Jeanne Herviale
(COMÉDIENNES)
156 Av. de Saint-Ouen, 75018 Paris, France
Despite playing supporting roles, actress Jeanne Herviale (1908-1989, real name Jeanne Blanche Charlotte Charrier) still made an impact in her 100 film and TV movie career. Notable performances included playing the mother of Jean Carmet in Comment réussir quand on est con et pleurnichard (1974), and madwoman in Les Oreilles entre les dents (1987). Her 30 year theatre career was a more modest affair, but still took in the Parisian stages of the Théâtre de l’Athénée, Théâtre Antoine, Théâtre de Poche, and the Théâtre La Bruyère.

Lucien Raimbourg
(COMÉDIENS)
139 Av. de Saint-Ouen, 75017 Paris, France
Actor Lucien Raimbourg (son of the painter Hyacinthe Louis Raimbourg), appeared in cabaret, music hall, circus, and performed as a singer. He is best known for his 100+ appearances on the big and small screen, although often in supporting roles. In the 1960s these included four episodes of Les cinq dernières minutes, and dubbing the voice of Getafix in the Asterix films. He was a passionate theatre actor who performed at the TNP (Théâtre national populaire), playing the classical repertoire. Memorable stage performances included Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot. He was married to the pianist Alice Gruet, and is father of the engraver and painter Claude Raimbourg (and also a distant cousin of André Raimbourg aka Bourvil).

Rapha Brogiotti
(CHEFS D’ORCHESTRES)
77 Rue Vauvenargues, 75018 Paris, France
Bandleader Rapha Brogiotti studied violin at the Conservatoire de Paris, and was awarded first prize for his excellence. He would go on to be famous for his gypsy orchestra at a time when dance floors around Europe were dominated by this style of music. He began his career playing the violin in Lud Gluskin’s orchestra, in dance halls and at the most expensive and the most admired restaurant in Paris, the Cafe de Paris. In the 1930s he would lead his own orchestra, and for the next 20 years his jazz tango repertoire could be heard regularly on the radio. Brogiotti’s influence waned as his style of light music declined in popularity.

Paul Mauriat
(CHEFS D’ORCHESTRES)
77 Rue Vauvenargues, 75018 Paris, France
Paul Mauriat was one of the most famous orchestra leaders in France and around the world. He was based in Marseilles until 1958 when he moved to Paris. The same year he was awarded le Coq d’or de la Chanson Française, for Rendez-vous au Lavandou, co-written with André Pascal. He was musical director to two of the greatest French singers, Charles Aznavour and Maurice Chevalier. In 1965, Mauriat established Le Grand Orchestre de Paul Mauriat, and released hundreds of recordings and compilations through the Philips label for the next 28 years. He is best known in the USA for his million-selling remake of André Popp’s Love is Blue, which was number 1 for 5 weeks in 1968.

Jean Sarelli – Opera de Paris
(DANSEURS)
64 Rue Vauvenargues, 75018 Paris, France
Choreographer Jean Sarelli (1932-2006) was the ballet master at the Opera de Paris in the 1960s and would go on to become the director of the Ballet du Rhin from 1978 to 1989. He plied his talents as a choreographer beyond French borders, with the Pittsburgh Ballet and the Opéra de Marseille.

Nicole Mérouze
(COMÉDIENNES)
20 & 26 Rue Firmin Gémier, 75018 Paris, France
Nicole Mérouze was mostly active on the theatre stages of Paris during the 1960s and 70s. She joined the Comédie-Française in 1959 and was active with them for 3 years, playing the French repertoire (Molière’s La Critique de l’École des femmes) and also those from further afield (£12 by J. M. Barrie). She had a patchy cinema career that didn’t make the most of her dramatic talents.

Sylvaine Gilma
(ARTISTES LYRIQUES)
45 Rue Vauvenargues, 75018 Paris, France
Operatic singer Sylvaine Gilma was described as having a coloratura soprano voice, deliciously accurate and direct. Coloratura is an elaborate melody with runs, trills, wide leaps, or similar virtuoso-like material. Coloratura is particularly found in vocal music and especially in operatic singing of the 18th and 19th centuries. Gilma performed Maurice Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges with the French National Radio Orchestra in 1960.