Rosalie Dubois (CHANTEURS ET CHANTEUSES)
38 Av. Secrétan, 75019 Paris, France

Working as a fishmonger on the rue des Abbesses, Rosalie Dubois dreamt of becoming a high flying lawyer or a famous singer. When she won the N°1 de Demain song contest in 1959 (organised by the radio station Europe 1) her fate was sealed. In 1960 she followed up her initial success by winning the Coq d’Or de la chanson française with the song Parce qu’un air d’accordéon. Although performances at Paris’ top spots ensued, she was the victim of a serious accident, then of a long depression. She returned to the stage in 1968 at L’Échelle de Jacob, the cabaret in the 6th arrondissement. She released a number of EPs in the early 1960s on the Italian Ricordi label, and has been recording new music ever since. In 1978 she founded the ABR label with her husband Bernard Berger, on which she released her 1979 album of revolutionary songs.

Marjorie Noël (CHANTEURS ET CHANTEUSES)
43 Rue de Meaux, 75019 Paris, France

Singer Marjorie Noël was best known in Europe for her appearance in the 1965 Eurovision song contest in Naples, where she represented Monaco. Although she only finished 9th, she entered the Rose d’Or d’Antibes singing contest in the same year, and reached the semi-final stage. She was to achieve her greatest fame in Japan, becoming an iconic singer, and releasing 10 LPs. She brought her career to a premature close in 1968, after marrying her husband Robert.

Youcef Hedjaj (CHANTEURS ET CHANTEUSES)
168 Bd de la Villette, 75019 Paris, France

Youcef Hedjaj (also known as Jose de Souza, Youssef Hedjaj, and Youssef Hagège) was a Jewish-Tunisian multi-instrumentalist, and bandleader who composed over 600 songs. He was among the pioneers of the Chanson francarabe, the genre of songs which combines the Arabic language with French expressions. Fans from North Africa and across France came to hear him at the famous cabaret El Djazaïr in Paris. He wrote the lyrics to many classics, including Ya Oumi and L’Oriental by Lin Monti.

Les Francs Garçons (CHANTEURS ET CHANTEUSES)
150 Bd de la Villette, 75019 Paris, France

Folk outfit Les Franc Garcons were a seven piece band consisting of Michel Hubert, Claude Polivert, Michel Prouteau, Gérard Martin Dupont, Bernard Fevre, Claude Vanzini, and Alain Robin. They were regular performers at Don Camilo, the Parisian cabaret in the Saint-Germain-des-Prés quartier. The band were early adopters of a live stereo sound, thanks to their keyboardist-cum-sound engineer Bernard Fèvre, who also employed his kit of homemade psychedelic effects. Their blend of folk music was both traditional and avant-garde, a style that ultimately didn’t endure beyond the 1970s.

See an object relating to Les Francs Garçons HERE.

Marigaux
144 Bd de la Villette, 75019 Paris, France

For more than 85 years the name Marigaux has been synonymous with some of the greatest international oboe players. Marigaux was founded by Messrs Strasser, Marigaux and Lemaire in 1935. The Strasser Marigaux company began activity in Paris at 144 boulevard de la Villette with the manufacture of saxophones and flutes. In parallel with this, they also began making oboes and clarinets at a workshop in La Couture Boussey, a village in Normandy, already a well-known centre of French wind instrument making. Their instruments are exported to over 60 countries and played in the most renowned orchestras worldwide.

François Beaulieu (COMEDIENS)
116 Av. Simon Bolivar, 75019 Paris, France

After training at the École nationale des arts appliqués, François Beaulieu chose acting and enrolled at the Conservatoire national supérieur d’art dramatique before joining the Troupe of the Comédie-Française on January 1st, 1968. He was appointed as a sociétaire in 1974 and a sociétaire honoraire in 2003. In the early days of his acting career he interpreted major roles from the Repertoire, such as Alceste in Molière’s The Misanthrope, Don Rodrigue in Corneille’s Le Cid, as well as the title roles in Victor Hugo’s Hernani, and Ruy Blas and in Corneille’s Cinna. In the cinema, he played under the direction of Raymond Rouleau in Ruy Blas and of Pierre Badel in Molière’s Tartuffe.

Francesca Zumbo (DANSEUSES)
116 Av. Simon Bolivar, 75019 Paris, France

Born in Paris, Francesca Zumbo entered the Paris Conservatory in 1957, ranking 1st place in 1961. In 1963, after a year at the ballet school, she was admitted to the corps de ballet of the Paris Opéra Ballet. Appointed Prima Ballerina in 1969, her career was crowned with a series of awards: gold medal at the Moscow International Dance Competition in the company of Patrice Bart, Etoile dancer and Ballet Master at the Paris Opéra. During her career as an Etoile she performed in the most prestigious theatres in the world: Bolshoi, Kirov, London Festival Ballet, Winnipeg-Ballet, Tokyo Ballet, National Ballet of Cuba. Since 1985 she has been a teacher-coach at the Paris Opera Ballet School.