 Paris music halls all faced stiff competition in the interwar period from the most popular new form of entertainment , the cinema . They responded by offering more complex and lavish shows . In 1911 , the Olympia had introduced the giant stairway as a set for its productions , an idea copied by other music halls . The singer Mistinguett made her debut the Casino de Paris in 1895 and continued to appear regularly in the 1920s and 1930s at the Folies Bergère , Moulin Rouge and Eldorado . Her risqué routines captivated Paris , and she became one of the most highly @-@ paid and popular French entertainers of her time . 
