Person

Chobillon, Charles

1891-1976

French composer and conductor Charles Chobillon wrote songs and music starting in the early 1900s; he first became a member of SACEM (Société des auteurs, compositeurs et éditeurs de musique) in 1907. He wrote for musical revues for two decades in the 1930s and 1940s, including at the Théâtre des nouveautés. His best-known work was as conductor of the orchestra of the Concert Mayol, a popular Parisian cabaret that after World War II became notorious for its sexy nude spectacles. At Concert Mayol in the late 1930s he composed and conducted for various revues and tableaux, including for Charles Cluny and Victor Vallier. In 1934 the orchestra accompanied the “revues nus” of André Denis and Paul Lefebvre. He scandalized some when he arranged for his daughter Simone’s debut as a dancer in one of the Mayol shows. Simone later became an actress and singer, appearing in several films. Post-war, Chobillon composed a “Marseillaise” operetta.