EFSP's Dazzling Dozen: The World of Colette

One of our favourite authors is Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette (1873-1954) or simply Colette. The French novelist, journalist and performer is now best known for her sexy, courageous novels Chéri and Gigi, which were adapted into classic films. But many other films were based on her work, or she wrote dialogues for them. Today 12 dazzling postcards of Colette and of the stars of the films based on her novels.


French postcard by A.N. Paris, no. 22. Photo: Henri Manuel.


As Colette Willy with Georges Wague in La Chair (1907). French postcard. Photo: Waléry, Paris. Publicity still for the mime drama La Chair/The Flesh (1907) written by Georges Wague and Leon Lambert, with music by Albert Chantrier. It was Colette's greatest stage success.

Claudine

Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette was born in 1873, to war hero and tax collector Jules-Joseph Colette and his wife Adèle Eugénie Sidonie (Sido), nėe Landoy, in the French village of Saint-Sauveur-en-Puisaye. The family was initially well off, but by the time she was of school age poor financial management had substantially reduced her father's income and she attended a public school from the ages of 6 to 17.

In 1893, at age 20, Colette married Henry Gauthier-Villars He was a famous writer and music critic known as 'Willy'. He was 15 years her senior and described as a "literary charlatan and degenerate". He introduced Colette into avant-garde intellectual and artistic circles while engaging in sexual affairs and encouraging her own lesbian dalliances. Her first books, the titillating Claudine series, were published under her husband's pen name Willy.

The Claudine series contained the four novels Claudine à l'école/Claudine at school (1900), Claudine à Paris/Claudine in Paris (1901), Claudine en menage/Claudine Married (1902), and Claudine s'en va/Claudine and Annie (1903). They chart the coming of age of their heroine, Claudine, from an unconventional fifteen-year-old in a Burgundian village to the literary salons of turn-of-the-century Paris. The story they tell is semi-autobiographical, but not entirely — most strikingly, Claudine, unlike Colette, is motherless. Today, Claudine à l'école/Claudine at school (1900) still has the power to charm; in belle époque France, it was downright shocking, much to Willy's satisfaction and profit.

Colette and Willy separated in 1906, although it was not until 1910 that the divorce became final. She had no access to the sizable earnings of the Claudine books — the copyright belonged to Willy. Colette went to work in the music halls of Paris, under the wing of Mathilde de Morny, Marquise de Belbeuf, known as 'Missy', with whom she became romantically involved. In 1907, the two performed together in Rêve d'Égypte, a pantomime at the Moulin Rouge. Their onstage kiss nearly caused a riot, which the police were called in to suppress. As a result of this scandal, further performances were banned, and Colette and de Morny were no longer able to live together openly, though their relationship continued for five years.

Until 1912 Colette followed a stage career in music halls across France, sometimes playing Claudine in sketches from her own novels, earning barely enough to survive and often hungry and unwell. This period of her life is recalled in the novel La Vagabonde/The Vagabond (1910), which deals with women's independence in a male society — a theme to which she would regularly return in future works. La Vagabonde received three votes for the prestigious Prix Goncourt. In 1912, Colette married Henri de Jouvenel, the editor of the newspaper Le Matin. The couple had one daughter, Colette de Jouvenel. Marriage allowed her the time to write and she devoted herself to journalism. During the war, she converted her husband's Saint-Malo estate into a hospital for the wounded. In 1920, she was made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour.


Maud Loty. French postcard. Photo: Studio G.L. Manuel Frères. Caption: "A midi la vie en rose dans un verre de Campari." Maud Loty starred in four silent Claudine films, Claudine à l'école/Claudine at school (1917), Claudine à Paris/Claudine in Paris (1917), Claudine en menage/Claudine Married (1917), and Claudine s'en va/Claudine and Annie (1917). Her co-star was Loulou Hégoburu.


Musidora. French postcard. Photo: G.L. Manuel. Collection: Manuel Palomino Arjona. Musidora was the star of La Vagabonda/The Vagabond (Musidora, Eugenio Perego, 1918), based on Colette's novel La Vagabonde (1910).


Ellen Schwannecke and Dorothea Wieck in Mädchen in Uniform (1931). British card in the series Film Shots by Film Weekly. Photo: Deutsche. Publicity still for Mädchen in Uniform/Girls in Uniform (Leontine Sagan, Carl Froelich, 1931), for which Colette wrote additional dialogues.


Rosine Deréan and Jean-Pierre Aumont in Lac aux dames (1934). French postcard. Photo: Belleville-Pathé. Publicity still for Lac aux dames/Ladies Lake (Marc Allégret, 1934), for which Colette wrote the dialogues. Collection: Manuel Palomino Arjona.


Danièle Delorme. French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris, no. 108. Photo: Studio Harcourt. Delorme is probably best remembered for her starring roles in the original French production of Gigi (1948) and in Minne (1950), both based on novels by Colette.


