While working as a journalist for the French magazine Temps, André Tardieu (1876 – 1945) wrote these unkind words regarding the Italian opera star Enrico Caruso (1873 – 1921), perhaps only in order to slander his American groupies and the culture that created them:
“…the American public admire only those artist’s for whom they pay dear.”
Of all the many Frenchmen who have detested America, Tardieu was one of the first; in later years he would move into politics serving as the French Prime Minister on three separate occasions. Looking back we find that Caruso’s recordings are still selling by the millions each year and Monsieur Tardieu is simply remembered as one of the many hacks who botched the peace at Versailles.
