The broadcast on December 22, 1966, of the play
Forbidden to the public
on the first channel creates what is not yet called the "buzz". A few weeks earlier, when the direction of the ORTF asked him to extend a series only planned for the summer, Pierre Sabbagh chose the play by Jean Marsan. He then ignored that a Parisian theater was preparing to put it on display. The director of this one is then desperate. He is convinced that programming on the small screen will empty his room. The opposite is happening. The day after the broadcast, it was sold out. The public wants to see "in real life", Jean le Poulain, Maria Pacôme and… Marthe Mercadier, who died on September 15th. This work that you can discover on Madelen shows the joyous madness of the one who, in history, will remain a "queen of the Boulevard."
Read also Marthe Mercadier, queen of the boulevard theater, died
In the early 1950s, she had her first triumph on the stage with
Le don d'Adèle
, by Barillet and Grédy, which she performed 1300 times. Since then, it has never ceased to be on the bill, from
Chérie noire
to
De Doubt Dingues
via
Sacré Léonard
, with Poiret and Serrault. And to think that her vocation was to become a tragic actress and to play
Phèdre
! It was for this purpose that after the war, she entered the theater course of Maurice Escande, of the Comédie-Française. Among the other “apprentice actors” are Michel Bouquet, Robert Hirsch, Pierre Mondy and Jacques Charon. An urgent replacement in
The Barber of Seville
, where he is entrusted with the role of Rosine, upsets his plans.
The laughs she unleashes make her aware of a comedic temper which, in fact, fits her perfectly.
Enjoy this day
In the city, she keeps saying that life is good, that you have to love it, celebrate it. She often wakes up in the morning, intending to take advantage of this day, which may be her last. The trials of his early years taught him to savor every moment. At eight years old, a bad fall from a human pyramid in the playground broke his spine. Paralyzed, she spent ten months in the hospital before recovering, by a miracle, the use of her limbs. As a teenager, she passed messages to the Resistance and was then arrested by German officers. After interrogating her, they released her, offering her a cream cake. Another miracle! In her sixty-year career, Marthe Mercadier has performed in around fifty pieces,appeared in over sixty films and hosted 345 radio shows. Its recurring appearance in
The holy darlings
, alongside Micheline Presle, earned him national notoriety.
Read also The Eye of INA:
Les Saintes Chéries
, Micheline Presle the French model
At the beginning of the 1970s, she took over the management of the Théâtre du Vieux Colombier, in Paris, then in distress.
She schedules up to five shows a day, sets up a café open until midnight and introduces Pascal Legitimus, André Dussolier, Béatrice Agenin, Coline Serreau and a few others.
The adventure will last three years.
Lack of subsidy obliges, it ends with a mountain of debts which obliges it to sell the main part of its heritage.
True to her image, she then chose to laugh rather than cry.
Les Saintes Chéries
by Nicole de Buron, with Micheline Presle, Marthe Mercadier, Daniel Gélin, Jean Yanne, Jacques Higelin, Dany Saval, Romain Bouteille ...
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