Les Girls, Les Girls, Les Girls

The Lido (rhymes with libido) has been "le plus beau spectacle de cabaret du monde" ever since 1929 when impresario Léon Volterra bought himself an outsize underground room smack in the middle of Paris' Champs-Élysées, and duked it up with a swimming pool, a Turkish bath and the Frenchiest of Frenchy floorshows. In the mid-Forties, a couple of other fellows made the place over to look like a Venetian banquet hall, added an ice rink and a panoramic stage with a rising floor, and entrusted the managership of the gigantic joint (seats 1000 popeyed customers) to shrewd, inventive Pierre Louis-Guérin, who co-produces the lavish Lido extravaganzas with René Fraday. Tourists, who have been flocking to the place for nigh onto three decades, have declared it absolutely the most fabulous girl show in all the world, though one American laconically likened it to "Radio City Music Hall – with booze and bosoms."

Now Louis-Guérin and Fraday have packed up their "beau spectacle" and moved it to Nevada, U.S.A., to become the dazzling drawing card for the opening of the new Stardust Hotel in Las Vegas, The show, a faithful replica of the paris production, boasts a cast of 60, a five-part stage bigger than a basket-ball court, a swimming tank, fireworks and (most important) girls, girls, girls, beautiful and bare, who – :in the words of Variety – :"make cleavage obsolete."

Original Paris production (opposite) drew raves from usually blasé French, was brought over intact to the U.S., where it is currently an S.R.O. smash at Las Vegas' 1065-room Stardust Hotel, newest resort palace on the Strip.

Above, show gets off to a stunning start as les beautés du Lido, now right at home at the desert spa, cavort onstage with their gentlemen admirateurs.

Above, show gets off to a stunning start as les beautés du Lido, now right at home at the desert spa, cavort onstage with their gentlemen admirateurs.

Below, French filly Reuby Bruce, billed as "Mademoiselle Lido," exercises both torso and tonsils in an introductory song. Appreciative American audiences like to follow her charming lines closely.

Feathers, fireworks, spangles, nets, mirrors, sequins, rain, snow, stereophonic sound, six movable stage sections, a convertible ice rink and a swimming pool combine with a winsome assortment of unfettered femininity to dazzle the eye.

Feathers, fireworks, spangles, nets, mirrors, sequins, rain, snow, stereophonic sound, six movable stage sections, a convertible ice rink and a swimming pool combine with a winsome assortment of unfettered femininity to dazzle the eye.

The Lido de Paris troupe is made up of 60 European performers, including singers, dancers, manikins and the famed Bluebell Girls. The young ladies hail from England, Belgium, Italy, Holland, Denmark and Sweden as well as France.

The Lido de Paris troupe is made up of 60 European performers, including singers, dancers, manikins and the famed Bluebell Girls. The young ladies hail from England, Belgium, Italy, Holland, Denmark and Sweden as well as France.

In the sequence entitled The Street of Desire, Lido luminary Reuby Bruce portrays a lady of the evening who plies her age-old trade in front of a conveniently open window. Her impatient, impassioned consort is enacted by dancer Buddy Bryan. Outside the love nest, sailors and girls take in the technique of the pleasure-preoccupied pair.

In the sequence entitled The Street of Desire, Lido luminary Reuby Bruce portrays a lady of the evening who plies her age-old trade in front of a conveniently open window. Her impatient, impassioned consort is enacted by dancer Buddy Bryan. Outside the love nest, sailors and girls take in the technique of the pleasure-preoccupied pair.

In the sequence entitled The Street of Desire, Lido luminary Reuby Bruce portrays a lady of the evening who plies her age-old trade in front of a conveniently open window. Her impatient, impassioned consort is enacted by dancer Buddy Bryan. Outside the love nest, sailors and girls take in the technique of the pleasure-preoccupied pair.

In the sequence entitled The Street of Desire, Lido luminary Reuby Bruce portrays a lady of the evening who plies her age-old trade in front of a conveniently open window. Her impatient, impassioned consort is enacted by dancer Buddy Bryan. Outside the love nest, sailors and girls take in the technique of the pleasure-preoccupied pair.

Sexy skit, The Antique Bath (above), spotlights near-nude maiden and her equally unclothed admirer in a stylized dance. Mixing of lightly clad members of both sexes, no novelty to Europeans, is an innovation in U.S. Right, burgeoning babes and bursting rockets signal fini to an exciting evening.

Sexy skit, The Antique Bath (above), spotlights near-nude maiden and her equally unclothed admirer in a stylized dance. Mixing of lightly clad members of both sexes, no novelty to Europeans, is an innovation in U.S. Right, burgeoning babes and bursting rockets signal fini to an exciting evening.

Sexy skit, The Antique Bath (above), spotlights near-nude maiden and her equally unclothed admirer in a stylized dance. Mixing of lightly clad members of both sexes, no novelty to Europeans, is an innovation in U.S. Right, burgeoning babes and bursting rockets signal fini to an exciting evening.

Sexy skit, The Antique Bath (above), spotlights near-nude maiden and her equally unclothed admirer in a stylized dance. Mixing of lightly clad members of both sexes, no novelty to Europeans, is an innovation in U.S. Right, burgeoning babes and bursting rockets signal fini to an exciting evening.

Sexy skit, The Antique Bath (above), spotlights near-nude maiden and her equally unclothed admirer in a stylized dance. Mixing of lightly clad members of both sexes, no novelty to Europeans, is an innovation in U.S. Right, burgeoning babes and bursting rockets signal fini to an exciting evening.