Death of Darling

The mountain road from Grenoble to Marseilles was soggy from the spring rain. An American jeep skidded on a curve, crashed against a tree and overturned. Its driver, an American more loved in France than known in the U.S., was instantly killed. His name was Bravig Wilbur Eugene Imbs.

To France, it was a tragic loss. Since June 1944, when slender, blond, esthete Imbs (rhymes with rims) established the first free radio for the OWI in Cherbourg, he has been the darling of the French air waves, broadcasting as many as five shows a week throughout France. He spoke knowingly of American jive, presented France's best recorded jazz hot, got as many as 400 fan letters a week. The French liked the tone of his voice, and thought his Yankee accent charming.

At 42, Milwaukee-born Bravig Imbs had lived a life as full of joie de vivre as a French novel. He financed two years at Dartmouth by playing his violin, lecturing to women's clubs, butlering for a professor. He took a cattle boat to Europe in 1925, soon mingled with fun-loving expatriates in Montparnasse, wrote many poems, several books (Confessions of Another Young Man, The Professor's Wife, etc.), joined the cultural circle of Gertrude Stein, Elliot Paul, James Joyce, George Antheil. When his writing failed to feed him, he lectured or fiddled in cafes. Wrote Miss Stein's secretary, Alice B. Toklas: "We liked Bravig, even though as Gertrude Stein said, his aim was to please." To Frenchmen, there was nothing wrong with that.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.