Word: fridolin
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Montreal's Théátre du Gesu was sold out at every performance last week. The darling of the French Canadian theater, an impish comedian named Fridolin (real name: Gratien Gélinas) was on the stage in his new play...
Every year since 1937, 39-year-old Fridolin had written, backed, directed and starred in a revue called Fridolinons, a collection of skits, songs and dances. With it he had toured his native Quebec, drawn some 130,000 people a season, netted an annual profit of about $50,000. Tit-Cog was Fridolin's first try at writing a full-length play...
...Little Rooster) is a story about a French Canadian soldier who, as a product of a foundling home, is acutely conscious of his bastardy. Fridolin takes the title role. He is onstage three-quarters of the time, plying his audience for laughs with Chaplinesque pantomimes of Tit-Coq's army life, playing for tears with sentimental references to his hero's illegitimacy...
...already become Fridolin's biggest hit in his 11 years as an actor. Its run to date has passed the Fridolinons' best (53 performances), seems certain to reach the loo-performance mark before it goes on the road in French Canada. Its success has also brought Manhattan's Theatre Guild agents to Montreal with an offer of about $3,000 a week (on a percentage basis) for an English version for Broadway, with Fridolin, who speaks fluent English, in the lead...
...Fridolin (the name comes from a story book he read as a child) was born 35 years ago in a tiny French Canadian village, grew up in Montreal. After college, he worked in a department store, went into the insurance business. The story goes that earnest young M. Gélinas stumbled on his future career when, after a few too many drinks, he wowed an insurance convention with his antics. He started doing Little Theater and radio bits, at length was sponsored to write his own radio show, which immediately clicked...