The nights of Montmartre will no longer blue, farewell Michou

Michou, whose real name is Michel Georges Alfred Catty, died Sunday January 26 at the age of 88 in a Parisian hospital where he entered last Wednesday.

Born in Amiens (80) on June 18, 1931, Michou arrived in Paris with the idea of ​​opening a cabaret and becoming the “King of Parisian Nights”. His Michou name comes from the nickname given to him by his grandmother, Mimi and from that which his friends had given him, Chouchou.

He did odd jobs for 7 years, from a waiter to a newspaper seller on the run, before taking over the management of the bar “Chez Madame Untel”, 80 rue des Martyrs at the foot of Montmartre. On July 13, 1956, he opened the “Cabaret Michou” with friends and launched his transvestite show in 1961. They performed under the name of “Miss Glassex” for Michou and “La Grande Eugène” and Phosphatine “. Very quickly, the spectacle where all of Paris is in a hurry becomes inevitable. The icons of song and cinema are represented there and play back songs of the idols of those years like Sylvie Vartan, Brigitte Bardot, Edith Piaf, France Gall or Barbara then many others thereafter (Dalida, Patricia Kaas, Nolwen Leroy, Vanessa Paradis, Céline Dion ..)

Whoever did not separate from his jackets, ties and blue glasses received in his cabaret many celebrities and political figures including Alain Juppé who was mayor of the 18th century and of Montmartre. He even inspired the play “La cage aux Folles” but refused to perform Mercédès there.

A man with a big heart, he used to invite dozens of elderly people to lunch every month, a sort of tribute to his illiterate grandmother who had raised him.

For the 60th anniversary of his cabaret in 2016, he was surrounded by his friends Alain Delon and Jean-Paul Belmondo. On November 20, he received the first lady, Brigitte Macron.

In the book he had written in 2017, “The Blue Prince of Montmartre”, he had made it known in his last wishes, that the doors of his cabaret closed definitively and that a small plaque bearing his name was affixed to it.

An hour-long mass will be celebrated at the St Jean church in Montmartre before being buried in his blue coffin at the St Vincent cemetery where he had already reserved his grave.

Upon the announcement of his disappearance by his press secretary François Deblaye, the reactions were quick to start with the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo who said: “… It is a huge figure of tolerance , the cabaret and the Parisian night which has just left us “… Other personalities have expressed themselves as the Minister of Culture, Franck Riester, the former mayor of Paris Bertrand Delanoe, the deputy mayor of Paris, Jean-Luc Roméro, Guillaume Mélanie d’Urgences Homophobie, Line Renaud, Thomas Dutronc, journalists Laurent Delahousse and Michel Denisot, presenters Christophe Beaugrand and Jean-Luc Reichmann (…).

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VERONIQUE YANG

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