Pierre Michel Beck and Nicole Berger in Le Blé en herbe (1954). German postcard by Ufa, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. FK 1463. Photo: Franco London Film, Paris / Prisma. Publicity still for Le Blé en herbe/The Game of Love (Claude Autant-Lara, 1954).

Chéri and Gigi

Post-World War I, her writing career bloomed following the publication of Chéri (1920). Chéri tells the story of the end of a six-year affair between an ageing retired courtesan, Léa, and a pampered young man, Chéri. Léa is devastated when Chéri marries a girl his own age, and delighted when he returns to her, but after one final night together she sends him away again.

After Chéri, Colette entered the world of modern poetry and painting revolving around Jean Cocteau. She divorced Henri de Jouvenel partly due to Jouvenel's infidelities and partly to Colette's own much talked-about affair with her sixteen-year-old stepson, Bertrand de Jouvenel. In 1935, Colette married Maurice Goudeket, an uncle of Juliet Goudeket alias Hollywood legend Jetta Goudal. The couple stayed together until her death.

Her novel 'Le Blé en herbe' (1923) dealt again with love between an ageing woman and a very young man, a situation reflecting her relationship with Bertrand de Jouvenel. The decades of the 1920s and 1930s were Colette's most productive and innovative period. Set mostly in Burgundy or Paris during the Belle Époque, her work treated married life, sexuality, and the problems of a woman's struggle for independence. During the German occupation of France during World War II, her husband Maurice Goudeket, a Jew, was arrested by the Gestapo in December 1941. Although he was released after a few months through the intervention of the French wife of the German ambassador, Colette lived through the rest of the war years with the anxiety of a possible second arrest. She aided her Jewish friends and hid her husband in her attic.

Her best-known work, the novella 'Gigi' (1944), was the basis for several films. It tells the story of sixteen-year-old Gilberte (Gigi) Alvar. Born into a family of demimondaines, Gigi is being trained as a courtesan to captivate a wealthy lover but breaks with tradition by marrying him instead. In 1949 Gigi was made into a French film starring Danièle Delorme and Gaby Morlay. In 1951 Gigi was adapted for the stage by Lerner and Loewe with the then-unknown Audrey Hepburn in the title role, picked by Colette personally. The Hollywood musical Gigi (Vinccente Minelli, 1958), starring Leslie Caron and Louis Jourdan, with a screenplay by Alan Jay Lerner and a score by Lerner and Frederick Loewe, won the Oscar for Best Picture.

In 1948, Colette was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature. On her death in 1954, she was refused a religious funeral by the Catholic Church on account of her divorce. Instead, she was given a state funeral, the first French woman of letters to be granted this honour, and interred in Père-Lachaise cemetery. She was 81.


Leslie Caron in Gigi (1958). French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris, no. 662. Photo: Sam Lévin. Publicity still for Gigi (Vincente Minelli, 1958).


Leslie Caron in Gigi (1958). German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/34. Photo: Sam Levin. Publicity still for Gigi (Vincente Minnelli, 1958).


Leslie Caron in Gigi (1958). German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/35. Photo: Sam Lévin. Publicity still for Gigi (Vincente Minnelli, 1958).


Leslie Caron in Gigi (1958). German postcard by ISV, Amsterdam, no. B 17. Photo: publicity still for Gigi (Vincente Minnelli, 1958).

Sources: Amis de Colette (French), Wikipedia and IMDb.

This post was last updated on 30 September 2023.

Colette Brettel

Colette Brettel (1902-1973) was a British silent film actress who moved to Berlin in 1924. There she met her future husband, Ernst Winar, in whose films she often starred. She had a busy film career in German films until sound film drove her back to Britain.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 1973/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Suse Byk, Berlin.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 3199/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Suse Byk, Berlin.

Wuthering Heights

Colette Brettel was born Dorothy Nicolette Pettigrew in London in 1902. She made her screen debut as Cathy Earnshaw in Wuthering Heights (A.V. Bramble, 1920), the first screen adaptation of Emily Brontë's classic 1847 novel of destructive love. Milton Rosmer co-starred as Heathcliff and the film was primarily shot in and around Brontë's home village of Haworth. Sadly, this silent version is considered to be a lost film.

Brettel then appeared in several British films of the early 1920s including the British-Dutch crime film Blood Money/Bloedgeld (Fred Goodwins, 1921) with Adelqui Migliar and The Prodigal Son (A. E. Coleby, 1923), shot in Iceland and the Riviera, and starring Henry Victor and Stewart Rome.

The Prodigal Son's original release length was 18,454 feet (280 minutes) which made it the longest commercially made British film. It was shown in two consecutive parts. The film was not a commercial success upon its release and was attacked by critics. It was perhaps the biggest failure of all the films released by Stoll Pictures, the largest British film company of the early 1920s. However, the film was re-released in 1929 with a greatly reduced running time.

The British film industry was losing out to heavy competition from Hollywood, which was helped by its much larger home market. The 'Slump' of 1924 caused many British film studios to close. When the number of British films released sharply declined, Colette Brettel moved to the European film capital at the time, Berlin.

