Jacques Goddet
Encyclopedia
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
sports journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
and director of the Tour de France
Tour de France
The Tour de France is an annual bicycle race held in France and nearby countries. First staged in 1903, the race covers more than and lasts three weeks. As the best known and most prestigious of cycling's three "Grand Tours", the Tour de France attracts riders and teams from around the world. The...
from 1936 to 1986.
His father, Victor Goddet, was co-founder and finance director of L'Auto, the newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
that organised the first Tour in 1903. When Jacques Goddet had ended his studies in 1931, he became editor-in-chief of L'Auto. In 1932, he covered the Olympics in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
.
In 1924 Jacques Goddet went to work for his father's paper in the rue du faubourg-Montmartre, Paris. Four years later he followed his first Tour de France and sat spellbound as he watched riders struggle for more than 16 hours on cols "that were no more than mediocre earth paths, muddy, stony". Goddet returned the following year and followed every Tour until 1989, with the exceptions of 1932 when he went to the Los Angeles Olympics and 1981 when he was too ill.
He became chief reporter at L'Auto and took over organisation of the race when the director, Henri Desgrange
Henri Desgrange
Henri Desgrange was a French bicycle racer and sports journalist. He set 12 world track cycling records, including the hour record of 35.325 kilometres on 11 May 1893. He was the first organiser of the Tour de France.-Origins:Henri Desgrange was one of two brothers, twins...
, became too ill to continue in 1936.
L'Auto during wartime
Goddet's role during the GermanGermany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
occupation of France after 1940, by which time the Tour had been suspended, is hazy. While he encouraged the newspaper's printers to produce material for the Resistance
French Resistance
The French Resistance is the name used to denote the collection of French resistance movements that fought against the Nazi German occupation of France and against the collaborationist Vichy régime during World War II...
, he supported Philippe Pétain
Philippe Pétain
Henri Philippe Benoni Omer Joseph Pétain , generally known as Philippe Pétain or Marshal Pétain , was a French general who reached the distinction of Marshal of France, and was later Chief of State of Vichy France , from 1940 to 1944...
as leader of France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
after the Armistice and he handed over the keys to the Vélodrome d'Hiver
Vélodrome d'hiver
The Vélodrome d'Hiver , colloquially Vel' d'Hiv, was an indoor bicycle racing cycle track and stadium on rue Nélaton, not far from the Eiffel Tower in Paris. As well as track cycling, it was used for ice hockey, wrestling, boxing, roller-skating, circuses, spectaculars, and demonstrations...
when the Germans wanted to intern thousands of Jews there. It is an episode which Goddet barely mentioned in his autobiography, L'Équipée Belle.
The academics Jean-Luc Boeuf and Yves Léonard said of Goddet's writing in that time:
From the several 1,200 articles published by Jacques Goddet in the rubric D'un jour à l'autre between September 1940 and August 1944, comes a strong Maréchalisme [support for Pétain], both from sentiment and from attraction for the National Revolution, at least until the winter of 1941, finding its roots in the 'trauma of 40'. This Maréchalisme is strongest in the first months, such as in particular in an article in L'Auto of 4 November 1940: In 1940, France is starting another life. The Marshal is going to give us a purifying bath.
The National Revolution is equally praised - and this after Pétain's speech of 12 August 1941 on the 'bad winds' - on 7 November 1941: When the Marshal gave France the gift of his self [personne] to France, he took as his motto the three words which must characterise the future: fatherland [patrie], work, family. Each one of us must take these words to heart.
In choosing those words rather than the liberté, égalité, fraternité which had been France's motto since the Revolution of 1789, Pétain emphasised that he had ended the republic and created his own replacement, the French State. Goddet was therefore for the end of the French Republic, although not necessarily its replacement by fascism. It was more a traditionalism associated with right-wing movements, a "dream to restore the virtues of hard work, honesty, and respect for one's social superiors" which Pétain thought had existed in rural society. It was nevertheless a period disowned by the French Republic when Charles de Gaulle
Charles de Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969....
restored it and for which France took responsibility only in 1995, 50th anniversary of the end of the war, in a speech by President Jacques Chirac
Jacques Chirac
Jacques René Chirac is a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. He previously served as Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988 , and as Mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995.After completing his studies of the DEA's degree at the...
marking the round-up of Parisian Jews in the Velodrome d'Hiver
Vélodrome d'hiver
The Vélodrome d'Hiver , colloquially Vel' d'Hiv, was an indoor bicycle racing cycle track and stadium on rue Nélaton, not far from the Eiffel Tower in Paris. As well as track cycling, it was used for ice hockey, wrestling, boxing, roller-skating, circuses, spectaculars, and demonstrations...
.
Goddet said in his biography, written 50 years later after his wartime words, "History should not confuse Pétain with Vichy
Vichy
Vichy is a commune in the department of Allier in Auvergne in central France. It belongs to the historic province of Bourbonnais.It is known as a spa and resort town and was the de facto capital of Vichy France during the World War II Nazi German occupation from 1940 to 1944.The town's inhabitants...
, the true patriotic intentions of the old soldier with the political action of the government in place drawn from the gutter [gouffre].
