Jacques Boyer
(CHANTEURS ET CHANTEUSES)
11 Rue des Cloys, 75018 Paris, France
Singer, songwriter and actor Jacques Boyer moved to Paris in the early 1960s and performed on the cabaret circuit, where he met singer Christine Sèvres, the first wife of Jean Ferrat. The friendship between Boyer and Ferrat will endure for the rest of their lives, on a professional and personal basis. Boyer was a regular performer in the cabarets and restaurants of L’Orée du Bois, La Tête de l’Art, Chez Ma Cousine, and L’Échelle de Jacob. In 1964, he participated in the Concert Pacra with Barbara then, two years in a row at Bobino with Lenny Escudero and then with Jean Ferrat. In 1966, he toured with Jean Ferrat, Francesca Solleville, Dupont et Pondu, Yvan Labéjof, Jean-Paul Hubert. He would become Jean Ferrat’s general manager, and in 1971 he left Paris with his wife Odile Ezdra, settling in Antraigues sur Volane, Ardèche. Together they bought the hotel-restaurant La Montagne in Antraigues.

Odile Ezdra
(CHANTEURS ET CHANTEUSES)
11 Rue des Cloys, 75018 Paris, France
Just like her husband Jacques Boyer, the life of singer Odile Ezdra’s was intertwined with that of the great Jean Ferrat. She first met him in 1954 at the age of fifteen in Belgium, while singing in the duo Marc et Odile. In 1957 and 1958, she recorded two super 45s with Marc on the Pacific label. A few years later, Odile was signed by Polydor and in 1965, on her fifth 45 rpm, she recorded two songs by Ferrat, notably Les Beaux Jours. Her success earned her an invitation to Japan for a six-month tour in 1967, singing in a new city nearly every day. In 1971, she sang on Ferrat’s penultimate tour before moving to Antraigues sur Volane in the Ardèche.

Brigitte Auber
(COMÉDIENNES)
9 Rue des Cloys, 75018 Paris, France
Brigitte Auber is one of the rare French actresses, along with Dany Robin and Claude Jade, to have been directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Her film career began in 1946 in Jacques Becker’s Antoine et Antoinette. She was the heroine in Rendez-vous de Juillet (1949) and notably starred in Alfred Hitchcock’s La Main au collet (To Catch a Thief) alongside Cary Grant and Grace Kelly. She made her stage debut at the Théâtre des Nouveautés in Paris in 1950. Her final theatre appearance was in Yves Jamiaque’s L’Azalée at the Théâtre Marigny in 1980.

See an object relating to Brigitte Auber HERE.

Morena Casamance
(COMÉDIENNES)
104 Rue Ordener, 75018 Paris, France
Actor and playwright Morena Casamance appeared in one feature film, Huis clos (1954), although her voice can be heard in many more…. she dubbed Juanita Moore’s voice in Imitation of Life (1959). On the stage she played the role of Sookey in Tennessee Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at the Théâtre Antoine (1957). A regular on the radio she could be heard in the 1960s on the series Les Exploits de Nick Carter and the various adventures of Tintin. In 1967, she played the lead role in the radio drama Á propos de la Dolorès Rondon by Severo Sarduy. One of the leading black voices in radio at the time, Casamance appeared in Contes sous La Croix du Sud (René Jentet), Uncle Tom’s Cabin (Harriet Beecher Stowe), and Mulatto by Langston Hughes. She also wrote the play Un dimanche d’espoir, inspired by the nine African American students who enrolled in Little Rock Central High School in 1957.

Daniele Girard
(COMEDIENNES)
2 Rue Calmels, 75018 Paris, France
Actress Daniele Girard (not to be confused with Danièle Delorme, whose real name was also Daniele Girard) was a theatre and cinema actress who was married to the actor and screenwriter Jean Bouchaud. She was the mother of theatre actor Nicolas Bouchaud. She appeared in one of the 1960s most memorable films, Bande à Part (1964) directed by Jean-Luc Godard. Her breakthrough year in the theatre was 1959, when she played on the Parsian stages of the Théâtre Fontaine and Palais de Chaillot (Théâtre National Populaire). She would go on to appear in a number of plays directed and written by her husband.

Françoise Jacquier
(COMÉDIENNES)
63 Rue du Ruisseau, 75018 Paris, France
Actress Françoise Jacquier played supporting roles in a handful of films during the 1950s, including Sacha Guitry’s Assassins et voleurs. On the radio she appeared in Notre Dame de Paris (The Hunchback of Notre-Dame) by Victor Hugo.

Gérard Bourgeois
(CHANTEURS ET CHANTEUSES)
63 Rue du Ruisseau, 75018 Paris, France
Composer, lyricist and singer Gérard Bourgeois teamed up with singer Jean-Max Rivière to form a formidable writing duo. They tasted early success with La Madrague, a song written for Brigitte Bardot in 1962. It would be the start of a fruitful writing career that would number hundreds of compositions. Bourgeois composed for such varied Parisian groups and musicians as Los Machucambos, Michel Jourdan, Les Surfs, Patricia Carli, Roland Vincent, Sylvie Vartan, Françoise Hardy, and fellow Montmartre residents Jacqueline Danno and Dalida. His own solo career was a brief highlight of the early 1960s, but he is better known now for his writing prowess.