“
I don't want to die the richest in the neighborhood, but the gayest!
".
Régine was exactly halfway through her long life, when she thus concluded her self-portrait in
The Man in Question
, one of Madelen's tribute documentaries.
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Unlike other films also online on the INA website, such as
Point Blank
,
The Queen of the Night
tells the story of the construction of an empire that marked the Parisian party of the 60s and 90s.
At a time when we were not yet talking about parity, this success in the business world was essentially reserved for men, explains columnist Edgar Schneider on the show.
He thus justifies the title under the eye of the presenter, a journalist who is making a discreet debut on the small screen: Anne Sinclair.
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La Grande Zoa, Les P'tits Papiers, Azzurro...
Régine in five songs
During the half-century when she officiated day and night, Régine regularly created events that marked the world of song and entertainment.
One evening in 1961, she went to the Alhambra, a large Parisian music hall which, for the first time in France, was showing an American musical comedy:
West Side Story
.
A few minutes before the start of the show, she goes backstage to greet a friend and discovers, behind the curtain, the troupe warming up to a rhythm she does not know.
She invites all the performers to end the evening in her nightclub, then located rue Dufour, in the heart of Saint-Germain-des-Prés.
Thus around one o'clock in the morning, the actors and dancers offer the mistress of the place a copy of a 45 rpm they brought from the United States:
Let's twist again
, recorded by a chicken seller converted into the song: Chubby Checker.
The next day, Régine begins to broadcast this title several times a night.
Each time, she takes to the dance floor to teach the members of her private club how to dance the twist.
A few weeks later, Johnny Hallyday, Dalida and a few others recorded
The twist lesson
, immediately bludgeoned on peripheral radios.
France will follow suit.
Régine conquers Carnegie Hall
In 1970, Régine, who had become a successful singer, surprised again by performing at Carnegie Hall in New York.
Against the unanimous advice of those around her, she broke her piggy bank to rent the room, and offered herself, in the press, an advertising pad specifying that she was the French interpreter of
Marry me, marry me
, a refrain then famous across the Atlantic.
That was enough for it to be sold out two nights in a row.
In 1973, she found herself headlining at Bobino, in Paris, with a show that she wanted to be innovative, mixing songs and attractions.
The show begins with a sword and dagger fight between two samurai, who are, in reality, two French stuntmen.
It continues with a number by the puppeteer Philippe Genty, and a ballet of Brazilian dancers, which ends with Régine entering on a cloud in the shape of a swan with a real boa as a necklace.
“
I dreamed about it since childhood,
” she confides to journalists, at the end of this evening when, for the first time, “
little Régine
” became “
La grande Zoa
”.
When Régine confided in
Le Figaro
