Félix Galipaux (12 December 1860 – 7 December 1931) was a French actor, playwright, and humorist; known for his comic stage monologues, such as ''Communication Telephonique'' (Paris, 1906). A few of these monologues were recorded.

Biography

Galipaux was born in

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectur ...

, and educated in Bordeaux and Paris. He wrote some forty plays produced in Parisian theatres. He was also a newspaper columnist using the

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...

Félix Mayran, and collaborated with the writer Henri Pagat under the joint pseudonym Pagalipaux. Galipaux and the actor Coquelin Cadet popularized the genre of

music hall Music hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment that was popular from the early Victorian era, beginning around 1850. It faded away after 1918 as the halls rebranded their entertainment as variety. Perceptions of a distinction in Bri ...

monologue In theatre, a monologue (from el, μονόλογος, from μόνος ''mónos'', "alone, solitary" and λόγος ''lógos'', "speech") is a speech presented by a single character, most often to express their thoughts aloud, though sometimes a ...

acts in the 1880s. He and

Gabrielle Réjane Gabrielle Réjane (), ''née'' Gabrielle Charlotte Réju (6 June 1856 – 14 June 1920), was a French actress of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The daughter of a former actor, Réjane studied at the Conservatoire national supérieur d'ar ...

, in character as their roles in the play '' Madame Sans-Gêne'', are the subjects of

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec Comte Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa (24 November 1864 – 9 September 1901) was a French painter, printmaker, draughtsman, caricaturist and illustrator whose immersion in the colourful and theatrical life of Paris in the ...

's 1893

lithograph Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by the German a ...

''Réjane et Galipaux dans "Madame Sans-Gêne"''. Galipaux was also one of the founding members of the Cercle Funambulesque and was linked to the

Incoherents The Incoherents (''Les Arts incohérents'') was a short-lived French art movement founded by Parisian writer and publisher Jules Lévy(French) (1857–1935) in 1882, which in its satirical irreverence, anticipated many of the art techniques and ...

movement. In 1896 or 1897, the pioneering filmmaker Charles-Émile Reynaud filmed Galipaux performing his popular routine ''Le Premier Cigare''. The film, produced using Reynaud's complex process—requiring a negative to be filmed at 16

frames per second A frame is often a structural system that supports other components of a physical construction and/or steel frame that limits the construction's extent. Frame and FRAME may also refer to: Physical objects In building construction *Framing (con ...

, selected frames of which were then developed and enlarged onto gelatine sheets and stencil-colored to create a sequence running at three or four frames per second—took six months to make. Galipaux later acted in films by

Ferdinand Zecca Ferdinand Zecca (19 February 1864 – 23 March 1947) was a Innovator, pioneer French film director, film producer, actor and screenwriter. He worked primarily for the Pathé company, first in artistic endeavors then in administration of the inter ...

and by

Georges Méliès Marie-Georges-Jean Méliès (; ; 8 December 1861 – 21 January 1938) was a French illusionist, actor, and film director. He led many technical and narrative developments in the earliest days of cinema. Méliès was well known for the use of ...

, such as ''

An Adventurous Automobile Trip ''An Adventurous Automobile Trip'' (french: Le Raid Paris–Monte Carlo en automobile or ''Le Raid Paris–Monte Carlo en deux heures'') is a 1905 French short film, short silent film, silent comedy film directed by Georges Méliès. The film, ...

''. The historian

Georges Sadoul Georges Sadoul (4 February 1904 – 13 October 1967) was a French film critic, journalist and cinema writer. He is known for writing encyclopedias of film and filmmakers, many of which have been translated into English. Biography Sadoul was ...

reported that

Pathé Frères Pathé or Pathé Frères (, styled as PATHÉ!) is the name of various French businesses that were founded and originally run by the Pathé Brothers of France starting in 1896. In the early 1900s, Pathé became the world's largest film equipme ...

featured Galipaux in some of the first French

sound film A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades passed before ...

s, such as ''La Lettre'' and ''Au Telephone'' (1905). Galipaux also made several spoken-word recordings for

gramophone record A phonograph record (also known as a gramophone record, especially in British English), or simply a record, is an analog sound storage medium in the form of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove. The groove usually starts nea ...

s. Méliès said that Galipaux was one of the few stage-trained actors who adapted well to the cinema, because "he knows how to make himself understood without speaking, and his movements, even if deliberately exaggerated—which is necessary in pantomime and especially in photographed pantomime—are always appropriate." Méliès also reported that it was the monologues of Galipaux and Coquelin that inspired the comic style of his own productions. Galipaux himself said about the art of comic pantomime: "the mime certain of pleasing the public is the one whose means are simple and varied, his gestures restrained, hardly perceptible, but extraordinarily suggestive!" For his work, Galipaux was awarded the title of ''Officier de l'Instruction Publique'' in the

Ordre des Palmes Académiques A suite, in Western classical music and jazz, is an ordered set of instrumental or orchestral/concert band pieces. It originated in the late 14th century as a pairing of dance tunes and grew in scope to comprise up to five dances, sometimes with ...

. In private life, Galipaux was an amateur

billiards Cue sports are a wide variety of games of skill played with a cue, which is used to strike billiard balls and thereby cause them to move around a cloth-covered table bounded by elastic bumpers known as . There are three major subdivisions of ...

player. He was married to Jeanne Lipmann. Galipaux died in Paris on 7 December 1931.

References

External links

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Sound recordings by Félix Galipaux
{{DEFAULTSORT:Galipaux, Felix 1860 births 1931 deaths French male stage actors French male film actors 19th-century French dramatists and playwrights 20th-century French dramatists and playwrights Officiers of the Ordre des Palmes Académiques Male actors from Bordeaux Writers from Bordeaux