Thank Heaven for Maurice Chevalier
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My 78-year-old mother grew up in Detroit being told by her father which famous people should be faulted for their ignominious behavior during the Holocaust. High on his list of Nazi collaborators was French actor Maurice Chevalier, star of such movie musicals as Love Me Tonight and The Merry Widow (before the war) and Gigi and Can-Can (after the war).
Every time Chevalier appeared on television, my grandfather would make a disparaging remark. He didn’t go into details, but made it clear to his children that Chevalier had been a traitor to the French during WWII, a belief that was fairly widely held at the time among American Jews. As a result, my mother says, she could never really enjoy Chevalier’s talents.