The theatre opened on May 2, 1869 as the Folies Trévise. The architect was Plumeret, described as a building inspector for the French crown, and it was built as an opera house modeled on London's Alhambra music hall. It was renamed the Folies Bergère on September 13, 1872, after the nearby Rue Bergère. It stands at 32 Rue Richer in the 9th arrondissement.
The artist Maurice Pico redid the facade in 1926 in Art Deco style. Paul Derval, the director who shaped its revues, is not credited with the facade. The article gives no seating capacity, interior layout or construction details.
It features Josephine Baker's banana costume and describes it two ways: a bikini bottom with rubber bananas in the lead, and a skirt of artificial bananas in the history section. Her 1936 return and a 1937 commission to Maurice Hermite for the same revue appear without an explanation of the sequence.
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