Patachou


Henriette Ragon, better known as Patachou, was a French singer and actress, best-known for popularizing Georges Brassens songs by singing them before he became famous. She was an Officier of the Légion d'honneur.

Biography

Early life

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.

Patachou

In 1948, with her husband Jean Billon she took over a cabaret-restaurant in Montmartre, called Patachou. She began to sing in the bistro, and journalists began to call her Patachou after the name of her cabaret. 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 – Thomas Dewey and Errol Flynn were among her victims.

Touring

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.

Death

Patachou died on 30 April 2015 at the age of 96.

Awards

Patachou was made Officier of the Légion d'honneur on 1 January 2009

Recordings

Her first records were released in 1952 on Philips. In the mid-1950s she began recording albums for CBS. In the latter 1950s she began recording on the Audio Fidelity label.

Filmography

  • 1952: Jouons le jeu - la chanteuse
  • 1953: Women of Paris - Herself - Chanteuse
  • 1955: Napoléon - Madame Sans-Gêne
  • 1955: French Cancan - Yvette Guilbert
  • 1983: Le disparu du 7 octobre - Blanche Auroux
  • 1986: Faubourg St Martin - Madame Coppercage
  • 1987: la Rumba - Madame Meyrals
  • 1990: Le champignon des Carpathes - Madame Ambrogiano
  • 1990: Les matins chagrins - Alice
  • 1990: Night of the Fox
  • 1992: Chasse gardée - Madame Cygne
  • 1993: - Madame Meynard
  • 1993: Les Grandes Marées - Sophie Leclerc
  • 1999: Pola X - Marguerite
  • 2000: Drôle de Félix - Mathilde, Grandmother
  • 2000: Les Acteurs - Blind old lady
  • 2001: Belphégor, le fantôme du Louvre - Geneviève
  • 2004: San-Antonio - Ruth Booz