Marie-Pier Ysser - J'inventais ma vie

2003, Bambi, France, French, Georges Burou, Marie-Pier Ysser, Marie-Pierre Pruvot,

Full title: "J'inventais ma vie" (I invented my life).

This is Bambi's first book. Bambi is the stage name of Marie-Pierre Pruvot, also known as Marie-Pier Ysser, a French author, dancer, singer, cabaret artist, and transgender woman, born Jean-Pierre Pruvot on 11 November 1935, in Les Issers, Algeria. After having been the cabaret star of the 1950s and 1960s, she resumed her French literature studies and became a professor of Modern Literature in 1974, and devoted herself to writing autofiction (notably as Marie-Pier Ysser).

Jean-Pierre spent his childhood and adolescence in Algeria, growing up in both a rural and urban world, enjoying nature and farm animals, much more than school. When he was 10 years old, his sister, whose clothes he liked to wear, died. His father dies 4 years later. Jean-Pierre Pruvot then lived in a feminine environment, reading a lot, sewing and embroidering. He feels that neither his first name nor his gender matches him.

As a teenager, he was living with his uncle and aunt, who ran a café on the outskirts of Algiers. And this is where he discovered the Casino de la Corniche and saw Coccinelle for the first time, a famous French transgender cabaret artist. It was aturning point in her life as she realizes that he could live as a woman. When she was barely 18 years old, she left for Paris to perform at the Cabaret Madame Arthur, choosing "Bambi" as her stage name. Soon she became a revue star at Madame Arthur. Her career peaked when she was hired at the Carrousel de Paris, a posh club located near Montparnasse. She then began to make herself known to a wider audience, while appreciating being able to live as a woman.

In 1955 she chose the stage pseudonym "Bambi", which she will always keep. She decided to share her flat with Coccinelle and they form an inseparable couple, working at night, and going out in Paris for part of the day, both determined to become stars. In the 50s, gender reassignment surgery is still prohibited in France. So in 1958, Coccinelle found one doctor in Casablanca, Georges Burou, and at his clinic, she undergoes the operation. Mindful of possible complications, Bambi decides to undergo her surgery in 1961.

In 1962, Bambi was greeted by the audience of the lesbian cabaret Elle et Lui, where she meets Ute Wahl, with whom she falls passionately in love. At the age of 30, she leaves the flamboyant nightlife and studies literature at the Sorbonne university, becoming a French teacher. She taught at the Pablo Picasso college of Garges-lès-Gonesse for twenty-five years until 2001.

In 2003, she wrote her first novel 'J'inventais ma vie', a fiction inspired by her own experience under the assumed name of Marie-Pier Ysser. In 2007, she published her autobiography in which she revealed her identity and her romantic journey. In 2013, Bambi decides to re-publish the book 'J'inventais ma vie' and writes several volumes, each with a different title.

She is featured in 'Bambi', a documentary film by Sébastien Lifshitz, dedicated to her life as an artist and transgender woman. Between contemporary testimony and archive images, she traces her history and even returns to Algeria. The film was released theatrically in June 2013. At the 2013 Berlin International Film Festival, it received a Teddy Award for Best Documentary Film. At the beginning of 2014, he was nominated at the César Awards in the category of short films.

In 2017, I interviewed Marie, together with my pen-friend Elaine, and asked her about the unforgettable shows at Chez Madame Arthur and La Carrousel: "I left Algiers at age 18 and I came to Paris to work at Mme Arthur’s and at the Carousel. It was 1953. Coccinelle was 22 years old. She was already famous in France and the French-speaking world. Coccinelle (blonde) and Bambi (redhead) in 1954. She is already the star of the Carousel and Bambi is just starting.

In France, she was the only trans in the show. We had heard of Lili Elbe and knew about Christine Jorgensen in the USA, Roberta Cowell in the UK, and Michel Marie Poulain in France. But we didn’t consider them as convincing examples. We remained as a show of transvestites in the meantime. Little by little, the trans performers began to outnumber the transvestites."

Available via Amazon

and The Heroines of My Life

and Wikipedia