From Le Film Vecu de Jean-Pierre Aumont a supplement of Cinemonde Magazine 1950
A Translation Follows
The Secrets of My Private Life
by Jean-Pierre Aumont
I was born in Paris, on de Chantilly street.
As I said earlier, my childhood was that of an impossible brat and of an unruly pupil.
To please my family, I passed the first part of my university entrance exam (latin/languages). But after I had
made this concession to my parents, I didn't bother to prepare philosophy, I concentrated only on my acting
classes.
The strange thing is that with the passing of years, I have become quite curious and eager to make up as best I
could for the deficiencies in my education. Nowadays, I have a passion for subjects that I hated in the
classrooms of my youth. I'm interested most notably in history and when I have some free time, I spend it
reading biographies of famous people. Don't think that this is work-related and that I'm doing this to find a hero
I could play on screen. No, this is not a matter of self-interest..., but only the pleasure of finding out the actions
of the great figures of the past.
Unfortunately, I don't have much time to devote to reading. The rather eventful life that I lead and the
continuous travelling I must subject myself to aren't conducive to this type of activity. I can barely manage to
find a few hours to go through the last Goncourt winner, or the best-seller that is an absolute must-read. That's
why I'm not ashamed in the least to confess my ignorance when it comes to contemporary literature. I've
remained faithful to the great writers of the pre-war years and it's always with pleasure that I get reacquainted
with them: Mauriac, Gide, Colette, etc., as well as the classical authors.
I also love reading plays. So much so, that I started writing some myself. Just like that, for the fun of it, without
any pretensions. As a matter of fact, the very first one, "L'empereur de Chine", was written by bits and pieces,
without a plan, beginning... by the last act!! Of course, I did my best afterwards to touch up and polish the text...
At this point, two of my comedies, "l'Empereur de Chine" and "l'Ile heureuse", have been performed. I still
have two others waiting in my desk drawers; one that is not quite finished and the other that is still only an outline!
This is my only hobby, I don't count my little endeavors as an amateur movie director as great technical
achievements. With my 18mm movie camera, I film Marie-Christine playing, my family life and impressions
from my travels. I do the editing myself. In Hollywood, I can watch these movies right away, because I have a
private projection room in my villa.
And since I've just mentioned it, let me tell you about my house in Hollywood. It's a house in the Spanish style,
with a huge garden, located at the foot of Beverly Hills, at #1110 Tower Road to be exact.
On the first floor are the living room, the dining room and the projection room. On the second floor, there are
seven large rooms. The room that Maria and I keep for our friends has a door that opens on a different street,
which gives our guests the impression that this is more their home... than ours. Claude Dauphin lived there for
some time when he visited us in Hollywood.
At the time, we were still going out socially fairly often. It was rare that there wasn't a dinner or a cocktail to
attend at the house of some friend or other. We had (and still have) very strong ties with the members of the
French colony in Los Angeles: Charles Boyer, Louis Jourdan, the consul Sacha de Manziarly, Robert
Florey, etc...
When I came back to France, I had, like everybody else, to look for an apartment. And like everybody else
also, I couldn't find one. Finally, Maria and I managed to find in the suburbs what we couldn't find in the
capital. For almost two years now, we've been living in Suresnes in a villa that is called "les Coteaux". It's only
10 minutes from 'l'��toile", if you have a fast car!
Unfortunately, 'les Coteaux' doesn't belong to us. I'm only renting it, and the owner doesn't want to sell. Too
bad! For us, it's the perfect house, because it is very big, and allows us to entertain our friends and relatives
during the weekends. The most frequent guests for these little weekly get-togethers are my brother Poum, my
wife's sister Lucita and her husband, the journalist and writer Jean Roy.
As a matter of fact, I am godfather to Lucita's and Jean's son who, of course, is named Jean-Pierre.
My brother Poum is 29. He is passionate about cinema and did his training before the war by working in
every type of technical jobs the studios could offer. Editor, cameraman, etc, he was assistant director on Cheri
bibi and several other movies. War separated us, but reunited us also in a rather moving way. It's during the
Italian campaign that we suddenly found each other again after 5 years apart. We each belonged to a different
regiment, but as luck would have it our units stayed one day at the same location. Since then, Poum has become
a movie director. Under the name Fran��ois Villiers, he started out by directing some short documentaries
about Greece and Hollywood. He also directed 'Hans le marin', the first movie I made in France after the Liberation.
You probably know that my wife comes from a large family: I have 5 brothers-in-law, and 4 sisters-in-law.
Three of the latter now live in Paris. They love gambling and some Saturdays, my living room actually looks
like a gambling den!
But we really don't see each other that much, because I'm often travelling all over the world, whether I'm
touring in a play or on location for a movie. My profession has thus allowed me the pleasure of visiting a
number of foreign countries: Sweden, Norway, Spain, Hungary, North and Central America...
That's why I no longer have the time to go on vacation. I sold the little house I owned in Cagnes, but that didn't
prevent me from spending several days of vacation these last years in St-Tropez and in Italy where Maria was
making two movies.
To rest, I also go to Suresnes, in the big garden of 'les Coteaux', where I lie under the plum or cherry trees
that give us each year large basketfuls of fruit.
In Hollywood, it is the lemon and orange trees that are most prominent in our park. We also have palm trees,
cypress, and a type of tree that doesn't exist in Europe and is called an 'avocado'. But in Hollywood, like in
Suresnes, my favorite pastime and my favorite relaxation is playing with Marie-Christine.
I'm no longer very active in sports. From time to time, I still do a little swimming and horse-back riding. I'm
interested in music and painting, but am not an expert. I can't play an instrument or paint. Maria used to do
some sculpting in the past, but now she has practically given up working with clay. We sometimes go to art
exhibitions, especially when there are paintings by Vlaminck or Dunoyer de Segonzac. We also have some
expensive paintings in our collection. In Hollywood, I have two Utrillos and two Dufys, not counting the
sketches B��rard made of me at the time of "La machine infernale".
Finally, in Los Angeles, as in Paris, I lead practically the same kind of life. There, as here, work is always...
work and the periods of rest are as rare.
When we're on stage or filming, Maria and I rarely go out. But between plays or movies, we sometimes have a
short attack of society life.
I really don't like cocktail parties very much because I drink very little. I also don't eat a lot. My favorite dishes
however are the ones Maria makes for me like her spanish rice (that is divine) or the sort of meat pastry that
she calls 'pastellitos'.
Finally, if I tell you that I smoke way too much (it used to be American cigarettes, now it's the French
democratic corporal), and that most of my close friends are not movie people, I think I will have revealed
everything about my private life.
And yet I still must say something about my 'club', although this will be of interest mostly to my American
fans. But I think the story deserves to be told here:
When I was in America, I used to receive like all the other actors, a certain number of letters from young fans.
Now, it so happened that a young woman, Miss Kay Mac Gowan, had the great idea of centralizing in New
York all the addresses of the bobby-soxers that were asking for my autograph. She founded the Jean-Pierre
Aumont club, with branches in many cities in the US, and that regroup the ladies I wouldn't be so pompous as
to call my "admirers".
Each month, these young women hold meetings in their club's premises and have song and dance matinees.
They also write, under the watchful and devoted direction of Kay Mac Gowan, a monthly newsletter called
'News from Jean-Pierre', illustrated with many photographs!
In a way, a sort of American 'Film V�cu'... that my correspondents are making sure is always kept up to date.