Movie Musings: Disney and More

Maurice Chevalier: The Real Lumiere 

“Isn’t It Romantic” “Mimi” “Thank Heaven For Little Girls” and “Valentine” are all songs made popular by Maurice Chevalier, a French singer, dancer, and actor whose career lasted more than 60 years. He appeared in Film, Broadway, and Television, but what truly makes him a legend in the history of the entertainment industry is his trademark clothing. Any time one saw Chevalier, it was in his standard attire: boater hat and tuxedo, along with his cane. Chevalier received two Best Actor Oscar Nominations for acting in films released in the late 1920s, and he later made films with the Walt Disney Studios. And after his passing, he became the inspiration for one of the characters in one of Disney’s most beloved movies. In this blog, I’d like to tell you about his remarkable career in show business.

Maurice Auguste Chevalier was born in Paris, France on September 12, 1888. As a child, he worked a number of jobs: carpenter’s apprentice, electrician, printer, and even a doll painter. He got his big break in show business at the age of 13, when he was singing at a French cafe and someone at the cafe encouraged him to audition for a local musical. He got the part and was a big hit, launching his career. In 1909, at age 19, he partnered with Frehel (the biggest star in France at the time), but only for two years, when Frehel’s alcoholism and drug addiction eventually got the best of her. He later partnered with the French singer Mistinguett, and they became romantically involved, despite the fact that she was 13 years his senior. That relationship would be only temporary too, as Chevalier would later be drafted into WW1. 

While serving in the French Army, Chevalier was wounded by a shrapnel shell within the first two weeks of his service and was captured and taken as a prisoner of war for two years. In 1916, he was released thanks to the intervention of King Alfonso XIII of Spain, who happened to be an admirer of Minstinguett’s. In 1917, Chevalier became a star of Le Casino de Paris, where he performed for American and British soldiers, but also appeared in the french operetta/musical comedy Dede at the Theatre de Bouffess Parisiens in 1921. He later moved to London where he found success at London’s Palace Theatre, and began to make appearances in silent movies, including Charlie Chaplin’s A Woman of Paris (1923). Not long after that, he met George Gershwin and Iriving Berlin, who encouraged him to bring “Dede,” to Broadway in 1922. It was there that he also met his future wife, dancer Yvonne Valle, whom he married in 1927. Chevalier finally made his first officially Hollywood appearance in Paramount Pictures’ Innocents of Paris (1929), and they immediately signed him to a contract.

Paramount’s The Love Parade (1929) and The Big Bond (1930) earned Chevalier his Best Actor Oscar nominations. He reunited with “Love Parade,” co-star Jeanette McDonald on the movie-musicals One Hour With You (1932) and Love Me Tonight (1932). After those films, he and Yvonne Valle unfortunately divorced. Throughout the early ‘30s, he was the highest paid star in Hollywood, though he also gained a reputation as a “penny pincher.” (He was inflexible at the idea of parking his car on the Paramount studios lot at ten cents a day, and after bargaining he agreed to pay five cents a day.) He also gained a reputation as a womanizer, “playing around” with many of the young chorus girls of Hollywood movie-musicals. He later returned to France in 1935 to resume his singing career.

In 1937, he married again, to another dancer named Nita Raya, After WW2 broke out in 1939, however, he became very unpopular in America, because in 1942 his name was included on a list of French collaborators to be killed during the war or tried after it. He later was accused of collaboration when Allied Forces freed France in 1944. He sadly divorced Ray in 1946. At this point, during the “McCarthy,” era in the United States, he was denied re-entry into the country. But In 1954, although, when the McCarthy era ended, he was readmitted into the United States and was cast in the Billy Wilder romantic comedy Love in the Afternoon (1957). The next year, he appeared as himself in the “Lucy Goes to Mexico,” episode of The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour (1957-1960), and following that, he appeared under the direction of Vincente Minnelli in the movie-musical Gigi (1959). The same year as “Gigi,” he was awarded the Honorary Academy Award.

In the early 1960s, Chevalier began touring the United States with Frank Sinatra. In 1961, he was hired by the Walt Disney Studios to star in In Search of the Castaways (1962) opposite Hayley Mills and Wilfrid Hyde-White. Although the film is not a musical, it featured songs composed by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman which Chevalier sang, including “Castaway,” “Merci Beaucoup,” “Let’s Climb (Grimpon),” and “Enjoy It.” “Castaways,” became the third most successful film of 1962 behind The Longest Day (1962) and Lawrence of Arabia (1962). He was hired by Disney again to star in Monkey’s, Go Home! (1967) with Dean Jones. After “Monkeys,” he officially retired from the entertainment industry, but he was later coaxed back out of retirement by the Sherman brothers to sing the title opening song for Disney’s The Aristocats (1970) (It was the last animated feature to be officially approved by Walt Disney himself). “Aristocats,” was Maurice Chevalier’s final contribution to show business. He died of a kidney failure in Paris on January 1st, 1972 at the age of 83.

Almost 20 years after his death, however, he became the primary inspiration for the character of Lumiere, the Candleabra in Beauty and the Beast (1991). His trademark boater hat, tuxedo, and cane costume is what makes him instantly recognizable. That “look” along with his one-of-a-kind voice made his movies and songs endure.