Café Caprice - Fabled Plateau landmark saw cannibal firebreathers, murder and anti-porn protests

  Let's talk Café Caprice, which was once a sort of landmark bar on St. Denis just north of Mount Royal.
   4557 St Denis housed a rubber company back in the 1920s and then later became a printing company.
  It burned in 1947 and the Caprice Restaurant was born.
  It ran occasional newspaper advertisements noting that it served good food as "le rendez vous des gastronomes" and stayed open until 4 a.m.

- 20 Dec. 1951: Mme. Ernest Ethier, 47, of 3414 Bordeaux was sitting in the joint during a show by a fire breather called Bozo, who was dressed as a cannibal. He managed to spill the flaming liquid on her while walking by. Six years later a judge ordered owner Jean Brossard to pay her $1,462 for her burn injuries.

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-1953 Singer Jean Lapointe landed at the bar after he arrived in Montreal from Quebec City with just twenty bucks in his pocket. He won a $5 prize at amateur night talent contest at what was now known as Cafe Caprice, leading to a steady gig. He called himself Jean Caprice for a while. Lapointe is still alive, now about 82, and in the Canadian Senate.
-1960  Newspaper survey lists it as one of many bars that stayed open serving alcohol well after the legal 2 a.m. closing time.
 -Oct 2 1965  Ruby Viel, 35, of 5212 Parthenais collapsed and died after returning from the dance floor after dancing with what a newspaper described as a "scantily clad young black woman."
-21 Jan 1968 - Jacques Forest, 22, was shot in the abdomen at the bar. He survived. People in the club thought it was part of the show. Police found the suspect after ordering a motorist to park properly. He explained that he was going to meet his brother, whose name police recognized as the suspect.
-1972 Place was smashed up by loansharks who were connected to the FTQ union.

-10 May 1973 three young guys in a brief shootout with police as they were caught with 6 sticks of dynamite which they wanted to use against guys who smashed up the Caprice a week earlier.

-5 Feb 1971 - Andre "Ti Noir" Daigneault, in his thirties, was shot in the stomach and killed at about 2:30 am. About 60 other inebriated revelers were brought into police custody for interrogation by Night Squad Chief Cpt Jacques Cinq Mars and assistants. It was described a biker hangout.

Violette Barette and Claude Lafortune

27 July 1978 - By now it's a full-blown strip club managed by Claude Lafortune Jr., 23. He was arrested after shooting his girlfriend Violette Barette, 24, to death. Barette, who stripped at the bar, was living with him nearby at 444 Gilford Street apt 31.  She was on speed and he had drank copious amounts of rum and smoked marijuana when they quarreled. Lafortune said she came at him with a fork and stabbled him in the elbow and so he shot her. He was tried for manslaughter but the verdict and sentence is unclear. A neighbour testified that Barette had once responded to his request to turn down the music by pointing a shotgun at him.  

The Chauvin sisters

1978-79 Sisters Patricia Chauvin and Maude Chauvin, from France, frequently danced at the club during the time they got in hot water for being girlfriends of brothers Pierre Renaud and Michel Renaud, who had killed a cop and seriously injured two others in a gunfight. They also danced at the Sextuple, Georgio and Doric. "They are beautiful but we had to fire them because they bickered over romance. We don't keep those types of girls here even if they make a lot of money," said manager Georges Lafortune.
 3 Dec 1982 Dozens of feminist protesters came to express displeasure after the club puts up a sign reading "our 1983 models have arrived." The protesters didn't like that the club was comparing women to cars. Vandals painted the window in later months as a brief wave of anti-porn protests hit the city, most notably as Concordia student Paula Sypnowich smashed windows at the Cinema L'Amour a half dozen times in 1983.

-In the 1980s it was renamed Pub de Londres a Berlin and then the Diable Vert until 1998 when it returned to its original name. Management wanted to put the old sign back but the city wouldn't permit it, so they attached it to the ceiling. It's now known as the Clebard Bar.