Julien Pichené
10 days before New Year’s Eve, Europe 1 is putting five bonus episodes of Pierre Bellemare’s extraordinary stories online. Among these new restored episodes are stories about the assassination of Jaurès, a fatal Christmas Eve or even the day Winston Churchill was brought out of his bath.
It’s a gift ! Among these new restored episodes posted online: the assassination of Jaurès, the day Winston Churchill was taken out of his bath, and a fatal Christmas Eve. A news item dating from 1953… The story of a man who, on New Year’s Eve, killed his mistress after a violent argument, who he made believe was extremely rich.
Pierre Bellemare’s stories have been going strong on podcasts since their release last month. We crossed the half-million listens mark. Congratulations to Julien Tharaud, Sébastien Guyot, Lisa Soster and the Europe 1 sound heritage service team led by Sylvaine Denis. And congratulations also to Jean-Marie Pantalacci, one of the historic directors of Europe 1. It was he who, at the time, recorded and edited the stories of Pierre Bellemare… There is a legend according to which Bellemare recorded his stories in underpants…
Bellemare recorded his stories at 10 a.m.
“So there are several versions actually. When he recorded at home, he liked to be lightly dressed. Otherwise he came to Europe 1 and recorded. I had to go up and we had to do it quickly because we did the games afterwards” , confides Jean-Marie Pantalacci, now 82 years old.
Bellemare therefore recorded at 10 a.m. He then presented the 20 million cash game at noon. And at 1:30 p.m., the story he had recorded that morning was broadcast. He was never ahead. But one day, he’s not inspired, there’s noise in the studio… It’s a disaster: he can’t record it on time. “He told me, it doesn’t matter, we’re going to do it live,” remembers Jean-Marie Pantalacci. Let us point out that radio stories are usually never done live…