like, diplomats and sht. Like, it's a whole thing. Right. So she, you know, wears the habit. She can do all this stuff, but, you know, she can, like. Doesn't have to do, like, the whole vile poverty thing. Like, so she can keep her money and she can, like, give that to the convent as and when she pleases, as opposed to some relative taking it when she dies, you know, so she can, like, utilize it now, which makes sense because if she gives a vow of poverty, it kind of has to go to the next person, really. But anyway, I think. I don't know how French monetary law works, really. Especially not in the early 1900s. Or would it be Moldovian law? Because she was married to Moldovian Prince or would it be Swiss law? Because she's living in Switzerland because Savoy was. It was Swiss territory at the time. So, like, now the county is. It's kind of shared by, like, France, Switzerland and Italy. And so. But Savoy is in Switzerland at this point. And if they're living in Switzerland, they're fairly safe for what's about to happen next. So they're just continuing, you know, to do this and live in Switzerland up until 1945, when Prince Geika dies, right? So when he dies, like, I mean, she still stays in Switzerland, but she becomes like, the third. The third order. She joins the third order and she becomes Sister Anne Marie. And she is, like, she does really well, right? She is well liked by the other nuns and Mother Superior. And like, here's the thing. We all know the woman has charm, right? She had charm on the streets of Paris. She had charm here, okay? And she was well liked by all the other nuns and by Mother Superior, like, she was doing great, right? And she really enjoyed her life here. And here's the thing. Like, there's speculation about whether this was a rediscovery of her faith or whether she was hoping to make good with, you know, the big man upstairs, you know, before she reached the pearly gates, especially after a life of what some would call scandal and sin. But she lived a life. She lived a life and she. She was honest and frank about it. Like, she wrote it in her diary. Like, she shared that information. And then she made a different choice in life. And so she becomes this Dominican territory, like this third order Dominican sister. And for the next five years, she just becomes part of this order and she does what she can to help. And we don't know whether this is, you know, her fear or her bargaining or whatever it is, but we don't know and we'll probably never know. And the thing is, I think it might have been St. Agnes, which was the. The. The saint that was dedicated to in the first convent she was in when she was growing up. Like, and if that's true, like, I think that might be true. I'm not entirely sure. I need to go back and look at some very old notes. But it would be lovely if that was, like, a full circle for her. Because, like, if you come out of Paris and then, like, turn of the century and you don't have syphilis, like, good for you. That's all I'm saying, right? 10 out of 10, like, that is a skill. Like, that is a skill and a miracle even. But she lived a full life. And she was honest about it, which I think is the most important part about it. But she lived. She lived a full life. She kind of came full circle and she came through. God. There was guns. There was one gun and there was girls, girls, girls. And finally she passed away in Lausanne on the 26th of December, 1950, and she was buried in the enclosure of the sisters of the Saint Agnes Asylum in Saint Martin le Vignue in Lausanne, Switzerland. And so ends the story of Liane de Puget. And the thing is, with a lot of the performers and the burlesque stars and the cabaret performers and the courtesans of the era, a lot of the information regarding them is lost. Whether it was destroyed through shame or mismanagement or whatever, it's just gone. And without people, there isn't history. And I think it's a terrible shame to not tell their stories. And so there is the story of Leanne de Puget. And if you liked the story and didn't mind my terrible pronunciation, feel free to rate and review five stars. If you don't want to rate and review five stars, don't say anything at all. You can catch me on social media, you can catch me on the highway. That's not it. I feel like there's a joke in there somewhere. But, yeah, I am everywhere. I am doing the stuff. I have live show announcements coming soon, and I suppose now would be a good time for our recommendations. Okay, for watching, I think y' all should watch Moulin Rouge. Everybody watch Moulin Rouge. I don't care. Watching Melon Rouge. Okay, don't care. Like, if you aren't at least like, partially humming Spectacular Spectacular, then I don't know what joy is in your life. Okay. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. So for. For watching that, is that for reading, I am going to suggest a book that was gifted to me for my birthday by a great comedian, Dara Ma, great Northern Irish comedian, north of Ireland, fabulous fella. A very fun, very kind. Now he got me a book called Pretty Things by Liz Goldwyn, and it is my favourite, favourite book I have ever read about burlesque in my life because there's so much love in here for it. And it is. It's just an amazing book. And listening. You know what? I was listening to my dear friend Anne's podcast, Vulgar History. It brings me such joy, just the way she talks about women and I feel she says the word like, an appropriate amount of times. I actually had something similar, actually. Sidebar. Before the end of the show, I had someone complain. They were like, the comment on Spotify was something like, if you like the word like said a million times in a podcast, then this is the one for you. Yeah, it is like, get over yourself. Like, chill out, man. It's just the lexicon. It's how language evolves and filler words exist. And if you don't like it, oh, man, just go suck on a frozen lemon. All right, I don't have time for your negativity in my life, which is why I deleted the comments and only people who stayed to the very end heard about it. But yeah, tickets to the London show should be announced fairly soon, actually, so keep your ears peeled for that one. But I shall. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. This. This month. Sidebar. Final Sidebar whisper, whisper, whisper. P.S. pPPS. Yeah, effectively, I think what's gonna happen in this is gonna be the complete opposite of what happened in the Concentration Camp series, is that in the videos I was getting, like, just more disheveled as it went on. And I think with this, I'm gonna get more glamorous and more smutty. And if I manage to, like, follow this through the whole way through, I'm gonna be so impressed with myself. But anyway, I am going to bed you. Good night. Adios. Au revoir. Au revoi de sel, my friends. Bye bye. Greetings, homeowner. Repeat after me if my home system or appliance breaks down. American Home Shield will help fix or replace the covered item, no matter its age and exhale. Oh, and home warranty plans start at $29.99 a month. American Home Shield. Don't worry, be warranty. Visit ahs.com listen for 20% off any plan.
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