Eldorado reopens!

The show must go on.
Eldorado reopens and whether there will be a stage performance or not, we step into a new era in Eldorado’s history since we lost Sonatta – the Star of Berlin.
Max will be at the piano, Myron will play some tunes, and perhaps someone will perform.
Join us for dance and drinks this Saturday, June 19th, 2pm SLT.

Hier ist richtig!

Achtung performers!

Eldorado is looking for you!
Eldorado will reopen on Saturday 19 June 2pm SLT. There will be music and good company, but will there be a stage performance?
Are You interested but you can’t perform every week?
No problem.
For now we’re looking at a rotating schedule for several performers. First of all, Sonatta set a standard how she wanted to have her shows. If you have seen her perform, this may, or may not, be what you have in mind.
We are open to ideas and suggestions.
A few things to consider…What ideas do you have?
Do you have a theme for your show?
Do you want any particular music for your performance?
Or do you prefer to perform without any theme and do your thing?
Do you want a special set built or would you prefer to perform against a more neutral background? Would you build sets?
Do you have clothes, props, and the look for your stage show?
(Keep it classy. Strip is okay but lower parts should be covered.)
Do you have a range of animations you can use?
Do you feel this could be something for you?

If you think you could perform at the Eldorado, please get in touch with Myron Byron inworld via message, or better, by sending a notecard.

Eldorado Cabaret celebrates 6th anniversary!

Picture by Jelena Matova

In 1925 (2011) the infamous Eldorado Kabarett opened its doors to the public for the first time.
A place that would embody the wild, free and bohemian spirit of our city.

With the well known designer Sonatta Morales at the helm our Cabaret soon became one of the most popular spots in Berlin and even (in)famous outside of our sim.
Every Saturday she builds a set, choreographs a dance and puts a costume together for a different show every week while Myron spins the disks as smoothly as he spins his lady on the dance floor.
Jelena pours drinks for customers who suddenly become a lot thirstier when they see her, Sasa sells ciggies and nuts to guests who turn into chain smokers when she shakes her smokes.
Sometimes Crazy Cad manhandles the drum kit and sometimes Henry is somewhere in the back counting the empty bottles.
And Max the piano player, well he provides services I can not repeat here.

It is one hell of a team they’ve got there, and these are just the people I remember, don’t wordpress and schnaps kids.

This Saturday the 24th at 2pm we’ll have a special 6th anniversary show, everybody is welcome as long as you’re wearing 1920s clothes and have a realistic avatar.
And just like in the 1920s; cross dressing is encouraged but not a rule.

A club that not only has been around and doing very well for over 6 years but that manages to keep surprising its visitors with a brand new show every week, that must be some sort of record.

Just like the real Eldorado, our place is a safe haven for gays, transvestites and of course straight people as well.
Back then Berlin was probably the only city where you could have a place be this public about what went on inside, the Eldorado was so famous it was promoted to tourists as a place you must visit and magazines published photo spreads.
A kind of freedom and tolerance almost unheard of in the rest of the world at that time and sadly still not that generally accepted today.

Berlin: Das Vergnügungsetablissement “Eldorado” an der Ecke Motz- und Kalckreuthstraße. (Aufn.: 1932)

The real life Eldorado, Tanzlokale für Herren was an openly gay and transvestite friendly bar situated at the corner of Motzstraße and Kalckreuthstraße from 1926 to 1933.

It is referred to in countless novels and guide books over the years, including those by Christopher Isherwood, well known for writing “Goodbye to Berlin” and the musical and movie;”Cabaret”.
Eldorado became immensely popular and a centre of attraction for homosexuals, transvestites, transsexuals and open-minded people, among whom numerous artists and writers.
In the late 1920s it was considered the most fashionable nightclub in Berlin.
The cabaret shows and the refined atmosphere of the nightclub (in which is was difficult to distinguish the boundary between “male” and “female”) became legendary, and were immortalized by artists such as Otto Dix.
Eldorado is even mentioned in the first German-language recording of a song featuring an openly gay love affair in 1929, ‘Am Sonntag will mein Süßer mit mir Segeln geh’n’.

