She was born Rachelle Zylberberg in Belgium, a Jewish child abandoned in infancy by her unwed mother and left alone at 12 when her father, a drunken Polish refugee, was arrested by the Nazis in France. She hid in as convent. After the war, she sold bras in the streets of Paris and vowed to become rich and famous someday. She died on May 1, at 92.

In 1957, calling herself Régine, she borrowed money and opened a basement nightclub on a Paris back street. And so began Chez Régine, widely regarded as the world’s first discothèque. In the 1970s, it became a $500 million empire of 23 clubs in Europe, the Middle East, and the Americas, including Régine’s in Manhattan, catering to the stretch-limousine crowd of arts and entertainment stars, society celebs, princes, playboys and Beautiful People. An effervescent empresaria with flaming red hair, Régine was known to everyone who was anyone as “Queen of the Night.”

By the end of the 1990s, Régine’s international empire had dwindled to a handful of clubs. In recent years, she lived in Paris, supported charities, gave occasional parties, and saw old friends. “I don’t want people to feel sorry for me,” she said. “I want them to laugh with me and to be happy.”