She poses with a small bird and a large dog in a medallion. This January 1, 1975, Sheila wishes a happy new year 1975 to all the readers of Le Parisien and… To “our animal friends”. A tradition for our title which, every New Year or almost in the 1960s and 1970s, solicits a star, as we said then, for the somewhat special issue which marks the change of year. In the midst of the confectioners’ truce, there is rarely much news. It’s time to party, the newspaper is counting on celebrities to make its front page.
At the start of 1975, Sheila was pregnant and at the top of record sales, as the photo caption specifies. This summer we showed him this very vintage one. The interpreter of “The Three Wise Men” does not remember the bird which symbolized, a few months later, the birth of his son, Ludovic, who died tragically in 2017 at the age of 42. But she remembers the dog very well. “He was my first German shepherd,” says the singer who will be 80 years old in August, almost a year the same age as our newspaper, the first issue of which was published on August 22, 1944.
“I loved this dog. His name was Tom, she continued. I took it because I was scared in my parking lot. I felt safe and no one could approach me when he was there. I took him everywhere, he went boating, sledding, skiing with me. » “Le Parisien has always supported me in my career and I was to be godmother of the SPA at that time,” she continues. I participated in fairs where I encouraged people to buy abandoned dogs and I was followed by the cameras of the show 30 Million friends. It’s good to see a light, charming, slightly outdated one like that again. This is no longer possible today. The time is much darker, less carefree. »
De Gaulle’s prophecy
With rare exceptions (Jean-Paul Belmondo, Gilbert Bécaud or Tino Rossi, the essential interpreter of “Petit Papa Noël”, it’s in season), the personalities chosen for this exercise are women, whose “charm” and/or “beauty”. Looking at these pages in 2024, we can only smile and note their quaint, even a little kitsch, side.
These wishes contrast with those very official of the President of the Republic, which the January 1 issue also published every year in one. Like this January 1, 1968 where General de Gaulle displays his optimism in the extract from the speech reproduced in large print: “It is with confidence that I envisage the existence of our country for the next twelve months. Our situation will continue to progress (…) I greet the year 1968 with serenity and satisfaction. » Everyone can make a mistake.
On this same page, our eye is drawn to the smile of Jacqueline Huet and Denise Fabre, the two announcers on the air during the holidays. The “blonde” and the “brunette”, mentions the small teaser text, which also considers it useful to specify that the “two pretty fairies who look back on 1968” are the same height, 1.72 m. A clearly important detail for our readers!
Miss or sportswomen
In the issue of January 1, 1970, Miss France, newly elected, Micheline Beaurain, who participated in the election of the 2025 beauty queen on TF 1, grants us an exclusive interview. To present her, what could be better than her portrait, from head to toe, embellished with all her measurements! A mania.
Another decade, another Miss. In 1981, Isabelle Benard was our “charming ambassador”. She painted “Happy New Year” in Spanish white on the window of her butcher parents in Vernon, in Eure. “Under such a graceful envelope, she also has a heart like that,” dares the legend. This time, the Miss no longer poses in a swimsuit, but in a checkered shirt.
No sporty outfit either for swimming legend Christine Caron in 1965. The previous year she won a place as Olympic vice-champion in the 100m backstroke. She is not the only athlete to illustrate the front pages of Le Parisien’s New Year. In 1971, there were three of them: Florence Steureur, Françoise Macchi and Annie Famose, members of the French ski team. Le Parisien Libéré is emphatic in describing them as “Queens of the white circus”.
Mireille Mathieu, the darling
Dalida also took part in the game in 1973. But the darling of Parisien Libéré remains the singer Mireille Mathieu who offers her image three times. In 1967, she was one of the faces of the New Year’s Eve television evening alongside the boss of ORTF, the public radio and television service, during which she sang “Vive le vent”.
For January 2, 1970 and then January 1, 1974, she literally took up her pen (her writing is reproduced) to “wish a happy new year to the readers of Le Parisien Libéré”.
The editorial team adores the young woman who has had an international career for eight years, we learn, and whose hits “celebrate the simple and deep feelings which find their resonance in the hearts of the French”. Another of his qualities, obviously not the least, one of his successes “glorifies marriage”.
On January 1, 1977, Mireille returned, signing a short text “Your friend”. It is from Brazil where the star “makes France applaud” that she sends her message. The love story continues with the newspaper which praises “her charm, her freshness and her dazzling smile”. Incidentally, thanks to this front page which also puts in the headline the astrological forecasts for the months to come, we learn that 1977 will be a year “of trials, but also of happiness” and above all “that there will be no of world war”. Phew!
In the 1980s, celebrity wishes still had a bit of space in our pages. Dorothée, the host of youth shows, disguised as a fairy, pokes her head with her magic wand in 1983.
In 1985, thanks to color, readers discovered that of Isabelle Adjani’s candy pink dress. The photo, very glamorous, explodes in the middle of the still very gray front page.
The four-color process will no longer leave the first page from January 25, 1986. It is even present in the logo which abandons black and orange. Le Parisien Libéré becomes Parisien – tout court – and is written in white on a blue background, overlooking a red band, very close to the current logo. The beginning of a new era and the end of the stars wishing our readers a Happy New Year.
