Piaf Edith
Real name - Edith Giovanna Gassion (born in 1915 - died in 1963)
The great French pop singer, the pride of France, a symbol of its culture, a phenomenon of world musical art.
The main theme of Piaf's songs was love. Tragic, broken, unhappy, daring, with all its impulse the opposite of petty prosperity and bourgeois decency. Love is rock, love is a test, love is a curse sent down by fate. This was her life too.
Edith Piaf's personal life is not an example to follow. It had everything: friendships, fleeting hobbies, and of course love. As soon as one great love ended, another began. She had her own rule about this: “A woman who allows herself to be abandoned is a total fool. There are a dime a dozen men, there are so many of them walking the streets. You just need to find a replacement not after, but before. If after, then you were abandoned, if before, then you! A big difference".
Edith always applied this principle with a sense of duty. No man could change her. And if there was someone who tried to leave her, he was in trouble - she had long been several lengths ahead. Bye new lover could not yet live with her under the same roof, she was silent, kept the old one with her, believing that there should always be a man in the house: “A house where there is no man’s shirt lying around, where you don’t come across socks, a tie hanging on the back of a chair yet a warm jacket - this is a widow’s house, there is melancholy and darkness in it.”
Edith was born on December 19, 1915 at three o'clock in the morning under a street lamp near house number 72 on Belleville Street in Paris. Two police officers attended the birth - “ ambulance“It was too late to call. The future pop star was born into the circus family of acrobat Louis Gassion and singer Anita Maillard at a not very opportune time. Walked First World War, and the father, who went on vacation for the occasion, immediately after the birth of his daughter returned to the trenches to feed the lice. Two months later, the mother gave the girl to her alcoholic parents and forgot about both her husband and child: she was “ real actress, but she had no heart."
When Louis Gassion was able to come to another vacation, he saw his daughter in such a state that he was horrified: “a head like a balloon, arms and legs like matches, a chicken breast.” Without thinking twice, the father took the child and took him to his mother in Normandy - he didn’t even have the thought of giving her to an orphanage. Here in the town of Bernay, grandmother Louise served as a cook for her sister Marie, who ran a brothel.
"Madame" Marie and her girls were delighted with little Edith. “A child in the house is fortunate!” - they thought. They barely managed to wash the dirt off her, and then it turned out that the girl had cataracts - she couldn’t see anything. The baby remained blind for three years, and all this time her new large family did not lose hope for her recovery. At first, Edith was taken to doctors, and then one of the girls came up with the idea of going on a pilgrimage to Saint Therese in Lisieux.
The Feast of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary on August 15, 1921, all the girls, led by “Madame,” spent in the cathedral, where they prayed for the health of their favorite. And a miracle happened. A week after visiting Saint Teresa, the child regained his sight. The shock was so great that the “establishment” was closed for the second time for the whole day and a feast was thrown without men, but with champagne.
So Edith regained her sight, but soon lost her cozy home, where everyone loved her very much. Without allowing the girl to study for a year at school, under pressure from the priest and the “decent” public, Louis Gassion was forced to take her away from the “indecent house.” From eight to fourteen years old, he dragged Edith with him through taverns and bistros, through city streets and village squares - the war ended, and he again became a street acrobat. Edith later said: “I walked so many roads with dad that my legs should have been worn down to the very knees.”
Her job was to collect money. “Smile,” my father taught, “then they will give you more.” Even then, Edith tried to sing in front of cafe regulars, which guaranteed Louis a daily drink. He had long ago given up the idea of making her a gymnast: “This girl has everything in her throat and nothing in her hands!” - he used to say. The first time Edith sang on the street was when she was nine years old. The song she debuted with was called “I'm a Slut.”
At the age of fifteen, Edith was tired of working for free for her father and putting up with his girlfriends, constantly replacing each other. She tried to deliver milk, washed floors and realized that this was not for her - she dreamed of singing on the street. But in order not to look like an ordinary beggar in the eyes of passers-by, it was necessary to find an accompanist. Once Edith met a self-taught musician named Raymond, with whom she performed for some time in soldiers’ barracks and squares.
Soon she began to sing on her own, and then persuaded her half-sister Simone Berto to leave her drunkard mother and work together. By the time they met, Edith already knew many men. She didn't remember the first, and all she could say about the second was that he taught her to play the banjo and mandolin. Men always revolved around her, but most of all the street singer liked the soldiers of the Foreign Legion, colonial troops and sailors: “If a guy looks at you, you are no longer an empty place, you exist. You can laugh and rage with them, soldiers are easy people.”
One evening in 1932, in a bistro near Fort Romainville, Edith met her Baby - a blond boy, Louis Dupont, who was a year older than her. Although Edith had many admirers in the nearby barracks, Louis became her first true love. From that evening she began to live with the Kid under the same roof, because he was the first who offered it to her. There was no question about marriage, but within two months Edith became pregnant.
The future dad was jealous of his girlfriend and often beat her. Their views on life were diametrically opposed - Edith was eager to go outside, and he wanted her to stay at home. Even the birth of their daughter Cecel could not change the situation: Edith began singing in the streets again, returning home late, which led to frequent quarrels and fights that ended in the police station. This couldn't go on for long. They finally broke up after Edith got a job at the Juan-les-Pins cabaret on Pigalle Street - in the very center of the Parisian “bottom”.
Her new friends were prostitutes, robbers, pimps, dealers in stolen goods, and card sharps. She now did not have a permanent home - she wandered from hotel to hotel, renting a room for the night where Cecel could sleep peacefully. In the morning Edith put her in a stroller and took her around the city all day. Despite such a chaotic lifestyle, the girl grew up healthy and cheerful. One day, the Kid stole his daughter from the hotel, hoping that Edith would return to him. But such numbers did not work for her - she crossed him out of her life.
Sesel did not stay with Baby for long: at two and a half years old she fell ill with meningitis and died. Edith was nineteen years old at this time. Ten francs were missing for the funeral, and Edith went to the boulevard for the first time: “So much the worse... I’ll do it.” In the hotel room, the client asked why she was doing this. Hearing that the young girl standing in front of him had just lost her daughter, he swore and put it on the table. large bill and left.