On the set of her first German film, Wettlauf zum Glück/Race for Luck (Bruno Ziener 1924), Brettel met her future husband, the Dutch actor and director Ernst Winar. Wettlauf zum Glück/Race for luck was set in Tibet, but filmed in Europe. Next, she appeared with Winar in Komödie des Herzens/Comedy of the Heart (Rochus Gliese, 1924) starring Lil Dagover and Nigel Barrie. The film was co-scripted by the great director F.W. Murnau and was one of Ufa's major releases of the 1923-1925 boom period.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 51/1. Photo: Koop Film, Berlin. Hans Mierendorff as the industrialist Franz Großmann and Colette Brettel as his daughter in Die Wacht am Rhein/Aus des Rheinlands Schicksalstagen/Watch on the Rhine (Helene Lackner, 1926).

A fruitful career in Germany

Colette Brettel had a fruitful career in Germany and was known for her voluptuous figure, according to IMDb. She was directed by a wide range of directors such as Manfred Noa, Hans Steinhoff, and Fred Sauer. Steinhoff directed her in the silent operetta film Gräfin Mariza/Countess Maritza (Hans Steinhoff, 1925) with Vivian Gibson and Harry Liedtke. It is an adaptation of the operetta of the same title by Hungarian composer Emmerich Kálmán.

The young Marlene Dietrich played her daughter in the drama Der Juxbaron/The Imaginary Baron (Willi Wolff, 1927) starring Reinhold Schünzel as the title figure. Brettel had a supporting role in the romantic comedy Der moderne Casanova/A Modern Casanova (Max Obal, Rudolf Walther-Fein, 1928) starring Harry Liedtke, María Corda and Ernö Verebes.

She acted in several films of her husband Ernst Winar, including his first film as director, the controversial § 182 Minderjährig/Paragraph 182 (Ernst Winar, 1927). She also played in his Der Neffe aus Amerika/The Nephew from America (Ernst Winar, 1927), Das Haus am Krögel/The House on the Krögel (Ernst Winar, 1927), and Der Hafenbaron/The Harbour Baron (Ernst Winar, 1928) with Hans Brausewetter.

Brettel did not master the German language and quit cinema when the sound film set in. Her final German film was Die nicht heiraten dürfen/Who are not allowed to marry (Carl Heinz Rudolph, 1929) with André Mattoni. Colette Brettel moved back to Britain, where she did not make films anymore. Ernst Winar returned to the Netherlands and he would direct several Dutch films and became the film coach for a young student director called Paul Verhoeven.

Colette Brettel died in Sheffield, Great Britain, in 1973. About how and when her marriage with Winar ended, we could not find any information online.


Austrian postcard by Iris-Verlag, no. 5131. Photo: Kiesel, Berlin.



Belgian postcard by S.A. Cacao et Chocolat Kivou, Vilvoorde / N.V. Cacao en Chocolade Kivou, Vilvoorde. Photo: Artistes Associés (United Artists). Brettel's name is misspelt on this card.

Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.

This post was lkast updated on 9 August 2023.

Colette Darfeuil

Coquettish Colette Darfeuil (1906-1998) was a French actress with beautiful green eyes who made 110 films between 1920 and 1953.


French postcard by Europe, no. 588. Photo: G.L. Manuel Frères.


French postcard by Les productions J.N. Ermoliev / Tobis for the screening of the film at the Paris cinema Marivaux. Colette Darfeuil as the evil Sangarre, who plots together with Ivan Ogareff (Charles Vanel) in the French sound film Michel Strogoff (Jacques de Baroncelli, Richard Eichberg, 1936), based on the novel by Jules Verne.

Brown-haired ingénue

Colette Darfeuil was born Emma Henriette Augustine Floquet in Paris in 1906. As a girl, she was discovered by young director Pierre Colombier in the Gaumont studios when she accompanied a friend who would play a part as an extra.

She made her film debut in Les étrennes à travers les ages/New Year Gifts through the Ages (Pierre Colombier, 1920) with Dolly Davis. This was a short, silent comedy with animated sequences of women down the ages all wanting something different from what they got as New Year presents.

Three years later, her film career really took off with leading roles in Le retour à la vie/Back to Life (Jacques Dorval, 1923) and Château historique/Historic Castle (Henri Desfontaines, 1923) with Thomy Bourdelle.

In Germany, she appeared in Der Mann im Sattel/The Man in the Saddle (Manfred Noa, 1925) with Ernö Verebes and Angelo Ferrari. There she later also appeared in the comedy Was eine Frau im Frühling träumt/What a Woman Dreams About in Spring (Curt Blachnitzky, 1929).

But she mostly appeared in French films, such as the dramas La flamme/The Flame (René Hervil, 1926) with Charles Vanel, and Sables/Sand (Dimitri Kirsanoff, 1929) with Gina Manès. She had started her career as a brown-haired ingénue but in time turned into a blonde sophisticated lady.


French postcard by A.N. Paris, no. 272.

