Pierre Gaspard Huit (REALISATEURS DE TELEVISION)
25 bis Rue Jasmin, 75016 Paris, France

Director Pierre Gaspard Huit studied at the theatre school Cours Simon, where he graduated with a first prize. His early directorial experiences were in Germany, where he had been a prisoner of war during WW2. After the war he worked as an assistant director and screenwriter for a number of productions before directing his first feature film in 1954, Sophie et le Crime. Set in Paris, the police drama starred Marina Vlady and Peter van Eyck in the lead roles. During a 30 year cinematic career, he worked with some of France’s most famous faces including Brigitte Bardot, Jean Marais, Hildegard Knef, as well as Romy Schneider and Alain Delon in Christine. In the film business he was known as a safe pair of hands, often being called upon to replace fellow directors. At the end of the 1960s, when he lived here, he worked as a writer on a number of TV series, both in Germany and France.

Raymond Legrand (CHEFS D’ORCHESTRES)
40 Rue Jasmin, 75016 Paris, France

Raymond Legrand was one of the great French bandleaders and conductors whose orchestra was a popular accompanist for many of the singers of the post war period. He is the father of the singer Christiane Legrand, the composer Michel Legrand, the writer Benjamin Legrand, and the painter Olivier Legrand. Legrand senior was a student at the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique et de danse de Paris, and was soon working on arrangements for Ray Ventura in the 1930s before assembling his own group under the Occupation, where he worked with the Vichy government. Raymond Legrand’s orchestra included Irène de Trébert, Maurice Chevalier, Georges Guétary, Tino Rossi, and Colette Renard. He also collaborated with figures of French song like Francis Lemarque, Mouloudji, Édith Piaf and Henri Salvador. In 1948, he conducted the orchestra during the recording of C’est si bon by the Étienne Sisters, which became a success. A year later he was hired as artistic director by Decca. He composed several film scores for his neighbours here in the 16th arrondissement, including Maurice de Canonge (1938, Grisou), André Cayatte (1950, Justice est faite), and Marcel Pagnol (1952, Manon des sources).

Gabriel Aloisi (REALISATEURS DE TELEVISION)
14 Rue Raffet, 75016 Paris, France

Gabriel Aloisi was the director behind many of the popular cultural interviews on French TV of the 1960s and 70s. He regularly worked on the Au-delà de l’écran TV programme, a behind-the-scenes look at the world of television. His broadcasts ranged from interviews with Raymond Souplex about his legendary role as Commissioner Boureel in Les Cinq Dernières Minutes to cruising in a boat with Joe Dassin on the Bois de Boulogne lake. Other notable interviewees included Dalida, Marpessa Dawn, Hergé (The Adventures of Tintin), Pierre Perret, Georges de Caunes (father of Antoine de Caunes), and Michel Bouquet. Earlier in his career he worked as an assistant director on Boum sur Paris (1953) and Les deux gamines (1951).

Guy Mardel (CHANTEURS ET CHANTEUSES)
19 Rue Raffet, 75016 Paris, France

Singer Guy Mardel represented France at the 1965 Eurovision Song Contest in Naples, Italy, with his song N’avoue jamais, coming third out of eighteen countries. Originally from French Algeria he moved to mainland France to study, eventually obtaining a degree in law. His love of music would redefine his future, he had already won first prize in piano at the Oran Conservatory in Algeria but here in Paris he signed a contract with Polydor and Disc’AZ. During the early 1960s he embarked on a career that peaked with his Eurovision entry N’avoue jamais, for which he composed the music with lyrics by Françoise Dorin. Mardel relocated to Israel in 2003, under the Israeli Law of Return, and changed his first name to Mordechai.

Violaine (CHANTEURS ET CHANTEUSES)
31 Rue Raffet, 75016 Paris, France

Cult singer-songwriter Violaine Pilzer (AKA Violaine) released just a handful of singles but her legacy lives on with today’s femme pop fans. She is the younger half-sister of Christine Pilzer, who worked nearby at the Maison de la Radio. All of Violaine’s singles were released on Eddie Barclay’s Riviera label.

Maison La Roche (Le Corbusier)
8-10 Sq. du Dr Blanche, 75016 Paris, France

Villa La Roche (Maison La Roche) was designed by Le Corbusier and his cousin Pierre Jeanneret in 1923–1925. Swiss banker Raoul La Roche commissioned Le Corbusier to build a villa as well as a gallery to house his art collection. The Maison La Roche is now a museum containing about 8,000 original drawings, studies and plans by Le Corbusier.

Roger Sciandra (REALISATEURS DE TELEVISION)
48 Rue du Dr Blanche, 75016 Paris, France

From 1969 to 1980, director Roger Sciandra welcomed guests on the TV show À bout portant. Those who opened up about both their private and public lives were top entertainers of the 1960s and 70s; Dalida, Alain Souchon, Leo Ferré, Michel Sardou, Johnny Hallyday, Gilbert Becaud, Juliette Gréco. A veritable Who’s Who of Parisian show business. Devoted to the world of television Sciandra also directed episodes of Ce monde étrange et merveilleux and La vie du bon côté.

Dany Dauberson (CHANTEURS ET CHANTEUSES)
48 Rue Raffet, 75016 Paris, France

In 1956, singer Dany Dauberson represented France in the first Eurovision Song Contest, with her song Il est là. The contest was won by singer Lys Assia, representing Switzerland, the host country. Dauberson studied in Lyon before moving to Paris, where she was taken under the wing of Suzy Solidor, an icon of the lesbian movement. In the 1950s and 1960s her career flourished in France and internationally. Singing in English, she was a hit in London and on American television. In the 1960s she shared her life with actress Nicole Berger. In 1967, Dauberson was seriously injured in a car accident in which Berger was driving. The tragic accident and death of Berger virtually ended her career. Dauberson died in 1979 at the age of 54.

Georges Dumoulin (REALISATEURS DE TELEVISION)
49 Bis Bd de Montmorency, 75016 Paris, France

Unlike some of his neighbours, producer and director Georges Dumoulin eschewed popular puff pieces for more thought provoking TV programmes, particularly those concentrating on the art of cinema. During this period of the late 1960s and early 1970s he interviewed Georges de Caunes and Marie-France Pisier, Stéphane Audran and Claude Chabrol, and Helmut Berger on his early career. In 1967 he directed the documentary Les Écrans de la nuit, with two eminent researchers in neurophysiology presenting their intriguing discoveries on the mechanisms of dreams.

Square Tolstoï
This square runs alongside the Bois de Boulogne and features a statue of Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) by Akop Gurdjan (1955), paying tribute to the Russian writer, author of the tragic Anna Karenina and War and Peace. It stands next to the marble statue of “A Woman and a Child” by Charles Cassou (1934).

Leon Algazi (PRODUCTEURS ET PRESENTATEURS DE L’O.R.T.F.)
23 Bd de Montmorency, 75016 Paris, France

Romanian composer Leon Algazi studied music in Vienna and Paris, graduating from the Ecole Rabbinique. He made his musical debut in 1925 with two short operas, Le Veuilleur, and La Mur Occidental, at the Théâtre Femina (Paris). Perhaps his first real impact on Parisian theatrical society was the music he created for Shalom Anski’s Le Dibbouk at the Studio des Champs-Élysées (Paris). In 1929, he created La Voix d’Israël, a weekly program of Jewish music, for the private Parisian radio station Poste Parisien. He would remain the host for many years, alongside his role of President of the National Union of Conductors. One of his most important works was the incidental music for Jean Racine’s Athalie, at the Comédie Française in 1968.