Auguste-Ignace Tuaillon, called Boffy, (18 March 1873 – 12 November 1907) was a French dwarf

chansonnier A chansonnier ( ca, cançoner, oc, cançonièr, Galician and pt, cancioneiro, it, canzoniere or ''canzoniéro'', es, cancionero) is a manuscript or printed book which contains a collection of chansons, or polyphonic and monophonic settings o ...

Biography

Auguste Ignace Tuaillon was aged about five years when growth slowed or even stopped. His major muscular weakness preventing him from taking part in farm work, Auguste earned some money by performing from the age of fifteen as a freak in

Luxeuil-les-Bains Luxeuil-les-Bains () is a commune in the Haute-Saône department in the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in eastern France. History Luxeuil (sometimes rendered Luxeu in older texts) was the Roman Luxovium and contained many fine buildings at ...

and Nancy. In 1893, on the occasion of his call for military recruitment, Augustus was reported by newspapers as "the smallest conscript of France." At twenty-three, his size was a little less than one meter (0.99 cm).Manouvrier (cf. bibliographie). Shortly before 1896, Auguste arrived in Paris. First employed in a coffee shop close to the

Gare de Lyon The Gare de Lyon, officially Paris-Gare-de-Lyon, is one of the six large mainline railway stations in Paris, France. It handles about 148.1 million passengers annually according to the estimates of the SNCF in 2018, with SNCF railways and RER D ...

, he soon joined François Trombert's

Cabaret des Quat'z'Arts Cabaret des Quat'z'Arts ("cabaret of the four arts") was a venue at 62 Boulevard de Clichy, in Paris, France. The interdisciplinary mixture of the arts created avant-garde collaborative performances. Similar to Le Chat Noir, the Quat'z'Arts was a g ...

where he met Guirand de Scevola,

Jehan Rictus Jehan Rictus (21 September 1867 – 6 November 1933) was a French poet. He was born Gabriel Randon in Boulogne-sur-Mer. In the 1900s, he legally changed his name to his mother's name Randon de Saint-Amand. After an unhappy childhood and poor begi ...

and

Charles Léandre Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was " ...

. In 1897, he became the manager of the weekly newspaper of the

cabaret Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music, song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, a casino, a hotel, a restaurant, or a nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining or d ...

, ''Les 4 z'Arts'', whose chief editor was

Émile Goudeau Émile Goudeau (29 August 1849 – 18 September 1906) was a French journalist, novelist and poet. He was the founder of the Hydropathes literary club. Life He was born in Périgueux, Dordogne, the son of Germain Goudeau, an architect, and c ...

. He was also a member of

Eugénie Buffet Eugénie Buffet (1866–1934) was a French singer who rose to fame in France just prior to World War I. She has been called one of the first,Frith, Simon (2004). ''Chanteuse in the city: the realist singer in French film'', Routledge. pp. 219– ...

's troupe and attained fame at the

Théâtre des Noctambules The Théâtre des Noctambules was a former Parisian cabaret established in 1894 by the chansonnier Martial Boyer (1872–1941) and located at 7 rue Champollion in the 5th arrondissement of Paris (Latin Quarter). In 1939, Pierre Leuris and Jean Clau ...

. He was particularly successful in two productions, ''Le Nain de Tarascon'' by

Clovis Hugues Clovis Hugues (November 3, 1851 – June 11, 1907) was a French poet, journalist, dramatist, novelist, and socialist activist. He wrote some of his works in Provençal and un 1898 was elected a of the Félibrige, a society for the promotion of ...

and ''Le Don Juan de Montmartre''.« La mort d'Auguste », ''

Le Journal ''Le Journal'' (The Journal) was a Paris daily newspaper published from 1892 to 1944 in a small, four-page format. Background It was founded and edited by Fernand Arthur Pierre Xau until 1899. It was bought and managed by the family of Henri ...

'', 13 November 1907, (p. 3). On 12 November 1907,''

Gil Blas ''Gil Blas'' (french: L'Histoire de Gil Blas de Santillane ) is a picaresque novel by Alain-René Lesage published between 1715 and 1735. It was highly popular, and was translated several times into English, most notably as The Adventures of G ...

'', 14 November 1907, (). after a fortnight of illness, Auguste Tuaillon died of tuberculosis at the age of 34 at the hôpital Lariboisière. His funeral took place on 14 November in the Saint-Vincent-de-Paul church in Paris.''

La Justice ''La Justice'' was a weekly New England French newspaper published by the LaJustice Publishing Company of Holyoke, Massachusetts from 1904 until 1964, with issues printed biweekly during its final 6 years. Throughout its history the newspaper repo ...

'', 14 November 1907, (p., 3). Grief was led by his friend the dwarf Delphin, like him from the Southern Vosges. The burial took place at Cimetière parisien de Pantin, where

Xavier Privas Antoine Paul Taravel, known as Xavier Privas (27 September 1863 – 6 February 1927) was a French singer, poet, goguettier and composer. Life Antoine Paul Taravel was born in Lyon on 27 September 1863. He made his debut in the goguette of the C ...

, another friend of the deceased, said some words.

References

Bibliography

Léonce Manouvrier Léonce is a French masculine given name. People with the name Léonce include: *Léonce (actor) (1823–1900), French actor and singer * Léonce Bekemans (born 1950), Belgian economist and scholar * Léonce-Henri Burel (1892–1977), French cine ...

« Sur le nain Auguste Tuaillon et sur le nanisme simple, avec ou sans microcéphalie »
''Bulletins de la Société d'anthropologie de Paris'', vol. 7, 1896, (p. 264–290).

External links

*Rik Wassenaar
« Le Mur et les Quat'z'Arts »
sur le site ''guiranddescevola.nl'' (accessdate 12 August 2016). *Bernard Vassor

on ''Autour du père Tanguy'' (accessdate 12 August 2016). {{DEFAULTSORT:Tuaillon, Auguste 1873 births 1907 deaths 19th-century French male singers 20th-century French male singers 20th-century deaths from tuberculosis Entertainers with dwarfism French chansonniers People from Haute-Saône Tuberculosis deaths in France