The end of the world

Colette Darfeuil made an easy transition from silent to sound with Abel Gance’s Science-Fiction film La fin du monde/The End of the World (1931). Hal Erickson at AllMovie: “As a comet speeds along on a collision course with Planet Earth, the world prays for a miracle. Scientist Victor Francen races against time to avoid the cataclysm, while Francen's religious-fanatic brother (played by director Gance) puts his fate in the hands of God.

Meanwhile, the governments of the world adopt near-fascistic methods to keep their panicking minions under control. Once all hope is abandoned, virtually all of civilisation degenerates into a drunken orgy, replete with rape and bestiality. The worst is reserved for last, as the ever-approaching comet causes a plethora of natural disasters before the final ‘Big Bang.’“

The 1930s were a busy decade for Darfeuil. It started with films like Cendrillon de Paris/Cinderella of Paris (Jean Hémard, 1930) and the comedy Voici dimanche/Here is Sunday (Pierre Weill, 1930) with Tony D’Algy. She played leads in Pour un soir..!/For one night...! (Jean Godard, 1931) opposite the young Jean Gabin, and the Guy de Maupassant adaptation Le rosier de Madame Husson/Mrs. Husson's Virginity Prize (Dominique Bernard-Deschamps, 1932) featuring Françoise Rosay.

Rex Ingram and his wife Alice Terry directed her in a supporting part in the Arab adventure Baroud (1932) with Pierre Batcheff. The British director shot his only sound film in Morocco, during the heyday of the French colonial empire, and retired shortly afterwards from the film industry. Russian director Fyodor Otsep directed her in the drama Mirages de Paris/Paris Illusions (1933) with Jacqueline Francell. This was an alternate language version of Großstadtnacht/Big City Night (Fyodor Otsep, 1932) with Dolly Haas and Trude Berliner in Darfeuil’s role.

Other films include Pour être aimé/To be Loved (Jacques Tourneur, 1933) with Pierre Richard-Willm, the Fernandel comedy Les bleus de la marine/The New Recruits of the Navy (Maurice Cammage, 1934), and Le roi des Champs-Élysées/The King of the Champs Elysees (Max Nosseck, 1934) with Buster Keaton.


French postcard by A.N. Paris, no. 272.

Seductive femme fatales

Colette Darfeuil had a successful career but never managed to become a real star. She often played seductive femme fatales, sometimes even vulgar characters. She was one of the pretty partners of the legendary silent star Ivan Mozzhukhin in the sound version of Casanova (René Barberis, 1933). She was directed by her husband Pierre Weill in Le train d'amour/Love Train (1935).

During the 1930s she mixed such starring parts with supporting roles in films like La chanson du souvenir (Serge de Poligny, Detlev Sierck a.k.a. Douglas Sirk, 1936), the French language version of the Ufa production Das Hofkonzert/The Court Concert (Douglas Sirk, 1936), both starring Márta Eggerth. A success was the adventure film Michel Strogoff/Michael Strogoff (Jacques de Baroncelli, Richard Eichberg, 1936) starring Adolf Wohlbrück a.k.a. Anton Walbrook. This was another alternate language version of a German production, Der Kurier des Zaren/The Czar’s Courier (Richard Eichberg, 1936) based on the novel by Jules Verne.

In Belgium, she played in several comedies by Gaston Schoukens, such as Bossemans et Coppenolle (1939) with Raymond Aimos, and in Italy, she made the romantic comedy L'amore si fa così/Love you so (Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia, 1939). She had a supporting part in the war drama Untel père et fils/Heart of a Nation (Julien Duvivier, 1945) with Raimu and Michèle Morgan. The film about how the people of Paris cope with the strains and struggles of war was shot in 1940 but not released in France until November 1945 because of WW II. It was released in the US in 1943.

After the war, she appeared in Jacqueline Audry’s Les malheurs de Sophie/The Misfortunes of Sophie (1946). That year, her mother died and from that point on she only accidentally worked for the cameras. In 1952, she played opposite Michel Simon in La fille au fouet/Girl with the Whip (Jean Dreville, 1952). She also played in the German version, Das Geheimnis vom Bergsee (Jean Dreville, 1952). It was her last film.

Aged 92, Colette Darfeuil died in 1998 in Montfort-l'Amaury, France. She was divorced from film director Pierre Weill and she was the widow of producer René Bianco.


French postcard by Editions et Publications Cinematographiques (EPC), no. 91.

Source: Pascal Donald (CinéArtistes - French), Hal Erickson (AllMovie), AlloCiné (French), Les gens du Cinéma (French), Wikipedia (German and French) and IMDb.

This post was last updated on 28 November 2023.

Georges Wague on stage

Georges Wague (1874-1965) was a French mime, teacher and silent film actor who performed in more than forty films between 1907 and 1922. We published before about Wague's films, but this post focuses on his equally interesting stage career.


French postcard. Photo Waléry, Paris.


