Ray Ventura

Producer, Actor, Composer, Writer

April 16, 1908 — March 29, 1979 (70 years)
Raymond Ventura (16 April 1908, Paris, France – 29 March 1979, Palma de Mallorca, Spain) was a French jazz pianist and bandleader. He helped popularize jazz in France in the 1930s. His nephew was singer Sacha Distel.

Ventura was born to a Jewish family. In 1925 he was the pianist for the Collegiate Five, which recorded as the Collegians for Columbia beginning in 1928 and for Decca in the 1930s. A year later he led the band, and it became a dance orchestra resembling a big band. His sidemen included Alix Combelle, Philippe Brun, and Guy Paquinet. In the early 1940s he led a big band in South America and in France during the rest of the decade.

One of his band's popular songs from 1936 was "Tout va très bien, Madame la Marquise" in which the Marquise is told by her servants that everything is fine at home except for a series of escalating calamities. It was seen as a metaphor for France's obliviousness to the approaching war.

Source: Article "Ray Ventura" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.

Known For

  • Love Is My Profession
    Love Is My Profession1958
  • Plucking the Daisy
    Plucking the Daisy1956
  • Monte Carlo Baby
    Monte Carlo Baby1951
  • French Touch
    French Touch1952
  • Captain Fracasse
    Captain Fracasse1961
  • Lovers' Net
    Lovers' Net1955
  • The Murderer Knows the Score
    The Murderer Knows the Score1963
  • Without Leaving an Address
    Without Leaving an Address1951
  • We Will All Go to Paris
    We Will All Go to Paris1950
  • We Will Go to Deauville
    We Will Go to Deauville1962
  • Headlines of Destruction
    Headlines of Destruction1955
  • And Satan Calls the Turns
    And Satan Calls the Turns1962
  • Long Live Henry IV... Long Live Love!
    Long Live Henry IV... Long Live Love!1961
  • Beast at Bay
    Beast at Bay1959
  • Le roi Pandore
    Le roi Pandore1950
  • Stop Train 349
    Stop Train 3491963
  • Companions of the Night
    Companions of the Night1953
  • Our Men in Bagdad
    Our Men in Bagdad1966
  • Where Are You From, Johnny?
    Where Are You From, Johnny?1963
  • Le crâneur
    Le crâneur1955

Filmography

1984
La chance aux chansons · as Self (archive Footage)
1975
Number One · as Self
1963
The Murderer Knows the Score · as Self (uncredited)
1956
Cinépanorama · as Self
1955
1953
1953
Femmes de Paris · as Self
1951
1950
1948
1939
Feux de joie · as Self

1997
Tudo É Brasil · as Cast
1972
1971
Le cinéma de papa · as Le Producteur Installé Sur Les Champs-Elysées
1938
Quadrille · as Lui-Même (as « Ray Ventura Et Ses Collégiens »)
1936

1962
We Will Go to Deauville · as Delegate Producer
1953
Femmes de Paris · as Presentation Producer
1938
Belle Étoile · as Orchestrator
1938
Quadrille · as Orchestrator