A few days later Edith no longer remembered deceased daughter- streets during the day, cabarets at night - life continued as before. One day in October 1935, she was performing on the Champs-Élysées, and here on Troyon Street, chance intervened in her fate - she was noticed by the owner of the fashionable cabaret "Jernice" Louis Leple. The performance of Jean Lenoir's song “Like Little Sparrows” impressed him so much that he immediately offered the street singer a job.
The young artist needed to choose a sonorous stage name. It dawned on Father Leple: “You are a real Parisian sparrow, and the name Moineau would best suit you. Unfortunately, the baby's name Muano has already been taken. We need to find something else. In Parisian slang, "moineau" is "piaf". Why don't you become Mom Piaf? So with him light hand Edith Gassion became known as Little Piaf.
A week later, Piaf’s debut took place in the Zhernis cabaret, which was visited by aristocrats, literary and artistic figures. After the first song there was a flurry of applause. Piaf’s success exceeded all Leple’s expectations: “Order. She conquered them...” It was the most difficult moment throughout her career, but until her death she considered him the most beautiful. She was drunk with happiness.
Everything was fine with work, but in her personal life at this time Edith simply “went off the rails.” This was a period of intense fascination with sailors, legionnaires and various rogues who were waiting for her after the concert at the doors of the cabaret.
Every day, for seven months, Edith did not spare the money she had earned so hard for her friends - they drank every last sou. She was happy in her own way: “Love is not a matter of time, but a matter of quantity. For me it fits in one day more love than at ten years old. The townspeople are stretching their feelings. They are prudent and stingy, which is why they become rich. They don't make a fire with all their wood. Their system may be good for money, but it’s not good for love.”
On the night of April 6, 1936, everything collapsed - Father Leple was killed in his house by people who made up Lately Edith's entourage. Some of them were even her lovers. The newspapers howled - such a sensation - the singer was involved in the murder of her owner. However, the police were unable to prove anything, and Piaf was released. But everyone had already turned their backs on her: “What a pity that you lost your patron. He was the only one who could believe in you. Now you have only one way - back to the pavement.”
In Paris, Edith was declared a boycott, and she went to Brest to sing during the intervals between films at the local cinema. Here she remained true to herself - on the very first evening she made friends among the sailors. “Nice guys, they didn’t ask any questions,” but behaved in such a way that they scared all the civilian spectators in the cinema. As a result, the management was dissatisfied with Piaf’s work and did not renew her contract. Nothing worked out in the provinces either...
It seemed that Edith would no longer be able to rise from the very bottom a second time. But she was rescued by her old friend Raymond Asso - “long, thin, nervous, with very black hair and a tanned face” - he became her friend, teacher, impresario and, of course, lover. It was Raymon who turned “Little Piaf” into “Edith Piaf,” which was very difficult. He literally taught her to read and write - Piaf did not understand some words in her own songs and could not give an autograph without errors, in addition, she did not understand musical notation. Raymon taught her good manners and patiently explained how to behave in life, at the table, with people.
In their relationship, ups alternated with downs, but still Edith repeated: “How I love him! He makes me do whatever he wants." Raymond Asso polished her biography and created the “Edith style”, writing several hits for her. Asso was the first man Edith knew whose interests extended beyond the desire to drink, take a walk or make love. She needed him, and she could not do without him in order to escape from the world of her past street life.
Raymon loved Edith as his wife, as his creation and as his child, but he understood that nothing could hold her back. They broke up a year and a half after her triumphant debut at the most famous Parisian music hall, ABC, on the Grands Boulevards. “Yesterday a great singer was born in France...” the newspapers wrote. She owed her brilliant victory in everything, except perhaps her vocal abilities, to Raymond Asso, and Piaf always remembered this. Every time he needed her, she was there. But love passed, and Edith never compromised on this. She needed a new, fresh feeling: “You can truly love only when you feel it like for the first time. When love grows cold, it must either be warmed up or thrown away. This is not a product that should be kept in a cool place!”
Edith Piaf's next love was the singer Paul Meurisse. He struck her imagination, his actions were unpredictable: “If he suddenly started eating orchids at breakfast, she would take it normally.” The relationship between them was not easy - their temperaments were too different, but despite constant quarrels, they did not part.
In 1940, Edith met playwright Jean Cocteau, who became her good friend. He sincerely wanted to help Edith establish a normal relationship with Paul. To do this, he wrote a one-act play “The Indifferent Handsome Man,” the plot of which was taken from Piaf’s story about her life with Meurisse, and invited them to play it in the theater. “It’s very simple,” he persuaded Edith, “Paul doesn’t say anything, and you play the scene that you arrange for him every day.” Some of Piaf's friends doubted its success and even on the day of the premiere predicted failure. Coming onto the stage, the aspiring actress suddenly forgot all the words out of excitement, but, pulling herself together, she performed the performance in one breath, captivating the audience with her talent.
The “indifferent handsome man” extended Paul’s stay in Edith’s life, but her feeling died. In August 1941, on the set of the film Montmartre-on-Seine, she met a tall, elegant man - journalist Henri Conte. He was the exact opposite Paul, but Piaf entered into life not so much as hers another lover, as much as the author of her immortal songs, which she so needed. Much to the singer’s regret, he did not want to live in her house - it was the height of the German occupation, and every evening he went to another, deceiving Edith that he did not have a night pass. Piaf fought for him for some time, but could not hold him.
Her participation in the anti-fascist Resistance movement dates back to this time. During the war, Edith Piaf almost did not appear on stage, but, to the surprise of many, she accepted an offer to sing in Germany. For this she was accused of collaborating with the Germans. Not everyone knew that the singer performed in prisoner-of-war camps and gave them the fees she received. One day she asked the camp management to allow her to take a souvenir photo with her compatriots. In Paris, underground workers made 120 small ones from a large photograph and prepared false documents for “the French who voluntarily came to Germany.” Returning to the camp a few months later, Piaf brought these documents in a box with makeup and gave them to prisoners of war. For those who managed to escape, these papers saved their lives.
