Real name is Edith Piaf. Edith Piaf - short biography. Edith Piaf quotes from the book “My Life”

Piaf Édith (1915–1963), French singer and actress.

She was born on December 19, 1915 in Mesnilmontant, one of the poorest areas of Paris. According to stories, this event took place right on Belleville Street under a street lamp. Born Edith Giovanna Gassion. Named after the English nurse Edith Cavel, a heroine of the First World War who was shot by the Germans. Daughter of the traveling acrobat Louis Alphonse Gassion (1881–1944) and his wife Annetta Giovanna Maillard (1895–1945). The girl's mother was of mixed Italian-Franco-Moroccan descent. Born in Livorno. She performed in street cafes under the pseudonym Lina Marsa. Sometimes she worked as a prostitute; abused alcohol.

Until she was one year old, the girl was in the care of her mother, Emma (Aisha) Said bin Mohammed (1876–1930).

In 1916, her father sent her to his mother, who ran a small brothel in the town of Bernay in Normandy. From three to seven years old, the girl had poor hearing and poor vision due to conjunctivitis. The prostitutes showed touching care for her and even collected money for a pilgrimage to St. Teresa. An appeal to higher powers brought healing to the child.

In 1922, Edith began to participate in her father's performances on the streets of Paris: she collected money and performed simple songs. Soon singing became the meaning of life for her. Later, the memories of her youth were reflected in her songwriting (“Elle fréquentait la Rue Pigalle”, 1939), etc. In 1929, together with her stepmother Simone Berteaut, nicknamed Mômone, she rented a room in the cheap hotel Grand Hotel de Clermont on Rue Veron, 18. She often changed lovers. From one of them, delivery boy Louis Dupont, in 1931 she gave birth to her only daughter, Marcelle, who died at the age of two from meningitis. She was dependent on the pimp Albert, who beat her and took away most of the proceeds.

In 1935, Edith met Louis Leplée, owner of the Le Gerny nightclub on the Champs-Elysees. He appreciated her talent and taught her first acting lessons. Louis Leple created an original image of the singer, the main attribute of which was a black dress. He also came up with the stage name Piaf (Sparrow in Parisian slang). The name suited little Edith very well: with a height of 1.47 cm, she had a daring and fearless disposition. Piaf quickly gained fame, became friends with the famous chansonnier Maurice Chevalier, poet Jacques Borgea and others. In January 1936, Piaf recorded her first discs at the Polydor studio. In the same year, her collaboration with the composer and lyricist Marguerite Monnot began.

However, the career almost ended before it really began. On April 6, 1936, Louis Leple was shot and killed in his apartment. The police detained the killers and established that they all previously knew Piaf. She was suspected of complicity in the crime. Despite the lack of evidence, Piaf's reputation suffered greatly. At this difficult moment, former legionnaire and poet Raymond Asso (1901–1968) became Piaf's close friend. He sharply limited her dubious connections, wrote several songs (“Un jeune homme chantait”, “Paris Méditerranée”, etc.). After Raymond Asso was drafted into the army in 1939, Piaf became involved with the actor and singer Paul Meurisse (Paul Gustave Pierre Meurisse, 1912–1979). Together with him she performed the main roles in Jean Cocteau's one-act play “The Indifferent Beauty” (1940).
During the occupation of Paris, Piaf lived in the same house where a respectable brothel for Wehrmacht officers was located. She often performed in German military units, for which she was later accused of collaboration.

According to Piaf herself, she carried out tasks from the leaders of the Resistance movement. After concerts in prison camps, she was photographed with French soldiers, supposedly as a souvenir. The prisoners' photographs were then pasted into false passports and used to escape.

In the post-war years, Piaf's songs won worldwide recognition. In 1947, she visited the United States for the first time, then made several triumphant tours of Europe and South America. Piaf was invited to the Ed Sullivan Show eight times. In 1956 and 1957 she performed on the stage of New York's Carnegie Hall. Since 1955, its main concert venue in Paris has been the legendary Olympia Hall.

Piaf willingly patronized young aspiring singers, who often became her close friends. So, in 1944 she brought Yves Montand (1921–1991) to the stage, who a year later became one of the most popular French chansonniers. In 1951, Piaf launched the career of Charles Aznavour (born 1924), who accompanied her on a trip to France and the USA. For some time, Charles Aznavour served as her personal secretary and driver. Together with him, Piaf got into a terrible car accident, breaking her arm and two ribs. She started taking morphine to relieve pain.

