After countless encores of the cancan, a French icon fades away

What's next to go, The Eiffel Tower? Last Sunday night the sequins went dark on the stage of France's Folies-Bergere. The oldest music hall in Paris, which once boasted banana-clad Josephine Baker, had long since lost the luster--and audiences--of its youth. Said one Folies confidant "It is too shut off from the outside world. The artistic director is 84 years old, and he just finished his 40th show!" The owners hope to return, but battling the fierce local competition will take more than cancan-do spirit.