A month before the liberation of France from the Nazis, a period began in Edith’s life that she called “a factory for producing singers,” which lasted until her death. She started with Yves Montand and immediately fell head over heels in love with him. Yves reciprocated her feelings and repeatedly invited her to become his wife. However, he always started this conversation at the wrong time - either while eating, or when Edith was drinking and wanted to fool around. Yves stubbornly continued to call her his bride and either carried her in his arms, or for no apparent reason made scenes of jealousy for her, and they yelled at each other for hours.
After Montand's first successful performance in Alhambra, there was a chill in the relationship between them, and after filming together in Marcel Blistin's film The Nameless Star, they broke up. Leaving in triumph after a two-hour solo concert on the Etoile stage, where previously only the great Maurice Chevalier could perform, Montand hugged Piaf last time and said, “Thank you. I owe you everything.”
At the beginning of 1946, Edith decided to take up the little-known ensemble “Friends of the Song” and bring it to the big stage. When asked how she was going to cope with nine young people at once, she replied: “You have to be able to change, that’s the secret.” eternal youth" One pupil was no longer enough for her. Together with the ensemble, Edith Piaf went on a tour of America in November 1947.
Here in New York she met herself great love, which immediately erased her entire past. Boxer Marcel Cerdan was preparing for his first match, and Edith was preparing to perform on the stage of the Versailles cabaret theater - they were both going to conquer America. "This was my real and only love. I loved. I idolized...What would I do for him to live, for the whole world to know how generous he was, how impeccable he was.”
Marcel Cerdan forced Edith to be reborn and relieved her of the bitterness that poisoned her heart. He discovered tenderness and kindness in her and lit a bright light in her soul. They asked her: “How could you fall in love with a boxer? This is rudeness itself!” “Rudeness from which one should learn delicacy!” - Edith retorted. Their tender relationship was no secret to anyone, including Cerdan’s wife, Marinette, who lives with her sons in Casablanca. It would seem that these two women should hate each other.
But when Marcel died along with the entire crew in a plane crash near New York, Marinette, thirsty for consolation, called Edith to her, and she took off on the first plane to Casablanca. Then the orphaned family was taken to Paris, where Piaf nursed her recent rival and her children with such cordiality that she did not even deign to her relatives.
And on that evening of October 27, 1949, when news of the tragedy became known, Edith was supposed to perform at Versailles. The singer was in a state close to madness or suicide, but she could not refuse the concert. “I dedicate my performance of blessed memory Marcel Cerdan,” she said when she saw the hall, and sang “Hymn of Love” with her own words, set to music by her favorite composer Marguerite Monnot.
She sang as she had never sung before. And it was that spirituality of performance, that solemnity and power of genuine feelings that makes a thousand people turn into one. Her small, inconspicuous body, possessed by the greatest spirit, conveyed the immortality of her love, who died in the prime of her life. Piaf was carried off the stage in a deep faint.
Strange, but in the biography of Edith Piaf, some sad coincidences are noticeable: two of her lovers died in plane crashes, and she herself ended up in car crashes. And it would be fine if the consequences were only broken ribs, a mutilated lip, and scars on the face. In the hospital where she ended up after the first car accident, Piaf was saved from pain by morphine, to which she eventually became addicted, just as she had previously become addicted to alcohol.
The famous singer hid bottles of alcohol in the most unexpected places in the apartment, and the day came when the alcohol content in her blood reached a dangerous concentration - now she was drunk from several glasses of beer. Sometimes, having already been thoroughly drunk, she would suddenly sneak off for a night stroll through drinking establishments, generously treat the regulars who sat there and, keeping up with them, downed glass after glass.
At some point, not yet losing control of herself, she began to sing, and the involuntary listeners laughed encouragingly: “Wow! You can’t tell her from Edith Piaf!” And at dawn, the phone rang in Piaf’s apartment, and the unknown owner of the bar demanded from the servants: “Come immediately for your madam. It’s already six o’clock, we’re closing, and she doesn’t want to leave and yells: “I’m yours!” It’s time for us to sleep. By the way, grab checkbook, Madam has a decent record.”
On the night when she was surrounded by a horde of slippery centipedes, it became obvious: Piaf had delirium tremens. She was taken to a hospital, from where she immediately escaped. Placed there again, she escaped home again. She swore that she was done with morphine, and yet she injected herself secretly. The potion suppliers pursued Edith, pushing their “product” on her, and if she refused, they threatened to expose her. To pay them off, she signed new contracts for performances, but her drug addiction made itself felt. Once she couldn’t get out from behind the scenes onto the stage, it seemed to her that the exit was tightly closed, another time she began to sing, but, as it turned out, she was uttering meaningless words, the third time she grabbed the microphone with her hands so as not to fall. She heard neither the musicians nor her own voice - it disappeared.
Singing for Edith turned into torture, her body was covered with bruises and scabs, she did not perceive those around her. One clinic was replaced by another, and during periods of enlightenment, Piaf returned to work on new songs, becoming, as before, very picky. “For the public, I embody love. Everything should burst inside me and scream - this is my image... My audience doesn’t think, they get what I sing about in the gut.”
At this time, the singer got married for the first time. Her husband in 1952 was the poet and singer Jacques Pil, with whom they had long known each other from their joint performances. Piaf was happy again, but life always developed in such a way that the couple were constantly apart, performing concerts in different theaters, cities and countries. Maybe it was for the better - Edith’s character was difficult to get along with. Essentially, they were not connected by anything: neither home nor family worked out, and in 1956 they divorced.
Piaf again performed solo concerts, although ill-wishers who found out about her drug addiction, foreshadowed not just failure, but a scandalous excommunication from the stage. She again basked in the rays of glory - the audience sometimes did not let her go for an hour, despite the fact that the program was performed in full. And again, affectionate and tireless men, usually young, sometimes half her age, invaded the singer’s life. They shared a bed with her because the men who told her " Good night! and left, she simply did not admit it.
