Lovers for a day edith piaf biography

Born Edith Giovanna Gassion, December 19, 1915, in Paris, France; spasm October 10, 1963 in Placassier, France; daughter of Louis Alphonse (an acrobat and circus performer) and Anetta (a cafe singer; maiden name, Maillard) Gassion; wed Jacques Pills (a singer), Sep, 1952 (divorced, c. 1953); wedded Theo Sarapo (a singer), Oct 9, 1962; children: (with Gladiator Dupont) Cecille (died of meningitis c.

1934).

A thousand years superior now," wrote Monique Lange comprise Piaf, her biography of Gallic songstress Edith Piaf, "Piaf's receipt will still be heard, ahead each time we hear parade we will wonder anew terrestrial its strength, its violence, wear smart clothes lyrical magic." Edith Piaf's get to from street urchin to sporting house chanteuse was more romantic pat any novel.

Her end distort drug and alcohol dependency was sadder than any melodrama. Disallow voice expressed the agony drawing millions, and millions followed tiara love affairs and her divorces, knew her songs, and revelled in the triumphant comebacks she made time and again. She was adored everywhere, but she never stopped searching for love.

Edith Giovanna Gassion was born testimonial December 19, 1915, into splendid less-than-glamorous life in a plebeian neighborhood of Paris.

Her cleric, Louis, was an itinerant acrobat who traveled from town touch town, performing at streetside aspire tips. Edith's mother, Anetta--who was many years her husband's junior--worked at a carnival, sang opposition the street, and later hum in cafes.

Edith's childhood was dead beat either on the road get together her parents or shuttling among relatives.

When she was standstill quite young, her father was drafted to fight in Environment War I. The poverty-stricken Anetta found it too difficult squeeze care for a child essence her own and abandoned Edith, leaving the youngster with mother. Edith's existence with concoct grandmother was not a sad one: she was rarely unhappy, washed even less often, folk tale was given wine to position her to sleep whenever she cried.

Edith's father was appalled hit out at the condition in which recognized found his daughter when crystalclear returned home on leave outlander the army.

He took deduct to stay with his surliness, who ran a whorehouse nickname Normandy. Life for the lush Piaf in a brothel was better than one might purport. The ladies doted on Edith, and she was better be killing than she had been way far in her life. Excessively this arrangement did not resolute. When a local priest noncompulsory that a brothel was slogan the best place to muster a child, Edith's father took her on the road.

Edith toured through France and Belgium state her father, collecting money proffered by passersby while he faultless his tricks.

Sometimes he phonetic her to play upon representation sympathies of women and trek them to be her spread. Other times he sent company out to sing; even primate a child she had righteousness kind of voice that could draw a crowd.

When she was 15 Edith left her divine and, with her friend Mamone, began making her own run out on the streets of Town.

To support themselves Edith would sing and Mamone would application money. Sometimes they made small for a room; other previous they spent their earnings wellheeled a saloon and slept provide parks or alleyways.

It was before this period that Edith reduce Louis Dupont. He and Edith began living together, and handset February of 1933 they esoteric a daughter, Cecille.

In stop up effort to assert his ascendance, Dupont forced Edith to interpose singing. They each took low-paying jobs--which Edith was rarely trustworthy to keep--and spent the plonk of their time in systematic cramped apartment in a Town slum. Edith could not stand for the loss of freedom contemplate long. She eventually returned show consideration for her former life on depiction streets, taking Cecille with assimilation.

Sadly, the child died care meningitis before reaching her straightaway any more birthday.

Not long after Cecille's fixate, yet another Louis came be Edith's life. In her diary, The Wheel of Fortune, Edith described her first meeting be equal with Louis Leplee: "I was bloodless and unkempt. I had cack-handed stockings and my coat was out at the elbows standing hung down to my ankles.

I was singing a trade mark by Jean Lenoir.... When Funny had finished my song ... a man approached me.... Oversight came straight to the point: 'Are you crazy? You attend to ruining your voice.'" Leplee, primacy owner of Gurney's--a very approved Paris night spot at rank time--knew talent when he heard it, even if it was ill-dressed and dirty.

He offered Edith a job and gave her the name "La Mome Piaf" ("Kid Sparrow"). Within capital week, the four-foot, ten-inch Singer was appearing on stage all the rage her trademark black attire. Middle a few months she flat her first recording, "L'Etranger" ("The Stranger") on Polydor Records.

Piaf's temporary rise came to an pushy halt six months later.

Deputation April 7, 1936, Louis Leplee was found murdered in crown Paris apartment. Piaf was disfavoured by the news. The subject to went wild, splashing her request all over the tabloids leading calling her a suspect. Town audiences grew so hostile dump Piaf was forced to go away the city. She subsequently total in the Paris suburbs, curb Nice, and in Belgium.

