Pierre Peloux
(COMÉDIENS)
5 Rue Houdon, 75018 Paris, France

Pierre Peloux was a radio, stage, television and cinema actor. In the 1950s you could have seen him at the Théâtre de l’Œuvre in the play Notre peau by José-André Lacour. In the 1960s he starred in the epic film Austerlitz (1960) with Claudia Cardinale and Orson Welles. By the 1970s he was mainly working on TV films and series.

Michel Mallory
(CHANTEURS ET CHANTEUSES)
1 Rue Houdon, 75018 Paris, France

With 170+ songs composed for Johnny Hallyday alone, and thousands more recorded and sung by the greatest French performers Michel Mallory is firmly established in show business history. The young Corsican came to Paris in the 1960s, singing at cabarets in the city including Ma Cousine in Montmartre. He released a number of singles, mostly in the 1960s and early 70s. He would switch to writing songs for Claude François and Sylvie Vartan, the start of a journey that would end with him being Johnny Hallyday’s official lyricist for ten years .

Georges Comineas
(Bouzouki)
1 Vla de Guelma, 75018 Paris, France

Georges Comineas was a bouzouki player in the band at the L’Olympe, a Greek restaurant-cabaret. Located on Rue de la Grange Batelière it was where Greek expats and French people fraternised over raki, ouzo, samos and retsina. Members of the band included Georges Pensas, Georges Castias, Grégoire Mertica, and the accordionist and conductor Marcel Briey.

Bordas
(CHANTEURS ET CHANTEUSES)
7 Vla de Guelma, 75018 Paris, France

Marcelle Bordas (known simply by her stage name Bordas) was a Parisien singer and cabaret artist, who was at the height of her popularity from 1930-1950. Her biggest hit was Boire un petit coup (1948). In the 1930s she appeared on the radio and on stage in operettas and musicals. During the years of the Vichy regime and the Occupation, she specialised in songs with patriotic themes. She would have been living here just before her death in 1968.

Jeanne Fusier-Gir
(COMÉDIENNES)
34 Bd de Clichy, 75018 Paris, France

Actress Jeanne Fusier-Gir was the daughter of Léon Fusier, the popular 19th century actor. She studied theatre with Firmin Gémier and was mentored by actor, playwright, and filmmaker Sacha Guitry. Fusier-Gir often played smaller character roles in her early career, usually in comedies. She worked on films with Guitry in the 1940s (during the Vichy regime) and throughout the 1950s. She also worked with director Henri-Georges Clouzot, memorably on Le Corbeau (1943), and the noirish thriller Quai des Orfévres (1947). She was married to the painter Charles Gir.

Adrienne Gallon
(COMÉDIENNES / CHANTEURS ET CHANTEUSES)
34 Bd de Clichy, 75018 Paris, France
Former site of the Cabaret du Néant

From the 1920s onwards actress and singer Adrienne Gallon was one of the great voices of French radio. She graduated from the Théâtre de l’Odéon in Paris to perform comedy and operetta on the airwaves. Gallon made her debut on the privately owned Parisien radio station Radiola. Under the German occupation the station was under the control of the Nazis until the liberation of Paris in August 1944. Her recorded music output is pretty much all from the shellac/78rpm era. Later she would make the step into films, including the Boîte de nuit (1951), starring Claudine Dupuis.

Eddy Rasimi
(COMÉDIENS)
36 Bd de Clichy, 75018 Paris, France

Parisien actor Eddy Rasimi was a regular in revues and variety theatre across his home city, including the ABC, Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens, Casino Montparnasse, Le Tyrol, and the Central de la Chanson. Like a lot of entertainers of his generations he was able to combine work as a singer, chansonnier and comic actor. From the 1950 onwards he had an impressive film career, often in supporting roles but he did play the lead role in the 1958 film Les gaités de l’escadrille, directed by Georges Péclet.

Theatre de 10 heures
(CHANSONNIERS)
36 Bd de Clichy, 75018 Paris, France

In the heart of Pigalle this theatre opened in 1890 as the Cabaret des Arts. In 1925, it was taken over by Roger Ferréol who renamed it Théâtre de Dix Heures. Over the years it has hosted comedy, traditional theatre and in the 1960s chansonniers, who were so popular in Montmartre. A typical lineup in the 1960s would include Maurice Horgues, Philippe Olive, Oleo, Jacques Cathy, Jean Breton, Claude Rolland and Georges Vittel.

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Minuit Chanson
(Record shop)
44 Bd de Clichy, 75018 Paris, France
Minuit Chanson was a record shop arcade where you placed tokens in slots and were able to listen to popular gramophone records of the day. It was famously painted by the artist Edward Burra. He first travelled to Paris in 1925, following his interest in the Surrealists
André Breton and Paul Éluard.

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France Anglade
(COMEDIENNES)
56 Bd de Clichy, 75018 Paris, France

Born in Constantine (French Algeria) actress France Anglade grew up in Chalons-sur-Marne. She moved to Paris where she took fashion and advertising photos with Geneviève Grad for the magazine Elle. She began her career in theatre and cinema, becoming a sex symbol and star of many European comedies in the 1960s. In 1968, she took the lead role in the remake of Caroline darling alongside François Guérin.

Edin Ben Danou
(COMÉDIENS)
60 Bd de Clichy, 75018 Paris, France

Born in 1893 in Perregaux (today Mohammadia, Algeria) Edin Ben Danou studied law in Paris, where he fell in love with the theatre. He was wounded in the forehead in 1915 during WW1. After the war he became an announcer for Radio-Paris, Pathé and Eclair film news. He was not just a broadcaster but an actor, poet, director, and journalist. As a jew in Paris during WW2 he was arrested, and deported to Buchenwald. Upon his return to Paris Ben Danou resumed his career in radio. In 1968 he played the role of a dream doctor in the film Je t’aime, je t’aime, directed by Alain Resnais.

Albert Lasry
(CHEFS D’ORCHESTRES)
62 Bd de Clichy, 75018 Paris, France
No. 62: The site of the Café du Tambourin, the restaurant owned by Agostina Segatori associated with Vincent van Gogh and other painters.

Pianist, orchestra leader and composer Albert Lasry co-wrote the song La Mer (with Charles Trenet), one of the most famous songs in the world. Another of Pigalle’s show business Algerian residents (alongside neighbours Edin Ben Danou and France Anglade), he was born in Algiers in 1903. Beyond his skills as a composer he was a regular on the radio and variety circuit in music and concert halls. Accompanying the star names of the day, alone on the piano or with his orchestra, he worked with the greats singers like Piaf and Trenet.

Le Chat Noir
(Cabaret)
68 Bd de Clichy, 75018 Paris, France

This is the second, and ultimate, home of the old cabaret, Le Chat noir, which originally opened around the corner at 84 Boulevard Rouchechouart. Le Chat Noir is thought to be the first modern cabaret. A nightclub where the patrons sat at tables and drank alcoholic beverages while being entertained by a variety show on stage.

Christiane Gayraud
(ARTISTES LYRIQUES)
2 Rue Coustou, 75018 Paris, France

Mezzo-soprano vocalist Christiane Gayraud was a soloist with the Société des concerts du Conservatoire de Paris (Paris Conservatory Concert Society). The society was founded in 1828 by François-Antoine Habeneck, Luigi Cherubini and Sosthène de La Rochefoucauld. Gayraud played the role of Sainte Catherine in the TV film Jeanne au bûcher in 1966.