France | 24 August 1928

DATE August 24th
PLACE Paris
Our last whole day in Paris I spent as usual in the shops trying to get some few presents for more people. Went back to the junks shops after lunch & saw 3 small etching for which I played 6c [ed.note: six centimes] & then some other small ones. Tonight we went to the Casino de Paris I am bound to see Paris even if it breaks me. This was a great show very clever. Then we went to Pigalle a good club where you dance on numbers & win dolls maybe. Next to the hotel to get some addresses & then we saw Paris.

We went to a place called ‘Paradis’ & there lay before you Paris. Smoke as thick you could hardly see, an acordian wailing some wild tunes & Nigros dancing with whites both ways. Girls try to pick you up, but you say “J’ai une femm” & then they go saying “Quelle dommage!” buts its Paris. After this we went to a place called ‘Florencés’ entirely run by Nigros & now all Americans & Florence [1] her-self came & sang to us ‘Just Bill’oh Boy such dancing. That’s good by Paris night life, Cab 6am.

Vincent Price Travel Journal 1928 (reproduced courtesy of Peter Fuller)

EDITOR’S NOTES
[1] Florence Emery (Embry) Jones (1892-1932) was the first African-American woman to rule the Paris jazz world in the 1920s, captivating audiences at Eugene Bullard’s Le Grand Duc and at Louis Mitchell’s club in Rue Pigalle. Mitchell renamed his club, Chez Florence in 1924. To read a 1927 article from The Times click here. For more about about the importance of black jazz performers in Paris, check out Harlem in Montmartre: A Paris jazz story between the Great Wars by William A. Shack.

[sic] Although Vincent misspells words in his journal, we have kept them as he wrote them.

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