Just as she did not recognize those who, instead of making love, indulged in discussions about work, art or their own success. Piaf once told her sister: “Never say that you know a man well until you have experienced him in bed. For one sleepless night you will learn more about him than in several months of the most intimate conversations. They don’t lie in bed!” Probably her criteria were extremely high, since despite the constant abundance of admirers, she was only married twice.
Simone Berto once calculated how many misfortunes befell Edith Piaf in the last twelve years of her life. In addition to four car accidents, this list includes a suicide attempt, four courses of detoxification, one course of sleep therapy, three hepatic comas, an attack of insanity, two attacks of delirium tremens, seven operations, two bronchopneumonia, and suddenly diagnosed cancer.
At the beginning of 1962, an ordinary admirer, twenty-seven-year-old hairdresser Theofanis Lambukas, came to Piaf’s hospital room for a visit, who left there as her lover, the young singer Theo Sarapo. They fell in love at first sight and on October 29 of the same year they officially became husband and wife. Gossips they claimed that Theo coveted her wealth and sacrificed himself for it. In fact, he inherited only Edith's debts - 45 million francs, which he faithfully paid to creditors all his life. Theo Sarapo became a fairly famous performer - and, like before Charles Aznavour, Yves Montand and her other admirers, Piaf brought him into the public eye, turning an ordinary amateur into a popular singer. She came up with a nickname for her husband herself, remembering that “sarapo” in Greek means “I love you.”
"They loved each other extraordinary love, - recalled Simone Berto, - the one about whom they write in novels, about whom they say: this does not happen, it is too beautiful to really happen. He did not notice that Edith’s hands were twisted, that she looked like a hundred-year-old woman. He never left her..."
She left her Theo on October 11, 1963, dying in his arms from pulmonary edema in their home on Cote d'Azur. Edith Piaf was buried three days later. Tens of thousands of Parisians came to the Père Lachaise cemetery to the large coffin in which the small body of the great singer was lost. All the “Piaf boys,” as Charles Aznavour called them, also came to say goodbye to their old love. But this time they wore black suits, not blue ones.
That evening Theo wanted to be alone. He returned to the upside-down apartment, where there was a cemetery smell from forgotten flowers, and saw a wooden sheet lying on the chest of drawers with Edith’s motto: “Love conquers all!”
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Who doesn't know the greatest French singer, whose songs became world hits, and she herself is a role model for millions? But not everyone knows how many trials she had to endure. She survived a difficult - almost hungry - childhood, the death of a child, 2 car accidents, 7 operations, 3 comas, several attacks of delirium tremens, a bout of insanity, a suicide attempt, and two world wars.
The only thing she did not survive was liver cancer in the last stage, which was discovered in her 2 years before her death. And if you're ever in Once again If you want to complain about your fate, just remember the “little sparrow” of Paris, the woman who last days moved forward without giving up, winning the hearts of millions, inspired and gifted with the power to love - Edith Piaf.
1. Edith Piaf (real name Edith Giovanna Gasion) was born on December 19, 1915. Almost on the same day, the girl’s mother, failed actress Anita Mayar, gave the girl to be raised by her mother while her husband was at the front. But she didn’t need it - in order to calm down the girl who was bothering her with her crying, the “loving” grandmother fed the child with diluted wine. This feeding bore fruit - by the age of three, Edith became completely blind.
2. Later, a legend will appear related to the birth of Edith. However, it is unlikely to correspond to reality, but according to it, a girl was born under street lamp in winter on one of the streets of Paris.
3. As soon as Edith's father, Louis Gasion, finds out about this, he immediately sends the girl to be raised by her mother, who ran a brothel. However, she fell in love with her granddaughter and took care of her. She did everything so that the girl could see. And in 1925 she succeeded. When there was no longer any hope for Edith’s recovery, her grandmother took her to Lisieux to Saint Theresa. A few days later, my beloved granddaughter - oh, miracle - began to see again.
4. Edith herself, recalling this, said: “My life began with a miracle. At the age of four I fell ill and went blind. My grandmother took me to Lisieux to the altar of Saint Theresa and begged her for my insight. Since then, I have not parted with the images of Saint Theresa and the baby Jesus. And because I am a believer, death does not frighten me. There was a period in my life after the death of a person dear to me when I myself called on her. I have lost all hope. Faith saved me."
5. At school they immediately disliked Edith, which is not surprising - the girl lived in brothel. The girl could not stand this, and soon her father took her to Paris. There, a 9-year-old girl begins to work with her father in the city squares: the father showed acrobatic tricks, and the daughter sang. Edith never fully learned to read and write - even in the songs she composed herself, there were mistakes. But who cares now?
6. At the age of 15, Edith met her half-sister, 11-year-old Simone, who began performing with Edith. New family father was experiencing enormous financial difficulties. Edith, in turn, helped them financially, but later this led to the girl leaving her father. Forever.
7. Edith continues to perform on the streets, where she is noticed and invited to sing in a cabaret. At the age of 16, Edith met Louis Duppon, the father of her only daughter Marcelle. However, her marriage was unsuccessful - her husband demanded that Edith give up work, and they separated. For some time, Edith's daughter stayed with her, but one day, not finding her at home, Edith realized that the girl was with her husband - he hoped that then his wife would return. But she didn't return. Moreover, the girl fell ill with meningitis, and a little later Edith herself became infected, who, however, recovered. But fate did not spare the girl here either - Marcel dies. Edith had no more children.
8. At the age of 20, Louis Leple noticed her and invited her to perform on the Champs-Elysees. He played a big role in Edith’s life and career: he taught her to choose songs, sing to the accompaniment, explained the importance of costume, facial expressions, behavior, and artist. It was he who made Edith Gasion into Edith Piaf. While still on the street she sang: “Born like a sparrow, lived like a sparrow, died like a sparrow.” On the posters they wrote: “Baby Piaf.” It was a success!
