Émilien Amaury
Émilien Amaury | |
---|---|
Minister of Overseas France, Head of Propaganda in Vichy France (1940), Publisher (1944), Press magnate. | |
Known for | Croix de Guerre, French Resistance leader, Founder of Amaury Organisation |
Children | Philippe, Francine |
Émilien Amaury (French pronunciation: [emiljɛ̃ amoʁi]; 5 March 1909 – 2 January 1977[1][2][3]) was a French publishing magnate whose company now organises the Tour de France. He worked with Philippe Pétain, head of the French government in Vichy France during the Second World War, but used his position to find paper and other materials for the French Resistance. His links with Jacques Goddet, the organiser of the Tour de France, led to a publishing empire that included the daily sports paper, L'Équipe.[4] Amaury died after falling from his horse; his will led to six years of legal debate.
Background
Émilien Amaury was born in modest circumstances in the town of Étampes. He left both his school and his family at 12.
War and Resistance
France declared war against Germany in 1939. Amaury was conscripted into the cavalry in 1938 and was awarded the
The Rue de Lille Group – named after a street in Paris – also printed the text of General Charles de Gaulle's broadcast to France on the BBC of 18 June 1940, and printed forged documents for Resistance members.[n 2]
Origins of press empire
Newspapers and magazines which had continued to publish during the Occupation were closed down and their possessions sequestrated by the State at the end of the war. The way was open to new entrepreneurs and to those whose reputations had survived the war years.
Among the newspapers closed had been the sports daily,
Amaury's first publication, however, building on the wreckage of the collaborationist press, was a weekly, Carrefour ("crossroads"), in August 1944. His links with the Ligue Féminine d'Action Catholique led to the foundation of Marie-France, which he later edited. He also created the Syndicat de la Presse Hebdomadaire Parisienne ("Parisian weekly press union", later known as the Syndicat Professionnel de la Presse Magazine et d'Opinion), and was elected its president for 33 successive years.[6]
Amaury founded a daily paper, Le Parisien Libéré on 22 August 1944, three days before liberation of the capital. The first headline was "The victory of Paris is in progress!"(La victoire de Paris est en marche!) The paper changed name to Le Parisien in 1986. The paper grew from the ashes of Le Petit Parisien, a paper founded in 1876[9] but which had been tainted by collaboration during the second world war. The government closed it, along with other newspapers, and licensed Le Parisien Libéré and L'Humanité to take over the paper's headquarters in the rue d'Enghien.
Strike
Economic problems in the 1970s cost the popular press, including Le Parisien Libéré, much of its readership.[n 3][9] On 1 March 1975, Le Parisien Libéré's management told workers' representatives of a plan to cut 300 jobs, including those of 200 printers,[10] and to print fewer papers.[11] On 4 March the company closed one of its print works, in the rue d'Enghien in Paris. The unions said they had been given no notice and it led to one of the longest strikes in French newspaper history and to the murder of an innocent man confused with the paper's editor.[12]
Production of the paper was interrupted from 7 March. Amaury refused the claims of his workers. The printers stopped work, helped by colleagues elsewhere in the
Protesters occupied the liner,
The episode became more violent when a bomb killed the editor-in-chief of
Tour de France
The Tour de France cycle race began in 1903 to promote the newspaper,
L'Équipe's finances were never secure and in 1968 Amaury bought an interest but maintained Goddet as editor. Amaury's condition was that his own cycling reporter, Félix Lévitan, should share organisation of the Tour. Lévitan slowly took over from Goddet, especially in arrangements for sponsorship and finance. He and Goddet were business partners rather than friends, and Lévitan came into his own when Amaury bought L'Équipe and the Tour. Amaury's death meant ownership passed, after a legal battle, to his son, Philippe. Friction over inheritance (see below) meant Philippe was anxious to change some of the arrangements he had taken over and Lévitan fell out of favour. [n 5]
The Tour de France is still run by Amaury Sport Organisation, part of the general Amaury group, which also organises the Dakar car rally and the Paris marathon, now run by Jean-Étienne Amaury, Philippe's son.
Death
Amaury died after falling from his horse in the forest near
Émilien Amaury is buried in the Saint-Pierre cemetery at Chantilly.
Notes
- ^ Marc Sangnier founded a newspaper, La Démocratie, which campaigned for equality for women, proportional representation at elections, and for pacifism. He was also one of the pioneers of the French youth-hostelling movement.
- de Gaulle broadcast on the French service of the BBC. Few heard the broadcast and even fewer had heard of de Gaulle but his words, reminding France that it had lost a battle but that the war continued across the war and the French could be part of it, became a call to resistance. The speech was printed and circulated across France by Resistance movements and is today reproduced in many of the city's squares and on war memorials.
- ^ The American magazine Time described Le Parisien-Libéré as a lowbrow daily.
- Tour de France during the Second World War), his position was confused by the actions of his elder brother, Maurice. Like Jacques, Maurice had inherited their father's share in the publishing business. Maurice was eased out when his flamboyant policies came close to ruining the company and his final act was to sell shares to a consortium of Germans close to the Nazi party. The major holding in the paper was also sold to the Germans by Albert Lejeune, on behalf of his boss Raymond Petenôtre, who had taken refuge in the USA. L'Auto therefore fell to some extent under German control and the column of general news that Goddet had included to widen the appeal of L'Auto appeal became a propaganda tool for the occupants.
- ^ On 17 March 1987 Levitan found the locks of his office changed and a court official waiting to search and clear it amid claims, never proven, of financial mismanagement. Goddet became race director-at-large before leaving the following year.
References
- ^ a b Universalis Amaury E
- ^ Astrotheme Portrait of Amaury
- ^ Quid France, Principaux_Groupes_De_Journaux
- ISBN 978-2-221-07290-5, p144
- ^ ISBN 978-2-7491-1499-6.
- ^ a b c d Emilien Amaury L'initiateur
- ^ Michal, Bernard (1968), Les Grandes Enigmes de la Résistance, Les Amis de l'Histoire, France, no ISBN, p33
- ^ ISBN 978-2-221-07290-5p135
- ^ a b Press References, Fa-Gu, France
- ^ a b c |BTWN+19750601+19750630 The Press: Murder by Mistake, Time, USA, 30 June 1975[dead link]
- ^ a b c CineArchives, General catalogue
- ^ Quid France, Presse Information agency
- ^ Syndicat Général du Livre et de la Communication Ecrite – Le Livre Parisien, History
- ISBN 978-2-221-07290-5, p145
- ^ Journal du Net. Amaury fait une chute de cheval, le cheval est indemne