Marguerite Boulc'h

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Fréhel at the age of eighteen (1908).

Marguerite Boulc'h (stage names : Fréhel ; Pervenche ; born July 13, 1891 in Paris , † February 3, 1951 in Paris) was a French chanson singer and actress .

Life

Fréhel has circulated numerous anecdotes about her childhood and youth that can only be assessed as historical facts to a limited extent. Her parents came from Primel-Trégastel in Brittany , the father was a former seaman, the mother a housemaid who was looking for a living in Paris and had the daughter raised by her grandmother in Primel-Trégastel during the first few years. She is said to have performed as a street singer at the age of five, accompanied by a blind man, and since she was eight, after the death of her father, contributed to the family's income through casual work.

She made her real debut as a singer in 1906, at the age of sixteen, in the Brasserie de l'Univers and soon became famous as a representative of the socially realistic chanson. Colette described the eighteen-year-old as a “little singer, so new to the business that she has not yet had the time to dye her chestnut-colored hair an oxygen-blonde. She has only just made the leap from the Boulevard Exterieur to the stage and cannot yet believe that her voice now earns 210 francs a month ” ( La vagabonde , 1957).

The high point of her career she herself saw the time of her love affair with Maurice Chevalier , which, however, after Chevalier left her for Mistinguett , was followed by a deep personal crash and eleven years of alcohol, ether and cocaine addiction. During this time she lived outside France, including in Constantinople, Russia and Romania, and did not return to Paris until 1923. There she experienced a spectacular comeback and soon appeared in films ( Cœur de lilas 1931, Le Roman d'un tricheur 1936, Pépé le Moko - In the dark of Algiers 1936). This second phase of their success only lasted a few years. At the end of the 1940s she lived temporarily in a poor home in Le Vésinet near Paris, and spent the last years of her life impoverished in a small hotel on Rue Pigalle.

Discography

  • 1930: L'Obsédé
  • 1930: Pauvre grand
  • 1930: Sous la blafarde
  • 1930: Comme un moineau
  • 1931: Comme une fleur
  • 1931: La Coco
  • 1931: Quand on a trop de coeur
  • 1931: La Chanson du vieux marin
  • 1931: À la dérive
  • 1932: Musette
  • 1933: Le Grand Léon
  • 1933: C'est un mâle
  • 1935: La Peur
  • 1935: Il encaisse tout
  • 1935: Il est trop tard
  • 1935: Où sont tous mes amants
  • 1935: Rien ne vaut l'accordéon
  • 1936: La Valse à tout le monde
  • 1936: Le Fils de la femme poisson
  • 1936: Les filles qui la nuit ...
  • 1936: Maison louche
  • 1936: Tel qu'il est
  • 1936: Et v'la pourquoi
  • 1936: Pépé le moko
  • 1936: Sous la flotte
  • 1936: Tout change dans la vie
  • 1936: C'est un petit bal musette
  • 1937: Pleure
  • 1938: Derrière la clique
  • 1938: L'Amour des hommes
  • 1938: La Chanson des fortifs
  • 1938: La Môme catch-catch
  • 1939: Ohé! les copains!
  • 1939: La Der des der
  • 1939: La Java bleue
  • 1939: Sans lendemain

Filmography

  • 1932: Cœur de lilas
  • 1934: Amok
  • 1934: La Rue sans nom
  • 1936: Le Roman d'un tricheur
  • 1936: Gigolette
  • 1937: Pépé le Moko - In the dark of Algiers (Pépé le Moko)
  • 1937: L'Innocent
  • 1938: La Maison du Maltais
  • 1938: Le Puritain
  • 1938: La Rue sans joie
  • 1939: Berlingot et company
  • 1939: Une java
  • 1940: L'Entraîneuse
  • 1941: L'Enfer des Anges
  • 1947: L'Homme traqué
  • 1949: Maya
  • 1949: Un homme marche dans la ville

literature

  • Kelley Conway: Chanteuse in the City. University of California Press, Berkeley 2004, ISBN 0-520-24019-7 , pp. 91ff.

Web links

Commons : Fréhel  - collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Boulc'h, Marguerite
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Fréhel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French chanson singer and actress
DATE OF BIRTH July 13, 1891
PLACE OF BIRTH Paris , France
DATE OF DEATH 3rd February 1951
Place of death Paris , France