The new documentary airs this week on Télé-Québec and is available online Deschamps tells Yvon takes us back to the 1960s, the time when the mythical show was born L’Osstidcho. From childhood in Saint-Henri to finding work and discovering the theater, Yvon Deschamps travels back more than 60 years to tell of his stage debut. Here are five things we learned from watching the film.
• Also read: “L’Osstidcho”: a revolutionary show narrated on Télé-Québec
His family had little money
Yvon Deschamps grew up in the working class district of Saint-Henri and had a father who worked as an industrial designer. “He signed invention patents,” says Yvon in an old archive interview. “It was fantastic because it helped us develop our sense of observation and imagination.”
At that time the families were very large, sometimes up to 20 children. However, the Deschamps only had three children, says Yvon. Despite his family’s modest means, Yvon never felt insecure. “When we ate toast for three weeks, we thought it was because our mother didn’t want to cook. You would never have guessed it, because that’s exactly what happened.
Without unemployment insurance, he might have had a very different career
After his eleventh year at school, Yvon Deschamps began to have bad company at Saint-Henri. His parents then decided to move the family to Rosemont County. Back then, young Yvon dreamed of working as a busboy in clubs. “Because they made good money. They made $75 or $80 a week.” After a year without a job, Yvon went into unemployment insurance, where he got a job as a messenger at the Radio-Canada nightclub.
There he began to get in touch with actors. One day a co-worker from the nightclub invited him to a theater visit. It was a revelation. “During recess, I decided that I would become an actor [dans la vie].” He then took acting classes for five years. “Since that day I have never given up and have never asked myself any more questions about my future. I knew that was it. When I went to unemployment insurance and they got me a job as a busboy at a club, I don’t know what I would have done! [rires]»
Because of Expo 67 he went bankrupt
Yvon Deschamps was already a businessman in the 1960s and then owned a few restaurants and, together with Clémence DesRochers, the song box La Boîte à Clémence. In 1968, however, he had to file for bankruptcy “like 400 other restaurateurs,” he says.
The reason? Expo 67 had monopolized all activities and revenues the previous year. “The World’s Fair killed us. Everyone spent their money there for six months. In this period all tourists came. And on November 1, 1967, there were no more customers anywhere! It was empty everywhere. I lasted until February 1968. After that I was completely on the road.
When Yvon visited the Théâtre de Quat’sous, which he was one of the founders of, co-owner Paul Buissonneau told him he could sell tickets and clean the theater for $50 a week. Paul then asked him to organize a “review”. Thus L’Osstidcho was born.
The death of Martin Luther King touched him deeply
The death of Martin Luther King in April 1968 would have repercussions as far away as Quebec. “It was a shock,” says Yvon. For us it was exactly part of the idea… The fact that someone is killed because they want to advance something and enforce rights for the black community, that touched us deeply, as if it had been our brother or our neighbor. We were very close to these ideas, changing the world and getting rights. We couldn’t miss it [d’en parler dans le spectacle]. We had the opportunity to do the show in May. It was so timely.”
The monologue Unions, what gives Ossa? was inspired by his grandfather
Yvon Deschamps wrote Les Unions, qu’ossa donne? He reflects on the union struggles of the 1950s and 1960s. In the documentary, he says he was also inspired by his grandfather’s life.
The latter began working at the Redpath sugar refinery at the age of 12. “He worked 12 hours a day, 6 days a week, 52 weeks a year. It was the 1930s and workers were not yet entitled to furloughs.
He retired at the age of 65. And he found he had no money to keep paying the rent because he never had anything to save. “During those years of misery, my grandparents had to break into the house. They couldn’t feed themselves. They had to move in individually with one of their children. […] My mother told me that my grandfather cried all the time. He didn’t understand. He said he worked so hard. How did he come to be a burden to his children? He cried until he died. In a year and a half he was dead.
The documentation Deschamps tells Yvon is available at telequebec.tv/documentaire/deschamps-raconte-yvon.