Suzy Solidor
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Biography
Suzy Solidor was the stage name of Suzanne Marion, nicknamed "la Madone des matelots" and "la Garçonne", who enjoyed a number of hits in the 1930s. Born of an unknown father in Saint-Servan-sur-Mer, Brittany, on December 18, 1900, she grew up in the Solidor district, from which she took her stage name. After serving as an ambulance driver during the First World War, she moved to Paris to live with antique dealer Yvonne de Bremond d'Ars, who introduced her to Parisian society. Before becoming a muse for numerous artists, painters, photographers and filmmakers, including Man Ray, Pablo Picasso, Raoul Dufy, Maurice de Vlaminck, Kees Van Dongen, Foujita, Francis Bacon and Jean Cocteau, Suzy Solidor performed at the Le Brummel cabaret in Deauville, building up a repertoire of sailor songs and equivocal titles in keeping with the androgynous physique she cultivated. Nicknamed "La Garçonne" for her blond bob, she attracted the Tout-Paris to the Européen, and in 1933 opened her own cabaret, La Vie Parisienne, where Charles Trenet made his debut. Openly bisexual, she had an affair with aviator Jean Mermoz and was the model for Victor Marguerite's sultry novel La Garçonne, published in 1936, and played herself in the film adaptation by Jean de Limur. Abundantly photographed and painted, Suzy Solidor appears both on the covers of fashion magazines and in masterpieces, including a famous painting by Tamara de Lempicka, which depicts her nude in 1935. Her 78-turn recordings include "Obsession" (1933), "La Belle croisière", "Les Filles de Saint-Malo " and the erotic "Ouvre" (1934), the hit "Escale" for the film of the same name (1935), "Sous tes doigts" (1936), "Mon secret", "Nuit tropicale" and "Si j'étais une cigarette " in 1938, as well as French adaptations of "Lili Marleen" and "Nature Boy". Suzy Solidor appeared in Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill'sOpéra de Quat' sous in 1937, and in the same year appeared in Jean Epstein's film La Femme du bout du monde. She also wrote four novels, published between 1939 and 1944. After the Occupation and the Second World War, when she was criticized for performing from one music hall to another, the singer left for the United States and returned in 1954 to open her new cabaret Chez Suzy Solidor. She then retired to the Côte d'Azur, to Cagnes-sur-Mer, where she created the Chez Suzy establishment from 1960 to 1967, before opening an antique store. She died in Cagnes-sur-Mer on March 31, 1983 at the age of 82.
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