Maurice Chevalier

In this entertaining look at the life of Maurice Chevalier (l888-l972), Bret, author of The Piaf Legend and The Mistinquett Legend , again shows his prowess as a chronicler of French stars. Chevalier began his long career as a youthful performer in the Parisian music halls, with his star rising to the pinnacle in the l920s and l930s--and the public was to remain constant to him. Near the close of WW II, the French underground marked him for death as a Nazi collaborator for performing in Germany. He was able to prove, however, that he had sung only for prisoners at the camp where he himself had been held during WW I, and that the Nazis made payment to him by liberating 10 French POWs. He continued to draw SRO audiences--still wearing his trademark straw hat--almost to the end of his life. Bret supports his biography with authoritative sources, although on occasion his facts are askew, as when he makes a reference to ``John F. Kennedy and his mother, Ethel.'' Photos. (Nov.)