It featured regular performances by the likes of Marlene Dietrich, Paul O’Montis, Claire Waldoff and the Weintraub Syncopators, and was widely known to be a regular venue for transvestites and transexuals.
Customers could buy ‘chips’ to exchange for dances with the ‘performers’ who would then compare to see who got the most tokens and thus was most popular.
Of course it was most fun if a man gave a token to a transvestite thinking it was a woman.

In February of 1933, the Berlin Chief of Police announced a “comprehensive campaign against Berlin’s depraved nightlife” and brought forward the closing time of all “amusements with dancing of the homosexual kind’” to 10 O’clock.
Shortly afterwards Hermann Goering ordered the closure of a raft of premises and the Eldorado was raided and closed down.
The premises was then taken over by the Nazis and used as a local headquarters.

The writers and artists that had made the cabaret shows unique underwent brutal persecution by the regime. Many of them were arrested and deported to the concentration camps.
Others committed suicide in order to escape the torturers, and others took refuge in the United States.
Ending the golden age of art, culture and tolerance in Berlin for several decades.

But being the wild and free spirited city she is, Berlin today is (almost) back to her former glory.

In Second Life you can join us and try and experience that wonderful moment in history when the exotic nights at the Eldorado seemed to go on for ever.

Sources:
http://www.cabaret-berlin.com/?p=11
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eldorado_(Berlin)

Picture by Jelena Matova

Happy 8th anniversary as a tenant in 1920s Berlin, Sonatta Morales!

Wait, what, I hear you think.
You’re celebrating the 8th anniversary of 1920s Berlin next week and yet famous model, designer and night club owner Sonatta Morales is celebrating her 8th anniversary as a tenant already?

And you’re right, something fishy is going on here!
I am horrific at math but even I know that this isn’t quite right.

The truth behind this strange situation is that Sonatta is a cheeky sneaky naughty squatter!
When I started Building my very first version of 1920s Berlin, a tiny skybox with one club, one cinema and a few shops, I asked Sonatta if she wanted to open a shop there.
I wasn’t sure if she would because I was a total noob with no experience and just a crazy idea, while she appeared to be so much more experienced, had her own shop and even knew how to rotate a prim, still something I had to master.

We had met in a club named Flashmans and chatted about my Berlin idea and she was very enthousiastic and much to my relief, she said yes and started decorating a little shop.
But without my knowing, she secretly created a little room above her shop and had put some furniture in it!
She had moved in and had become the first tenant in Berlin long before I had even thought about building something residential, long before I even realised some people might actually want to live in this pile of prims I was gluing together.

And that dear children, is the story of how Sonatta became a tenant before Berlin was even opened to the public.

Today Berlin wouldn’t be Berlin without her.
Not only are her clothes the pride of the KaDeWe department store, is her modern Bauhaus villa the talk of Behrenstrasse, are the scandals with young dashing men and some famous German actresses the gossip of the day, but she also runs the Eldorado Cabaret.
The most amazing club in SL where people can be themselves and enjoy a brand new show every single Saturday, a show Sonatta creates, every weekend again.

But before all that she is my best friend, confidant and partner in crime in this crazy virtual world.

Happy 8th anniversary Sonatta!

Open door & Relaxed rules day!

As part of our 7th anniversary celebrations we are organising a so called ‘Open door & Relaxed Rules Day’.

As you may know, Berlin has a dress code, we ask visitors to look realistic and authentic for the theme of our sim.
But today, Sunday June 6th, as part of our anniversary celebrations, we are relaxing our rules for one day.
So on this day you are welcome to come and explore our sim without having to appear in a realistic form or wear 1920s clothes.
Any kind of avatar will be welcome, but we do have a few rules;

-Don’t be naked, no naughty bits on display.
-No Nazi stuff, FYI; it is against LL’s Terms Of Service.
-Don’t harass and bother others, be nice.