In the summer of 1948, Piaf met Marcel Cerdan (1916–1949), world super welterweight boxing champion. Both were gripped by a deep, all-consuming feeling that they did not even try to hide. Marcel Cerdan had a wife and three children, nevertheless he openly appeared with Piaf in public. The press widely discussed the smallest details of their romance. However, it ended tragically. On October 28, 1949, Marcel Cerdan traveled to the United States for a rematch with Jake La Motta. Before the fight, he was going to meet Piaf in New York. The Lockheed L 749 Constellation plane carrying Marcel Cerdan crashed near the Azores. All passengers and crew members were killed. For Piaf, the death of Marcel Cerdan was a huge shock. Piaf tried to overcome prolonged depression with the help of alcohol. In memory of Marcel Cerdan, she wrote the song “Hymne a l’amour” (1949).

In 1952, Piaf married singer Jacques Pills (1906–1970).

At the end of 1958, P. began collaborating with composer Georges Moustaki (born 1934), who became her closest friend for several years. In collaboration with him, she wrote the famous song “Milord”, which in 1959 topped all the world hit parades. That same year, Piaf severely cut her face in another car accident. Her physical and moral condition was undermined. During a performance at the Waldorf Astoria in New York, Piaf collapsed on stage due to severe abdominal pain. Soon a similar attack was repeated in Stockholm. However, in 1960, Piaf recorded one of her masterpieces, “Non je ne regrette rien,” created in collaboration with Charles Dumont.

In 1961, Piaf met Théo Sarapo (1936–1970). Born Theophanis Lamboukas. A native of Greece, he worked in a hairdressing salon and dreamed of becoming an artist. As has happened many times before, Piaf completely succumbed to the charm of the young talent. On October 9, 1962, they registered their marriage at the city hall of the 16th arrondissement of Paris. The unequal union caused a lot of talk and gossip. The press openly called Theo Sarapo a gold digger. Despite the significant age difference, Theo Sarapo sincerely loved Piaf and surrounded her with care and attention. The union turned out to be quite successful creatively. Together with Piaf she recorded several songs, one of which (“A quoi ca sert l’amour?”) became a hit in 1962. The audience warmly greeted the performance of the family duet on the stage of the Olympia and Bobino theaters.

In 1963, Edith Piaf was diagnosed with liver cancer. She fell into a coma and spent the last months of her life at her villa in Plascassier on the French Riviera. Piaf died on October 11, 1963, on the same day as her friend Jean Cocteau. The Catholic Church refused to perform Piaf's funeral, but tens of thousands of fans saw her off on her last journey to the Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris.

In 1970, T. Sarapo, who died in a car accident, was buried in a nearby grave.

Edith Piaf did not recognize sanctimonious morality and obeyed only her feelings. Fearing loneliness, the great singer threw herself into the very flames of passion. And she humbly accepted the suffering that befell her, repeating: “You must pay for love with bitter tears.”

THE BEGINNING OF A LEGEND

On a chilly evening, a tiny figure in a shabby coat appeared on the street of the poorest quarter of Paris, stopped on the corner and suddenly began to sing. Passers-by, hurrying on business, froze, listening to the powerful voice of the little ragged woman.

The girl's name was Edith Giovanna Gassion, she was only fifteen. Years later, she will remember these street performances and selflessly construct the legend of her life. She will even tell you that her mother gave birth to her right on the dirty sidewalk...

In fact, Edith was born in a clinic in Belleville, a disadvantaged area of ​​Paris. The mother, a singer from a cheap cabaret named Annette, drank and earned money as a prostitute. She quickly lost interest in the baby and sent her to her alcoholic parents.

The father returning from the front, seeing the situation in which little Edith found herself, immediately took the sickly girl to his mother, the owner of the brothel. It’s strange, but in such an unsuitable place for a child, Edith lived well: the girls took care of her, fed her and dressed her up.

At the age of three, the girl became blind: the corneas of her eyes became inflamed due to an infection. When the doctors could not help her, the priestesses of love put on modest clothes and went to church to pray to Saint Teresa for recovery. And the miracle happened!

Life in a brothel made Edith tolerant of other people's vices, but distorted her idea of ​​love: “I was not sentimental, it seemed to me that a woman should follow a man at his first call.”

DIFFICULT FREEDOM

At fourteen, Edith was already performing on the streets of Paris with her acrobat father, and then settled in a cheap hotel with her half-sister Momon. Thus began her independent life...

