Yvonne Vallée

Who was Yvonne Vallée?

Yvonne Vallée was a French actress.

She was born Marguerite Yvonne Vallee in Bordeaux in 1899. Vallée was the wife of Maurice Chevalier from 1927 to 1933. She died in Vallauris, France in 1996, aged 97. She is buried in the Cimetière du Grand Jas in Cannes

Before their marriage Yvonne Vallee was Chevalier's music hall dancing partner.

She performed Operetta often alongside her husband Maurice Chevalier and was in the ensemble for the Paris debut of "Belle of New York"

Reportedly she met Maurice Chevalier in 1924 during his period of depression on return to France from a failed venture in New York City; this culminated in attempted suicide, but things turned around for Chevalier and he married Yvonne three years later.

The pair is featured in the photograph "Réunion de stars du cinéma" by Erich Salomon.

PERCY CUDLIPP recounts their meeting in "Maurice Chevalier's Own Story":

"ON the bare stage at the Bouffe Parisienne an audition was in progress. Performers were being picked for a fourth- coming revue in which Maurice Chevalier was to be the star. One by one applicants detached themselves from a waiting group in the wings and danced or sang so that Chevalier and his producers could make their choice. There was one girl whose dancing particularly impressed the onlookers. She was petite, dark and shy. She danced as if she did so for enjoyment rather than for a living. As the sharp tinkle of the piano died away one of the produced announced, "Madamoiselle is engaged," and shortly afterwards the girl whose name was Yvonne Vallee heard that she was to have a dance in the revue as partner to Chevalier himself. "