While Goddet could never be called a collaborator and insisted in his book that he had done much to thwart the Germans, including refusing to organise the Tour despite the privileges they were offering (see Tour de France during the Second World War
Tour de France during the Second World War
The Tour de France was not held during the Second World War because the organisers refused German requests. Although a 1940 Tour de France had been announced earlier, the outbreak of the war made it impossible for it to be held...
), his position was confused by the actions of his elder brother, Maurice. Like Jacques, Maurice had inherited their father's share in the publishing business. Maurice was eased out when his flamboyant policies came close to ruining the company and his final act was to sell shares to a consortium of Germans close to the Nazi party. The major holding in the paper was also sold to the Germans by Albert Lejeune, on behalf of his boss Raymond Petenôtre, who had taken refuge in the USA. L'Auto therefore fell to some extent under German control and the column of general news that Goddet had included to widen the appeal of L'Auto appeal became a propaganda tool for the occupants.
The doors of L'Auto were boarded up on liberation on 17 August 1944, because it "submitted to German control".
L'Équipe
Goddet succeeded in launching a new paper, L'ÉquipeL'Équipe
L'Équipe is a French nationwide daily newspaper devoted to sports, owned by Éditions Philippe Amaury. The paper is noted for coverage of football , rugby, motorsports and cycling...
, in 1946, but a condition imposed by the reconstruction government was that Goddet's name wasn't to be associated with his paper nor his presence seen in its building. Two other publishers hoped to establish sports papers and they complained that Goddet's name was associated not only with the tarnished L'Auto but with the Tour de France, which gave L'Équipe an unfair advantage when all newspapers were supposed to have an equal chance of establishing themselves.
On L'Équipe 's first front page, Goddet wrote anonymously:
Goddet was educated at a private school near Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, and maintained a love for both Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and the enthusiasm for sport encouraged in his school. He wrote in the thunderous, literary terms established by Henri Desgrange and referred not to finish lines but "les arrivées magistrales". He wrote of the French rider Louison Bobet
Louison Bobet
Louis 'Louison' Bobet was a French professional road racing cyclist. He was the first great French rider of the post-war period and the first rider to win the Tour de France in three successive years, from 1953 to 1955...
"accepting gallantly the delay attributed to him by the celestial handicapper." In the heat of southern France, he adopted khaki shorts and shirt, knee-length socks and a pith helmet.
The finances of L'Équipe were rarely sound and in May 1965 Goddet accepted a merger with a company run by the publisher Émilien Amaury
Émilien Amaury
Émilien Amaury was a French publishing magnate whose company now organises the Tour de France. He worked with Philippe Pétain, head of the French government in the southern half of France during the second world war but used his position to find paper and other materials for the French Resistance...
, with whom he had earlier made his successful bid to relaunch the Tour de France. Amaury's condition was that his own cycling reporter, Félix Lévitan
Félix Lévitan
Félix Lévitan was the third organiser of the Tour de France, a role he shared for much of the time with Jacques Goddet...
, should share organisation of the Tour. Lévitan slowly took over from Goddet, especially in the arrangements for sponsorship and finance. He and Goddet were business partners rather than friends, and came into his own when Émilion Amaury bought L'Équipe and the Tour. He was an Amaury favourite, but only with the father.
Amaury's death meant ownership of the Amaury organisation passed to his son, Philippe
Philippe Amaury
Philippe Amaury was a French publishing tycoon and entrepreneur who dominated the French media world. Amaury was the son of the publisher Émilien Amaury....
. Friction over the inheritance meant Philippe was anxious to change some of the arrangements he had taken over and Lévitan fell out of favour. On 17 March 1987 he found the locks of his office changed and a court official waiting to search and clear it amid claims, never proven, of financial mismanagement. Goddet became race director-at-large before leaving the following year.
He died at 95, and his funeral was held in Les Invalides
Les Invalides
Les Invalides , officially known as L'Hôtel national des Invalides , is a complex of buildings in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, France, containing museums and monuments, all relating to the military history of France, as well as a hospital and a retirement home for war veterans, the building's...
. In tributes, the President of France, Jacques Chirac
Jacques Chirac
Jacques René Chirac is a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. He previously served as Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988 , and as Mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995.After completing his studies of the DEA's degree at the...
, called him "one of the inventors of French sport." The prime minister, Lionel Jospin
Lionel Jospin
Lionel Jospin is a French politician, who served as Prime Minister of France from 1997 to 2002.Jospin was the Socialist Party candidate for President of France in the elections of 1995 and 2002. He was narrowly defeated in the final runoff election by Jacques Chirac in 1995...
, said: "France and journalism have just lost an exceptional man. He made the Tour de France, through his 50 years at its helm, the most popular French sports event and the one most known across the world." The former winner Laurent Fignon
Laurent Fignon
Laurent Patrick Fignon was a French professional road bicycle racer. He won the Tour de France in 1983 and in 1984. He missed winning it a third time, in 1989, by 8 seconds, the closest margin ever to decide the tour. He also won the Giro d'Italia in 1989, after having been the runner-up in 1984,...
said: "I only knew him a little. But what I remember of him is his personality. He had true moral values and, even if sometimes he could appear hard, he was always just in his judgements."