 |
1
Prelude
One of my first memories of a coddled and
spoiled childhood is those succulent meals to which my great grandmother
privately invited me. She had an extraordinary cook and I made up the menus
for these love feasts.
I spent four years of my childhood at the
Normandy Grammar School, which I hold in happy memory. I was lazy and worked
little. One summer, at Montguichet, my parents told me that at the beginning
of the new school term they were sending me to the Jesuits of Angers. "And
there," my father said to me, "you will have to work, which has not been
the case at Normandy." And he added: "Moreover, with the Jesuits of Angers
you get up at 5:00 a.m."
Armand
in the infancy
ca. 1911-1914 |
Armand's
Mother:
(1878-1967)
Anne de Laumont |
His
Father:
(1866-1920)
Alfred Marquiset |
Horrified, I declared that I didn't wish to
go to the Jesuits of Angers. But my parents told me that I would go.
I immediately decided on a counterattack.
There were two shrubs in the garden, one of which had white blossoms and
the other red blossoms. I had been told that the red blossoms were poisonous
but that the white ones were harmless. Prudently I ate three white blossoms
and returned to the house. I assumed a tragic air: "I will not go to the
Jesuits of Angers; I have poisoned myself." General panic. They asked me:
"You haven't eaten the red blossoms?" "Yes, I have eaten the red blossoms."
They rushed me to the pharmacist, who gave me an antidote. I no longer remember
the effect of the antidote, but no one spoke to me of the Jesuits of Angers.
They sent me to Franklin. This was also the Jesuits, but in Paris. I was
a very mediocre student distinguished only by my absolute incapacity for
mathematics. My parents forced me to take private lessons from a priest.
He exerted himself to write many signs on the blackboard. "Do you understand?"
"No." He grew impatient, came toward me, squinted his eyes at me, again made
his hieroglyphics on the blackboard, and once more turned to me: "Little
cretin, do you understand this time?" I understood no better. Faithful to
this incapacity, I was a zero in math.
|
My father asked
me what I wanted to do with my life. I replied that I wanted to be a musician.
I passionately loved music, and I wanted to be a composer. I thought that
was the only career on earth in which I would not be a failure. My mother
opposed this plan. (Had she the premonition that I would not keep on with
it?) My father took no notice and I undertook my studies with Nadia Boulanger
(photo right). |
|
 |
|
1.1
The Golden Sprig
The French government gave an annual pension
to the parents whose sons had been killed in the war, but as usual it was
inadequate. And so, a woman from Toulouse, the Marquise de Saint-Vincent-Brassac,
had created an organization called the Golden Sprig. She asked people to
give their jewels, their gold trinkets, which they sold to the Bank of France.
With the funds they bought government stock and doubled the state pension
and thus helped the parents who had lost their sons.
 |
Photos:
Chateau of Montguichet, outside Paris, where Armand Marquiset
was born.
In 1950, this became the first vacation home for the elderly.
|
 |
Madame de Saint-Vincent-Brassac, having wanted
to create a Paris chapter of the organization, was told: "Madame de Laumont
lost her son in the war and will be the best president that you could possibly
find." My grandmother accepted and offered the vice presidencies to Marshall
Foch and to Madame Poincaré, who accepted.
With the prompting of my grand-mother, The
Golden Sprig rapidly became an important activity in Paris and many pensions
were paid to parents whose sons had been killed.
At this time I was about 21 years old and
I accompanied my grandmother on visits to the homes of many old people, or
rather to many old women living alone. One of these fell into my arms, kissed
me, and said: "You remind me of my son." That certainly was (although I was
ignorant of this at the time) the beginning of the petits frères that
I created 25 years later.
1.2
Hollywood
In 1929, I rented a sumptuous villa with 50
hectares of grounds in Vasouy, near Honfleur. Each week I would invite lots
of friends that I would pick up and bring back in a bunch to Paris in my
red Talbot that I called "Modesty."
I wished to dazzle my grandmother, and I invited
her to Vasouy. A bit shocked by the life I was leading, she said to me: "My
poor Armand, you will die in poverty." "Perhaps, grandmother, but I will
have had a good time."
At the beginning of 1930 I left for the United
States. Wanting to make the acquaintance of the movie world, I went almost
at once to California. shortly after my arrival, I was invited to a dinner
party given by Mary Pickford. In a short while I met all the artists of the
day. I got to know Joan Crawford, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., the ravishing Mary
Brian, Buddy Rogers ...
1.3
Return
I was in the United States for three months.
At the end of the third month I received a letter from my mother:
"Your grandmother is not well." I took the
first boat for France. Upon my arrival I cabled my grandmother. That same
evening, we dined together privately and spent the entire evening together.
