A war orphan, he had the writer Roger Martin du Gard for a guardian. The pedlar of L'Atalante for Jean Vigo, he then brought the circus into French homes: La Piste aux étoiles, launched on 17 March 1954, which his widow carried on for thirteen years after his death.
The story
He lost his father at the front, and the writer Roger Martin du Gard, the future Nobel laureate in literature, became his guardian. It is hard to gauge what the novelist of Les Thibault gave to the future inventor of La Piste aux étoiles.
Born in Paris on 13 March 1912, Gilles Margaritis was taken up young by the cinema: the street hawker in Jean Vigo's L'Atalante in 1934, and that same year in Robert Bresson's Les Affaires publiques. Two debuts few actors can claim. In 1936, with Roger Caccia, he created the Chesterfield act.
On 11 February 1949 he launched Music-Hall Parade on the RTF, French state broadcasting, and alongside it the Chester Folies — circus acts on television, when nobody yet knew what television was for. On 17 March 1954 the programme became La Piste aux étoiles: twenty-three acts, seventy-five minutes, every Wednesday evening until 1958, then once a month.
He died on 6 November 1965. His wife Hélène took the programme over and kept it going until 1978, thirteen years after him. The family grave in Division 2 is very old: its inscriptions run from 1820 to 1986, among them that of a Jean Margaritis born in 1768 at Craveggia, in Piedmont.
The grave
A very old family grave, founded by a Jean Margaritis born in 1768 at Craveggia, in Piedmont, whose inscriptions run from 1820 to 1986 — Margaritis, Grou de Flagny, Babin-Grou. The finest is an ancestor's: “Lucien GROU de FLAGNY, 1876-1927, auteur compositeur, officier d'académie. Sa bonté n'eut d'égal que son talent, nul ne l'approcha sans l'aimer.” — songwriter, Officier d'Académie; his goodness was equalled only by his talent, none came near him without loving him. Nothing, on the other hand, signals La Piste aux étoiles.
On site, do not miss
A tomb that spans two centuries: the inscriptions run from 1820 to 1986. Look for that of Lucien Grou de Flagny, songwriter: “nul ne l'approcha sans l'aimer” — none came near him without loving him.
Visitors' questions
Where is Gilles Margaritis's grave?
In Division 2, avenue Principale, first row, in a very old family grave. The inscriptions run from 1820 to 1986 — Margaritis, Grou de Flagny, Babin-Grou — among them that of a Jean Margaritis born on 18 March 1768 at Craveggia, in Piedmont.
PatachouWhat is La Piste aux étoiles?
The circus programme he created on 17 March 1954: twenty-three acts every Wednesday evening, seventy-five minutes, monthly from 1958. After his death his wife Hélène kept it going until 1978.
Achille ZavattaDid Margaritis act in films?
He did: he is the street hawker in L'Atalante, Jean Vigo's film, in 1934, and appeared the same year in Robert Bresson's Les Affaires publiques. Two debuts few actors can claim, in two films that became classics of French cinema.
Maurice TourneurWho was his guardian?
The writer Roger Martin du Gard, the future Nobel laureate in literature: Margaritis had lost his father at the front, and it was the novelist of Les Thibault who brought him up. It is hard to measure what that upbringing gave the inventor of La Piste aux étoiles.
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