French postcard by Cautin & Berger, ca. 1900, mailed July 1905. Georges Wagne [sic, = Wague] and Mendelyes [sic, = Christiane Mendelys, aka Christiane Wague]. Caption: Cantomines [sic, = cantomimes] de Xavier Privat [sic, = Privas].


French postcard. Photo: Waléry, Paris. Georges Wague and Colette Willy in La Chair (The Flesh, 1907) written by Georges Wague and Leon Lambert, with music by Albert Chantrier. It was Colette's greatest stage success.

The invention of the Cantomime

Georges Wague was born Georges Marie Valentin Waag in Paris in 1874. His parents were strict and devout. His mother died when he was nine, and he was placed in l’école des Frères de la doctrine chrétienne (the school of the Brothers of the Christian doctrine) in Paris. Here he helped with performances given by the association of young people from the parish of Saint-Sulpice and began to recite poetry with this association. He qualified as an electrical engineer before entering the Conservatory of Dramatic Art of Paris as an auditor. At the Conservatory he attended the course given by Dupont Vernon.

In the early 1890s, Wague participated in the soirées of La Plume, the literary magazine founded by Léon Deschamps, where he was noticed for his verse recitals. Xavier Privas proposed to sing songs while Georges Wague mimed them, creating a new artistic expression they called 'Cantomime'. Cantomime from "canto" (singing) and mime. In the cantomimes, which began in 1893 at the Café Procope, Wague performed on stage with a singer and piano in the wings. Often the character was Pierrot. The established mime Félicia Mallet assisted Wague in developing his highly individual style during the early part of his career. He moved to the Bodinière theatre where he became known in Paris with his cantomimes including 'Noël de Pierrot' (1894) and 'Le Testament de Pierrot' (1895).

Wague first staged his pantomime at the Théâtre Montparnasse in 1895, 'Le Voeu de Musette'. Many others followed over the years. To revive his career after his return from military service in 1898, Georges Wague began to participate in soirées of the 'Veillées artistiques de Plaisance'. Cantomimes included 'Pierrot Chante' (1899) and 'Sommeil Blanc' (1899). 'Sommeil Blanc' (White Sleep) was written for him by Xavier Privas, with music by Louis Huvey.

Due to rivalry with other performers of cantomimes, Wague created a company with Christiane Mandelys (or Mendelys), who became his wife, to preserve his rights as the inventor of the concept. With his troupe, he played 'La Roulotte' (The Caravan) directed by Georges Chartron. He won success and began touring in France and abroad, leading to the presentation of the last show at the Exposition Universelle (1900) where he played several Pierrot plays including 'Pierrot infidèle' (Unfaithful Pierrot) and 'Le Noël de Pierrot' (Christmas Pierrot).

George Wague decided to move from white pantomime, in which gestures and movements were ample, to dramatic pantomime. To do this, he changed his stage acting: his mime consisted of gestures reduced to the simplest attitudes to express the full range of thought in constant movement. He did not use the conventional alphabet of mimes in this original form of expression.


French postcard by Editions artistique de Walery. Photo: Walery, Paris. Publicity still for the play Giska la Bohémienne (1908) by Ed. Leroy.


French postcard by Editions artistique de Walery. Photo: Walery, Paris. Georges Wague and Christine Kerf in the play 'Épreuve Fatale' (1913) by Leon Charbonnel and Emile Artaud.


Vintage French postcard. Photo by Waléry, Paris. Georges Wague in the lead of the play 'La Barbara' by G. Montignac and Wague, music by A. Chantrier, performed e.g. in June 1913 at the Ba-Ta-Clan in Paris.

Colette and La Argentina

Georges Wague taught pantomime, notably to the writer Colette, with whom he made a tour from 1906 to 1912 and caused a scandal with presentations of 'La Chair' (The Flesh) where Colette performed largely naked.

Wague performed in many other stage pantomimes including 'Scaramouche', 'Barbe Bluette' and 'L'homme aux poupées', and played silent roles in ballet and opera. He continued to play a white-faced Pierrot at the Opéra-Comique during the 1920s.

From 1916 Wague taught at the Conservatoire national supérieur d'art dramatique. Wague taught mimes who went on the fame such as Christine Kerf, Caroline Otéro, Angèle Héraud and Charlotte Wiehé. In 1920, he and his wife Christiane Mandelys opened a mime and comedy school in their home on rue Pigalle. He also taught actors and opera singers how to use their bodies to express their feelings. This skill was much neglected in opera, where often the singers were chosen for their voice rather than their appearance and had little acting ability.

In 1925 he performed with the flamenco dancer Antonia Mercé y Luque, "La Argentina", in 'El amor brujo' at the Théâtre Trianon-Lyrique. Later, Wague collaborated with the mime and actor Jean-Louis Barrault when he played Jean-Gaspard Deburau in the classic film Les Enfants du Paradis/Children of Paradise (Marcel Carné, 1943), the basis for his 1946 mime piece 'Baptiste'.

After the death of his wife, Christiane Mandelys, in 1957, he collected his archives and deposited them in the Bibliothèque Nationale. Georges Wague was awarded the 'Grande médaille de vermeil' by the city of Paris in 1962. In 1965, Wague died at Menton in the Alpes-Maritimes, aged 91.