9. But the success did not last long. Soon Louis is killed, and Edith comes under suspicion because he left her some money. Thank God, this time everything ends well, and soon Piaf meets Raymond Asso - the man who makes Edith a great singer. It was he who sought her participation in a performance at the ABC musical hall, which was an initiation into the profession. Needless to say, the next day she woke up famous? Thanks to him, the story of Edith’s life became the story of songs and vice versa, no one could distinguish the stage image from Edith in reality.
10. Edith bathed in success and fame. Having heard her voice on the radio, people ask to play Little Piaf’s songs again and again.
11. During World War II, “Baby Piaf” meets Jean Cocteau, who invited her to play in the play “The Indifferent Handsome Man.” It was first shown in 1940. A year later, a film was made based on the play, in which Edith played the main role.
12. It’s hard to believe, but Edith Piaf was so popular and in demand that she could afford to perform in front of French prisoners of war. And after the concert, she managed to give them everything they needed to escape. Her fellow countrymen appreciated her personal courage and mercy, because she risked her life.
13. The post-war period became a time of special success for Edith. Her work was admired by the outskirts of Paris, art connoisseurs around the world and even future queen England.
14. Edith helped young talents. Charles Aznavour, Yves Montand, Eddie Constantin... These are not all the names that became known to the whole world thanks to the “little sparrow”.
15.V post-war years Edith meets American boxer Marcel Cerdan, who became her greatest joy and greatest sorrow. Fate again played a cruel joke on Edith - in 1949, flying to his beloved from New York, he crashed in a plane crash. Edith fell into severe depression: she began drinking morphine, after which she had seizures, and once almost threw herself out of the window. She returned to the street again. Dressed in old clothes, she performed on the streets of Paris, and at night she brought unknown men to her place.
16. But mourning could not last forever, and Edith returns to solo career. And I was even able to fall in love again.
In 1952, Edith gets into two car accidents and breaks almost all her ribs and both arms. To ease her suffering, doctors inject her with morphine. It would seem that Edith is doomed to become addicted to drugs, but this fragile woman was not like that. Nevertheless, creativity no longer brought her the same pleasure, but Edith only became more immersed in her work.
17. In 1954, Edith starred in historical film"If they tell me about Versailles." A little later, she had an 11-month tour of America, and then of France - such loads caused great damage physical health. And in 1961, fate dealt the singer the strongest blow - doctors discovered Edith had liver cancer. But she continued to perform until the end of her days.
18.V last years she was supported by 27-year-old Theo - last love Piaf. In September 1962, overcoming pain, Piaf performed at the top of the Eiffel Tower. And six months later, the last concert in her life took place - the audience gave a standing ovation.
19. On October 10, 1963, Edith Piaf died. All of France buried her, and the whole world mourned her - an entire era of French chanson died with her.
20. Edith Piaf’s songs have remained with us forever, and the singer’s courage and willpower have left an indelible mark on people’s hearts. An autobiography was published during her lifetime. Whether everything in it corresponds to reality is unknown. But one thing is clear: this is how she wanted to remain in people’s memory.
“When I don’t die of love, when I have nothing to die of, then I’m ready to die!”
“I don’t sing for everyone - I sing for everyone.”
“Artists and audiences should not meet. After the curtain falls, the actor must disappear as if by magic.”
“Hands don’t lie like faces.”
In response to the doctors saying that she was killing herself, she continued to sing in front of the public: “This is the most beautiful way of suicide.”
“I led a terrible life, it’s true. But also - life is amazing. Because, first of all, I loved her."
“You often have to pay for love and happiness with tears.”
“I was hungry. I was freezing. But I was also free. Free not to get up in the morning, not to sleep at night, free to drink if I wanted, to dream... to hope.”
“This is the crowd that I hope will accompany me to last way because I don't like loneliness. The terrible loneliness that hugs you at dawn or at nightfall, when you ask yourself whether it is still worth living and what to live for?
EDITH PIAF: “YOU SHOULD PAY FOR HAPPINESS WITH TEARS!”
The story of life is happy and tragic at the same time. On Chapnel Boulevard, a man approached a grimy nineteen-year-old girl, and the couple headed to the hotel. The girl looked so pitiful that he asked: “Why are you doing this?” “I need to bury my daughter, ten francs are missing,” she replied. The man gave her money and left. Only daughter Edith Giovanna Gasion died. She would survive four car accidents, a suicide attempt, two bouts of delirium tremens, the first and second world wars, drive crowds of men crazy and die before reaching fifty. All of France will bury her, and the whole world will mourn her. On her grave they will write: "".
Childhood
On the same grave there are two more dates: death - 1963 - and birth. On a cold December night, a police officer heard screams. When I came running, I saw a woman giving birth. She wrapped the newborn girl in a policeman's cloak and named Edith 1915. This is, perhaps, all that circus performer Anette Maillard did for her daughter before giving her up to her parents and prudently hiding. The baby's father, Louis Gasion, went to the front immediately after her birth. This is how the great one was born.
After some time, her paternal grandmother Louise, a cook in a brothel, agreed to take her. 
At the establishment, the girl was washed (probably for the first time since birth) and dressed in a new dress. It turned out that under the crust of dirt was hiding a wonderful creature, but, alas, completely blind. It turned out that in the first months of life Edith Cataracts began to develop. Grandma Louise spared no expense on treatment, but nothing helped. When there was no hope left, grandma got lucky Edith in Lisieux to Saint Therese, where thousands of pilgrims from all over France gather annually, and Edith I received my sight.
Soon Edith went to school, surrounded by the care of a loving grandmother, but respectable inhabitants did not want to see a child living in a brothel next to their children, and the girl’s studies ended very quickly. Then Louis Gasion took Edith to Paris, where they began working together in the squares - the father showed acrobatic tricks, and his nine-year-old daughter sang.
Youth Edith Piaf
At fourteen Edith I decided that I was already completely independent. She worked with stepsister Simona. They earned about 300 francs a day. 
They had enough money to pay for a room in a terrible hotel, to buy new clothes, when the dirt began to fall off from the old one, and not to experience a shortage of wine and canned food (the sisters didn’t even think that things could be washed, food could be cooked, and dishes could be washed).
