Monsieur Gassoon

Pardon our French, but this is a book about the world's foremost fartist. Presented here as a fictional figure, he really did get paid to break wind at the swank Moulin Rouge in Paris. And from 1892 to 1914 he became its Number One attraction, outdrawing such stars as Sarah Bernhardt, Maurice Chevalier, Piaf, and Mistinguette. The cabaret was known for its saucy, risqu shows and earthy cancan dancers. But never had it gone this far It surprised the sophisticated, shocked the stodgy. It shook up the most broad- minded. For the first time it stripped natural functions of their vulgarity. Only in this era of open discussion can such functions be aired without whispering or suppression.