Félix Mayol (18 November 1872 – 26 October 1941) was a French singer and entertainer.

Career

Mayol was born in

Toulon Toulon (, , ; , , ) is a city in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of southeastern France. Located on the French Riviera and the historical Provence, it is the prefecture of the Var (department), Var department. The Commune of Toulon h ...

, France. His parents, amateur singers and actors, arranged for Felix to make his debut stage at six years of age. In 1895, he went to the

Montparnasse Montparnasse () is an area in the south of Paris, France, on the left bank of the river Seine, centred at the crossroads of the Boulevard du Montparnasse and the Rue de Rennes, between the Rue de Rennes and boulevard Raspail. It is split betwee ...

Quarter of Paris where he began a career in entertainment that spanned more than forty years. He adopted a campy effeminate manner on stage as part of his theatrical persona.Michael Freedland, ''Maurice Chevalier'', Morrow, 1981, p. 28. He sang the famous song "Viens poupoule, viens poupoule, viens...", and performed many songs by

Théodore Botrel Jean-Baptiste-Théodore-Marie Botrel (14 September 1868 – 28 July 1925) was a French singer-songwriter, poet and playwright. He is best known for his popular songs about his native Brittany, of which the most famous is ''La Paimpolaise''. Dur ...

. In the early years of the 20th century some of Mayol's performances were captured by an early form of talking picture. He would record his voice, then the motion picture camera would film him as he lip-synced to the record. Several of his

Phonoscène The Phonoscène was an antecedent of music videoKeazor, Henry and Wübbena, Thorsten (eds). "Introduction" to ''Rewind, Play, Fast Forward: The Past, Present and Future of the Music Video'', transcript Verlag (2010) and was regarded by Michel C ...

s exist.

Other activities

The teenaged

Maurice Chevalier Maurice Auguste Chevalier (; 12 September 1888 – 1 January 1972) was a French singer, actor, and entertainer. He is best known for his signature songs, including " Livin' In The Sunlight", " Valentine", " Louise", " Mimi", and " Thank Heaven f ...

took a risk by impersonating Mayol in small-time cafe entertainments,Hugh MacDiarmid, ''Selected Essays of Hugh MacDiarmid'', University of California Press, 1970, p. 106. Mayol reportedly recognised the young man's talent and gave him his blessing, which led Chevalier to the Casino de Paris and the

Folies Bergère 150px, Stanisław Julian Ignacy Ostroróg">Walery, 1927 The Folies Bergère () is a cabaret music hall in Paris, France. Located at 32 Rue Richer in the 9th Arrondissement, the Folies Bergère was built as an opera house by the arc ...

. Shortly after World War I, he purchased a plot of land in Toulon and donated it to the local sports club,

RC Toulonnais Rugby Club Toulonnais (), also referred to as Rugby Club Toulon or simply Toulon, is a French professional rugby union club based in Toulon and competing in the Top 14. Located on the French Riviera, in the Provence region, the club plays its h ...

, for the building of a stadium. The facility, named

Stade Mayol The Stade Mayol is a multi-purpose stadium in Toulon, France. It is currently used mostly for rugby union matches and is the home stadium of RC Toulonnais. The stadium is able to hold 17,500 people. It is one of the few French stadiums to be emb ...

in his honor, remains in use today (after several renovations) as the home ground for the Toulon

rugby Rugby may refer to: Sport * Rugby football in many forms: ** Rugby union: 15 players per side *** American flag rugby *** Beach rugby *** Mini rugby *** Rugby sevens, 7 players per side *** Rugby tens, 10 players per side *** Snow rugby *** Tou ...

team.

Personal life

Mayol never married, and many stories circulated of his homosexual liaisons, including an attempt to seduce Chevalier. His brother,

Charles Mayol Charles Mayol (21 September 1863 – 16 March 1910) was a French music publisher. The elder brother of the singer Félix Mayol, Charles-Félix-Eustache Mayol established the éditions Mayol,Devriès et Lesure, p. 309. originally created to publ ...

, founded a music publishing company to print his works.

Selected filmography

* '' To the Polls, Citizens'' (1932) * ''

La dame de chez Maxim's LA most frequently refers to Los Angeles, the second most populous city in the United States of America. La, LA, or L.A. may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music *La (musical note), or A, the sixth note *"L.A.", a song by Elliott Smit ...

'' (1933)

External links

*
Phonoscene with an Elephone chronophone (1905), Félix Mayol sings "La polka des trottins" (A. Trébitsch/ H. Christiné)

Notes

1872 births 1941 deaths Musicians from Toulon French male singers French male stage actors French male film actors French male silent film actors 20th-century French male actors {{France-singer-stub