GUILBERT, YVETTE

born Jan. 20, 1867, Paris died Feb. 4, 1944, Aix-en-Provence, Fr. French singer, reciter, and stage and film actress, who had an immense vogue as a singer of songs drawn from Parisian lower-class life. Her ingenuous delivery of songs charged with risqu meaning made her famous. As a child Guilbert attended recitation school and was unsuccessful in small comic parts; however, she succeeded as a cabaret singer from 1896 (the Moulin Rouge and the Ambassadeurs, seven years; the Folies-Bergre, nine years). She was a popular recording artist from the mid-1920s as well. Notable among her films are Les Misrables (1934) and Pcheurs d'Islande (1934). She was also successful on tour (from 1895) in Italy, the United States, and England. Guilbert owed much of her success to Xanrof (Lon Fourneau) and to Aristide Bruant, who wrote songs for her. She is also remembered for a famous poster of her, showing her in her characteristic yellow dress and long black gloves, by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. She wrote How to Sing a Song (1918; L'Arte de chanter une chanson), two novels, La Vedette and Les Demi-Vieilles (both 1920), and an autobiography, La Chanson de ma vie (1929; Song of My Life: My Memories).