Pam Pam, Paris 1950s

Pam Pam was originally created by an American named Parker as a US style restaurant with good steaks, burgers and other transatlantic staples. In the 1930s, the management at Café de la Paix bought Pam Pam, and began to create a chain of restaurants inspired from the original American model and putting forward fast service and affordable prices. A  Pam Pam was opened on the Champs-Elysées, another on the location of the Opera Bar. Riding on a successful trend, those initial Parisian attempts at fast food were highly profitable right into the seventies. Here is a taste of what the music and social scene was like at Pam Pam before and after WW2 from Willy Blioch: "My mother was a jazz musician before the war. She played the saxophone, violin and clarinet and played with Stephane Grappelli, Warlop, Jacques Hélian, Count Basie ... then you have the big bands ... Duke Ellington, Errol Garner. .. Jimmy Smith played for three months - for free! I remember seeing Ella Fitzgerald singing with Charles Aznavour with the 40-piece orchestra behind them, some sitting on the bar. Rita Heyworth on the Terrace. Glenn Ford, Roger Moore and Jack Warner, the head of Warner Bros Films. And Edith Piaf. C'était le rendez-vous."

This cover is by celebrated poster artist Pierre Fix-Masseau.

Courtesy Private Collection.

Each print is accompanied by a copy of the interior menu where available.

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