Chain Reading

My Paris was written by Maurice Chevalier with photographs by Robert Doisneau in 1972. In it, Chevalier briefly sketches his early life in the Paris suburb of Menilmontant, within sight of the great monuments of Paris. He was born in 1888 to a working-class family. When Chevalier was eight, his father left, leaving his wife to support Maurice and his two older brothers. Chevalier decided early on that he wanted to be in show business. Despite a somewhat inauspicious start, Chevalier did make it into show business through sheer will and determination. By the time he was in his early twenties he was headlining at the Follies Bergere.

The photographs are a mixed bag. I do not know anything about Robert Doisneau, except that he is famous for photographing Paris. The photos in this book are primarily black and white. The few color photographs seem out of place, except for the cover photo of an autumn afternoon in the Tuileries gardens. On;y one of the black and white photos struck me as being exceptional technically, and only a few were strikingly artistic.

Seeing these photos makes one envy Parisians of the time. These are not romanticized tourist photos, but are primarily photos of working-class people and neighborhoods. Still, one cannot help but think that life for Parisians (as for Americans) was about to reach a high-point, after which would begin a long slide. At the same time, the photos of elderly people was a reminder that Parisians had lived through some very bad times indeed, and will likely survive whatever the future holds in store.