This is how Bibendum was born, the universal character of Michelin

by time news

We are in the late 19th century. The “car without horses”, despite the opposition of some who see it as a “demon” (they see that anti-automobiles are nothing new) breaks into streets and roads as a symbol of a new time where the freedom of movement that it offers entails a social and cultural change.

The Michelin brothers make bicycle tires. andre Michelin is convinced that the automobile is the future. But these pioneers, whose vehicles use the same wheels as horse-drawn carriages, made of wood with a metal frame or solid wheels, must be convinced that the air-inflated tire can bring them enormous advantages.

But in 1894 there were barely two hundred cars in France and many more bicycles, which are the primary market for the Clermont-Ferrand brand, although the activity is diversifying (carriages, stretchers…) and the company is growing with almost three hundred employees. .

In Lyon the “Universal and Colonial Exhibition” is held, Édouard and André Michelin visit the stand of their firm. There, its manager has sought to attract attention by raising two large piles of tires. Édouard tells his brother: «with two arms he would look like a doll».

Representative drawing of the Michelin brothers in front of the pile of tires at the Lyon exhibition

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Some time later, André receives a visit from Marius Rosillon. O’Gallop, as he is known, was born on June 8, 1867 in Lyon. He studies at the School of Fine Arts in Lyon. Later he will travel to Paris and London, beginning his career as a caricaturist and illustrator in 1891 and signing with the pseudonym Marius O’Galop. Over the next few years he will collaborate in a multitude of magazines such as Le Rire, Le Cri de Paris, Le Charivari. He is also a renowned author of advertising posters, including music-hall shows.

Marius Roussillon, known as O’Gallop

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Marius shows André some of his drawings when, suddenly, a caricature catches the industrialist’s attention. The drawing had been submitted to a Rosillon beer hall in Munich, which had rejected it. It is a kind of Gambrinus, king or duke to whom legend attributes the invention of beer. His huge silhouette fills the drawing. He is seated at a table and shouts: “Nunc est bibendum” (“Now we have to drink”). André stares at the drawing while remembering the pile of tires in Lyon: the pot-bellied figure is the materialization of his brother Édouard’s idea.

“Now you are to drink” is one Latin expression which comes from an ode by Horace. The poet attributes these words to the Roman military and politician Marco Antonio, when he is defeated in the naval battle of Actium, in Greece, in the year 31 (AD).

André likes the phrase because it reminds him of a formula that he had used in a conference at the Society of Civil Engineers. In it, after carrying out a technical demonstration on the capacity of his tires inflated with air to cushion the bumps and irregularities of the roads (more like roads…), he ended his intervention by stating: “the tire swallows the obstacle”.

Poster of an exhibition of the year 1898

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André turns O’Gallop’s drawing, Lyon’s phrase and pile of tires, over in his head, and transfers his ideas to the cartoonist. He makes several sketches. gambrino make way for the doll made up of tires and the glass of beer is replaced by a glass full of nails and bottle caps. And Horacio’s phrase becomes “The obstacle-swallowing tire.” In April 1898, the outline of a series of posters was born in which he gave his character a certain humorous touch. And in June he is presented to the public, represented in god dimensions in the form of a large poster. At the Michelin stand at the Paris Motor Show, in the Tuileries Garden, the spectacular silhouette impresses visitors.

At his feet, a phonograph broadcasts monologues, songs, and praises of Michelin tires. The public is shocked by the image, but the doll does not yet have a name.

In the month of July, the Paris-Amsterdam-Paris race is held. The driver León Théry, seeing André Michelin arrive with his Panhard-Levassor, shouts: “here comes Bibendum”. The manufacturer likes the phrase, and he adopts it.

A character loaded with history but who has managed to evolve over time

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The success of the character at the Paris Salon led André Michelin to present the poster in the Hall of the Cycle, which will be held in December on the Champs de Mars. And, to increase the impact, he wants to replace the phonograph with an entertainer. He commissions one of his collaborators to find an anchorman with a booming voice and Bibendum physique. André tells Patsy, his collaborator, that this presenter has to have humor, but not be vulgar, he must reply with wit and have a voice that can be heard clearly.

Patsy unsuccessfully scours the markets of Paris in search of a vendor who meets her boss’s requirements. She then decides to search the Parisian cabarets. One night she discovers, in Montmartre, on the Boulevard de Clichy, in the famous Cabaret du Ciel (neighboring the Cabaret de L’Enfer, by the way), a group of comedians disguised as preachers. She is impressed by the presence and bass voice of one of them. And she hires him.

The preacher, disguised as Bibendum and with his spectacular voice, it attracts a large audience, it is a real success. So much so that the tumult arrives.

At the neighboring stand, from rival tires Oury, they complain that the people who come to see Bibendum don’t let their exhibitor in. Michelin pays no attention and war breaks out: every time Bibendum opens his mouth, in Oury they sound a horn to silence him, and, since it’s not enough, they hire a town crier.

The public is amused by this war, but in the other stands the anger of those responsible grows at times. They complain to the organizing committee, which calls the police. This orders that at the stand of the Clermont-Ferrand brand, the “performance” of Bibendum ends.

But André Michelin refusesoverwhelmingly supported by Count Albert De Dion, a person of enormous influence, founder of the magazine “L’Auto” (currently L’Equipe), the Paris Motor Show, and the historic brand De Dion-Boutón.

And “Bibendum” continues its work of attracting the public, becomes the emblem of Michelin and peers through the door of fame.

The figure of Bibendum has been standing for a few days in the roundabout that bears his name, in Valladolid

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125 years have passed. Bibendum’s figure has evolved with fashion and social changes: she quit smoking, drinking and lost kilos…

in all these years has done millions of laps in Le Mans winning cars, Monte-Carlo, the Dakar, Formula 1 or the motorcycling world championship. He has inspired artists: Salvador Dalí dedicates several works to him; the graphic artist and cartoonist Javier Mariscal has chosen him as the protagonist of some of his stories; since 1988 the plastic artist Fabrice Hybert has made Bibendum one of the central themes of his work. He has leaned, back to back, with 007, in “A view to a Kill” (“Panorama to kill”) or has traveled on the cab of trucks across five continents.

Today, when I look at Bibendum in the roundabout that bears his name, at the door of the Michelin factory in Valladolid Now celebrating its half century, I feel that this figure is more than the symbol of a brand, it is a legend that has traversed the 20th century and walks through the 21st without fear, ready to face any obstacle without losing a smile.

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