“It had been more than a year since the Revue Nègre started a ‘black craze’ in Paris. American Negro art, music and dress, as perceived by the Parisians, was tremendously popular. On Rue Blouret a Negro dance hall had opened its doors and the Parisian smart set gathered there each evening to dance with themselves and with the blacks... And as if one night was meant to crown or synthesize all this, the Bal Nègre was held on February 11, 1927... Colin recalls this event fifty years later: ‘I organized the Bal Nègre and I put up the money myself for this evening of dance at the Théâtre de Champs-Élysées. We had a full house. All the society people were there. There must have been at least 3,000 people.’ For poster collectors today, [this poster] is the most prized—and most expensive—of all [Colin’s] posters” (Colin, p. 7).
Imp. H. Chachoin, Paris
literature: Colin, 19; Colin Affichiste, 113; PAI-LXXXVI, 202