Patachou

Born: 1918-06-10

Henriette Ragon (10 June 1918 – 30 April 2015), better known as Patachou, was a French singer and actress. She was an Officier of the Légion d'honneur. Born in the 12th arrondissement of Paris, Henriette Ragon began her working life as a typist, then a factory worker, a shoeseller and an antique dealer. In 1948, with her husband Jean Billon she took over a cabaret-restaurant in Montmartre, called Patachou. (Their son Pierre Billon had some success as a singer in the 1970s and wrote J'ai oublié de vivre for Johnny Hallyday.) She began to sing in the bistro, and journalists began to call her Patachou after the name of her cabaret (pâte-à-choux means cream puff dough). Georges Brassens sang there, and together they sang the duet "Maman, papa". She was the first to interpret other songs he composed such as "Le bricoleur", "La chasse aux papillons", etc. The evening she sang them for the first time, she suggested her audience stay to the end of the show and meet the writer of these songs, and Brassens went up on to the Patachou stage for the first time and sang Le Gorille and P..de toi. Sometimes she would collect half-ties (she would snip the neckties of customers reluctant to join in the singing and immediately staple them to the ceiling, a habit which has created a very original decor of the place - hundreds of neckties hanging above) – Thomas Dewey and Errol Flynn were among her victims. Her first records were released in 1952. She appeared at the Bobino, a Montparnasse music-hall, toured in France and then further afield. From 1953 onwards, she could be seen on-stage at the Palladium, the Waldorf Astoria, and Carnegie Hall, and throughout the United States. From the beginning of the 1970s she toured Japan and Sweden where 'L'eternal Parigot', with her cheeky Parisian register, was popular. Patachou was made Officier of the Légion d'honneur on 1 January 2009. Patachou died on 30 April 2015 at the age of 96. Source: Article "Patachou" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.


Placeholder

Belphegor, Phantom of the Louvre

as Geneviève
Released: 2001-04-03

A collection of artifacts from an archeological dig in Egypt are brought to the famous Louvre...

Movie page

Pola X

as Marguerite
Released: 1999-05-12

A writer leaves his upper-class life and journeys with a woman claiming to be his sister, and...

Movie page

French Cancan

as Yvette Guilbert
Released: 1955-04-27

Nineteenth-century Paris comes vibrantly alive in Jean Renoir’s exhilarating tale of the opening...

Movie page

Napoleon

as Madame Sans-Gêne
Released: 1955-03-25

The film follows the life of Napoleon from his early life in Corsica to his death at Saint...

Movie page

Wild Target

as Mme. Meynard
Released: 1993-08-18

Victor Meynard, a hit man who still lives with his mother, is becoming more reluctant to pull...

Movie page

The Man Who Lived at the Ritz

as uncredited
Released: 1988-11-28

In this drama, an American art student is trapped amidst the political turmoil of war-torn...

Movie page

Adventures of Félix

as Mathilde Firmin
Released: 2000-04-19

A charming comedy about going on a rather long walk. Félix is a laid-back guy living in the...

Movie page

Femmes de Paris

as uncredited
Released: 1953-05-17

Professor Charles Buisson, astronomer and Nobel Prize winner, has just discovered a nova. He...

Movie page

Les Petites Mains

as Marguerite
Released: 2001-09-01

After the closure of a lace factory in Calais, Andrée, Lulu and Solange are out on the street.

Movie page

Open Season

as Madame Cygne
Released: 1993-11-17

A "three people relationship" with a pact involving a terrible past. The pact concerns France,...

Movie page

La Rumba

as Meyrals
Released: 1987-02-18

Paris, 1938. In a lavishly decorated nightclub, couples dance the syncopated rhythms of Latin...

Movie page

Faubourg St Martin

as Mme Coppercage
Released: 1986-12-03

Imagine a slightly dilapidated three star hotel in the tenth arrondissement run by a very...

Movie page

The Carpathian Mushroom

as Madame Ambrogiano
Released: 1990-03-07

A miraculous mushroom is discovered by a film director's daughter.It would be used to cure an...

Movie page

Hold-up en l'air

as Emilie Sagglia
Released: 1996-11-29

Movie page

Avec sentiment

as uncredited
Released: 1987-09-01

Movie page

Le Grand Échiquier

as Self
First aired: 1972-01-12

TV Show page

The Merv Griffin Show

as Self
First aired: 1962-10-01

The Merv Griffin Show is an American television talk show, starring Merv Griffin. The series ran...

TV Show page

L'Académie des 9

as Self
First aired: 1982-09-13

TV Show page

The Ed Sullivan Show

as Self - Singer
First aired: 1948-06-20

The Ed Sullivan Show is an American TV variety show that originally ran on CBS from Sunday June...

TV Show page

The Ed Sullivan Show

as Self
First aired: 1948-06-20

The Ed Sullivan Show is an American TV variety show that originally ran on CBS from Sunday June...

TV Show page

The Ed Sullivan Show

as Self (archive footage)
First aired: 1948-06-20

The Ed Sullivan Show is an American TV variety show that originally ran on CBS from Sunday June...

TV Show page

La Chance aux chansons

as Self
First aired: 1984-03-26

TV Show page

Les Cordier, juge et flic

as Mrs. Lemoine
First aired: 1994-02-24

The Cordier fight in family against the crime: the father is police captain, the son,...

TV Show page

Discorama

as Self
First aired: 1959-02-04

TV Show page

À bout portant

as Self
First aired: 1968-12-16

TV Show page

Pierre or The Ambiguities

as Margherite
First aired: 2001-09-24

This alternate extended TV version of Pola X continues to follow a writer who leaves his...

TV Show page

Orages d'été, avis de tempête

as Marthe
First aired: 1990-07-05

TV Show page