French postcard. Photo: Waléry, Paris. Georges Wague and Marietta Ricotti in 'L'Aragonaise' by A. Gailhard. L'Aragonaise was a pantomime by Wague, with songs by Gailhard/Gaillard. Ricotti was a singer from the Paris Opera.


French postcard by R. Guilleminot, Boespflug et Cie., Paris. Georges Wague is misspelt on the card as Georges Vague.


French postcard by Walery, Paris, 1929. Photo: Walery, Paris. Publicity still for the Ballets Argentina / Operas Comique production of Triana by Albeniz. Collection: Didier Hanson.


British postcard by K Ltd.

Source: Wikipedia (English and French) and IMDb. See also Tami Williams, 'The “Silent” Arts. Modern Pantomime and the Making of an Art Cinema in Belle Époque Paris: The Case of Georges Wague and Germaine Dulac', in A Companion to Early Cinema (2012).

G. L. Manuel Frères

Today in our series on film star photographers two French brothers, Henri Manuel (1874-1947) and Gaston Manuel (1880-1967). Between the two World wars, their studio G. L. Manuel Frères portrayed 'tout' Paris: Auguste Rodin, Mistinguett, Eric Satie, Josephine Baker, Aristide Bruant, Colette, Jules Renard, Yvonne Printemps et cetera.


Mistinguett. French postcard by FA, no. 67. Photo: H. Manuel. Collection: Didier Hanson.


French novelist and performer Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette. French postcard by A.N. Paris, no. 22. Photo: Henri Manuel.


Yvonne Printemps. French postcard by Editions A.N., Paris, no. 24. Photo: G.L. Manuel Frères.

Dancers and actresses from the music halls and casinos

Henri Manuel was born in Paris in 1874. His brother Gaston was six years younger and born in 1880, also in the French capital.

In 1900, the two brothers opened their portrait studio in Paris, G. L. Manuel Frères (Gaston Lucien Manuel Brothers)

They specialised in portrait photography. Henri Manuel quickly became renowned as a photographer of people from the worlds of politics, art and sports, as well as a photographer of art and architecture.

Notable authors they portrayed include Tristan Bernard, Jean Cocteau, Colette, Sacha Guitry, Paul Morand, and Marcel Pagnol. Other figures include Louis Barthou, prime minister of France in 1913; Georges Clemenceau, statesman and twice prime minister; Marshal of France Ferdinand Foch, allied supreme commander in World War I; Vicomtesse Marie-Laure de Noailles; and Raymond Poincar president of France from 1913 to 1920.

Henri also produced postcards of dancers and actresses from the music halls and casinos and his name is sometimes appended to Reutlinger postcards, indicating there was a collaboration of some form.

Soon his portraits were used by news agencies, and in 1910 Manuel's studio began providing a commercial service to news agencies for photographs known as 'l’Agence universelle de reportage Henri Manuel'.


Sylvie. French postcard. Photo: Manuel. The caption goes: 'Souvenir d'un bonne soirée' (Memory of a nice night). On the verso lines from the play Vieil Heidelberg.


Victor Boucher. French postcard by A.N., Paris, no. 22. Photo G.L. Manuel Frères.


Nazimova. French postcard, no. 344. Photo: Studio G.L. Manuel Frères. Collection: Didier Hanson.


Saint-Granier. French postcard by A.N., Paris, no. 52. Photo: G.L. Manuel Frères.


Vera Korène. French postcard. Photo: G.L. Manuel Frères. Collection: Didier Hanson.

The naked reality of imprisonment

From 1914 till 1944, Henri Manuel served as the official photographer of the French government. Manuel also produced numerous photo reports during official ceremonies.

The studio became the largest photographic studio in Paris and a leading centre where young aspiring photographers such as Paris-based American photographer Thérèse Bonney might go to work.

In 1925, the brothers moved their business to 27 rue du Faubourg in Montmartre, where they expanded their business into fashion photography for the likes of Chanel, Patou, Poiret and Lanvin.

Manuel worked for thirty fashion magazines and especially for La Femme de France (1922-1935), Les Grandes Modes de Paris (1906-1931), Les Modes de la femme de France (1922-1935), and Le Petit Écho de la mode (1928-1936).

Between 1928 and 1932, Henri Manuel was also the remarkable witness of the Clairvaux prison. He took 132 shots of Clairvaux which give a striking image of the French prison system in the first half of the twentieth century. He photographed the naked reality of imprisonment, labour, discipline for the hundreds of prisoners but also the environment of their guards.

By 1941 the studio had produced over a million images, spread between fashion photographs, news agency photographs, personal portraits and other images.

The studio was sequestered during the Second World War, and the majority of the photographic plates have been destroyed after 1945.

Some 600 plates survived and were purchased by the state in 1988. They are held at the photo archive of the Médiathèque de l’architecture et du patrimoine.

