EShe imposed her cheeky cheeks, her red mane and her fiery temper in French showbiz by making a fortune in nightclubs. Régine was both the owner of a cabaret and a comforting mother, ready to collect the confidences of souls lost in the heart of sleepless nights… She frequented Maria Callas, Maurice Chevalier, Charles Aznavour, laughed with Françoise Sagan, made friends with Gainsbourg , sang Barbara, played the teaser before getting on the boards herself with her feathers, her good humor and an unusual energy. Régine died at the age of 92, her granddaughter announced to Agence France-Presse.
If she chose the party, it’s probably to heal the wounds of a difficult childhood. Polish Jewish parents, a bohemian father who loses his bakery in poker, a mother who goes into exile in South America, the war which disperses the rest of the family… Régina Zylberberg is separated from her brother, finds refuge in Lyon, falls in love on D-Day, becomes engaged immediately before the Gestapo arrests her suitor who dies in deportation. After the war, the young woman joined her father’s Parisian bar: up at 5 o’clock, she served the cafés crème while dreaming of fame. She has only one obsession, to make her life a destiny, to become someone… and to have fun as a bonus, if possible.
Barmaid and video
She married, divorced three years later, scoured the dance halls, made friends, slept less and less, first on the dance floor and last to bed, she already hosted parties like no one else, to such an extent that she was nicknamed the “spinning top”. She learns quickly, understands the codes, discovers the formidable social mix of the night world, without barriers or taboos, and begins her career at the “Whiskey à gogo”, near the Palais-Royal, where she is both hostess, bartender , record store and bouncer… The first celebrities flocked in, including Françoise Sagan, who called her the “black queen of our sleepless nights” and baptized the place “Chez Régine”.
The name was found, she made it her label and opened her first nightclub in 1956 rue du Four, in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, later followed by around thirty other clubs in France and around the world. Régine becomes the sovereign of Parisian nights, having no equal to amuse the gallery and surround herself with celebrities: Brigitte Bardot, Rudolph Nureyev, Pompidou, politicians, novelists and jet-setters, millionaires or broke, this is the place where you have to go to slum during these flamboyant Trente Glorieuses… In 1965, she took the plunge and released her first record, supported by Charles Aznavour, then soon by her friend Serge Gainsbourg who gave her her first great success by writing her “Les Little Papers”. But it was “La Grande Zoa”, interpreted with her famous feather boa, which imposed her in the middle as a funny singer with Parisian cheekiness – the Charles-Cros Academy distinguished her in 1967.
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Big mouth
Régine is everywhere: in her clubs, on stage and even in the cinema – we will see her in particular in Mazel Tov about Claude Berri The train by Pierre Granier-Deferre and Crooked cops by Claude Zidi. Married to businessman Roger Choukroun, she leads the life she wanted, runs a real business, releases perfumes, takes over restaurants… In the 1990s, the wheel turns. Régine suffers her first setbacks, in particular with the unfortunate adventure of the Palace, where she leaves a lot of feathers – she is forced to close the club for ecstasy trafficking. The debts are enormous, the businesswoman sells her nightclubs, but she continues to organize parties based on her address book. It was the time when she also hit the headlines when she was arrested with her son on board an American Airlines flight for refusing to put out a cigarette… The big mouth was not lacking in heart either: she founded SOS Drug International to help drug addicts in situations of exclusion.
Time hardly soothes him, on the contrary. “I’m not afraid of anything,” she confided one day to Paris Match. I have experienced war. Fear paralyzes and it is impossible for me to be paralyzed. I am a survivor with this visceral need to be in action all the time. At 75, she surprises everyone by agreeing to participate in The Celebrity Farm, on TF1, overplaying his impossible character, insulting everyone around. In reality, she wanted to amuse her son, journalist Lionel Rotcage, who died of cancer in 2006. The tragedy of his life, a great wound that never really healed: “He wanted me to be a real mother, I didn’t summer… “
At 86, she picked up her boa again for a new tour which notably led her to the stage of the Folies Bergère. The death ? Not even afraid: “I never imagined that I would live so old”, she launched in Paris Match in the last years of his life. And when you talked to him about retirement, his eyes burned you on the spot. “Bridge clubs with people from 3e age ? No, thank you, that does not make me laugh! “His only big regret was to see young people dancing alone in nightclubs, in front of DJs. “But it won’t last…” assured the high priestess of Parisian nights.