Cabaré Chanteclair (Chantecler): as noites perfumadas de um Recife de outros tempos (1950 – 1960)

Abstract

The present work proposes to approach, from a certain time cut, the night activities that had as stage the Chanteclair building. Our purpose is to bring up a piece of Recife's almost forgotten history, give voices to anonymous people, let them speak, tell us their stories, tell us their memories and, from these memories, give life to the old Chanteclair building. We wanted to make explicit what was behind those windows, to let emerge to our days, part of the daily life of what was once considered one of the biggest and most renowned strongholds of prostitution in the Recife port area. It was a place of strong presence of anonymous and intellectuals who, although spontaneously, fraternized there. Bringing the Chanteclair building back to the scene, scrutinizing it, retrieving details of the functioning of the then cabaret Chantecler, a place of lights, luxury, elegance, imposing temple of glamour that for its beauty and majestic appearance enchanted even members of British royalty who passed through here. A story that enchants some, that remembers them with nostalgia, while saddening others, or better, others, that also remembers them, but with sorrow, sadness and even a certain shame of certain things lived and witnessed there. For better or for worse, the Chanteclair building, today a prisoner of an unfinished restoration process, still stirs those who travel through the busy and touristic Marquês de Olinda avenue and its surroundings, either for its magnificence and beauty, or for its history. This history has inspired us this writing and delicious research, whose objective is exactly to invite the reader to a trip to the past of the perfumed nights of a Recife of other times.