#Paris 1961

[the-boney-rolls]

I used to pretend I could speak French, because everyone wanted to be like Sacha Distel, or Juliette Greco was actually who you wanted to be like, even though she was a girl, because she had the feel of it all: that French existential thing, they were all in turtlenecks and black and down the bohemian clubs. It was bohemia! So I Used to sit around and murmur. It was my Maurice Chevalier meets Juliette Greco moment: me trying to be enigmatic to make girls think, “Who’s that very interesting French guy over in the corner?” I would literally use it as that, and John knew this was one of my ploys.

Paul McCartney Many Years from Now

[heartsinthebasement]

Proof that Paul has a true artist’s eye for framing

[crepesuzette2023]

Two new fics (for the Summer of Love Fanworks-a-thon)

I wrote two stories: Banana Milkshakes and Armpit Hair (John and Paul in Paris 1961. Prompt: will someone finally come on Paul's eyelashes?)

I ain't no fool, and I don't take what I don't want (Paul and Mal's trips in '66 and '67. Prompt: Mal and Paul make love al fresco during one of their trips. Paul wears nothing but the flimsy scarf he's seen wearing here.) The complete collection is HERE! (<- probably going to be updated steadily) Thank you @beatleskinkmeme/ @theoldmixer for organizing the event. You're the best. <3

[beedlemania]

Fellas, is it gay to bring your mate to Paris?

[the-paper-apricot]

Café on the Left Bank

I was listening late last night* to the copy of London Town that I found recently, and I was wondering about the song 'Café on the Left Bank', specifically the words

Tiny crowd of Frenchmen round a TV shop Watching Charles de Gaulle make a speech

It's such a precise image that it had to be based on a memory. I searched for speeches made by General de Gaulle in October 1961, when John and Paul were in Paris celebrating John's twenty-first. Sure enough, on the 2nd October 1961, the first day of the autumn session of the French parliament, he made an important address to the French people.

This is probably only of interest to other sleep-deprived weirdos, but here is a French newsreel reporting the speech that they must have seen broadcast in a TV shop window.

L'allocution du Général de Gaulle, Chef de l'Etat le 2 Octobre 1961

The speech addresses the Franco-Algerian war, which was drawing to a close (although only a couple of weeks after their visit there would be a massacre of Algerians in Paris).

*that is to say, at about 3.15AM.

[ilovedig]

Happy first day of Paris everyone!

[2001hz]

Cristobal Balenciaga autumn/winter (1961)

[velvet4510]

Note: this list references the 1961 version of West Side Story and the 1954 version of A Star Is Born.

[tishrivers]

DIAHANN CAROLL: Paris Blues (1961)

[likedylansmrjones]

when im chill but they bring up paul and john's trip to paris in 1961 so now i gotta start tearing up and overanalyzing to explain how significant that trip is to me so now they KNOW im a nerd 😞

[send-up-my-heart-to-you]

hi so this is kinda important

the olympics have started and they take place in paris this year. olympic swimmers will be racing in the seine.

what i bet you dont know is that french people used to drown north african arabs in the seine. that’s how the police responded to protests from algerians.

they had been taken from their country and taken to france to work for their colonizers. laws and curfews were imposed on them. they wanted independence. so they protested. and what was the response?

hundreds of algerians were thrown into the river. my friend’s grandfather had friends who were drowned. the official number claimed was about 30, but some historians claim it’s at least 200. it was covered up so so much and there was barely any media coverage to the point that most people wont know about it and that the deaths have never been exact. (most historians agree its much much larger than what has been claimed by the government)

and now olympic swimmers will be swimming in the same river that algerians were drowned in.

[voguefashion]

Anouk Aimée photographed by William Klein for Vogue Paris, 1961.

[yourdailyqueer]

Danni (Danny) Xtravaganza (deceased)

Gender: Male (she/her in drag)

Sexuality: Gay

DOB: 14 July 1961 

RIP: 9 January 1996

Ethnicity: Puerto Rican

Occupation: Drag artist, musician

Note 1: Founding member of the House of Xtravaganza.

Note 2: Had HIV

[vieillesboutiques]

Maurice Bonnel, fabrique de perruques pour poupées, 16 ter, rue de la Glacière, Paris, 1961.

[paulnewmanhd]

Paul Newman and Sidney Poitier in Paris Blues (1961) dir. Martin Ritt

[federer7]

La baguette parisienne. Paris. 1961

Photo: Robert Doisneau