Men in life Edith appeared early - almost immediately after she left her father. She fell in love regularly and just as regularly abandoned her lovers. It had been like this all her life. The father of her only child, Louis Dupont, was no exception. He made a living by delivering groceries on an old bicycle. I moved in with my sisters the same day I met them. And a year later a daughter appeared Edith and Louis - Marcel. The young mother did not give up 
her craft, and when Louis could not stay with the child, she dragged him with her.
When Edith offered to sing in a cheap cabaret, Dupont's patience came to an end. A few days later, Louis took the girl. For her father, she was only a tool capable of returning and taming her beloved. At this time, the Spanish flu was raging in Europe, and Marcelle fell ill. After visiting my daughter, she herself became ill Edith. As a result Piaf recovered, and Marcel died. Together with my daughter from life Edith Louis finally left too.
"Baby Piaf"
Edith back on the streets again. She sang with her sister and begged for alms. One day she saw on the street a well-groomed gentleman of about forty who shouted after her: 
“Do you want to perform in a cabaret? My name is Louis Leple, I am the owner of the Zhernice cabaret. If you want, come tomorrow." The day before his debut Edith realized that she had nothing to wear on stage. She ran to the store and bought three skeins of black wool. I knitted a dress all night long. By the evening of the next day there was still one more sleeve left. Leple, finding her in the dressing room with knitting needles in her hands, flew into indescribable rage. Edith Hastily, she pulled on her dress, which was still missing one sleeve. And a minute later Leple brought a white scarf.
It was Leple who found for Edith Name - Piaf(in Parisian slang this means “little sparrow”). In Zhernis, her name was printed on the posters as “Baby Piaf", and the success of the first performances was enormous. However, the successful takeoff was interrupted by tragedy: Louis Leple was soon shot in the head, and she was among the suspects. She was reminded of her dubious past and suspicious friends, but was later released.
The new rise of Edith Piaf
It is unknown how it would have ended if not for a note found in his pocket: “Raymon Asso” and a phone number. Edith strained all her memory to remember who it could be: “It seems like a poet. We met him at Zhernis.” Raymon told her directly: “I will help you. But you will do what I say." 
No one has ever spoken like that to Edith. And although everything inside her was seething with anger, she remained silent.
They rehearsed hard every day. Their joint perseverance did the trick. The director of ABC (the largest concert hall in Paris) agreed to give away the first part of one of the concerts Edith. The huge hall roared with delight, the audience did not want to let her go. And the next day, the press, choking with delight, wrote: “Yesterday, on the stage of ABC, a great singer of France was born.”
World War II
With the outbreak of World War II Edith broke up with Ramon Asso. At this time my parents died Edith. Fellow countrymen also valued personal courage Piaf, who performed during the war in Germany in front of French prisoners of war, so that after the concert, along with autographs, she would give them everything they needed to escape. performed in prisoner of war camps, took photographs with German officers and French prisoners of war “as a souvenir”, and then in Paris these photographs were used to prepare fake documents for soldiers who escaped from the camp. Then Edith went to the same camp and secretly distributed false documents to prisoners of war.
Love
with Marcel Cerdan
After the furor at home Edith offered to perform in America. She left, not suspecting that it was there that she would meet... him. She had many men, but they all sooner or later received resignation. Only one left Edith myself. His name was Marcel Cerdan. At the end of 1946 Piaf introduced a boxer who was called the “Moroccan bomber,” but the singer did not attach any importance to this fleeting meeting. Some time later, the phone rang in her New York apartment. It was nice to meet a Frenchman in America, and the diva agreed to have dinner with him. He took her to a diner and ordered, like himself, boiled meat with mustard. Edith was ready to explode. Fortunately, Marcel realized in time that the boxing diet was hardly suitable for the singer, and suggested finishing dinner at the Pavilion, the most luxurious restaurant in New York.
Since then, this couple has become inseparable, and Marcel’s things moved into the apartment Edith, despite the fact that he had a wife and three sons. Journalists, of course, did not ignore the “love story” of the two celebrities, and in order to get rid of their importunity, Marcel agreed to a press conference. Perhaps it was the shortest in the history of journalism. Marcel, without waiting for questions, said that Edith- his mistress, and mistress only because he is married. The next day o Piaf and Cerdana will not have a word in any newspaper. 
Edith gave concerts in America, and meanwhile Marcel toured France with charity matches. Returning to Paris, the first thing Cerdan did was book a ticket on a boat to New York, but Edith I didn't want to wait. The “Moroccan bombardier” refused to travel by sea and went to the airport. The next day, news of the plane crash appeared in all newspapers. U Edith severe depression began. She started drinking. She went out into the streets, dressed in old clothes, sang and rejoiced like a child that no one would recognize her. Over time, the wound caused by Marcel's death healed. But she was not the last.
The last years of Edith Piaf
A few years after the death of Cerdana, she ended up in car accident. The injuries were not life-threatening, but caused severe pain. And to take it off, Edith injected drugs. She recovered quickly, the pain went away, but now she was tormented by arthritis. Drugs remained her faithful companions. Cancer completed the list of troubles. And yet, despite all the misfortunes, she did not stop singing and loving. Piaf she went on stage even when she could not open her hands, which were shackled by arthritis, and sometimes fainted. And at the age of forty-seven, just before the end, she fell in love with the twenty-seven-year-old hairdresser Theofanis Lambukas, married him and brought her lover to the stage.
with Yves Montand
Edith sang from the heights of the Eiffel Tower on the occasion of the premiere of the film “The Longest Day” in 1962. All of Paris listened to her. Her last performance on stage took place on March 18, 1963. The audience gave her a five-minute standing ovation.
Actress Marion Cotillard, who played in the film La Vie En Rose, received an Oscar for Best Actress. This is the second statuette awarded to a film directed by Olivier Dayant at the 80th Academy Awards.