One week later a second hemorrhage took her
away.
After her death I came to understand the profound
meaning of love. We feel its power here on earth, but our love thirsts for
eternity.
 |
|
 |
|
 |
| |
Armand's Grandmother ..
Left: La Baronne de Laumont (1855-1930) in her later years. Right:
Marie de Sassenay (her maiden-name) as young lady around
1872; |
I was incapable of continuing to compose music.
I went to Nadia Boulanger and I told her that I had decided to abandon my
music and to serve the poor. She replied: "You are talented and capable of
making a career as a musician, but in life only one thing counts: to speak
to God. It matters little whether you speak to Him through music or through
the poor, so long as you speak to Him."
1.4
The
Artists
In the winter of 1930-1931 I began to occupy
myself with the Loaf of Bread Organization for tramps. I perceived that some
of those who came were unemployed artists. With several friends, we decided
to create "That the Spirit May Live" (Pour que l'Esprit Vive).
We found a local street of the
Abbé-de-l'Epée where we opened an office. We made arrangements
with small hotels and restaurants to feed and house young people who could
not earn a living.
Quickly they constituted a group of musicians,
some of whom were very talented. We had them play. We got them invited to
the home of Princess Polignac. To have played for her was as important as
having gone through the Conservatory.
That the Spirit May Live organized exhibitions
of paintings and also allowed students to complete their studies.
1.5
Lourdes
At a particularly difficult moment in my life,
I decided, since I pretended to love the poor, that in order to best know
and serve them, it was necessary for me to be poor myself. I rode a bicycle
from Paris to Lourdes without money and begged for charity. That was in
September, 1933.
1.6
The Children of Lilas
In 1934 I founded the "Friends of the Suburbs."
It sought to come to the aid of poor suburban children with clubs, holiday
camps, and assistance to many families.
We began with Petit Nanterre and continued
in 1936 with Lilas. In Lilas, where we had been unable to find any vacant
space, the inauguration for Christmas took place in the street. We attached
a Christmas tree to the hood of an old Citroën, and we distributed toys
to all the kids we passed, saying to them: "In two months we will be here."
Two months later we opened, in effect, a hut in the woods.
Armand during the world war II
1.7
The
War
I was mobilized in 1939 and because I was
a "service auxillary" I was stationed in a regiment near Paris. There I was
surrounded by many men who were for the most part without money and whose
preoccupation was to send their wives and children to the country; but they
hadn't the means to do so.
With friends I immediately created an
organization: "1939 - To Serve."
We organized, among other things, a gala,
with several wellknown artists from the Opera and the Com6die Française,
which was a great success. We were able, thanks to the proceeds from this
gala, and to some donations, to send, to the great joy of my comrades, a
rather large number of families to the country.
After the Arrnistice I was demobilized.
As I wished to continue to serve, one of my
friends advised me to see the directors of the National Reserve (Secours
National) located in Royat. I went there and offered my volunteer services
to the directors.
Three weeks later, I received a letter: "The
people of Alsace-Lorraine, expelled by the Germans, are arriving by tens
of thousands. Many of them are crowded together in a camp at Lyons. It is
necessary to find employment for them and to relocate them throughout France.
Will you go there?" I answered at once: "Of course."
One year later the National Reserve told me
that there was an urgent problem: the internment camps were opened. These
camps were filled with many refugees of countries occupied by Germany, of
Jews, of foreigners, and of communist resisters. For each internee the camp
directors received the same number of food tickets as were given to civilians,
but in certain camps fraud and the black market prevented internees from
receiving the amount of food corresponding to the tickets.
I quickly surveyed the state of things and
decided to establish in all the camps food distribution centers for use by
the most undernourished internees. In these camps no one died of hunger.
Then in November, 1942 I was sent to North
Africa to see to the camps there. Several days later the invasion took
place-which pleased me personally-but my mission to North Africa no longer
had a point, owing to the opening of the camps.
Preoccupied with returning and continuing
my mission in France, I obtained from General Giraud a pass for Madrid whence
I could seek passage to France. He told me that I would probably be shot
by the Germans. I told him: "My life is consecrated to God's poor and to
those who suffer: I'll take the risk." But for the next two months each time
I heard a car or quick steps behind me, I said to myself: "This is it, it's
the Gestapo."
After the bombing of Villeneuve-Saint-Georges,
we feared bombings of Paris in 1944 and I had 150 children of Lilas brought
to the Auvergne area, who were looked after by "The Friends of the Suburb."
We placed them in the homes of many farmers around my house at Saint-Victor.
At the end of the summer, after the liberation of Paris, we sent them back
to Lilas. Thus was completed the work of "1939 - To Serve."
Photo: H. Guerard
|
|