And to make your visit extra special, some of our local tenants have opened up their doors to the public!
Normally we treat every home like we would in real life; no trespassing or you get locked up!
But today you can enter any home that has an ‘Open house’ sign next to the front door.
Go see how the people of Berlin live, but kindly refrain from going through underwear drawers.

For locals this may be a good day to show Berlin to your friends who have not been here before and may feel a bit intimidated by our rules or roleplay.

For our tenants this is also a special day.
It can be a lot of fun to ‘let your hair down’ in this city and go a bit crazy.
We will allow flying on this day so you can see the city from a whole new angle, but you are will also not be locked up for doing things that are unrealistic or unauthentic.
So the people who normally live here as 1920s Berliner, may choose today to wear something different and do things normally not allowed here.
So don’t be surprised if you see a giant robot roam the streets, a space ship crash into the canal or find yourself in a city wide flood!

Have fun and remember, this is a great excuse to bring some of your SL friends to Berlin who have not been before!

The 1920s Berlin Project celebrates its 7th anniversary!

In January 2007 I first joined Second Life, I looked around for a bit, didn’t see anything I liked, didn’t like what I saw and left after a few days.
In February 2009 I decided to run Second Life again, simply to test the ability of my then new computer.
And minutes before I decided that Second Life was not for me and would leave for ever (again) I found the ‘search’ option, tried a few search terms that appealed to me and found the first sim I actually liked; a surreal vintage bar called ‘Flashmans’.
There I suddenly realised that I everything I saw was made by users just like me and that maybe I could create something myself.
And I was doomed lost hooked.
The rest is, as they call it, history.

Within weeks I started working on The 1920s Berlin Project and on May the 30th 2009 I opened the door to a little very basic, noob build bar and let the public in for the first time.
The 1920s Berlin Project was born!

Still a noob who barely knew what she was doing, with no experience whatsoever, I started what would soon grow into a vibrant active community of wonderful people.
In our fantastic neighbourhood people have been extremely creative, active and something great and rare is the result.
I cannot put into words how much the sim and its people means to me and to my delight it means a lot to many of those who live there as well.

On the 30th of May 2016 we’re celebrating the 7th (!) anniversary of our sim and we’re going to celebrate with 7 days of events!

We hope you come and be part of the celebrations, if you don’t want to change your avatar or outfit, don’t worry.
We end our celebrations with a Relaxed Rules day where we have no dress code and everyone (but naked people, Nazis and naked nazis) is welcome.

We also plan to add extra freebies to our teleport area so if you like free stuff… at least check those out!

Below you’ll find the schedule of events.
Please note that certain events, times and dates may still be subject to change.
Feel free to join us in the Berlin group chat to stay up to date.

All times are Second Life time.

Monday, May 30th
13:00 Special dinner at the Nussbaum restaurant.
14:00 SLT – 7th Anniversary Dance at the Pariser Platz (At the foot of the Brandenburger Tor) with a show by Sonatta Moralesta Morales and with DJ Myron Byron.

Tuesday, May 31st
14:00 happy hour at the Volksbad!
Join us at the public baths for a wild party in the pool.
Swimming suits will be provided.
16:00 Little gathering at the exclusive penthouse in the Hotel Adlon for supporters.

Wednesday, June 1st
14:00 Happy Hour at the Biergarten
15:00 Open stage at the Odeon theatre!
Want to sing, read a poem, dance, or do some magic?
This is your chance, step up and earn some tips!
16:00 Special Church service
18:00 Late night extra festive dance at the Hotel Adlon’s ball room.

Thursday, June 2nd
2:00 “Tiki” themed party at the Spree, with a bar in a small park near the Spree behind the department store and with “Floating Ring Race” in the Spree with prize and 1920s submarine toy for everyone.
13:00 Car rally around Berlin!
Prizes for the winner!
14:00 “Tiki” themed Happy Hour with a bar in a small park near the Spree behind the department store.

