The number of visitors never ceased climbing, new rooms were opened and one basked in an atmosphere of privilege that prominent personalities took it upon themselves to maintain. Women were of prime importance : girls of easy virtue or fashionable courtesans together with eccentrics who were to become pioneers of women’s emancipation. La Belle Otéro, a sumptuous gipsy, who had begun to place bets quite innocently from the tender age of 13, then chose to play with other people’s money. Her second marriage was to a Frenchman who passed on to her his passion for gambling. She was just 18 when she set foot in a casino for the first time. That day she won 700,000 frs. She left 30 million on the green baize of the Casino de Monte-Carlo where, in a single evening, she lost 1 million gold francs. Liane de Pougy, who indulged in fierce rivalry with La Belle Otéro, Cléo de Mérode who promulgated the need for women to preserve a few sound principles. This central character also recalls Emilienne d’Alençon, who was just as famous. All these women flitted between judicious sources of inspiration and the men who kept them.
The Salle Blanche was originally designed in 1903 by the architect Schmit as a conversation parlour. He had imagined light fittings borne by immense caryatids, while a strange painting stood out by Paul Gervais, a “Belle Epoque” painter from Toulouse (born September 8th, 1859, in Toulouse – died in 1936). He was inspired by the beauty, as per the canons of the time, of the queens of Monte-Carlo, who could be glimpsed flirting in the lobby of the Hôtel de Paris, haughtily crossing the Place du Casino and seated around a roulette table, surrounded by their admirers. They included the ladies mentioned above : Cléo de Mérode, Liane de Pougy & Caroline Otéro, who quickly recognised their silhouettes in the naked bodies that Gervais enveloped in a few pieces of vaporous tulle : “Les Grâces Florentines”. The theme of the three goddesses of beauty, the Graces, was to be taken up again by Gervais in 1909 for the panel “Les Naïades” at the far end of the Salle Empire dining-room at the Hôtel de Paris. On the theme of the exaltation of the female body, it was a brand new kind of fresco, more romantic than the artist had imagined. Paul Gervais was a painter of history, allegorical subjects, battle scenes, still-lifes. He exhibited his work at the “Salon des Artistes Français” in Paris from 1881 to 1936 and won various prizes including the “Prix du Salon” in 1898, a silver medal at the World Fair of 1900, the Henner Prize in 1908, and the Bonnat Prize in 1929. He was a Knight of the Legion of Honour, promoted to Officer in 1908.
The wall clock is made of gilded wood, carved in the shape of a “violonée” and flanked by two busts of winged cherubs.
Since 1991, when the Salle Blanche was renovated, it has played host to automatic machines.
Following on from this room, Henri Schmit built the Bar Vert in 1903, which was transformed into the “Super-Privés” gaming room in 1973 , then into offices in 1988, when the Salles Touzet were refurbished. The “Snack Touzet” was transferred to the Salle Blanche.
