PAUL COLIN (1892-1986) THEATRE MARIGNY / TROIS JEUNES FILLES NUES. 1928. 63x47 inches. H. Chachoin, Paris. Condition A: minor creases in image. Trois Jeune Filles Nues (Three Naked Young Girls) opened on October 3, 1925, and ran successfully for a full year. The plot of this lighthearted operetta was virtually irrelevant, but the music for the show was composed by the great Raoul Moretti (whose name is curiously omitted from the poster), and was based on the libretto by the successful theatrical duo Yves Mirande and Albert Willemetz (who together breathed new life into French operettas with hits like Dede, La-Haut, and Pas sur la Bouche, all of which included many of the most popular songs of their era). The cast was led by Dranem, a former café concert star who switched to operetta after the First World War. After Paris, the show toured through the French provinces where some puritanical mayors forbid the word "nue" [naked] to be used on any posters, thus providing the show with incredible indirect advertising. When the show returned to Paris after its tour, it settled at the Theatre Marigny and relied on this poster by Colin for promotion. Here in an exceptional use of angles, three naked young girls are sitting within a skewed window (by 1930 Colin would regularly use the device of a "window" in his posters), their torsos and legs forming angles within the window and in relation to the ground. Colin adds a further graphic touch by having the girls' feet slightly out of the frame and aligning the text with the angle of the window. This poster is previously unrecorded and is an important document not only in the oeuvre of Colin, but also in the history of French music halls.
