Wednesday, December 9, 2020

Two Belles of the Parisian theatre ... and nightlife?


They keep on arriving on my desk. So I guess the only way to get them off is to see who they are ...



ALICE ROGER.  Hmmm. A modest career in the theatre, followed by a longer one in the caf' conc', until, apparently, she ceased to please her audience ...

Théâtre Déjazet 1862 ... 'congratulation to M Déjazet to have retained Mlle A Roger who is a charming woman and a hard-working member of the company'. 

1863 Théâtre des Champs Elysées Un amour de garçon, Genufa in Marius Boullard's Nédel

1864 Le Vengeance de Pistache, Deux permissions de dix heures

1865 Trouville Le Duel aux mauviettes

1866 Déjazet Maigriotte in Nos bonnes villegoises, Lili/3eme canard in L'Évênement

1868  "Plusieurs débuts ont eu lieu aussi : Mlle Alice Roger, une charmante dugazon, qui a longtemps fait partie de la troupe du théâtre Déjazet, a été très-remarquée...' The début was at tha Alcazar d'été. She sang 'Le Postillon', 'La Marchande d'éventails' and 'Le Panier à salades' and the critic noted 'elle chante fort bien'. 

1869 Concert des Familles. 'J'en suis pour mes frais', 'J'ose pas', 'La Rigolade', 'Tout ça, c'est à moi'' 'Allons y donc', 'La fiancée de Brikmoi', 'Au Bal'



1873 Alcazar d'été 'gracieuse et spirituelle'

1874 Concert de la Pépinière

1875 Alcazar d'Été


1876 Alcazar 'Madame Jacasse', 'La gardeuse d'oies', 'Bavardages', 'Bildard', 'L'amour a coup de poings'




What about MARIE FILLION? Daughter of actor (Odéon, Gaîté), and later manager of the theatre at Roquefort, Eugène Fillion (d 1878)



Marie started in the theatre as a small child, appearing with her father during the 1840s. I see her in the mid-1850s playing at Dijon before she was engaged at the Déjazet. She played ('joli voix') the title-rôle in the opérette Le Diable Rose, and was featured in a quadruple part in La Famille Robinet without wholly satsfying ('une petit mine charmate a la ville, mais à la scène elle n'a pas de voix, prononce mal et ne chante pas juste'. elle mimât mieux qu'elle chante'). Others were kinder ('ue bonne volonté mais insuffisament de moyens'), and she was voted 'gracieuse et charmante' in the revue Doigt dans l'oeil. I spot her at the Châtelet in 1865, the Folies-Dramatiques -- where it was noted that she had put on weight, but was still a 'boulotte appétisante' -- in 1866, and at the Bouffes-Parisiens in 1867-8 (La Veuve Beaugency, Le Cousin Montagnac) after which, it is said, she and Léonide Leblanc were engaged for Constantinople.

In the seventies, I spy her at Bordeaux, Saint-Étienne, Pau et al, but also in a journalist's list of 'poules' 'coquettes au ramage affriolant' headed by the well-know courtesans Schneider and Silly. Ah, well, that explains a lot ... as does this less modest photo











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