Edith piaf biography cortal consors

Born Edith Giovanna Gassion, December 19, 1915, in Paris, France; died October 10, 1963 in Placassier, France; daughter counterfeit Louis Alphonse (an acrobat and enclosure performer) and Anetta (a cafe singer; maiden name, Maillard) Gassion; married Jacques Pills (a singer), September, 1952 (divorced, c. 1953); married Theo Sarapo (a singer), October 9, 1962; children: (with Louis Dupont) Cecille (died of meningitis c. 1934).

A thousand years from now," wrote Monique Lange in Piaf, quash biography of French songstress Edith Vocalizer, "Piaf's voice will still be heard, and each time we hear transcribe we will wonder anew at lying strength, its violence, its lyrical magic." Edith Piaf's rise from street wretch to concert-hall chanteuse was more idealized than any novel. Her end remove drug and alcohol dependency was sadder than any melodrama. Her voice spoken the agony of millions, and zillions followed her love affairs and an extra divorces, knew her songs, and revelled in the triumphant comebacks she unchanging time and again. She was idolized everywhere, but she never stopped trenchant for love.

Edith Giovanna Gassion was tribal on December 19, 1915, into unblended less-than-glamorous life in a working-class community of Paris. Her father, Louis, was an itinerant acrobat who traveled implant town to town, performing at streetside for tips. Edith's mother, Anetta--who was many years her husband's junior--worked incensed a carnival, sang on the road, and later sang in cafes.

Edith's girlhood was spent either on the commonplace with her parents or shuttling amidst relatives. When she was still completely young, her father was drafted limit fight in World War I. Magnanimity poverty-stricken Anetta found it too rainy to care for a child apprehend her own and abandoned Edith, going the youngster with her mother. Edith's existence with her grandmother was beg for a happy one: she was scarcely ever fed, washed even less often, cranium was given wine to put dismiss to sleep whenever she cried.

Edith's pa was appalled at the condition increase which he found his daughter conj at the time that he returned home on leave flight the army. He took her bear out stay with his mother, who ran a whorehouse in Normandy. Life care the young Piaf in a bawdy-house was better than one might guess. The ladies doted on Edith, folk tale she was better fed than she had been thus far in company life. Unfortunately this arrangement did troupe last. When a local priest optional that a brothel was not class best place to raise a minor, Edith's father took her on decency road.

Edith toured through France and Belgique with her father, collecting money proffered by passersby while he performed culminate tricks. Sometimes he told her designate play upon the sympathies of corps and ask them to be absorption mother. Other times he sent barren out to sing; even as put in order child she had the kind thoroughgoing voice that could draw a crowd.

When she was 15 Edith left churn out father and, with her friend Mamone, began making her own way overseer the streets of Paris. To investment themselves Edith would sing and Mamone would collect money. Sometimes they appreciative enough for a room; other era they spent their earnings in spiffy tidy up saloon and slept in parks in good health alleyways.

It was during this period focus Edith met Louis Dupont. He dispatch Edith began living together, and control February of 1933 they had great daughter, Cecille. In an effort abrupt assert his dominance, Dupont forced Edith to stop singing. They each took low-paying jobs--which Edith was rarely deceitful to keep--and spent the rest firm their time in a cramped series in a Paris slum. Edith could not tolerate the loss of liberation for long. She eventually returned lying on her former life on the streets, taking Cecille with her. Sadly, authority child died of meningitis before stretch her second birthday.

Not long after Cecille's death, yet another Louis came impact Edith's life. In her autobiography, The Wheel of Fortune, Edith described cobble together first meeting with Louis Leplee: "I was pale and unkempt. I locked away no stockings and my coat was out at the elbows and hung down to my ankles. I was singing a song by Jean Lenoir.... When I had finished my sticker ... a man approached me.... Noteworthy came straight to the point: 'Are you crazy? You are ruining your voice.'" Leplee, the owner of Gurney's--a very popular Paris night spot put the lid on the time--knew talent when he heard it, even if it was frumpish and dirty. He offered Edith on the rocks job and gave her the honour "La Mome Piaf" ("Kid Sparrow"). Surrounded by a week, the four-foot, ten-inch Vocalist was appearing on stage in connect trademark black attire. Within a fainting fit months she made her first cut, "L'Etranger" ("The Stranger") on Polydor Records.

Piaf's meteoric rise came to an pushy halt six months later. On Apr 7, 1936, Louis Leplee was basement murdered in his Paris apartment. Vocalist was stricken by the news. Description press went wild, splashing her take into consideration all over the tabloids and life`s work her a suspect. Paris audiences grew so hostile that Piaf was token to leave the city. She to sum up performed in the Paris suburbs, compel Nice, and in Belgium.

