PASSINGS: Raymond Berthillon, Henry Stone

Raymond Berthillon

Founder of famed Paris ice cream shop

Raymond Berthillon, 90, the founder of the celebrated Paris ice cream parlor that bears his name, died Saturday, the company announced on its website.

With lines of tourists down the street even in Paris’ coolest weather, Berthillon’s shop has become an institution in the decades since its founding. Its ice cream, listed in many guide books as the best in Paris, first gained fame in 1961 when the food critics Henri Gault and Christian Millau wrote about “this astonishing ice cream shop hidden in a bistro on the Ile Saint-Louis.”

Now run by a third generation, the family-owned operation uses no preservatives, stabilizers or artificial colorings in its recipes. The company produces about 70 flavors on site from fresh fruit and dairy products, with 30 or so flavors available at any given time.

In the early 1950s, Berthillon and his wife, Aimee Jeanne, who owned a bakery in Paris, took over her parents’ combination cafe-hotel on the Ile Saint-Louis in the Seine. The hotel rooms were eventually eliminated to make room for production facilities.

The shop traditionally closes in August to allow the family to go on a vacation and take a break from one another, Berthillon’s daughter, Marie-Jose Chauvin, said in a 2005 Wall Street Journal article. “It’s not all idyllic,” she said. “Imagine three generations working every day in the laboratory.”

Henry Stone

Music producer on R&B, disco hits

Henry Stone, 93, a music producer and fixture on the R&B and disco scene who was influential in the careers of Ray Charles, James Brown and KC & the Sunshine Band, died Thursday of natural causes at a Miami-area hospital, the funeral home Riverside Gordon Memorial Chapels confirmed.

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FOR THE RECORD:
Henry Stone: In the Aug. 12 LATExtra section, a brief obituary of music producer Henry Stone said that one of his early hits was “Heart of Stone” by Otis Williams and the Charms. The single was titled “Hearts of Stone” and recorded when the band was known simply as the Charms.
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Stone opened a record distribution business and recording studio in South Florida in 1948 and within a few years recorded his first artist, a pianist-singer from the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind who became known as the legendary Ray Charles.

Stone’s hits were on TK Records, which he co-founded with Steve Alaimo in 1972, and similar labels he founded. They included: “Get Down Tonight,” “That’s the Way (I Like It,)” “(Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty” and “I’m Your Boogie Man” for KC & the Sunshine Band and “Ring My Bell” for Anita Ward.

Stone released Otis Williams and the Charms’ No. 1 R&B hit, “Heart of Stone,” in 1954. He was also involved in signing James Brown and the Famous Flames, who had the hit “Please, Please, Please,” which topped the R&B charts in 1956.

TK went bankrupt in 1981, but Stone pursued his passion with other production companies, finding an offbeat hit in 1990 with the novelty act 2 Live Jews and its album, “As Kosher as They Wanna Be,” a parody of 2 Live Crew that featured Stone’s son Joseph Stone, an actor, songwriter and producer.

Stone’s love for music started as a teenager, when he played trumpet while growing up in an orphanage in Pleasantville, N.Y. During World War II, he served in the Army and played trumpet in an integrated band and developed an appreciation of what were called “race records.” After the war, Stone sold vinyl records to jukebox owners out of the trunk of his car before moving to South Florida.

Times staff and wire reports

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