Monty (CHANTEURS ET CHANTEUSES)
51 Rue du Ranelagh, 75016 Paris, France

Singer Monty (real name Jacques Bulostin) was one of the most successful male singers in France during the era of yé-yé music. In 1963, he signed for the Barclay record label, where he was given the stage name of Monty. The following year he released successful singles, Même si je suis fou, and Un verre de whisky” (based on the Marvin Gaye song Can I Get a Witness). His eponymous debut album was released in 1965. Monty often wrote his own lyrics to the tunes of American pop songs, and became a writer of songs for other artists including Éric Charden, Sheila, and Dalida. In 1966, he replaced Daniel Filipacchi as host of the popular Europe n° 1 radio programme Salut les copains. In 1976, he found further success writing and producing his song Allez les verts, created for the supporters of football club AS Saint-Étienne.

Jeanne Loriod (Ondes Martenot)
1 Rue des Bauches, 75016 Paris, France

Jeanne Loriod was the world’s leading exponent of the ondes Martenot, an early electronic instrument. She was the younger sister of Yvonne Loriod, the pianist and second wife of Olivier Messiaen. Jeanne performed all of Messiaen’s works for the ondes Martenot, most notably the Turangalîla-Symphonie, which she recorded six times. Loriod’s enormous repertoire included fourteen concertos, some three hundred works with concertante parts for ondes and another 250 chamber works. She studied at the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique et de danse de Paris and would later become a teacher there.

Claude Heymann (REALISATEURS DE CINEMA)
1 Rue Jacques Offenbach, 75016 Paris, France

Director and screenwriter Claude Heymann began his career in silent films as an assistant to Jean Renoir. He stayed with Renoir for his first talking picture, On purge bébé, in 1931, and that same year Heymann directed his first film, L’Amour à l’Américaine. He came to the public’s attention with his adaptation of Tristan Bernard’s play, Les Jumeaux de Brighton, for the cinema. As WW2 broke out he was taken prisoner, and wrote poems in captivity. Returning to France, he hid under a pseudonym because of his Jewish origins. After liberation he was directing again. In 1951 he released La Belle Image, based on a novel by Marcel Aymé, and Victor, starring Jean Gabin in the main role.

Voldemar Wal-Berg (CHEFS D’ORCHESTRES)
16 Rue Gustave Zédé, 75016 Paris, France

Voldemar Rosenberg, better known by his stage name Wal-Berg studied first at the Berlin Conservatory (piano), then at the Paris Conservatory (harmony and composition). From 1932 to 1936, he orchestrated for Polydor Records, composing the main songs performed in French by Marlène Dietrich. Later in the 1930s we worked at Pathé Marconi with some of the greats of the time: Jean Sablon, Joséphine Baker, Charles Trenet, Léo Marjane, Damia, and Édith Piaf. He would go on to produce the series of programs Musique sur la ville at ORTF, calling on such prestigious performers as Yehudi Menuhin and Andrés Segovia. He was motivated by a desire to make classical composers accessible to the widest possible audience, leading him to compose more than 300 pieces for symphony orchestra and the music for about forty films.

Christian-Gérard (COMÉDIENS)
9 Rue Robert le Coin, 75016 Paris, France

Although Christian-Gerard (real name Christian Gérard Mazas) started his career as an actor he would graduate to the role of director in both the theatre and television. Before WW2 Christian-Gérard had already made a name for himself in the theatre and on screen. From his role in Les Temps Difficultes by Édouard Bourdet, he brought a natural verve and elegance to films such as Valses royales, Le Nouveau Testament, La Vie parisienne, and Samson et Anne-Marie. In French adaptations of American films, his voice doubled that of Robert Montgomery, whose talent is similar to his own, in the quality of irony, tender and carefree gaiety. During WW2 he was a member of the intelligence network Le Musée de l’Homme, a resistance group created by intellectuals and academics led by Anatole Lewitsky and Boris Vildé. A keen historian, Christian-Gerard was the secretary general of the Société des Collectionneurs de figurines historiques (Society of Collectors of Historical Figurines), and had a collection of over 1000 figures.

Jacqueline Caurat (PRODUCTEURS ET PRESENTATEURS DE L’O.R.T.F.)
78 Rue du Ranelagh, 75016 Paris, France

Croydon born Jacqueline Caurat was a French television presenter and journalist, best known for presenting Télé-Philatélie for 22 years. The programme focussed on stamp collecting and collectors, such as famous philatelists Prince Rainier III of Monaco. Caurat presented it with Lucien Berthelot and produced it with her husband Jacques Mancier. After her fledgling film career was cut short she would go on to be one of the main announcers of the first French television channel, ORTF. Caurat also hosted school programmes in partnership with the l’Éducation nationale, as well as Magazine féminin (1959), Journal télévisé (1961-1962), and a programme dedicated to origami, Kiplitou, in 1962.

Jacques Mancier (COMÉDIENS)
78 Rue du Ranelagh, 75016 Paris, France

Character actor Jacques Mancier appeared in some of the classic TV series of the 1960s and beyond. A badge of honour for many Parisian TV actors of the era, Mancier was cast in 3 episodes of Les cinq dernières minutes, the police series with the Raymond Souplex. In the 1960s Mancier also popped up in multiple episodes of La caméra explore le temps, Marc et Sylvie, and En votre âme et conscience.

Gaston Poulet
85 Bis Rue du Ranelagh, 75016 Paris, France

The former home of the musical Poulet family, led by violinist and conductor Gaston Poulet (1892-1974). On the outside of the building is a plaque indicating that he lived here from 1948 to 1974, but he wasn’t the only musical resident. Also living here were his two daughters-in-law, Lina Dachary and Jackie Lawrence. Gaston Poulet, the leading violinist of his generation, was married to Jane Evrard, one of the first professional female conductors in France, who founded the Orchestre féminin de Paris.

Lina Dachary (ARTISTES LYRIQUES)
85 Bis Rue du Ranelagh, 75016 Paris, France

Manuel-Claude Poulet, the son of violinist Gaston Poulet, was married first to Lina Dachary (1942) and then Jackie Lawrence (1959). Lina (real name Andrée-Olga Dachary) was a first prize winner at the Conservatoire, and would go on to sing at the Opéra-Comique in the opérette Malvina (1945). From the 1950s to 1970s Dachary sang many leading roles in operettas and light operas on French radio (Radio Paris and Radio Nationale).

Jackie Lawrence (CHANTEURS ET CHANTEUSES)
85 Bis Rue du Ranelagh, 75016 Paris, France

Jackie Lawrence, the second wife of Manuel-Claude Poulet, was a French pop singer active in the second half of the 1950s and the first half of the 1960s. She made a name for herself in Belgium, before moving to France, where she toured with the Radio-Circus. In 1955, she released her first single, Tant que je vivrais seule, and would go on to record a further fifteen 7”s, in French, Spanish and German.

Hubert de Lapparent (COMÉDIENS)
37 Rue Davioud, 75016 Paris, France

Actor Hubert de Lapparent had one of those fabulous transformative faces that gave him the opportunity to play nearly 150 character roles in television, cinema and theatre. He worked with some of Cinema’s finest directors in their films, including taking roles in Vincente Minnelli’s Gigi and Carol Reed’s Trapeze. As you’d expect, living in close proximity to Radio France, he worked on more than 3000 radio shows broadcast on Europe 1, France Inter and many others. He died in 2021 at the age of 102, and was known to a generation as the elder statesman of French actors.