La folle histoire de Magic-City, parc de loisirs et berceau du tango à Paris, de la Belle Époque aux Années folles

Discover the fascinating and little-known history of Magic-City, a Parisian leisure park and the birthplace of the tango, from 1911 to 1942

A major rival to Luna-Park, opened at Porte Maillot in 1909, "Magic-City" was a large Parisian leisure park located in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, near the Pont de l’Alma and the banks of the Seine.

Inaugurated with great fanfare in June 1911 on a two-and-a-half-hectare plot situated between Rue de l’Université and Quai d’Orsay, it was one of the largest amusement parks in France during the Belle Époque.

From midday to midnight, a diverse crowd of thrill-seeking Parisians and visiting tourists would pass through the monumental gateway of the "Magic City" to discover its numerous entertainments.

Roller coasters, a Venetian river, a "human roulette wheel", slides, and other thrilling attractions that often put the body to the test stood alongside a roller-skating rink, a refined restaurant, a large ballroom, and a cinema.

The American-style park also featured ethnographic exhibitions or "human zoos", based on the exoticized staging of distant peoples.

At the dawn of the Great War, Tout-Paris and a diverse clientele flocked to its large ballroom to dance the tango, which had just arrived from Argentina and was cloaked in a scandalous aura.

While the amusement park disappeared in the 1920s with the subdivision of part of its land and the cutting through of Rue Cognacq-Jay, the grand ballroom survived.

A high-profile venue for Parisian nightlife, it became famous for its masked and cross-dressing balls held during Mardi Gras and Mid-Lent, immortalized by Brassaï. Hosting political meetings and events of all kinds, the Magic-City ballroom finally closed in 1942.

The premises then housed the Wehrmacht television studios, which after the Liberation became the Cognacq-Jay studios, the laboratory of the pioneers of French television.

Nearly eighty-five years after its disappearance, Magic-City remains a picturesque and all-too-little-known chapter in the hist