"Nobody Came to Monte Carlo To Be Bored": The Scripting of the Monte Carlo Pleasurescape 1880-1940. (November 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Franke, Paul
• Other Names: Kosok Lisa guest-editor.
• Is Part Of: Journal of urban history. Volume 48:Number 6(2022)
• Page Start: 1247
• Page End: 1260
• Publication Date: 2022-11
• Subjects: scripted spaces -- casino -- gambling -- pleasurescape -- cosmopolitanism -- global city; Cities and towns -- History -- Periodicals; 909.09732
• DOI: 10.1177/00961442221089863
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0096-1442

Abstract

In 1863, the Monegasque government and the newly founded Société des Bains de Mer decided to transform a small hill known as Spélugues into a casino district. Three years later, in 1866, Monte Carlo was officially founded. Over the next three decades, it became a cosmopolitan pleasurescape designed for a nonlocal, seasonal population of gamblers and consumers, separated from the neighboring urban entities. Although not a port city, Monte Carlo constituted a distinctly global space in which the casino company scripted the movements, emotions, and behaviors of visitors for the purpose of gambling and leisure. Monte Carlo represents both a pleasurescape and company town where entertainment and capitalism were prerequisites for its urbanization.