Olivier Le Dour, amateur historian, is passionate about Breton emigration to the United States. He found the trace of Yves Le Roux, a man with a battered life who will end up running a speakeasy (underground bar) in New York, before returning hastily to his land in Langonnet.
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“He was at the same time a fascinating type, colorful but unscrupulous, with a battered and chaotic life, led on the five continents”. This is how Olivier Le Dour, amateur historian, describes in a few words Yves Le Roux, a Breton from Langonnet whose itinerary bears witness to the time of Breton emigration to the United States.
Olivier Le Dour heard about it for the first time twenty years ago. Anecdotes arise, the name of a bar “Le consul breton” in New York. It was only very recently that the historian found Yves Le Roux while he was going through parish bulletins from Langonnet, for a completely different research. And he decides to pull the ball, immerses himself in the archives at his disposal.
Apples that make Langonnet’s kid fall
Yves Le Roux was born in 1887, in Langonnet in Morbihan. Coming from an agricultural background, his mother died when he was only three years old. His father stops the farm and becomes a tavern owner in Gourin. At the age of 14, Yves was placed in a reformatory after being stung to take a crate of apples. He will stay there until he comes of age.
When he left, he enlisted in the Navy, was sent on cuirassiers in the Far East, the China Sea and Japan. “There something happens which leads him to be excluded from the Navy but I have not found what” says Olivier Le Dour. The young man is assigned to the disciplinary section in Saigon. Life is difficult there, he will come out with respiratory problems. Reformed, he returned to France. He is 21 years old.
In Paris, he again encounters problems with the justice system, sentenced to one year in prison for theft. He then joined the Commercial Navy, “probably on a line which leaves from Marseilles, towards Senegal and Argentina”. Here again, a gap of two years for the historian. He just knows that Yves is working on the Panama Canal project when the Americans are finishing it.
The 1914 war breaks out. Yves Le Roux is recalled, mobilized, injured in Champagne. He is assigned to auxiliary services and he drives trucks. He was sent to the Eastern Front, in Salonika, in Albania. When he was demobilized in 1919, he returned to Brittany. A period of appeasement follows. He’s getting married.
The Big Apple, during prohibition
In 1928, he left for the United States. At that time, the Bretons were already well established across the Atlantic. For them, two options: to be hired as servants in wealthy American families or at Michelin in Miltown (New-Jersey). That’s what Yves Le Roux does: he goes away with his wife, leaving their daughter in Langonnet. “It is in the records of Ellis Island that I found the date of his arrival, which boat he took and who he was with” explains Olivier Le Dour.
He has a little nephew present on site, who vouches for him. The goal at the time? Make as much money as possible to be able to come back to live in Brittany and invest in stone.
There is very little time left in Miltown and goes to New York. There, he opened a speakeasy, a clandestine bar, the famous “Le consul breton”, on 31st street. “It was the time of prohibition, the time of alcohol trafficking.”
After interviewing people who knew him, it appears that during this period, Yves Le Roux became a central figure in his community. “His bar attracted Bretons, an upscale clientele, he offered work to newcomers through his network. He would also have arranged white marriages.”
The interior of a speakeasy, Club 21 in New York in the 1920s
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© New York, An Illustrated Story / Courtesy of 21
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Did he have connections with the underworld? According to Olivier Le Dour, Yves Le Roux affirmed that he got his supplies via the gangster Al Capone and that he knew him well. “Al Capone is Chicago but it is not excluded that Yves Le Roux has done business in this city too, according to witnesses. After that, he is very close …”
A hasty departure from the USA
“What is very probable, however, is that he was not just a simple keeper” , reports Olivier Le Dour. He had to flee the United States in a hurry, it seems he would have gotten into trouble because of the gang warfare but was also being watched by the Feds. ”
The man returns to Brittany, with enough money to stop working. He will never set foot in the United States and retains, it seems, a resentment towards this continent. His wife leaves him in the 1950s. He leaves her without resources. “He was a bad guy, violent.”
During the Occupation, Yves Le Roux still shows his paradoxes: “Collabo at the beginning, part of a Pétainist movement, he also hides guerrillas.”
Rentier, he is one of the first in Langonnet to buy a car. Irony of fate: “he drove very badly and died in 1971 in an accident after having had several.”
Call for witnesses
Of his tribulations, Yves Le Roux left no written record. Olivier Le Dour was able to question his little nieces. Yves’ granddaughter refused to speak to him. The historian will publish a book in 2021.
He would still like to be able to collect information, in particular on the American period of Yves Le Roux, the exact location for example of his bar. “He is someone who played a role in the Breton emigration, a character with a lot of relief and not a positive hero. “
If you want to know more, the Breizh Amerika association is hosting an online conference with Olivier Le Dour on December 2 at 6:30 p.m. French time and 12:30 p.m. US time. Just register.
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