Ded Rysel

Now fallen into oblivion, Ded Rysel was once a radio star. His was one of those cherished voices that accompany us day after day, year after year, giving us the feeling (delusive but delightful) that nothing will ever change, that they will always be with us, that WE will never die. But time takes its toll and Ded Rysel is nothing now but a dim recollection in the minds of those who are over sixty. Like others of his kind: Jane Sourza, Raymond Souplex, Zappy Max, André Bourillon, Marcel Fort.... Ded Rysel was born André Grandvalet in 1903 in Bar-le-Duc, a fine historical city in the North East of France. Among his ancestors, there was a general who accompanied Napoleon during his exile on the island of Elba. His father was an architect who drew the plans of Bar le Duc's first movie-house. André (Ded) got noticed very early by winning the Cutest Baby Award but time passed before he really became a star. After graduating from high school, he went to the Ceramic Art School in Sèvres but never became a ceramist. Instead, he did the usual series of small jobs before finding his way. First a cartoonist and journalist, he debuted as a "chansonnier" (cabaret artist singing satiric songs about politics and politicians) and found he was in the right place. At the same time, he took an interest in the radio and started acting in French history's longest-lasting serial ever "La Famille Duraton", on Radio-Cité first (as of 1936), and later on Radio Luxembourg (until the late fifties). Cast as the fiancé first, he then became the husband only to finish in the skin of Duraton père. Among his other creations are "Piédalu", the very type of the naive, grumpy, wily peasant, whose elementary common sense reassured the grass-roots French people of the time, and "Le Père Tavernier" whose daily call on the Post Liberation radio helped gather and distribute three million blankets to soldiers, ex-prisoners and all the stricken population. Cinema and television came late in his life and Ded Rysel didn't bring anything new to these media. He was content to appear in further adventures by Piédalu or the Duraton family. With such uninspired directors as Loubignac or Berthomieu at the helm, there was no hope of anything remarkable. Ded Rysel also tried his hand at operetta, notably appearing in "Les Cloches de Corneville" at the Gaîté Lyrique Theater. But his real triumph will have been the radio. Once he left it, once the serials he played in were outmoded, it looked as if he had never existed. Ingratitude thy name is man!