Friday, June 3rd
14:00 Festive dinner followed by Tango themed dance at the Hotel Adlon’s ball room.
Submissions for photo contest close!
15:00 LIVE performance by musician Joaquin Gustav!
16:00 Several groups representing the Berlin community march through Berlin in a wonderful parade.
17:00 Join us in the wonderful bar in the Hotel Adlon basement for the enjoyment of the best cigarettes, pipes and cigars during Smoking Hour.
18:00 Special festive version of the weekly “Herrenclub” party… 18+ only!

Saturday, June 4th
11:00 Tea dance at the Hotel Adlon with announcement of Photo contest winner.
12:00 Miss Berlin Contest! Who will be Miss Berlin 1929? Amazing prizes by famous designer Sonatta Morales and Herr von Rosenheim of ‘Gustav’s’!
More information can be found by clicking here.
13:15 Soapbox Airplane race for kids!
14:00 Very Special Cabaret show at the Eldorado!
17:00 Extra festive class at the school for all kids.

Sunday, June 5th
All day: Open Door Day & Relaxed rules day
On this day everyone is welcome to visit our sim and take a good look around and see more of the sim than you’re usually allowed to see.
Several of our tenants will also the doors to their private apartments and an ‘Open House’ sign will show you where you can enter and explore how the people in the city live.
We also relax our dress code so you can come in modern clothes or as a non-realistic avatar.
13:00 SLT Sport and Health Class at Hindenburg Schule
14:00 SLT – Special freebie hour at the Biergarten with a free gift for every visitor!
15:00 PM SLTish; We let our hair down! Without dress code we look the other way while the locals go a bit crazy and rez whatever they want.
Don’t be shocked if you see King Kong climb the Brandenburger Gate, space ships flying over Alexanderplatz or people shooting cake at each other.

You can find our sim here;
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/1920s%20Berlin%20Project/242/224/1929

We also have a photo contest!

The theme is; “People of Berlin”.

You can choose any subject you like as long as the person or people, and our city here are in the frame. Use your imagination, show everyone the kind of adventures, fun or just daily chores visitors can experience in our sim.

The rules;
-You can adapt, improve or play with the snapshots in photoshop or with other software.
-No nudity, adult subjects or anything that is against SL rules.
-No modern (post 1920s) subjects, clothes, objects, etc.
-Snapshot must be taken in the 1920s Berlin Project sim.
-Photo may be used by us for PR.

-Contest closes on June 3rd, pictures received after this date will not be judged.
-Winner will be anounced on June 4th at the Adlon Tea Dance.

The first prize is L$1000, second prize is L$500!

• To take part;
  Upload your snapshots to this Flickr Group;
  https://www.flickr.com/groups/20sberlin/
• Make sure you mention ‘People of Berlin’ in the description of the photo.
• Also make sure you ad the correct slurl, people who see your photo may decide to visit Berlin and thus you will be helping the project; http://slurl.com/secondlife/1920s%20Berlin/236/232/751

 

The Eldorado Cabaret celebrates its 4th anniversary!

Picture by Jelena Matova

In 1925 (2011) the infamous Eldorado Kabarett opened its doors to the public for the first time.
A place that would embody the wild, free and bohemian spirit of our city.

With the well known designer Sonatta Morales at the helm our Cabaret soon became one of the most popular spots in Berlin.
Every Saturday she builds a set, choreographs a dance and puts a costume together for a different show every week!

This Saturday at 2pm we’ll have a special 4th anniversary show, everybody is welcome as long as you’re wearing 1920s clothes and have a realistic avatar.
And just like in the 1920s; cross dressing is encouraged.

Just like the real Eldorado, our place is a safe haven for gays, transvestites and of course straight people as well.
Back then Berlin was probably the only place where you could have a place be this public about what went on inside, the Eldorado was so famous it was promoted to tourists as a place you must visit and magazines published photo spreads.
A kind of freedom and tolerance almost unheard of in the rest of the world at that time and sadly still not that generally accepted today.