Henri Manuel was married with Rachel Camille Meyer. He died in 1947 in Neuilly-sur-Seine. Gaston died in 1967.


Raquel Meller. French postcard by Cinémagazine Edition, no. 339. Photo: G.L. Manuel Frères.


Colette Darfeuil. French postcard by Europe, no. 588. Photo: G.L. Manuel Frères.


Cécile Sorel. French postcard by E.C. (Editions Chantal), Paris, no. 59. Photo: G.L. Manuel Frères, Paris.


Damia. French postcard by Editions Chantal (EC), no. 49. Photo: G.L. Manuel Frères.


Käthe von Nagy. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6850/2, 1931-1932. Photo: G.L. Manuel Frères, Paris / Ufa. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Check out our other posts on film star photographers. See the links at right under the caption 'The Photographers'.

Sources: Médiathèque de l’architecture et du patrimoine (French), L'Est Eclair (French), John Toohey (Luminous Lint), Wikipedia (English and French).

Polaire

French singer and actress Polaire (1874-1939) had a career in the entertainment industry which stretched from the early 1890s to the mid-1930s. She encompassed the range from music-hall singer to stage and film actress. Her most successful period professionally was from the mid-1890s to the beginning of the First World War.


French postcard. Photo: Paul Boyer.


French postcard by S.I.P., Paris, no. 1074. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris.


French postcard by S.I.P., Paris. Sent by mail in 1904. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris.


French postcard by Phototypie Pierre Coltman, Paris. Photo: Manuel. Publicity still for the play 'Claudine à Paris' by Willy (actually by Colette). Sent by mail in 1903.


French postcard by Phototypie Pierre Coltman, Paris. Photo: Manuel. Publicity still for the stage production 'Claudine à Paris'.


French postcard. Sent by mail in 1903.

Tha ma ra boum di hé

Polaire was born Émilie Marie Bouchaud in Agha, Algeria, in 1874. According to her memoirs, she was one of eleven children of whom only four survived – and eventually only two, Émilie and her brother Edmond. When her father died of typhoid, her mother temporarily placed the children under the care of Polaire’s grandmother in Algiers.

In 1891, at the age of 17, she came to Paris to join her brother Edmond, who performed there in the café-concerts under the name of Dufleuve. She had already sung in cafes in Algiers and continued on this path, eventually becoming a popular music-hall singer and dancer.

She performed the French version of 'Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay': 'Tha ma ra boum di hé'. It would be her greatest success, already from the start. She became a big name and was portrayed by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec in the magazine Le Rire in 1895. Not only were her singing and dancing qualities remarkable, but Polaire also distinguished herself by her particular physique. She had an exceptional wasp waist, at a time when women tortured themselves with tight corsets to refine their waist.

After a first failed attempt to conquer New York as a singer, Polaire returned to Paris, where she expanded her range with prose theatre as well. She managed to get the role of Claudine in Colette’s play 'Claudine à Paris', which she performed at the Bouffes-Parisiens in 1902. She again performed the play in the US in 1910. This time, she was a big hit in the US and came back loaded with money.

Obtaining the part of Claudine was not so easy, Polaire writes in her memoirs. Colette's husband, Willy, at the time reclaimed the rights of Colette’s novels, and didn’t consider this music-hall singer fit for this serious part. But a dashing and headstrong Polaire managed to convince Willy in person that she was Claudine, so she got the part. 'Claudine à Paris' was performed some 120 times in France, with great success. Colette herself was very satisfied with the result. Willy even managed to exploit the success by a whole line of merchandising. Afterwards, Polaire would consider him her substitute father.


French postcard. Photo Gerschel, Paris. Polaire and Willy.


French postcard. Photo: Gerschel, Paris. Polaire in 'Le P'tit Jeune Homme'. Polaire played this travesty role in 1903 at the Bouffes-Parisiens.


French promotion card by S.I.P. for Vin Désiles. Photo: Pirou. Caption: 'Drink the wine Désiles. Doctors won't have bread. Polaire'.


French postcard by B.J.C., Paris. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris. Bouffes-Parisiens.


French postcard by F.C. & Cie., no. 250. Photo: Boyer & Bert, Paris.


French postcard. Photo: Stebbing.

A poor trapeze worker

From 1909, Polaire appeared in several film roles. She made two films at Pathé frères, Moines et guerriers / Nuns and Warriors (Julien Clément, 1909) and La tournée des grand-ducs / The Grandduke’s Tour (Léonce Perret, 1910), in which she aptly played a dancer.

She went to Germany to play a Cuban lady in Zouza (Reinhard Bruck, 1911), in which future film director Richard Oswald was one of her co-stars.

Back in France, she acted again at Pathé in Le visiteur / The Visitor (Albert Capellani, René Leprince, 1911), but she was mostly active at the Éclair film company between 1911 and 1914, starting with Le poison de l’humanité / The Poison of Humanity (Émile Chautard, Victorin Jasset, 1911).

