Born in Lille in 1928, Xavier Canler, former director of the Novéac cinema which was located on Place d’Armes, has just died at the age of 95 in Saint-Nazaire (Loire-Atlantique) where he had retired.
Xavier Canler inaugurated the Novéac in 1952, after restorations of this cinema which belonged to his father-in-law Michel Lesay. During his career he also created the Les Arcades cinema and another in Douai, totaling more than ten rooms. He had to close the doors of Novéac in 1987 due to competition and declining attendance.
In 1970, the feat of crossing the Channel in a glider
A great collector (philatelist, numismatist, postcards), this film buff also had another passion, aviation, from 1954. He became president of the Scheldt air union from 1967 to 1970. It was in 1970 that he achieved a feat: leaving Valenciennes, he successfully crossed the Channel for the first time in a glider (without radio and life jacket), in the France-England direction (in the other direction, the air currents being more favorable, the first took place in 1931). And that same evening he was at Novéac, after returning by plane to Beauvais and… hitchhiking to Valenciennes. He had also set other records for altitude (6,000 meters) and distance in a glider, all of these performances allowing him to obtain the Aeronautics medal. He was the father of four children.
The religious ceremony will be celebrated on Monday, September 30 at 2:30 p.m., in Saint-Nazaire, followed by a final tribute at the city’s crematorium.