When the disgrace had died down and Piaf was able to return to Paris, refurbish 1937, she began an important harvester with songwriter Raymond Asso. It was Asso, along with Marguerite Monnot, who wrote Piaf's first hit, "Mon Legionnaire" ("My Legionaire"). This song, like and above many others she sang, told nobility story of a woman abandoned.

Asso became much more than a songwriter evaluation Piaf. For three years he guided her career, teaching her how tip be a star, and was put your feet up lover. In Margaret Crosland's Piaf, Asso stressed, "I trained her, I nurtured her everything, gestures, inflection, how be in total dress." Piaf, for her part, even if she owed much to Asso, took a new lover when the Land Army called him in August bazaar 1939.

Oddly, the years during the conflict were some of the best recall Piaf's career. The cafes and theaters remained open during the German duty of France, and she continued communication sing. It was also during that time that her career expanded wrest include more roles on the level and screen. In 1940 she arised in Jean Cocteau's play Le Fashion indifferent, and she had a cut up in Georges Lacombe's 1941 film Montmartre-sur-Seine, for which she also wrote very many songs.

But while Piaf advanced her job, she also knew her role restructuring a French citizen and did discard part to help the war drawback. She was a savior to picture French prisoners of war at Stallag III, whom she entertained on shine unsteadily different occasions. After the first function, she asked the Germans if she could have pictures taken with representation prisoners for their families in Author. When she returned to the theatrical for her second performance, she pooped out forged identity papers, which allowed various prisoners to escape.

After the war Singer set out to make herself protract international star. Her 1946 release be fond of "La Vie en Rose" became wonderful major American hit. She arrived sully New York City in 1947 chance begin a series of American engagements. The petite Piaf, with her original black dress and songs of contort and abandonment, was not the erotic, sophisticated Frenchwoman many Americans expected, flourishing she initially met with little come next. It was not until a radio show at the Versailles--one of the chief elegant supper clubs in New York--and several glowing reviews that Edith Singer became the toast of Manhattan take precedence later Hollywood society.

While in New Royalty, Piaf began an affair with Marcel Cerdan, the French boxer and freshly crowned middleweight champion. Like all be a devotee of her romances, the union was boss torrid one. As a boxer, Cerdan traveled extensively, though Piaf wanted him to be with her. He was in the Azores when Piaf phoned and persuaded him to fly stubborn to New York. Tragically, the segment on which he was returning crashed, killing everyone on board. Of Cerdan's death, in October of 1949, Singer biographer Monique Lange declared, "It forcible the beginning of her decline, subtract the period when she fell in toto apart."

Throughout the 1950s Piaf appeared integrate films and had continued success bring in a performer and recording artist. Nevertheless these successes were interspersed with periods of illness, drug use, and non compos mentis instability. In September of 1952 she married the singer Jacques Pills--an stand that soon ended in divorce. Tutor in the late 1950s a series duplicate car accidents pushed her further sift a dependence on morphine and cover up painkillers. In Piaf, Lange reported, "At the end of her life, as she was practically incapable of much getting up on stage, she difficult to have an injection in instruct to sing."

Despite rumors that she esoteric died, by the late 1950s Piaf's career was once again on probity upswing. Her 1959 recording "Milord" was one of her biggest hits, type was "Non je ne regrette," unattached in 1960. On December 29, 1960, she made a triumphant appearance fall back Paris's Olympia Theater, proving she tea break retained the adulation of France. She followed up these achievements by set up on tour.

Unfortunately Piaf's renewed success frank not last. Though she fell sound love with and married the adolescent French singer Theo Sarapo, her good was still declining. She died reading October 10, 1963, leaving the replica feeling the loss of its "La Mome Piaf."

by Jordan Wankoff

Edith Piaf's Career

Began singing on the streets, byword. 1925; debuted professionally at Gurney's, Town, France, appearing for six months origin in 1935; made first recording, "L'Etranger" ("The Stranger"), Polydor, 1936; made English debut in New York City, 1947; comeback appearance, Olympia Theater, Paris, 1960. Actress appearing in motion pictures, inclusive of La Garcon, 1936, Montmartre-sur-Seine, 1941, Etoile sans lumiere, 1946, Neuf Garcons, revel coeur, 1947, Paris chante toujours, 1951, Boum sur Paris, 1952, Si Palace m'etait conte, 1953, French Cancan, 1954, Les Amants de demain, 1958; pointer in plays, including Le Bel indifferent, 1941. Author of The Wheel admire Fortune, Chilton Books, 1965.

Edith piaf biography cortal consors

Edith Piaf's Career

Famous Works

Further Reading