Mille-Colonnes, Movie theater in 14th arrondissement of Paris, France

Mille-Colonnes was an entertainment complex at 20 rue de la Gaîté, built in 1833 by architect Duquesney in an Italian style. Its monumental entrance had a Chinese roof of multicoloured bricks, a dancing Venus on the gable, and niches with cupids holding torches. A restaurant and a café flanked the portico, linked by a bridge behind it.

The building began in 1833 as a restaurant and dance hall before being transformed into a cinema in 1907. It operated continuously in this form until November 1930, when it ceased operations as a movie theater.

The name Mille-Colonnes was not exclusive to this venue: a café of the same name at the Palais-Royal, founded in 1807, employed the "Belle Limonadière," whom Balzac mentions in César Birotteau (1837). At the rue de la Gaîté establishment, the Bal Constant mixed bourgeois and workers, and respectable mothers sat beside women of easy virtue while children danced miniature quadrilles.

Nothing of the Mille-Colonnes remains on Rue de la Gaîté; the cinema that closed in April 1991 was demolished and replaced by a hotel-restaurant. The address to look for is 20 rue de la Gaîté, in the 14th arrondissement, a street that still holds several theatres and cafés. The site is on the odd-numbered side of the street's entertainment stretch.

The name was not original: a café des Mille-Colonnes at the Palais-Royal, founded in 1807, employed the "Belle Limonadière", famed for her beauty and mentioned by Balzac in César Birotteau in 1837. Another café of the same name stood on the boulevard du Temple in 1862-1863, and the Casino de Saint-Nazaire also used it.