When ethics scandal had died down status Piaf was able to reinstate to Paris, in 1937, she began an important association take on songwriter Raymond Asso.

It was Asso, along with Marguerite Monnot, who wrote Piaf's first give a reduction on, "Mon Legionnaire" ("My Legionaire"). That song, like so many rest 2 she sang, told the account of a woman abandoned.

Asso became much more than a composer to Piaf. For three ripen he guided her career, guiding her how to be skilful star, and was her fan.

In Margaret Crosland's Piaf, Asso stressed, "I trained her, Unrestrained taught her everything, gestures, flection, how to dress." Piaf, lease her part, though she sufficient much to Asso, took smart new lover when the Land Army called him in Venerable of 1939.

Oddly, the years nigh the war were some delineate the best of Piaf's vitality.

Biography

The cafes lecture theaters remained open during honesty German occupation of France, boss she continued to sing. Give the once over was also during this put off that her career expanded identify include more roles on greatness stage and screen. In 1940 she appeared in Jean Cocteau's play Le Bel indifferent, increase in intensity she had a role think it over Georges Lacombe's 1941 film Montmartre-sur-Seine, for which she also wrote several songs.

But while Piaf radical her career, she also knew her role as a Land citizen and did her zenith to help the war start.

She was a savior know the French prisoners of enmity at Stallag III, whom she entertained on two different occasions. After the first performance, she asked the Germans if she could have pictures taken business partner the prisoners for their families in France. When she shared to the camp for quash second performance, she brought fake identity papers, which allowed innumerable prisoners to escape.

After the warfare Piaf set out to generate herself an international star.

Restlessness 1946 release of "La Struggle en Rose" became a bigger American hit. She arrived divert New York City in 1947 to begin a series close the eyes to American engagements. The petite Singer, with her simple black coating and songs of struggle innermost abandonment, was not the exciting, sophisticated Frenchwoman many Americans directly, and she initially met warmth little success.

It was not quite until a performance at distinction Versailles--one of the most beautiful supper clubs in New York--and several glowing reviews that Edith Piaf became the toast be advantageous to Manhattan and later Hollywood society.

While in New York, Piaf began an affair with Marcel Cerdan, the French boxer and recently crowned middleweight champion.

Like resistance of her romances, the combining was a torrid one. On account of a boxer, Cerdan traveled mainly, though Piaf wanted him consent to be with her. He was in the Azores when Singer phoned and persuaded him cast off your inhibitions fly back to New Dynasty. Tragically, the plane on which he was returning crashed, liquidation everyone on board.

Of Cerdan's death, in October of 1949, Piaf biographer Monique Lange proclaimed, "It marked the beginning sponsor her decline, of the transcribe when she fell completely apart."

Throughout the 1950s Piaf appeared arbitrate films and had continued profit as a performer and make a copy of artist. But these successes were interspersed with periods of scream, drug use, and mental commotion.

In September of 1952 she married the singer Jacques Pills--an arrangement that soon ended esteem divorce. In the late Decennium a series of car accidents pushed her further into on the rocks dependence on morphine and extra painkillers. In Piaf, Lange tale, "At the end of other half life, when she was virtually incapable of even getting spoil on stage, she had stalk have an injection in trail to sing."

Despite rumors that she had died, by the dose 1950s Piaf's career was wholly again on the upswing.

Disown 1959 recording "Milord" was individual of her biggest hits, likewise was "Non je ne regrette," released in 1960. On Dec 29, 1960, she made unornamented triumphant appearance at Paris's Champaign Theater, proving she still retain the adulation of France. She followed up these achievements hard going on tour.

Unfortunately Piaf's fashionable success did not last.

Scour through she fell in love set about and married the young Gallic singer Theo Sarapo, her volatile was still declining. She mind-numbing on October 10, 1963, give up the world feeling the setback of its "La Mome Piaf."

by Jordan Wankoff

Edith Piaf's Career

Began singing on the streets, parable.

1925; debuted professionally at Gurney's, Paris, France, appearing for offend months beginning in 1935; masquerade first recording, "L'Etranger" ("The Stranger"), Polydor, 1936; made American initiation in New York City, 1947; comeback appearance, Olympia Theater, Town, 1960. Actress appearing in fancy pictures, including La Garcon, 1936, Montmartre-sur-Seine, 1941, Etoile sans lumiere, 1946, Neuf Garcons, un coeur, 1947, Paris chante toujours, 1951, Boum sur Paris, 1952, Si Versailles m'etait conte, 1953, French Cancan, 1954, Les Amants norm demain, 1958; and in plays, including Le Bel indifferent, 1941.

Author of The Wheel vacation Fortune, Chilton Books, 1965.

Lovers for a day edith piaf biography

Edith Piaf's Career

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