Mistinguett

Jeanne Florentine Bourgeois, known to the world as Mistinguett, was born on 5 April 1873 in Enghien-les-Bains, France, to a day-labourer father and a seamstress mother. She grew up in Soisy-sous-Montmorency, where her parents later became mattress-makers. From a young age, she dreamed of performing, starting as a flower seller who sang ballads in a local restaurant. At just ten years old, she landed a job raising and lowering curtains at the Casino de Paris.

After training in theatre and singing, she began her entertainment career in the 1880s. On a train to Paris for a violin lesson, she met Saint-Marcel, a revue director at the Casino de Paris, who hired her as a stage-hand. She experimented with stage names—Miss Helyett, Miss Tinguette, Mistinguette—before settling on Mistinguett. Seeking advice from neighbour Anna Thibaud, she was told, "To succeed in the theatre, you must be pretty. You must excite men." When Mistinguett asked if she meant exciting the crowds, Thibaud clarified, "No, the men!"

Her first major musical appearance came at the Casino de Paris in 1893, followed by shows at the Folies Bergère, Moulin Rouge, and Eldorado. Her risqué acts captivated Paris, and by 1919 she was touring Russia, England, and the Americas. She made her first silent film in 1908 and her first talkie in 1936. At her peak, she was the highest-paid female entertainer globally, known for her flamboyance and theatrical zest. In 1919, her legs were insured for 500,000 Francs.

She first recorded her signature song, "Mon Homme," in 1920; it became a standard under its English title "My Man," popularised by Fanny Brice. During a US tour, *Time* magazine asked about her popularity. She replied, "It is a kind of magnetism. I say 'Come closer' and draw them to me."

One of her best revues was 1938's *Féerie de Paris*, where she returned to the Casino de Paris in a 7-foot headdress, 20-foot train, and 40 pounds of feathers. At 65, she made a grand entrance down a silver staircase. Her opening number, *Je Cherche un Millionaire*, sold 5 million copies before World War II. She performed into her 70s, opening her last *Paris Qui...* revue and touring North America despite a knee ailment, two minor heart attacks, an appendectomy, and a hysterectomy. On her deathbed, she said, "My real lovers are the ones I've never seen — the men and women sitting there, up in the gallery. I belonged to the public, because I owed them everything."

Mistinguett never married but had a son, Leopoldo João de Lima e Silva, born in 1901 from a liaison with Brazilian diplomat Leopoldo José de Lima e Silva. The diplomat raised the boy in Brazil while Mistinguett built her career; Leopoldo returned to Paris at age 14 when World War II broke out. She had many lovers, including dancer Max Dearly, with whom she debuted the valse chaloupée (Apache Dance) at the Moulin Rouge in 1909. Her longest relationship was with Maurice Chevalier, 15 years her junior. In 1911, she invented the la valse renversante (topsy-turvy waltz) and chose Chevalier as her partner. She said her lovers "had very little meaning" outside the limelight, but she truly loved Chevalier.

When Chevalier was held as a prisoner of war by the Germans in 1916, she traveled to Geneva to free him. French authorities stopped her, accusing her of being Mata Hari; she was allowed to proceed only after the real Mata Hari was found and executed. In Geneva, she agreed to spy for the Germans to free Chevalier, while also making a deal with France to act as a double agent. Granted freedom by the Central Powers, she socialized with Prince Gottfried of Austria-Hungary, King Victor Emmanuel of Italy, and King Alfonso XIII of Spain, sending information back to France. King Alfonso helped smuggle Chevalier to Paris by forging documents claiming he was an ambulance worker. The espionage backfired: the Germans discovered her and sentenced her to death. Her life was spared and freedom granted in exchange for German wives and daughters held in France.