Berlin: Das Vergnügungsetablissement “Eldorado” an der Ecke Motz- und Kalckreuthstraße. (Aufn.: 1932)

The real life Eldorado, Tanzlokale für Herren was an openly gay and transvestite friendly bar situated at the corner of Motzstraße and Kalckreuthstraße from 1926 to 1933.

It is referred to in countless novels and guide books over the years, including those by Christopher Isherwood, well known for writing “Goodbye to Berlin” and the musical and movie;”Cabaret”.
Eldorado became immensely popular and a centre of attraction for homosexuals, transvestites, transsexuals and open-minded people, among whom numerous artists and writers.
In the late 1920s it was considered the most fashionable nightclub in Berlin.
The cabaret shows and the refined atmosphere of the nightclub (in which is was difficult to distinguish the boundary between “male” and “female”) became legendary, and were immortalized by artists such as Otto Dix.
Eldorado is even mentioned in the first German-language recording of a song featuring an openly gay love affair in 1929, ‘Am Sonntag will mein Süßer mit mir Segeln geh’n’.

It featured regular performances by the likes of Marlene Dietrich, Paul O’Montis, Claire Waldoff and the Weintraub Syncopators, and was widely known to be a regular venue for transvestites and transexuals.
Customers could buy ‘chips’ to exchange for dances with the ‘performers’ who would then compare to see who got the most tokens and thus was most popular.
Of course it was most fun if a man gave a token to a transvestite thinking it was a woman.

In February of 1933, the Berlin Chief of Police announced a “comprehensive campaign against Berlin’s depraved nightlife” and brought forward the closing time of all “amusements with dancing of the homosexual kind’” to 10 O’clock.
Shortly afterwards Hermann Goering ordered the closure of a raft of premises and the Eldorado was raided and closed down.
The premises was then taken over by the Nazis and used as a local headquarters.

The writers and artists that had made the cabaret shows unique underwent brutal persecution by the regime. Many of them were arrested and deported to the concentration camps.
Others committed suicide in order to escape the torturers, and others took refuge in the United States.
Ending the golden age of art, culture and tolerance in Berlin for several decades.

But being the wild and free spirited city she is, Berlin today is (almost) back to her former glory.

In Second Life you can join us and try and experience that wonderful moment in history when the exotic nights at the Eldorado seemed to go on for ever.

Sources:
http://www.cabaret-berlin.com/?p=11
http://www.eldoradoberlin.de 
http://www.everyonegroup.com/files/eldorado.pdf http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eldorado_(Berlin)

Picture by Jelena Matova

Hansi Sturm returns to the Eldorado

In 1920s Berlin we like to tell our visitors about how exciting and interesting that city was back then.
One of the places that does this is is our Eldorado club, a so called transvestitenlokal, based on a real gay and cross dressers club.

Berlin was famous for its tolerance and this club where women dressed like men and men like women was very well known and in stead of hidden away it was celebrated, written about and visited by people from all walks of life.

One of the stars in this scene was Hansi Sturm, married father of two who in the evening changed into ‘Miss Eldorado’, entertaining the crowds ad the infamous club with his singing and dancing.
Ending each show by throwing his fake breasts at the orchestra.

Hansi became somewhat of a celebrity, even outside the gay and transvestite scene.
Postcards show him as Miss Eldorado but there was even an article about him in a regular magazine.

But of course the golden age of tolerance and freedom ended and after the Nazis took over power in Germany, the many gay clubs were closed and Hansi vanished into the shadows of history.
We don’t know what happened to him, was he persecuted and was he murdered in a camp somewhere, did he hide his past and ended up being forced into the army or did he manage to do one more transformation and turned into a regular man who managed to stay unnoticed for the rest of his life?

We just don’t know and it made me a bit sad.
Because the last thing Hansi seems to have wanted was to end up being practically unheard of.

By bringing a Hansi avatar to Second Life and letting her/him relive his glory days, in our own little way, bring him back from oblivion.
And share his story with the visitors of our sim.