Edith Piaf quotes from the book “My Life”
“When love grows cold, it must either be warmed up or thrown away. This is not a product that should be kept in a cool place.” – Edith Piaf
“I don’t sing for everyone - I sing for everyone!” –
Updated: November 26, 2017 by: Elena
The life story of Edith Piaf is happy and tragic at the same time. On Chapnel Boulevard, a man approached a grimy nineteen-year-old girl, and the couple headed to the hotel. The girl looked so pitiful that he asked: “Why are you doing this?” “I need to bury my daughter, ten francs are missing,” she replied. The man gave her money and left. Edith Giovanna Gasion's only daughter died.
She would survive four car accidents, a suicide attempt, two bouts of delirium tremens, the first and second world wars, drive crowds of men crazy and die before reaching fifty. All of France will bury her, and the whole world will mourn her. On her grave they will write: “Edith Piaf.”
On the same grave there are two more dates: death - 1963 - and birth. On a cold December night, a police officer heard screams. When I came running, I saw a woman giving birth. She wrapped the newborn girl in a policeman's cloak and named her Edith on December 19, 1915. This is, perhaps, all that circus performer Anette Maillard did for her daughter before giving her up to her parents and prudently hiding. The baby's father, Louis Gasion, went to the front immediately after her birth. This is how it was born great Edith Piaf.
After some time, her paternal grandmother Louise, a cook in a brothel, agreed to take her. singer Edith Piaf In the establishment, the girl was washed (probably for the first time after birth) and dressed in a new dress. It turned out that under the crust of dirt was hiding a wonderful creature, but, alas, completely blind. It turned out that in the very first months of her life, Edith began to develop cataracts. Grandma Louise spared no expense on treatment, but nothing helped. When there was no hope left, her grandmother took Edith to Lisieux to Saint Therese, where thousands of pilgrims from all over France gather annually, and Edith received her sight.
Soon Edith went to school, surrounded by the care of her loving grandmother, but respectable inhabitants did not want to see a child living in a brothel next to their children, and the girl’s studies ended very quickly. Then Louis Gasion took Edith to Paris, where they began working together in the squares - the father showed acrobatic tricks, and his nine-year-old daughter sang.
Youth Edith Piaf
At the age of fourteen, Edith decided that she was already completely independent. She worked with her half-sister Simone. They earned about 300 francs a day. singer Edith Piaf They had enough money to pay for a room in a terrible hotel, buy new clothes when the dirt began to fall off the old ones, and not lack wine and canned food (the sisters didn’t even think that things could be washed, cooked with food, and wash the dishes).
Men appeared in Edith's life early - almost immediately after she left her father. She fell in love regularly and just as regularly abandoned her lovers. It had been like this all her life. The father of her only child, Louis Dupont, was no exception. He made a living by delivering groceries on an old bicycle. I moved in with my sisters the same day I met them. A year later, Edith and Louis’ daughter, Marcel, appeared. The young mother, singer Edith Piaf, did not give up her craft, and when Louis could not stay with the child, she dragged him with her.
When Edith was offered to sing in a cheap cabaret, Dupont's patience came to an end. A few days later, Louis took the girl. For her father, she was only a tool capable of returning and taming her beloved. At this time, the Spanish flu was raging in Europe, and Marcelle fell ill. After visiting her daughter, Edith herself fell ill. As a result, Piaf recovered, and Marcel died. Together with his daughter, Edith and Louis finally left.
"Baby Piaf"
Edith returned to the streets again. She sang with her sister and begged for alms. One day she saw on the street a well-groomed gentleman of about forty who shouted after her: singer Edith Piaf, “Do you want to perform in a cabaret? My name is Louis Leple, I am the owner of the Zhernice cabaret. If you want, come tomorrow." The day before her debut, Edith realized that she had nothing to wear on stage. She ran to the store and bought three skeins of black wool. I knitted a dress all night long. By the evening of the next day there was still one more sleeve left. Leple, finding her in the dressing room with knitting needles in her hands, flew into indescribable rage. Edith hastily pulled on her dress, which was still missing one sleeve. And a minute later Leple brought a white scarf.
It was Leple who found a name for Edith - Piaf (in Parisian slang this means “little sparrow”). In Zhernis, her name was printed on the posters as “Baby Piaf”, and the success of her first performances was enormous. However, the successful takeoff was interrupted by tragedy: Louis Leple was soon shot in the head, and Edith Piaf was among the suspects. She was reminded of her dubious past and suspicious friends, but was later released.
The new rise of Edith Piaf
It is unknown how it would have ended if not for a note found in his pocket: “Raymon Asso” and a phone number. Edith strained all her memory to remember who it could be: “It seems like a poet. We met him at Zhernis.” Raymon told her directly: “I will help you. But you will do what I say." singer Edith Piaf No one has ever spoken to Edith like that. And although everything inside her was seething with anger, she remained silent.
They rehearsed hard every day. Their joint perseverance did the trick. The director of ABC (the largest concert hall in Paris) agreed to give the first part of one of Edith's concerts. The huge hall roared with delight, the audience did not want to let her go. And the next day, the press, choking with delight, wrote: “Yesterday, on the stage of ABC, a great singer of France was born.”
World War II
With the outbreak of World War II, Edith separated from Raymond Asso. At this time, Edith's parents died. Fellow countrymen also appreciated the personal courage of Piaf, who performed during the war in Germany in front of French prisoners of war, and after the concert, along with autographs, gave them everything they needed to escape. Edith Piaf performed in prisoner-of-war camps, took photographs with German officers and with French prisoners of war “as a souvenir,” and then in Paris these photographs were used to make fake documents for soldiers who escaped from the camp. Edith then went to the same camp and secretly distributed false documents to prisoners of war.
After a sensation in her homeland, Edith was offered to perform in America. She left, not suspecting that it was there that she would meet... him. She had many men, but they all sooner or later received resignation. Only one left Edith himself. His name was Marcel Cerdan. At the end of 1946, Piaf was introduced to a boxer who was called the “Moroccan scorer,” but the singer did not attach importance to this fleeting meeting. Some time later, the phone rang in her New York apartment. It was nice to meet a Frenchman in America, and the diva agreed to have dinner with him. He took her to a diner and ordered, like himself, boiled meat with mustard. Edith was ready to explode. Fortunately, Marcel realized in time that the boxing diet was hardly suitable for the singer, and suggested finishing dinner at the Pavilion, the most luxurious restaurant in New York.