From 1912 to 1914, she did a series of six films with then then young and upcoming film director Maurice Tourneur, working for Éclair: Les gaîtés de l'escadron / The Funny Regiment (1913), based on the novel by Georges Courteline; Le dernier pardon (1913), a comedy written by Gyp; La dame de Monsoreau (1913), after Alexandre Dumas père; Le Friquet (1914), with Polaire in the title role; Soeurette / The Sparrow (1914); and the mystery film Monsieur Lecoq (1914), after Émile Gaboriau. Her co-stars in these films were often Maurice de Féraudy, Charles Krauss, Henry Roussel and Renée Sylvaire.

Le Friquet was restored by the Cinémathèque française in the mid-1990s and was shown at international festivals. It deals with a poor trapeze worker who loses her lover to a rich, immoral lady and then commits suicide during her trapeze act. It was based on a play Polaire had performed herself in 1904.


French postcard. Photo: H. Manuel. Publicity still for the stage play 'Claudine à Paris' (1902) at the Théâtre des Bouffes Parisiens. Sent by mail in 1906.


French postcard by EM. Photo: H. Manuel. Publicity still for 'Claudine à Paris' (1902).


French postcard by ND Phot., no. 30 Photo: H. Manuel. Caption: Polaire (Gymnase).


French postcard, no. 666. Photo: H. Manuel. Publicity still for 'Claudine à Paris' (1902). Sent by mail in 1908.


French postcard by Phototypie Pierre Coltman, Paris. Photo: Manuel. Polaire in 'Claudine à Paris'. Sent by mail in 1902.


French postcard by Phototypie Pierre Coltman, Paris. Photo: Manuel. Polaire in 'Claudine à Paris'.

The thinnest waist of 33 cm

After World War I, Polaire dedicated herself primarily to the stage. During her career, she recorded many of her songs, such as 'Tha ma ra boum di hé', 'La Glu' - based on a poem by Jean Richepin, 'Tchique tchique' by Vincent Scotto, and the telephone song 'Allo! Chéri!', sang with her partner Marjal, and she recited 'Charlotte prays to Our Lady' by Jehan Rictus.

'Mademoiselle Polaire' is cited by the 'Guinness Book of Records' as co-holder, with the British Ethel Granger, of the thinnest waist of 33 cm. She says in her memoirs that she had repeatedly circled her waist with a fake collar of the 'normal size' of 41 or 42 cm. Polaire was further noted for her heavy Arabic-style makeup, her lavish clothing with fur, lots of jewellery and often short skirts, and her short bob haircut, well before it became fashionable around 1920.

She posed for various painters such as Antonio de La Gandara, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Leonetto Cappiello, Rupert Carabin and John / Juan Sala and the photographers Nadar and Léopold Reutlinger. John Sala became, in 1893, the portraitist of Parisian society. His life-sized portrait of Polaire (1910) was auctioned at Drouot's in Paris on 28 June 2016. Polaire had become a wealthy lady with a house on the Champs-Elysées and a country house in the Var, Villa Claudine.

Well into the 1920s, she continued to gamble away huge fortunes. Polaire's finances also suffered from a series of actions by the French tax authorities, and she struggled to find stage or screen roles as she aged. Polaire died in 1939 at the age of 65 in Champigny-sur-Marne in the Val-de-Marne. Her body was buried at the Cimetière du Centre, in the eastern Paris suburb of Champigny-sur-Marne.

In the past, Polaire was often mixed up with Italian actress Pauline Polaire. Pauline Polaire (1904-1986) was a younger actress who was active in the 1920s in several Italian Forzuti films around strongman characters like Maciste and Saetta. Her real name was Giulietta Gozzi, and she was a niece of the Italian diva Hesperia (Olga Mambelli).


French postcard by Neurdein Frères Phot.-Edit., no. 1. Photo: Collection P. Nadar. Caption: Theâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens. 'Claudine à Paris'. On m'á demandé en mariage. (I've been proposed to.)


French postcard by Neurdein Frères Phot.-Edit., no. 2. Photo: Collection P. Nadar. Caption: Theâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens. 'Claudine à Paris'. Je voudrais bien savoir si j'ai une dot. (I would like to know if I have a dowry.)


French postcard by Neurdein Frères Phot.-Edit., no. 5. Photo: Collection P. Nadar. Caption: Theâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens. 'Claudine à Paris'. Pouah! Ils me dégoûtent tous! (Ugh! They all disgust me!)


French postcard, no. 8307. Photo: H. Manuel. Publicity still for 'Claudine à Paris' (1902). Collection: Didier Hanson.


French postcard by Phototypie Pierre Coltman, Paris. Photo: Manuel. Polaire in 'Claudine à Paris'.


French postcard by Phototypie Pierre Coltman, Paris. Photo: Manuel. Polaire in 'Claudine à Paris'.


French postcard by S.I.R., no. 1074. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris.

Sources: Polaire - Un Etoile de la Belle Epoque (French - Now defunct), Du temps des cerises aux feuilles mortes (French), Wikipedia (English, French and Dutch), and IMDb.