Paulus (singer)

Paul

Paulus (born February 6, 1845 in Bayonne as Jean-Paulin Habans , † June 1, 1908 in Saint-Mandé ) was a French singer of the easy subject. He was one of the most famous stars of the café concerts at the end of the 19th century.

Life

Poster drawing of Sem (1891)

Paul grew up in Bordeaux as the illegitimate child of the unskilled Jeanne-Marie Habans . However, he himself liked to claim that he came from a family of merchants.

He started his professional life as an employee of a Parisian petroleum lamp factory, joined choral societies ( goguettes ) and also had his first small engagements in the caf'conc scene in Paris in 1864. So and a. in the Eldorado that was very popular at the time .

During a period of poor sales in 1875, he invested the money he earned in a paint and chemical products company in Marseille . However, he knew little about industrial trade and his company failed. He returned to Paris and the café concerts, but from now on his appearance was different. He wore his hair briefly - allegedly because he would otherwise be too warm when working on stage -, his clothes are extravagant and he, like his colleague Aristide Bruant , liked to argue openly with his audience. The loud dispute with a military highly decorated Belgian guest who read the newspaper during his performance remained unforgotten for a long time.

In 1882 he was engaged at the Grand Concert Parisien for a substantial fee ( at the beginning of 175 F / day ) for three years. The contract also allowed him to appear in other cafés "if they were at least 1,500 meters as the crow flies from the Grand Parisien ". He sang up to 40 songs in one evening in various cafes in and around Paris, making him quite wealthy. He owned a villa and employed drivers and servants. He was the first singer to get a fee of more than 400 francs per performance and certainly also one of the first who could afford to spend 60,000 francs a year on his lifestyle. In one evening he earned up to 1,000 francs.

In 1885, when Paul wanted to prematurely cancel his contract with the Concert Parisien and refused to perform there due to his broken employment relationship with director Régnier (" Kosmydor "), the matter went to court. Paul lost the trial and had to pay 30,000 francs in compensation to the operator of the Grand Concert Parisien . However, he immediately signed an offered contract for the same amount at Café Scala .

In revenant de la review

In May 1886 it wrote the text for the song En revenant de la revue which he also performed in Eldorado . It was a song in honor of the French army. On the evening of July 14th, the national holiday , when a large group of spectators broke the barriers on the Longchamp parade grounds to pay homage to the charismatic and popular general and war minister Georges Boulanger , Paulus reacted spontaneously during his evening performance in the well-attended Alcazar and changed the chorus of his song from:

Moi, je faisais qu'admirer
Tous nos braves petits troupiers

on

Moi, je faisais qu'admirer
Notr 'good' Général Boulanger

I have to admire
our brave little soldiers

I have to admire
our brave General Boulanger

This performance received a lot of applause in the hall and he had to sing the song about 20 times. The song in this form became a song in honor of Boulangism and went down in French music history. It was also picked up and interpreted by singers such as André Perchicot and later by Bourvil (1950) and Guy Béart (1982).

Businessman and literary creation

In March 1887 he brought out the magazine La Revue des Concerts together with the composers and lyricists Lucien Delormel (" Grim ") and Léon Garnier , in which he a. a. Abuses behind the scenes of the café-concert scene were denounced, such as contractual conditions to the detriment of the artists.

In 1892 he took over the bankrupt Bataclan Music Theater , which he directed until 1897. Under Paulus' leadership, the Bataclan experienced highlights with the then quite popular artists Léon Garnier , Fragson , Paula Brébion , Aristide Bruant and the Wild West shows by Buffalo Bill . He also toured many cities in Europe, Russia and also in New York .

On December 16, 1906, Paul said goodbye to stage life and, with the help of his well-known colleague Octave Pradels, published his memoirs, which were published in November 1906 as a 33-part series with many illustrations in the magazine "La vie illustrée". These memories are full of anecdotes about the café-concert scene, its contemporaries and legendary artists such as Thérésa , Gustave Nadaud , Celestial Mogador , Virginia Dejazet , Marius Richard , Polin , Harry Fragson , Yvette Guilbert , Félix Mayol , Aristide Bunting , Dranem and of the operetta diva Hortense Schneider .

According to the magazine Die Lieder von Paris from 1903, Paul wrote 2500 works (" 30 années de succès, 2500 créations ") in the 30 years of his career .

death

Paul died in 1908 at the age of 63 and was laid to rest in the south cemetery of Saint-Mandé . Subsequent incorporation of parts of the city in 1923 means that the cemetery area is now part of the 12th arrondissement of Paris.

Songs of Paul (selection)

• La Chaussée Clignancourt 1881, text: Aristide Bruant , music: Paulus,
• Derrière l'omnibus 1883, text: Jules Jouy, music: Louis Raynal,
• En revenant de la revue 1886, text: Lucien Delormel and Léon Garnier, music: Louis-César Desormes,
• Le Père la Victoire 1888, text: Lucien Delormel ( Grim ) and Léon Garnier, music: Louis Ganne ,

literature

• 1908, Octave Pradels, Trente ans de café-concert, souvenirs de Paulus (compiled by Octave Pradels - 300 illustrations. 60 songs) , Paris, Société d'édition et de publications 460 p.
• 1889, André Chadourne, Les cafés-concerts , E. Dentu publisher (Paris, book trade of the société des gens de lettres), 386 pages (on Gallica , as graphic)
• Chantal Brunschwig, Louis-Jean Calvet, Jean-Claude Klein, Cent ans de chanson française , Paris 1981, ISBN 2-02-002915-4
• Serge Dillaz, La Chanson sous la IIIe république (1870–1940) , Tallandier 1991, ISBN 2-235-02055-0

Web links

• Memoirs of Paulus ( compiled by Octave Pradels, 1906 ), French

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} birth certificate
2. ^ ^{A b} Biography of Paul in "Du Temps des cerises aux Feuilles mortes" in French
3. ↑ Memoirs, Chapter 26
4. ↑ C. Brunschwig, L.-J. Calvet, AD Klein, 1981, p. 301; Serge Dillaz, 1991, pp. 47-48
5. ↑ Memoirs, Chapter 25
6. ↑ Zenobii Athoi Proverbia:
   Jakob Vogel: Nations in lockstep : the cult of the “nation in arms” in Germany and France, 1871-1914 (= critical studies on historical science . Volume 118). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 1997, ISBN 978-3-525-35781-1 , p. 231
7. ↑ Lutz Winckler: Unter der Coupole: Die Paris-Feuilletons Hermann Wendels 1933-1936 (= studies and texts on the social history of literature. Volume 47). de Gruyter, 1995, p. 175
8. ↑ Memoirs, Chapter 28
9. ↑ Chansons de Paris , Issue No. 2 of May 3, 1903, p. 10