Andre Harris (PRODUCTEURS ET PRESENTATEURS DE L’O.R.T.F.)
30 Quai d’Orléans, 75004 Paris, France

Journalist, director and producer André Harris began his journalistic career at the radio station Europe 1 in 1960, before becoming head of the political department of the television news. In 1966, along with Alain de Sédouy, he launched the TV news programme Zoom. It was cancelled in May 1968 after l’ORTF was taken over by the Gaullist government. In 1981 he was appointed deputy director of programmes at TF1, and then general director and CEO of France Media International, the company responsible for the export of audiovisual programmes.

Janine Crispin (COMEDIENNES)
4 Rue le Regrattier, 75004 Paris, France

Actress Janine Crispin, sometimes known as Jeanine Crispin, was a resident of the Comédie-Française from 1946 to 1950. Before the war she had acted on the numerous stages of Paris, making her debut at the Studio des Champs-Élysées in Au clair de la lune, in 1929. She left France with her husband Georges Kessel in 1940 to pursue a career in Hollywood. They hit upon hard times in the US and had to sell their luggage to make ends meet. Slowly Crispin made her way in the movies, settling in a ranch 200 kilometres from the city, and appearing in a handful of films: My Life with Caroline (1941), Tonight We Raid Calais (1943), and The Constant Nymph (1943). She also trod the boards of LA, as well as touring Canada with Jean-Pierre Aumont. Upon her return to France she joined the Comédie-Française but resigned in 1950 after being disrespected by its administrator Pierre-Aimé Touchard. Crispin worked in the theatre and on television well into the 1970s but her last film on the big screen was Marc Allégret’s L’Amant de lady Chatterley in 1955.

Maurice Dumay (PRODUCTEURS ET PRESENTATEURS DE L’O.R.T.F.)
10 Rue le Regrattier, 75004 Paris, France

A former programme manager for Europe 1 radio, Maurice Dumay left a significant mark on French culture through his brainchild, the TV music show Pop 2. Airing from April 1970 to December 1973, it was presented by Patrice Blanc-Francard on Saturday afternoons at prime time. It featured retransmissions of live concerts from venues such as Olympia (Cat Stevens), Bataclan (Genesis), and Bus Palladium (Gloria Gaynor). An invaluable source for music lovers across France, it was a chance to see and hear their foreign idols, including the Soft Machine, Jethro Tull, Triangle, Magma, Captain Beefheart, Velvet Underground, MC5 and New York Dolls. Home grown talent got the Pop 2 treatment too: Valérie Lagrange, Jean Luc-Ponty and Jacques Higelin.

Gerard Paquis (COMEDIENS)
84 Rue Saint-Louis en l’Île, 75004 Paris, France

Although actor Gerard Paquis started his career in the theatres of Paris he is best remembered for his roles in a number of cult TV series. He swapped early French successes at the Théâtre de l’Alliance française and Théâtre Marigny in the 1960s for the BBC TV series Colditz in the 1970s. Paquis played Capitaine Vaillant, the stereotypical Frenchman (according to British perceptions), portraying him as self-serving, self-righteous, dashing, and a shameless womaniser. Often Paquis would appear in just one episode, making him a cult actor in a cult series, perhaps the best example of this would be playing Lew Picard in Space: 1999.

Georges Piletta (DANSEURS)
78 Rue Saint-Louis en l’Île, 75004 Paris, France

Born in Paris Georges Piletta is the son of the Opéra Comique prima ballerina Anna Stephan and the acrobat Pierre Piletta. In 1955 he was admitted to the dance school of the Paris Opéra, and at the age of sixteen joined the corps de ballet at l’Opéra. In 1965 he was promoted to the rank of soloist and in 1967 to principal dancer. After achieving great success with the title role in Roland Petit’s Tarangaila, in 1969 he was proclaimed danseur étoile of the company. Since 1989 he has since dedicated himself to teaching. He is married to Yasmine Piletta, a mime teacher at the Paris Opéra dance school.

Richard Hertel (Batterie)
17 Quai de Bourbon, 75004 Paris, France

Drummer Richard Hertel rode the crest of the yé-yé wave before joining up with singer Nino Ferrer in the early part of career. Alongside Ferrer and keyboardist Bernard Estardy he formed the short lived swinging combo Les Gottamou, whose infectious grooves lit up the dancefloors of Paris in 1966. Other singers who he accompanied at this time included Claude François, Dalida and Hugues Aufray. Hertel took lessons with the great jazz drummer Kenny Clarke while living in Paris and released a couple of EPs in his own right at the start of the 1970s. Later in the decade he moved to the Gers region of France and worked with singers from the Nòva cançon movement (Jacmelina, Martina and Rosina De Peira, etc), the musical rejuvenation of the Occitan language. Jazz was the most enduring love of his musical life and he played with Joe Newman, Bill Coleman, Harry Sweet Edison, Eddie Lockjaw Davis and Guy Lafitte.