Welcome to the Maxime Hotel in Lisbon, to the cabaret, to bohemia, to kisses exchanged and to whispered secrets, welcome to the music and dancing.

This is Maxime

[1920]
THE ROARING TWENTIES
Economic, social, and cultural prosperity. Widespread consumption and ostentation are on the rise. Entertainment becomes essential to life and Lisbon sees the emergence of the first nightclubs, gambling establishments, dancing clubs, and cabarets, among them, Club Maxim’s, one of the icons of Lisbon’s nightlife at that time.
[1949-1959]
Maxime Dancing
10 YEARS OF GLORY
On 30 November 1949, Maxime Dancing opens its doors, in Praça da Alegria, inspired by the former Maxim’s.
A luxurious cabaret along Parisian lines with orchestras and choreographic shows.
For years it was the stage of grandiose national and international performances. Singers, actors, dancers, Spanish hostesses made this stage their home.
Maxime Dancing was unique and unrivaled, with its own atmosphere, light effects ahead of its time, “The best cabaret of Lisbon of all times”.
Here, performed the great names of Portuguese singing – António Calvário, Simone de Oliveira, Tony de Matos, Alfredo Marceneiro, fado singer Fernando Farinha and great artists – Raúl Solnado, José Viana and Gina Braga. This site even received Júlio Iglésias in the early days of his career. [1960]
Maxime Dancing
THE DECLINE
With the passing of time, the customers thinned and its golden period gradually slipped into a paradise of decadence that lasted for various years. The famous Spanish dancers were replaced by dancers from the East and the formerly renowned shows gave way to fado and folklore at proper hours of the day and young ladies stripping off their clothes at improper hours.
[2006-2011]
Maxime
THE REBIRTH AND THE END
Manuel João Vieira attempted to recreate a new Portuguese cabaret, rescuing this emblematic site from the decadent atmosphere that called for its end in the 1960s. From 2006 onwards and for approximately 5 years, Maxime returned to being fashionable and rapidly gained its place in the roadmap of Lisbon’s nightlife, being the stage of various concerts and burlesque shows. In 2011, the red M encrusted in a sort of blue insignia faded into nothing and Maxime ended up closing its doors.
[2018]
Maxime
BECAME A HOTEL AND REOPENED ITS DOORS
Seven years later, the ultimate expression of bohemian Lisbon of the middle of the last century, Maxime, becomes a Hotel and reopens more passionate than ever for the capital that was always its cradle. Maxime rejuvenates to accompany the city’s lifestyle and promises to be the stage of grandiose experiences for those who wish to live and feel the city through the vibrant and glamorous concept of the cabaret. Maxime Hotel broadens its horizons to accommodate, within its doors, the experience of the whole wide world.

A tribute to the former chorus girls and dancers

The soul of cabaret

At the Maxime Hotel the chorus girls and dancers, who, for years, gave life to the stage of Cabaret Maxime, will be eternally remembered.
Each of the 70 deluxe rooms lends them tribute through the pictures that illustrate the walls and give soul to the room. And one of them, the 501, is truly special because, being called Judite, it celebrates the life of this artist, who has acted here several times. The story of Judith, “Batatinha”, given this nickname because she started selling cigarettes and chips at Maxime, intends to remind us of all choristers who have passed by and left their mark here. The Spanish girls, on the other hand, also had a determining role in the history of Maxime. Perky and more outgoing than the Portuguese dancers and choristers, the “Irmancitas” were fleeing from Franco’s dictatorship and delighting the Portuguese. Sometimes they acted alone, but most of the time they acted in groups, in the famous Troupes, like the Troupe Hispánica. In the Dressing Room, they are honored through the sisters Las Carmencitas, who are the characters that inhabit this thematic room and give life to the most famous Spanish dancers of the Maxime Restaurant-Bar these days.

photos:
Arquivo Municipal de Lisboa | Hemeroteca Municipal de Lisboa | Biblioteca de Arte-Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian

In 1900 the bohemian life has passed by an artistic ideal, but time has consecrated it as nightly existence, made of bars and clubs, restaurants (after hours) and Fado houses.

Lisbon bohemian city

In the beginning of the 20th century, in the late 20s, Lisbon’s night was inseparable from its theatres, from the drama to the comedy, from the operetta (still quite popular) to the revue theatre, whose Parque Mayer Theatre opens
to the public in 1922, promising a theatre, a carousel. In the caffés, the modernist’s reign, always being peeked by the public, curious to know the crazy people from the Orpheu revue (Fernando Pessoa, Almada Negreiros, Santa Rita Pintor or Mário de Sá
Carneiro). The coffee “A Brasileira” in Chiado is one of the mandatory stops and is still nowadays the place for gatherings of the artists. It is also the time of the cabarets, of the possible version of the “roaring twenties, the jazz age” as it was called,
or with the Palacio da Foz giving its cards on the swing. A saying by Fernando Pessoa marks this time: “I was never more than an isolated bohemian; or a mystic bohemian, which is an impossible thing”
The typical fado taverns are not considered as traditional and the number of fado houses, to listen the ‘national song’, are increasing, including in good restaurants, closing later and gathering new social reunions, especially those composed by theatre people,
coming after the shows, and all kinds of artist and intellectuals who flourished in inspiration but lacked in sleep. To have a little of everything, without having against fado, Lisbon’s Praça da Algria shone in tripartite pleasures, between the Maxime, The
Ritz Club and the Hot Club of Portugal, whose doors opened in 1948. The bohemian of fado has changed whilst tourists took place on the gatherings. It is still possible to hear the genuine Fado, and some Fado houses can still maintain a remarkable dignity,
but the main fado singers have exchanged their nest by the big theatres or festivals. Once and a while, a new and fresh fado voice echoes.
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