Maurice Chevalier

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32805, 4 January 1972, Page 10

Maurice Chevalier

In December, 1901, the Casino de Tourelles in Paris announced a new attraction: “ Little Chevalier, Miniature Comic”. Sixty-seven years later at the Theatre des Champs Elysees an audience uncertain whether to cheer or cry heard Maurice Chevalier announce his retirement from the stage. He was then 80. No other performer — not even Charlie Chaplin — enjoyed a career which began in nineteenth-century music halls and continued on into the spectacular television shows of the 19605; few performers made so great a contribution to the development of the entertainment industry; few delighted so many millions of people through three or four generations. Maurice Chevalier, the irrepressible, saucy, and elegant personification of France, once said that his life-long love affair was with his audiences.

Chevalier’s humble birth in a Parisian slum, his debut as an acrobat at the age of 12, were all but forgotten early in the twentieth century when he went on to appear in the world-famous FoliesBergere. Long before publicity managers had taken over organising the lives of entertainers Chevalier established a world reputation from his association with the beautiful star of the Folies — Mistinguett. In a dance number, “ La Valse Reneversante ”, they were wrapped together in a carpet. The romance that followed lasted for years and ended only when the couple finally became rivals for public popularity. Chevalier worshipped his beautiful partner, but marriage was never mentioned. “To limit her loyalties “ and bind them into matrimony would have been as “ unnatural as trying to wed the wind ", he said.

Like another Frenchman who was later to act his way into the history of the twentieth century — Charles de Gaulle — Chevalier was wounded and captured by the Germans during World War I. Fifty years later Chevalier and de Gaulle, then President of the Fifth Republic, appeared on stage together to sing a duet at a charity ball. While a prisoner Chevalier learnt English with the charming accent he maintained carefully until the end of his life. The warm lilt of his voice became as much a part of his personality as the straw boater which he first affected on his appearance in London in 1919. Today Chevalier is remembered best for his films made in the last 15 years — “ Can-Can ", “ Count Your Bless- “ ings ”, and “ Gigi ”, with its intimitable song, “ Thank Heaven for Little Girls But Chevalier was a cinema actor of renown 40 years ago, from the time he went to Hollywood in 1929 to make “ Innocents of “ Paris ”. His light-hearted enthusiasm for life brought Into the latter half of the twentieth century something of the gaiety of Paris in the “ naughty nineties ”. He was jaunty, elegant, and unaffected, a reminder that laughter should know no limits of age or nation. His death, at the age of 83, will sadden people of all ages, in every country.