Timeline

Key figures

Origin and history

The Hotel Blémont, located at 11 rue Ballu in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, was acquired in 1932 by the Society of Dramatic Authors and Composers (SACD) to install its headquarters. This historic building thus became the institutional symbol of an organization founded almost a century and a half earlier, in 1777, by Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais. The SACD, originally created to defend the rights of dramatic authors in the face of Comédie-Française, centralizes its activities in collective management of copyright, support for creation and cultural lobbying.

SACD originated in a meeting on 3 July 1777, where Beaumarchais and other authors (including Saurin, Marmontel and Sedaine) signed a founding deliberation to regulate financial relations with Comédie-Française. This text requires transparency on the revenues of representations and lays the foundations for collective representation of authors. In 1791, their action led to the law on literary and artistic property, still in force today. Hotel Blémont thus embodies the legacy of these struggles for the recognition of the rights of creators.

In the 19th century, SACD was legally structured, particularly under the impulse of Eugene Scribe in 1837. In 1932, the purchase of the Blémont Hotel marked a key step: the headquarters settled there permanently, sheltering from the SACD archives (theatrical plays, operas, scripts) and its contemporary missions. These archives, dating from the 17th century to the present day, document the evolution of dramatic repertoires and the struggles led by the authors for their rights.

Today, the Blémont Hotel remains a central place for defending authors, managing their rights (perception, distribution) and supporting creation through scholarships and cultural events. SACD also engages in lobbying activities, which are reported to the European and French institutions. The building thus symbolizes the link between historical heritage (seat of a bicentennial society) and contemporary intellectual property issues.

The SACD library, accessible online since 2009, maintains unique holdings: manuscripts, scores, scenarios, reflecting the history of French theatre, cinema and television. These archives, coupled with SACD's missions (legal accompaniment, actions for diversity), make the Blémont hotel a memory place and a key player in the national cultural landscape.

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