Hector Pellerin

Pellerin, Hector

Hector Pellerin. Baritone, actor, entertainer, b Montreal 31 Oct 1887 or 1888, d there 18 Apr 1953. He studied piano and organ with Alexis Contant and J.-Daniel Dussault and made his debut as a cinema pianist at the Ouimetoscope in Montreal. He continued this activity in Sorel, where he lived 1902-9 and where he began singing. He was an organist 1909-11 in Amesbury, Mass, but returned to Montreal to act and appeared at three theatres, the Canadien 1911-12, the Chanteclerc 1912-14, and the National 1914-16.

On the advice of Henri Miro and Albert Roberval, Pellerin turned to singing operetta, and in 1917 he was the partner of Jeanne Maubourg in Audran's Gilette de Narbonne. In cabaret he performed mostly his own songs, accompanying himself on the piano in the manner of the French singer Fragson. He was one of the first radio performers and continued broadcasting until the 1940s.

In 1934 in Montreal Pellerin opened a cabaret, Le Versailles, which featured such notables of song as Lucienne Boyer, Jean Clément, Tino Rossi and Jean Sablon. He worked thereafter as master of ceremonies in a succession of Montreal nightclubs until the end of the 1940s.

Pellerin recorded a considerable number of songs on Amberol cylinders and discs for Victor, Starr, Edison, Columbia, and Starr-Gennett. A list is given in Roll Back the Years.