9. Philippe Musard
In the 1800s, a French composer named Philippe Musard lived in London organizing grand balls where people could dance and have a great party. After doing this for a while and making a lot of money, he decided to move back to Paris. He returned home in 1832, right when everyone was terrified of the cholera epidemic. Musard knew that when people are afraid, they want to distract themselves with drinking and partying. So he threw huge balls that winter at the Theatre des Varieties, and became the real-life Great Gatsby. Artist Toulouse-Lautrec attended nearly all of these parties, and some of his paintings are based on them.
Not only did Philippe Musard throw parties for profit, but he also participated in them every single weekend. He invented his own group dances and lyrics for everyone to do together to classic music, like one called the ‘galop infernal’, which was actually hilarious. It is available on YouTube, and hopefully, most people would agree that it would actually be loads of fun to participate in, even today. He was also a musician, and composed his own tunes that his band played for people to dance to, so that the only place they could go to hear those sweet jams was at his party.
Basically, Philippe Musard had the best life ever. He was a professional party-thrower. Even his portrait looks like his face was puffy and his eyes were half-shut as if he was in a permanent state of being wasted or hungover. Musard partied so hard, he probably knew one day, it would kill him. He lived as if every day was his last day, and had a very dark sense of humor. He even had his effigy stamped on a candy bar at a local chocolatier, so that everyone could see it, just in case he died.
Of course, to pious Christian people, though Philippe Musard and his lifestyle was disgusting and sinful. They thought that he must be working with the Devil, because how else could he convince so many “good” people to party like sinners?