Death of Charly Oleg, organist of "Tournez manège!" and cult figure of television
His "Formidable!" , his melodies and his moustache left their mark on television in the 1980s: Charly Oleg, organist for the show Tournez manège! on TF1, died on Monday at the age of 94, the mayor of his town of Blanc-Mesnil (Seine-Saint-Denis) announced on Tuesday, September 9. "Charly Oleg died yesterday," declared Jean-Philippe Ranquet, confirming information from the newspaper Le Parisien/Aujourd'hui en France.
The outgoing Minister of Culture, Rachida Dati , paid tribute in a press release to the memory of this "essential musician and joyful entertainer of the French audiovisual landscape for decades" .
Broadcast on TF1 at midday from 1985 to 1993, "Tournez manège!" was one of the most popular shows of the 1980s. Presented by Evelyne Leclercq, Fabienne Egal and Simone Garnier, the show was a dating game in which singles tried to find their soul mate through various challenges.
In the first of these, the candidates had to recognize songs performed on the electric organ by Charly Oleg. With his dazzling smile, elegant suits, and eternal mustache, he punctuated his performances with thunderous "Formidable!" that left a lasting impression on the viewers.
Charly Oleg was born in 1931 in eastern France, into a family of Polish origin. "He trained at the Metz Conservatory where he won first prize in piano," the Ministry of Culture recalled in its press release. Based in Paris, he worked as a shadow accompanist alongside great artists of the time, including Joséphine Baker , Charles Aznavour and Mireille Mathieu.
He made his television debut in the 1960s on the ORTF program Télé Dimanche , providing musical accompaniment to the sequence Le jeu de la chance . After achieving popular fame with Tournez manège!, he made a few short appearances in cinema, including one in The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988, a film by Philip Kaufman adapted from the novel by Milan Kundera with Daniel Day-Lewis and Juliette Binoche).
A flagship show from the golden age of television, Tournez manège! has entered French popular culture. This led to it being parodied by other TV heavyweights of the period, the comedy trio Les Inconnus, who made a sketch of it called "Tournez ménages" in 1990.
La Croıx
