Half a million Franc legs

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The car you see is a Delage DI coupé de ville and the lady is Jeanne Florentine Bourgeois - better known as Mistinguett, who in the 1920s was 'Queen of the Paris music hall', the most popular entertainer and, indeed, the most highly-paid artiste in the world. She made her debut at the age of 20 at the Casino de Paris and her risqué routines captured the public's fancy and fantasies. Her act involved the most elaborate of costumes and head-dresses and the press loved her for a career which lasted almost up to 1939. It was Mistinguett who invented the dramatic entrance where the star appears at the top of a flight of stairs, pauses, and then makes an elegant descent to rapturous applause.

The famous sculptor, Rodin, described Mistinguett's legs as 'perfect' which explains why they were famously insured for 500,000 Francs. The garden of her house in Paris backed onto that of Maurice Chevalier and a little gate connected the two. If the gate was left open it meant she was ready to receive his visit and his name was added to her list of lovers which included King Alfonso XIII of Spain and King Edward VII.
The opening picture is signed by the photographer, J. Utudjian, who also took this picture of her chauffeur-driven Delage,  and this one  with her little ' pooch'. Mistinguett was photographed in or on a variety of other cars - including a Chrysler and this un-identified model buried beneath half a dozen photographers and those famous legs.

(Text Robin Batchelor, Delage pictures courtesy Jeremy Collins)

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