Mistinguett

Jeanne Florentine Bourgeois, known professionally as Mistinguett, was born on 5 April 1873 at 5 Rue du Chemin-de-Fer in Enghien-les-Bains, Val-d'Oise, Île-de-France, France, the daughter of Antoine Bourgeois, a day-labourer, and Jeannette Debrée, a seamstress. The family relocated to Soisy-sous-Montmorency, where Bourgeois spent her childhood, and her parents later took up work as mattress-makers. From an early age she pursued entertainment, beginning as a flower seller in a restaurant, where she sang popular ballads while selling blossoms to patrons.

After studying theatre and singing, Bourgeois launched her performing career in 1885. A chance encounter on a train to Paris for a violin lesson brought her into contact with Saint-Marcel, who directed the revue at the Casino de Paris; he first hired her as a stage-hand. During this period she experimented with several stage names in succession — Miss Helyett, Miss Tinguette, and Mistinguette — before settling on Mistinguett. She made her formal debut under that name at the Casino de Paris in 1895 and subsequently performed at the Folies Bergère, the Moulin Rouge, and the Eldorado. She became the most popular French entertainer of her era and, at the height of her fame, the highest-paid female entertainer in the world. In 1919, her legs were insured for 500,000 Francs.

Mistinguett first recorded her signature song, "Mon Homme," in 1920. The song was later popularized in English as "My Man" by Fanny Brice and became a standard recorded by numerous pop and jazz performers. During a United States tour, she was asked by Time magazine to account for her popularity, to which she replied, "It is a kind of magnetism. I say 'Come closer' and draw them to me." It was during this period in America that she appeared on Broadway in 1924 in Innocent, her sole credited Broadway production.

Though she never married, Mistinguett had a son, Leopoldo João de Lima e Silva, born in 1901, from a liaison with Brazilian diplomat Leopoldo José de Lima e Silva. She also maintained a long relationship with Maurice Chevalier, who was fifteen years her junior. In addition to her stage work, she appeared in a substantial number of films spanning from 1908 through 1955, including multiple episodes of a 1913 adaptation of Les Misérables, in which she played Éponine, as well as Rigolboche in 1936 and Paris 1900 in 1947.

Mistinguett died on 5 January 1956 in Bougival, France, at the age of 82, attended by her son, who was a doctor. She is buried at the Cimetière Enghien-les-Bains in Île-de-France, France.