From now on Hansi will perform at the Eldorado club almost every Saturday at 2pm SLT.

Eldorado Anniversary!

The Eldorado is Berlin’s infamous Gay and cross dressers club, based on a real place that was the talk of the town and a safe haven to many.

This weekend we will be celebrating the clubs second anniversary!

Fraulein Sonatta Morales (famous for some of the most amazing vintage fashion available in Second Life) has been running the joint all this time and for some short breaks after the place was raided by the police or everyone got arrested for being naked, things have been going very well.

So, time to celebrate!

To make this a special night, we’re asking everyone to come to cross dress!
Gentlemen put on a lovely 1920s dress, ladies go for that swanky 1920s tuxedo!

There will be a prize for the best cross dressed couple and there will be a show on stage!A party not to be missed!And because this is also our Photo Weekend, expect lots of people to make very nice pictures!

So, see you at the Eldorado, this Saturday, 2pm PDT!

 

The Drax Files

Recently the talented Machinima maker Draxtor Despres started on a new series of short videos about Second Life.

Especially meant to show the other side of this virtual world, those people and communities who are part of something, behave or are involved with those things that most outsiders don’t know are possible in our online universe.

That side of Second Life that is not just about shopping, chatting or virtual hanky panky.

Because, unfortunately, most people who are not themselves a part of Second Life, seem to think that that is the only thing that happens there.

I feel that one of Second Life’s biggest problems is it’s reputation.
So many people have no idea what Second Life is about, all the options it has to offer, all the possibilities.
And if they have any opinions about Second Life at all, they are usually negative.
Shaped by the horror stories from the media but also because Linden Lab isn’t actively trying to change that reputation.
They themselves often promote Second Life with images that reinforce some or all of the preconceptions people may have.

There is nothing wrong with that side of Second Life and I am sure many, if not most people here feel that shopping, chatting and the horizontal tango, are the most important sides of their online adventures.
Not something as boring as education and history.
But even if that is true, it can’t hurt to let people know that this too is a part of Second Life.
After all, the secret behind Second Life is that it is what we make it.
WE and YOU build it and we can make whatever we want.
Once visitors realise that, they stick around.
So I feel that Draxtor’s series is quite important as it is spreading that message as well.

The first episode was about Kriss Lehmann the owner of Botanical and creator of some very nice trees.
Our 1920s Berlin sim is full of them!
You can see this episode by clicking here.

I was very proud when Draxtor asked if he could make his next episode about the 1920s Berlin project and me.

Over the course of a week, Draxtor immersed himself into our little community and shot lots of film, eventually editing it together into the second episode of ‘The Drax Files’.

The episode turned out very nice and we’re happy to say that it has been received very enthusiastically.

But we’re also very happy that Draxtor felt so much at home in our neighbourhood and has been returning to our streets even after his work there was done.

You can see the episode here;

“She makes hungry where most she satisfies…”

Plutarch tells us that Caesar’s war in Egypt was unnecessary, but provoked by his unquenchable desire for Cleopatra. God only knows what would have happened if old Julius had wandered into the Eldorado last night to witness Frl Morales’s Egyptian themed gyrations. The sight of our brazen hostess moving sinuously to a throbbing beat, naked to the waist and flaunting the most attractive asp in Berlin, would no doubt have inspired him to feats that would have left Alexander the Great retitled Alexander the Quite Good and left our dear Sonatta as Queen of the Known World.

This was another superb show from our Queen of Berlin, with a stage set of wonderful ingenuity. By the time the lady had vanished into a large sarcophagus, leaving the audience blinking in amazement, one was left reflecting on how different one’s school days might have been if history had been taught like this back in the day. As Shakespeare had it, “She makes hungry where most she satisfies.”

Able support was given, as usual, by the splendid Herr Byron, who entertained us yet again with his seemingly endless supply of vintage discs. The Eldorado…it’s what Saturdays were made for!