With his straw boater and broad smile, Maurice Chevalier was a debonair hit around the world. And though he came to the North East at a turbulent time, he had a connection with the region that would always serve him well.
Chevalier had started out as a singer in his native Paris. He went to Broadway, and then on to Hollywood. And in 1930, he was nominated for an Oscar for his performance in the smash hit musical comedy ‘The Love Parade.’
When the film came out in Britain in October 1930, it was shown first in Newcastle, at the Pavilion cinema and the Queen’s Hall. People who were getting their first proper look at the man were impressed with what they saw. “He has stormed the heart of the film-loving public,” the Sunday Sun said. And in December, he gave a series of performances in London that earned him the equivalent of half-a-million pounds today.
But then, disaster struck.
The London performances had been so successful that a brief provincial tour was quickly arranged. Just after Christmas, however, the Cardiff show had to be cancelled when the chief constable of the city took exception to the songs Chevalier sang in French.
Cape Horn
More trouble followed on New Year’s Day 1931 in Leicester, where councillors had themselves taken exception to the French songs. When they ordered Chevalier not to sing them, he cancelled his concert, even though a thousand people were already waiting in the auditorium to hear him.
Attention now turned to Newcastle, where he was due to appear on 5 January. Happily, the chief constable there had taken no exception to the songs.
Fred Crawley wasn’t, in truth, the sort of person to get upset about such things. A large man with a commanding presence, he had rounded Cape Horn in his youth, become a chief constable at barely 30, and introduced the first police boxes the country had ever seen. He had just been named in the New Year’s Honours List. And he now made it known that he wouldn’t need to have the songs translated into English, because he spoke fluent French himself.
When Chevalier arrived at Newcastle Central station accompanied by his wife, he was welcomed to the city by a man named Ronald Kennedy, whom he had known since they were both prisoners of the Germans.
A teacher
Ronald came from Durham, where he had been working as a teacher when the Great War broke out. He joined the Durham Light Infantry and took part in the Second Battle of Ypres. And after being captured, he fetched up at a POW camp near Magdeburg.
It was there that Chevalier asked Ronald to teach him English, thinking that it might help his stage career after the war. He would later call him “one of the finest men I have ever met in my life.” “I think I owe more to him than to anybody I know,” he said.
Ronald returned to teaching, and to the North East after the war. He married and became headmaster of the council school in the village of Whickham. But he kept in touch with Chevalier by letter, and he sometimes went to London to see him perform there.
In Newcastle, the Frenchman was staying at the Station Hotel. After breakfast, he went for a tour of the city. And on Groat Market he will have seen that ‘The Love Parade’ was now showing at the Palladium cinema.
A reputation to keep
There were 2,000 people waiting to greet him when he returned, and he was only able to get back into the hotel by going through the station. He received the Lord Mayor of Newcastle in his rooms and had lunch with the French consul. And then he gave a forthright interview to the Evening Chronicle. “Chevalier is not known as a singer of dirty songs,” he said. “I have a reputation to keep, and I would not harm it now.”
He also revealed that he hadn’t originally intended to come to Newcastle. It was Ronald who asked him to do so, he said, after he had gone to see ‘The Love Parade’ in the city and had heard women in the audience say how much they would like to see the Frenchman in the flesh.
Unsurprisingly, perhaps, he received a rapturous reception when he walked onto the stage of the City Hall.
“I am glad to be here among you,” he told the audience. “Newcastle is a friend of France. And I am among Ronald Kennedy’s people. So thank you, Ronald.” The Englishman rose sheepishly to his feet and was greeted by a burst of warm applause. And then, Chevalier began. He sang songs from the ‘The Love Parade’ in English. He performed ‘Sonny Boy’ as Al Jolson might have done. And his French songs – ‘Louise’, ‘Dîtes-Moi, Ma Mère’ and ‘Mon Petit Tom’ – went down particularly well.
An impromptu singsong
The festivities continued afterwards at Ronald Kennedy’s home in Whickham, where 300 people had turned out to greet Chevalier and his wife. Despite the bitter cold, scores of women were standing in the garden as he was ushered inside. “God bless you,” he said to them. “You must be perishing.”
Ronald’s young daughters, Helen and Moyra, said a brief hello. There was a supper prepared by Ronald’s wife, Joan. And afterwards, as everyone gathered around the fireplace, Maurice led them in an impromptu singsong that went on into the early hours.
Ronald Kennedy remained a teacher in Whickham until his retirement in 1955, but he never lost touch with his old friend, and they continued to meet from time to time. Maurice Chevalier died on New Year’s Day 1972, and Ronald a little over three years later, at the age of 85.
