18. Chevalier, Maurice. Extraordinary archive of (13) autograph manuscript diaries and (8) typescripts with extensive emendations, in French, as used for his ten-volume memoir, entitled Ma route et mes chansons published by Julliard in Paris from 1947-1968, includes leather bound volumes 1-7 of Ma route et mes chansons volume 7 inscribed by the author.

Maurice Chevalier’s reflections on his charmed life in his own hand.

The epitome of the worldly French song-and-dance man, Maurice Chevalier was one of the twentieth century’s most beloved entertainers, delighting audiences the world over in a five-decade career that encompassed vaudeville, light opera, motion pictures and concerts. Perennially decked out in tuxedo tails and a rakish straw boater, Chevalier crooned love songs in a honeyed Gallic accent that endeared him to theatergoers in the teens and early 1920s before entering silent features. Hollywood beckoned in the early 1930s, and he enjoyed a string of musical hits, including
Love Me Tonight (1932) before returning to France prior to World War II. Allegations of collaborations with the Nazis dogged his career during the 1940s, but he returned more popular than ever in the late 1950s, thanks to Gigi (1958), which earned him a special Oscar. Chevalier would go on to essay courtly grandfathers until his retirement in 1968.

Chevalier’s archive herewith provides over eighteen years worth of personal reflections and reports on his life, important events and all the people with whom he crossed paths. The richness of the content of the archive is nothing short of staggering ––from memories of his pre-war and war years, to the reporting of the dispirited atmosphere in post-war France, to the re-establishment of his reputation and career after being marred with accusations of collaboration with the Nazi occupiers, to his professionally and artistically explosive successes in Europe and the Americas to personal and professional relationships to his friendships and loves to his maturing and aging––all is recorded with candor and charm. A “Who’s Who” of the great performers of his time, Chevalier’s diaries include mention of Edith Piaf, Marlene Dietrich, Marilyn Monroe, Yves Montand, Audrey Hepburn, Frank Sinatra and many, many others.

The archive includes:
I. Thirteen autograph manuscript diaries with extensive emendations, in French, being leather-bound notebooks of varying colors and textures [Cannes and Paris] 28 August 1945 - January 1950, corresponding to volume II, page 127 through volume V, page 48 of the published memoirs.
II. Typescript with extensive emendations of his
Ma route et mes chansons, bound in two volumes (pages 1-120; 121-237), corresponding to volume III of the published memoirs.
III. Carbon copy typescript with extensive emendations, 310 pages, bound in one volume being a transcript of the memoirs from August 1945 to July 1947.
IV. Carbon copy typescript with some emendations, paginated 1-242, bound in two volumes from the summer of 1946.
V. Carbon copy typescript with emendations, paginated 121-348, bound in one volume.
VI. Typescript of
Par ci-Par la bound in two volumes, paginated 1-100 and 101-197, corresponding to volume V of the memoirs.
VII. Typescript with emendations bound in one volume, 120 pages, corresponding to the first half of volume V of the published memoirs.
VIII. Carbon copy typescript with corrections in the hand of Chevalier, the loose pages contained in a folder, 342 pages corresponding to the last volumes of the memoirs.
IX. Typescript entitled
A Propos bound in one volume, 124 pages.
X. Ma route et mes chansons. Volumes 1-7, Paris, Julliard, 1949-57, uniform leather bindings, original front wrappers bound in, Volume VII boldly inscribed in ink on half title by the author: “To Odette Bonne Année Maurice 1957.”
$8,000 - $12,000

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