Henriette Ragon (10 June 1918 – 30 April 2015), better known as Patachou, was a French singer and actress, best-known for popularizing

Georges Brassens Georges Charles Brassens (; ; 22 October 1921 – 29 October 1981) was a French singer-songwriter and poet. As an iconic figure in France, he achieved fame through his elegant songs with their harmonically complex music for voice and guitar and ...

songs by singing them before he became famous. She was an Officier of the

Légion d'honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and Civil society, civil. Currently consisting of five cl ...

Biography

Early life

Born in the

12th arrondissement of Paris The 12th arrondissement of Paris (''XIIe arrondissement'') is one of the 20 arrondissements of the capital city of France. Situated on the right bank of the River Seine, it is the easternmost arrondissement of Paris, as well as the largest by area ...

, 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 Montmartre ( , , ) is a large hill in Paris's northern 18th arrondissement of Paris, 18th arrondissement. It is high and gives its name to the surrounding district, part of the Rive Droite, Right Bank. Montmartre is primarily known for its a ...

, 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 Jean-Philippe Léo Smet (; 15 June 1943 – 5 December 2017), better known by his stage name Johnny Hallyday, was a French rock and roll and Pop music, pop singer and actor, credited with having brought rock and roll to France. During a career ...

.) 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).

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 Thomas Edmund Dewey (March 24, 1902 – March 16, 1971) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 47th Governor of New York from 1943 to 1954. He was the Republican Party's nominee for president of the United States in 1944 and ...

and

Errol Flynn Errol Leslie Thomson Flynn (20 June 1909 – 14 October 1959) was an Australian and American actor who achieved worldwide fame during the Golden Age of Hollywood. He was known for his romantic swashbuckler roles, frequent partnerships with Oliv ...

were among her victims.

Touring

She appeared at the Bobino, a

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 ...

music-hall, toured in France and then further afield. From 1953 onwards, she could be seen on-stage at the

Palladium Palladium is a chemical element; it has symbol Pd and atomic number 46. It is a rare and lustrous silvery-white metal discovered in 1802 by the English chemist William Hyde Wollaston. He named it after the asteroid Pallas (formally 2 Pallas), ...

, the Waldorf Astoria, and

Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhattan), 57t ...

, 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

on 1 January 2009La Légion d'honneur du Nouvel An
''

Le Figaro () is a French daily morning newspaper founded in 1826. It was named after Figaro, a character in several plays by polymath Pierre Beaumarchais, Beaumarchais (1732–1799): ''Le Barbier de Séville'', ''The Guilty Mother, La Mère coupable'', ...

''.

Recordings

Her first records were released in 1952 on

Philips Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), simply branded Philips, is a Dutch multinational health technology company that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, its world headquarters have been situated in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarter ...

. In the mid-1950s she began recording albums for

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

. In the latter 1950s she began recording on the Audio Fidelity label.

Filmography

*1952: ''Jouons le jeu'' - la chanteuse (segments 'L'avarice' and 'La fidélité') *1953: ''

Women of Paris A woman is an adult female human. Before adulthood, a female child or adolescent is referred to as a girl. Typically, women are of the female sex and inherit a pair of X chromosomes, one from each parent, and women with functional uter ...

'' (by Jean Boyer, Patachou sings " Brave Margot" by

) - Herself - Chanteuse *1955: ''

Napoléon Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led a series of mi ...

'' - Madame Sans-Gêne *1955: '' French Cancan'' (1955) - Yvette Guilbert *1983: '' Le disparu du 7 octobre'' (TV Movie, by Jacques Ertaud) - Blanche Auroux *1986: ''Faubourg St Martin'' - Madame Coppercage *1987: '' la Rumba'' (by

Roger Hanin Roger Hanin (born Roger Levy, 20 October 1925 – 11 February 2015) was a French actor and film director, best known for playing the title role in the TV police drama, '' Navarro''. Career Roger Hanin was born in 1925 in Algiers, Algeria as Rog ...

) - Madame Meyrals *1990: ''Le champignon des Carpathes'' - Madame Ambrogiano *1990: ''Les matins chagrins'' - Alice *1990: ''Night of the Fox'' (TV Movie) *1992: ''Chasse gardée'' - Madame Cygne *1993: ' (by

Pierre Salvadori Pierre Salvadori (born 8 November 1964) is a French film director from Santo-Pietro-di-Venaco, known for works on romantic comedies such as '' Hors de prix'' (2006). Life and career In 1989 Salvadori wrote his first screenplay, which would the ...

) - Madame Meynard *1993: '' Les Grandes Marées'' (TV Mini-Series, by Jean Sagols) - Sophie Leclerc *1999: '' Pola X'' (by

Leos Carax Alex Christophe Dupont (born 1960), best known as Leos Carax (), is a French film director, critic and writer. Carax is noted for his poetic style and his tortured depictions of love. His first major work was ''Boy Meets Girl (1984 film), Boy Me ...

) - Marguerite *2000: '' Drôle de Félix'' (by Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau) - Mathilde, Grandmother *2000: '' Les Acteurs'' (by

Bertrand Blier Bertrand Blier (; 14 March 1939 – 20 January 2025) was a French film director and writer. His 1978 film '' Get Out Your Handkerchiefs'' won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 51st Academy Awards. Career His 1996 film '' ...

) - Blind old lady *2001: '' Belphégor, le fantôme du Louvre'' (by Jean-Paul Salomé) - Geneviève *2004: '' San-Antonio'' (by

Frédéric Auburtin Frédéric Auburtin (born 4 June 1962) is a French director, writer, actor and producer. Life and career Frédéric Auburtin was born and raised in Marseille, France, where he studied music (piano, drums) and literature before transitioning to t ...

) - Ruth Booz

References

{{Authority control 1918 births 2015 deaths Musicians from Paris French film actresses French humorists French women humorists French comedy musicians Officers of the Legion of Honour Audio Fidelity Records artists 20th-century French women singers