André Tahon

Tahon to New York for the Summer of 1964. It turned out to be a ten week run with Ploum (or Ploom), the caterpillar, breaking all records of laughter and enthusiasm ever established by a guest artist since the theatre opened in the Thirties! While in the States, André taped nine shows with the Hollywood Palace, others with Steve Allen, and took part in big hotel shows in Las Vegas, Reno, Miami, Chicago, etc.

Then Walt Disney himself became interested in entrusting André to put on a stage show at Disneyland (California) during the Summer of 1963: Papotin's Revue delighted thousands of spectators through 518 performances. The Radio City Music Hall called Mr.

In June 1959, André joined the Lido de Paris Show and went to Las Vegas, appearing at the Stardust for six months.

André was then signed as a guest star to Victor Borge's TV special "Pontiac Star Parade (1959) (TV)_, and shortly after to Johnny Mathis, who gave him the opportunity to appear on stage throughout the States, Canada and the Orient.

André Tahon was born in the outskirts of Paris, in a family where no-one had ever been associated with the theatre world. André Tahon received his early education at Lycée Louis-le-Grand, in Paris. Upon graduation, he entered the School of Arts and Crafts Applied to Industry, studying various fields such as wood and stone sculpture, ceramics, furniture and letter design, printed fabrics and the like. He received the Diploma of Decorative Artist. As a boy, André was fairly studious but also found time to be very active in the Boy Scouts and other youth activities, singing groups, dramatic art, folk dancing (which he was to develop as one of his most unequaled specialty with the "Marottes" in the 50s), handicrafts, etc. This is how, to acquire money to finance a camping trip, his Boy Scouts troop put on a neighborhood show. André made some unusual characters and improvised an act. He did not realize at the time that it was the beginning of a career that was to bring him fame and success as well as take him around the world. One afternoon, while performing in an amateur show, André was spotted by the French talent scout Léo Noël, who also owned the L'Ecluse nightclub in Paris: that's where André did his first professional appearance which was immediately acclaimed by the press. Rapidly after this first contract, André appeared in other Parisian nightclubs and music-halls, creating and changing characters, costumes and numbers for each new place. This is when he met with Michel Brandt, a young musician from the Paris Conservatory of Music, who has been Mr. Tahon's musical director ever since. Combining their ideas and talents, they started to produce an important repertoire for André's "marottes", with folk dance tunes from various countries, classical music and original compositions. In 1958, they were awarded the Grand Prix du Disque for their first commercial recording, "Les Chansons de Papotin" (Papotin being the witty fellow who introduces most of André's shows: as a matter of fact, he is the "stand-by" for the Master himself, in the Marottes World). That same year, André was awarded First Prize and Gold Medal at the First Worldwide Festival of Puppets Theatres in Bucharest (Romania). At the same time, Tahon and his team began doing guest appearances on all major TV and variety shows throughout Europe plus making commercial films in France, England, Germany and Italy (for soft drinks, candies, instant coffee, yogurt, mustard, biscuits, etc. ).

He was also booked on The Ed Sullivan Show (1948), with Ed Sullivan, and the The Dinah Shore Chevy Show (1956) : that was Mr. Tahon's first trip to the United States.