Paulette Coquatrix (born Clara Paulette Possicelsky, 26 April 1916 – 28 May 2018) was a French costume designer.

Biography

At the beginning of the 1950s, she was a costume designer for the

Comédie-Caumartin The Comédie-Caumartin is a 380-seat capacity theatre located at 25 rue de Caumartin in the 9th arrondissement of Paris. Histoire Inaugurated in 1901 under the name Comédie-Royale, the venue is dedicated to humour and particularly to plays be ...

shows, directed by Bruno Coquatrix from 1952. In the early 1960s, her costume atelier went bankrupt and closed down after

Josephine Baker Josephine Baker (born Freda Josephine McDonald; naturalised French Joséphine Baker; 3 June 1906 – 12 April 1975) was an American-born French dancer, singer and actress. Her career was centered primarily in Europe, mostly in her adopted Fran ...

failed to pay for the costumes she had ordered for her revue of ''Paris, mes amours''. When her husband Bruno Coquatrix died in 1979, she inherited Olympia Hall in equal shares with her daughter Patricia. She entrusted the general direction to her nephew

Jean-Michel Boris Jean-Michel Boris (14 February 1933 – 5 November 2020) was a French artistic director. He was Director General of the concert hall Olympia from 1979 to 2001. Biography Jean-Michel was the son of film distributor Jacques Boris and Anne-Marie Ba ...

, who joined the company in 1954. Under her ownership, the Olympia Hall was destructed and rebuilt identically a few meters away from its original location in 1997. After Jean-Michel Boris was laid off from the Olympia by her daughter Patricia, tensions arose between Paulette and Patricia regarding the business management of the music hall. Coquatrix sold the auditorium to the

Vivendi Vivendi SE is a French mass media holding company headquartered in Paris. Widely known as the owner of Gameloft, Groupe Canal+, Havas, Editis, Prisma Media, Vivendi Village and Dailymotion, the company has activities in television, film, video ...

group in August 2001. Paulette Coquatrix died on 28 May 2018 at the age of 102.

Publications

* ''Les coulisses de ma mémoire''. Grasset & Fasquelle. 1984. * ''Mes noces d'or avec l'Olympia''. Cator Astral. 17 November 2003.

Awards

*1997: Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur

Personal life

Clara Paulette Possicelsky married

Bruno Coquatrix Bruno Coquatrix (5 August 1910, Ronchin, Nord – 1 April 1979) was a French music producer, the owner and manager of the Olympia Hall in Paris from 1954 until his death in 1979. Career Coquatrix was first known as a song and music writer. He ...

and she had three daughters. Her daughter Patricia was the artistic director of the Olympia until January 2002. In November 2010, she inaugurated the newly named street "rue Bruno Coquatrix" in Paris.Une rue Bruno Coquatrix à Paris, près de l'Olympia
''Lepoint.fr'', 19 November 2011

References

External links