Around 1860 the house was torn down and replaced by a huge mattress store, "Aux Colonnes d'Hercule", very quickly renamed "Sommier Elastique". In 1867 a theater was built next door called the “Folies Trevise”. It was the first of its kind, incorporating light opera with magic, gymnastics and dancing. The mixed review proved very popular with audiences, but rendered the poor Duke of Trevise, after whose family the intersecting street was named, almost apoplectic with rage. Soon after the theater took over the neighboring mattress store and became the “Folies Bergère” in 1869. Part of the mattress heritage continued as the “Café des Sommiers Elastiques” where patrons could come and go as they pleased provided they paid a very low fixed entry fee. This ensured the Folies Bergère had practically non-stop entertainment.

More often than not the attractions were poorly paid unknowns, punctuated by the occasional star when the theater had to make money. Mostly it was known as the theater that would make money – next winter. It set the tone for the Rue Richer, indeed for a whole array of similar “boîtes” like the Moulin Rouge and the Lido, whose burlesque styles were drawn from the many acts that passed through the Folies. Today the theater has been re-opened after being closed for renovations. Its original façade was re-designed by Pico in Art deco style in 1929.

Surrounding the Folies are a number of small, old bistros and restaurants only now re-awakening as the giant among them re-opens its doors. The surrounding neighborhood is a mixture of antique and outdated, with winding alleyways, dead ends, and huge wooden portals on some of the buildings. The nearby Rue du Faubourg Montmartre is a good place for late night eating, and stores which stay open late. Further west, on the Rue Drouot is the Hôtel Drouot, which for years was the only auction house in Paris, and still today commands authority among serious antique collectors. A number of small business attendant to the Drouot auctions are housed in the Rue de Provence and Rue Bergère.

The Rue Richer quartier often seems a neighborhood frozen in time, but it’s got an unmistakable flair that makes it a nice compliment to the nearby Grands Boulevards.