#name:frede

[ladiesalmanack]

Frede (1914-1976)

Frede, née Suzanne Jeanne Baulé, ran and opened several famous lesbian cabarets. She began her career as a set painter at the Folies Bergère theatre, before being hired as a barmaid at Le Monocle, one of the very first lesbian bars in Paris, run by Lulu de Montparnasse.

It was at the Monocle that Frede began dressing in men's clothes. It was also there that she met several of her famous lovers, including Anaïs Nin and Marlene Dietrich, with whom she had a long affair.

With Marlene Dietrich's help, Frede founded her own women's cabaret, ‘La Silhouette’, in 1938. The Second World War forced her into exile in the south of France, in Biarritz, where she opened a nightclub called ‘Touch-Wood’.

At the end of the war, she returned to Paris and became manager of the Carroll's cabaret, which she transformed into a fashionable venue frequented by all the celebrities of the time. At Caroll's, Frede was the first to allow women to dance together, even though the law forbade it.