Frederic "Frede" Gerard, the owner of Zut, with a young girl.
Frede with guitar.
Frede.
The Zut was a tavern on the Rue Ravignan (in a square now named after Emile Goudeau, a writer who started up the literary cafe and theater called the Hydropathes, and later, the Chat Noir) where all the anarchists of the Butte came to drink (and the Zut was the fGas lamps lit the murky space, which was run by a little man with a cap and long beard, wearing brown velvet pants, clogs on his feet, and a bright red flannel belt. His name was frederic Gerard, Frede for short. His bar was open to all the poor and rejected citizens of the city. Though he didn't know a single note of music, the tavern's keeper played the guitar, sometimes the cello. He sang Parisian melodies, often accompanied by other performers who came to join him. Outside, the street was full of prostitutes, petty thieves, deserters, rival gangs with their knives out, looking for a fight, fraudsters, stamp forgers: the usual flora fauna of the neighborhood. The Zut's sign announced the tone: 'Beer'. It was the only alcohol available on the premises; there were no wines or liqueurs. Frede poured the foam directly from the pitcher into the glasses placed on the barrels that served as tables. Sometimes he would cook ham and eggs. When shots were heard outside, punctuating the young hotheads' fun, he reassured his immigrant friends that if the police came, he would hide them. They were all afraid of being forced to leave the country. But Frede the bigmouth, Frede the anarchist, was there to watch out for them. Frede later was hired by none other then Aristide Bruant to manage the infamous artist/poet haunch, the Cabaret Lapin Agile. After a short while as manager, Frede became a partner and eventually became the sole proprietor of the Lapin Agile, which is now legendary in both art history and the history of la Boheme.
This is a brief exerpt from Dan Franck's Bohemian Paris: Picasso, Modigliani, Matisse and the Birth of Modern Art, which is an outstanding history of Bohemia and is a must read for serious scholars of the history of Bohemia and art history. The book, which we have reprinted here with permission from King Ubu Roi, can be purchased here:
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