In the book " Bourvil, le jeu de la vérité " by Serge Le Vaillant at Editions Jacob-Duvernet, the author reminds us of the Pyrenean period of André Raimbourg, the one who was to become Bourvil.
Soldier, the young Norman who joined the exodus finds himself with the remains of his regiment garrisoned in Pau.
And it is there, about thirty kilometers away from the city of Henri IV, that he meets Etienne Lorin.
Printer by profession, Etienne Lorin is still an amateur accordionist, who hosts a tea dance in Arzacq-Arraziguet.
The routed soldiers like to frequent the place to deceive their boredom and the wave to the soul due to the distance of the country.
Between two accordion tunes, the future Bourvil imitates Fernandel to the point of taking the artist's name Andrel.
But he also dares, with success, to interpret sketches and tells stories whose hero is often the village idiot.
A bit of History...
In Normandy where he was born, long before the military period his parents bought him an accordion, and he made music in Fontaine-le-Dun, in the municipal brass band.
One evening at a ball, he meets Jeanne Lefrique, daughter of a foreman at the village sugar factory, with whom he falls in love and who will later become his wife.
Bourvil is a very good student and begins to study to become a teacher, but he cannot stand the boarding school, from which he escapes.
Bourvil became a baker, then went to Rouen and had to do his military service. He joined the 24th infantry regiment in Paris. He will be found afterwards, in Pau, a disinherited soldier.
When they were demobilized in 1940, Etienne Lorin suggested that Bourvil try his luck in Paris, in music.
He accepted and asked Jeanne Lefrique, who had remained in Normandy, to wait for him and to trust him.
The first four years, the two men run the stamp, hosting a few evenings on the accordion.
It is really at the end of 1945 - beginning of 1946 that Bourvil will be spotted by Jean-Jacques Vital, who presents a program called "Pêle-Mêle", which is broadcast on Radio Luxembourg and Radio Monte Carlo, and it is really there that he will become the big star that we know.
The song "Les Crayons" dates from this period.
In 1946, the future director of the Olympia, Bruno Coquatrix, hired him for a three-month tour with Ray Ventura's orchestra.
Then he shared the top of the bill at a Parisian music hall.
Bourvil became a star, the rest is known...
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator
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