Since then, this couple became inseparable, and Marcel’s things moved to Edith’s apartment, despite the fact that he had a wife and three sons. Journalists, of course, did not ignore the “love story” of the two celebrities, and in order to get rid of their importunity, Marcel agreed to a press conference. Perhaps it was the shortest in the history of journalism. Marcel, without waiting for questions, declared that Edith was his mistress, and his mistress only because he was married. The next day there will not be a word about Piaf and Cerdana in any newspaper. singer Edith Piaf
Edith gave concerts in America, and meanwhile Marcel toured France with charity matches. Returning to Paris, the first thing Cerdan did was book a boat ticket to New York, but Edith did not want to wait. The “Moroccan bombardier” refused to travel by sea and went to the airport. The next day, news of the plane crash appeared in all newspapers. Edith began to experience severe depression. She started drinking. She went out into the streets, dressed in old clothes, sang and rejoiced like a child that no one would recognize her. Over time, the wound caused by Marcel's death healed. But she was not the last.
The last years of Edith Piaf
A few years after Cerdan's death, Edith Piaf was in a car accident. The injuries were not life-threatening, but caused severe pain. And to remove it, Edith was injected with drugs. She recovered quickly, the pain went away, but now she was tormented by arthritis. Drugs remained her faithful companions. Cancer completed the list of troubles. And yet, despite all the misfortunes, she did not stop singing and loving. Piaf went on stage even when she could not open her hands, which were shackled by arthritis, and sometimes fainted. And at the age of forty-seven, just before the end, she fell in love with the twenty-seven-year-old hairdresser Theofanis Lambukas, married him and brought her lover to the stage.
Edith sang from the heights of the Eiffel Tower on the occasion of the premiere of the film "The Longest Day" in 1962. All of Paris listened to her. Her last performance on stage took place on March 18, 1963. The audience gave her a five-minute standing ovation.
On October 10, 1963, Edith Piaf passed away. On the same day, Piaf's friend Jean Cocteau passed away. There is a legend that he died upon learning of Edith's death. The singer's funeral took place at the Père Lachaise cemetery. More than 40 thousand people gathered there; there were so many flowers that people were forced to walk right along them.
"Non, je ne regrette rien" is a French song written in 1960, which gained the greatest popularity performed by Edith Piaf. The song's title literally translates to "No, I don't regret anything," but it is most often translated simply as "No regrets." In Stirlitz’s car radio from the film “Seventeen Moments of Spring,” this song in the chronology of the film sounds 15 years before its actual creation.
Edith helped many aspiring performers find themselves and begin their path to success - Yves Montand, the ensemble "Companion de la Chanson", Eddie Constantin, Charles Aznavour.
Actress Marion Cotillard, who played Edith Piaf in the film La Vie En Rose, won the Oscar for Best Actress. This is the second statuette awarded to a film directed by Olivier Dayant at the 80th Academy Awards.
Edith Piaf quotes from the book “My Life”
“When love grows cold, it must either be warmed up or thrown away. This is not a product that should be kept in a cool place.” – Edith Piaf
“I don’t sing for everyone - I sing for everyone!” - Edith Piaf
881 days ago
This strange, tense voice is immediately and unmistakably recognizable. It ended almost 50 years ago, but still sounds today with the same strength and passion. Incredible story a street girl who has become a symbol of chanson, a world star and a favorite of the French people is amazing.
According to legend, she was born in Belleville under a street lamp. This happened on December 19, 1915. Her mother, actress Lina Marsa, treated her daughter as an annoying burden. She leaves her husband and two year old child throws it to her mother, who also didn’t care about the girl. Returning home from the front, Louis Gassion finds his daughter with difficulty and takes her to Normandy, to another grandmother.
And only then it turned out that little Edith was blind. And not from birth - her vision was ruined by keratitis, which could have been easily cured if it had been noticed in time. The last hope was a pilgrimage to Saint Therese in Lisieux. 5 days after him, Edith Gassion received her sight. A couple of years later, her father took her to Paris, and Edith began to accompany his street acrobatic performances with her singing.
As often happens with talented people, First experience family life she was unsuccessful. Shop owner Louis Dupont, to whom Edith gave birth to a daughter, Marcelle, demanded that she quit singing. But Marcelle fell ill with the Spanish flu and died, almost taking her mother with her. Edith had no other children.
Having lost her job during her illness, she sings again on the street and is noticed there by the owner of the Zhernis cabaret, Louis Leple. It was he who came up with the pseudonym “Piaf”, that is, “sparrow”. Speaking modern language, Leple became her producer and brought her to the big stage. She performed with Maurice Chevalier and Mistinguette, the founders of French chanson. Listeners called the radio and demanded her songs. And the same listeners diligently drowned her when Louis Leple was killed. Edith came under suspicion only because she received a small amount in the will.
During World War II, Piaf remained in Paris. After the defeat of Germany, they tried to bring charges of collaboration against her, but the French who escaped from captivity thanks to the documents given to them by the singer during concerts in prisoner of war camps and the Jews whom she hid in her apartment appeared in court.
The post-war years became the time of her triumph. Everyone loved Edith Piaf's songs, from workers to kings. But personal life still did not work out. The final blow was the death of her lover, boxer Marcel Cerdan, in a plane crash. Severe depression made Edith addicted to alcohol and morphine.
Work saved her. Edith Piaf goes on a world tour and performs at Olympia with amazing success. But two car accidents in a row again force him to resort to the painkiller morphine. And then it turned out that she had liver cancer.
Her last performance took place at Olympia on March 18, 1963. And on October 10 she left forever. One of its squares bears the name of Edith Piaf, whose biography is inextricably linked with Paris.
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