12 September 2023 at 03:00
Maurice Chevalier , despite the aristocratic connotations of his last name, made in inauspicious bow in Paris on September 12, 1888, the son of a house painter, considered a low trade, and a Franco-Belgian beauty. He grew up little more than a street urchin with little formal schooling. By 1901, at the age of 13 he was singing for tips in a café which eventually led to small parts in theatrical productions. But through his teens he supported himself mostly with a parade of jobs—carpenter ’ s apprentice, electrician, printer, and doll painter. In the first a series of relationships with important women, the handsome young man attracted the attention of Fréhel, a leading star of the Paris stage in 1909. Like him she had come...