Above: The Théâtre d'Iéna, or Salle Iéna (where Rachel performed her memoirs), was a room inside the building that is now the Shangri La luxury hotel at number 10 Avenue d'Iéna. From 1929 to 1955 the room served as a venue for theatre performances, concerts, meetings and other events (Wikipedia). Originally constructed in 1896 for Prince Roland Bonaparte (grand-nephew of Napoleon III), the building was enlarged in 1929 and 1944. The Shangri La opened in 2010.
Source: Paris-Bise-Art ("Paris off the beaten track").

Above: Two caricatures of Rachel from Dernière Heure. Left, following her suicidal performance at Théâtre de l'Étoile on October 23, 1946 (page 43). Right, following the performance of her memoirs at Théâtre d'Iéna on May 6, 1947.
Source: Dernière Heure. Left: "Pauvre Rachel!" ("Poor Rachel!"), December 22, 1946, p. 4. Right: "Propos cavaliers" ("Off the cuff remarks"), May 22, 1947, p. 4. National Library of France (via Gallica).

12. Heartbreak, 1932 (continued)

Despite her apparent air of resignation, Rachel had not given up on the idea of exacting vengeance on her tormenters. Instead of a lawsuit or a theatrical suicide, her new tactic would be to expose their villainy by publishing her memoirs.

She hit upon this idea at the Théâtre de l'Étoile as soon as she came to her senses and realized the futility of suicide. She had already started writing when Yves Rameau interviewed her.

"I realized that I was on the point of doing something stupid which would only serve those who pursued their hatred during forty years. No, I would not give them the pleasure, I would not disappear without seeing the repercussions of my revelations while I'm still alive....

"I am writing my memoirs in which I will spare no person, believe me. But I swear to you I will tell only the truth, and nothing but the truth, without adding anything but without omitting one single fact.

"I know that these memoirs will undoubtedly upset many households, that many men, reputed and even celebrated in Europe, that public opinion considers almost irreproachable from all points of view, will be stripped bare. Too bad for them, it's not what I wished but it is their actions that obliged me to react in this way."

Rachel's memoirs first appeared as a one-woman show in May, 1947 at the Théâtre d'Iéna. Here is how Georges Ravon described it in his "L'Air de Paris" column in Dernière Heure:

"I had told you that Rachel Dorange was planning a major event, during which she would recount the milestones of her eventful life as a horsewoman and a lover, promising that this time, 'there would be some sport.'

"There was no sport. But the evening was no less picturesque for it.

"Indeed, the famous coachwoman... had thoroughly doped herself before taking the stage. So thoroughly, in fact, that the show took an unexpected turn.

"'I donΓÇÖt know what the doctors gave me,' declared Rachel Dorange, 'but itΓÇÖs made my mouth water! Well, anyway, we can always try; weΓÇÖll see how it turns out!'

"And so began an extravagant medley of alexandrines, couplets, anecdotes, with the brave Rachel mixing verses and lines and punctuating her hesitations with a resounding 'Darn! I messed up again!'

"The audience, though somewhat sparse, didnΓÇÖt regret spending their 200 francs, and when it came time for the behind-the-scenes revelations, the excitement reached a fever pitch.

"Indeed, Rachel Dorange, who had known many people, both in her heyday and during her difficult years, spared no one. And this earned us some juicy stories involving Balkan princes and even austere delegates to the Peace Conference.

"After each episode, the horsewoman addressed the audience: 'If youΓÇÖve had enough and want to go home to bed, don't hesitate. Just let me know!'

"Of course, we were careful not to interrupt the flow of these indiscretions, which would fill the pages of a newspaper – if we dared to report them.

"Nevertheless, this fine entertainment was tinged with a touch of melancholy. For the outcome was disastrous, and it was quite evident, after this final attempt at rescue, that the unfortunate 'Coco,' the glorious horse of the prewar years, was, this time, destined to end up as steaks..."

The grim joke about Coco (Rachel's horse at the time) ending up as steaks reflected the fact that horsemeat was historically a staple of the French working class diet and that pulling a cab was often the last miserable stage of a horse's work life "just before finishing up as leather, butcher's meat, pet food, fertilizer and glue."

"Last year Paris ate 14,840 horses," wrote Vance Thompson in 1903, "just about the annual number of horses used up in the fiacres."

Luckily Rachel was more resilient than Georges Ravon predicted and Coco was not yet ready for the meat market or the glue factory.

The response to her memoirs as a stage act must have been disappointing to Rachel but she continued to toil away at them for the next several years. In 1949 La Tribune de Genève reported that she was "preparing explosive memoirs".

In 1951 Dimanche-Matin reported that Rachel "confided her dream to a few close friends: 'If everything goes as I hope, I'll save three thousand francs and I'll finally be able to have my memoirs published – two thick volumes that IΓÇÖve just finished.'"

It was also in 1951 that Rachel, injured in a train accident on her way home from Nice, told Maurice Morin that she had actually gone to Monte Carlo and was expelled once again by the Monacan police page 63).

In 1959 Neue Berner Zeitung reported that Rachel's dream was "to write her memoirs and thus go down in the annals of 'Gai Paris.'"

Then, in June, 1960, a the Quebec newspaper Photo-Journal printed a World News Service dispatch announcing that Rachel "has just filed a $20,000 lawsuit against the writer Marcel Sauvage. Why? He had promised to turn her life into a novel, but he failed to do so.

"Rachel claims to have sent the writer a thousand pages of notes on her private and public life to document and spice up his work, turning it into a best-selling novel – just as he had so successfully done, incidentally, with Josephine Baker.

"Apparently, Rachel Dorange is not satisfied with the print run...."

Marcel Sauvage was a well-known poet and novelist but he is best remembered for his collaboration with Josephine Baker in the writing of her memoirs, a distillation of interviews that they conducted over a period of 20 years. The memoirs were published in French in 1949 and an English translation, "Fearless and Free," appeared in 2025.

Considering that Rachel's revelations in the stage version of her memoirs were deemed too hot to handle by Georges Ravon, Marcel Sauvage may have had second thoughts if and when he looked into Rachel's 1,000 pages of "notes" (a 4-inch stack of paper weighing 9 or 10 pounds).

Why did Rachel want her memoirs turned into a novel? Was this a ploy to escape prosecution for libel? Or was it an admission that the memoirs, wholly or partly, were already fiction?

And what was the outcome of the lawsuit? As with other aspects of Rachel's life we are left with more questions than answers.