“Many people think that my early years were terrible. That's not true, they were wonderful! - said the singer. - Yes, I was starving, freezing on the streets. But she was free: she could get up late, dream, hope..."

At sixteen, Edith fell in love with the delivery boy Louis Dupont and gave birth to a daughter with him, whom she named Marcella. However, she soon almost forgot about the existence of both: every day she sang on the street, and spent her evenings in a cafe in the company of petty thieves.

In the hope of returning his flighty girlfriend, Louis took his daughter to him. But two years later, deprived of care, Marcella died of meningitis. The baby's death shocked Edith, but she preferred to live in the future. The young woman could not even imagine that she was not destined to become a mother again...

SONGBIRD

Edith's new friend was the pimp Albert. He took most of the money Edith made from singing and tried to force her to serve clients. Edith refused, and one day he put the muzzle of a gun to his mistress’s head.

The girl ran away when her friend Nadya, who did not want to engage in prostitution, decided to commit suicide. Twenty-year-old Edith was sliding downhill, and then fate unexpectedly gave her a chance for salvation: Louis Leple, the owner of the Zhernice cabaret, heard her singing.

Edith was so nervous that she almost failed the audition. But as soon as she began to sing, not a trace of excitement remained. Leple looked at the miniature girl and came up with a pseudonym - Little Piaf (“piaf” translates as “little sparrow”).

“Songbird” knitted herself a simple black dress for her debut. Her homely appearance was more than compensated for by her powerful voice, and from the very first song she captivated the discerning audience. Leple realized that he had found a real diamond, and began to cut it: he taught Edith the basics of stagecraft, and introduced him to social circles.

The serene life did not last long. In April 1936, Louis Leple was found murdered in his apartment, and the shocked Edith was considered an accomplice to the crime. The press wrote in detail about the singer’s past connections with the criminal world.

The poet Raymond Asso came to the rescue. He became the new producer of “Songbird,” won a contract with the famous ABC theater and drove dubious friends away from his ward.


Edith Piaf and Raymond Asso

By the end of the 1930s, Edith had become a successful and wealthy singer. Raymond treated his Galatea unceremoniously, forcing her to behave correctly in society. Working together quickly grew into a whirlwind romance.

TIME TO GIVE

Happiness was interrupted by the Second World War. Raymond went to the front, and Edith began an affair with actor Paul Maurice. “I hate loneliness, I simply cannot live in an empty house!” - she sighed. The reserved Paul was the complete opposite of the sociable Edith, but they were attracted to each other.

During the war, the most famous singer in France not only continued to perform, but also managed to help prisoners of war. “If God allowed me to earn so much, it is only because He knows: I will give everything,” Edith assured. And she kept her word and generously gave gifts to everyone.

Piaf did not skimp on either money or feelings. She immersed herself in relationships, forgetting about everything, she was torn apart by unbridled passion and jealousy.

In 1944, at one of the concerts, the newly minted star noticed a common chansonnier named Yves Montand. The friends accompanying the singer, hearing him sing, were completely delighted and applauded for a long time.

“I don’t know what you see in him,” Piaf said irritably. “He sings terribly and doesn’t know how to dance, and on top of that he’s so narcissistic!”

Nevertheless, friends convinced Edith to change her anger to mercy. She watched another performance of Montana and admitted: the guy has abilities. Piaf was so honest with herself and others that she even apologized to Yves for the words she said in a narrow circle of friends.

Yves Montand and Edith Piaf

Thirty-year-old Piaf became Montana's mentor, wrote songs for him, and introduced him to the right people. She claimed that she had only a platonic relationship with Yves. But few people believed in this...

IN THE RING WITH DESTINY

After the war, Edith's fame crossed the ocean, and the singer was offered a tour of the United States. World boxing champion Marcel Sedan, a Frenchman of Arab origin, happened to attend her concert in New York. His reputation as an exemplary family man did not stop him from starting to court Piaf.

Dinner at a luxury restaurant turned into a date. Marcel was the first man who needed Edith herself, and not her talent, connections or money. He presented Piaf with jewelry, invited her to matches and did not hide his love.

Marcel Sedan and Edith Piaf

Next to the “sparrow,” the boxer turned into a tame bear cub. Edith knitted sweaters for her beloved and accompanied her to training. “The relationship with Marcel gave my chaotic life a kind of precarious balance,” she recalled.

In the fall of 1949, Piaf performed in the USA again and desperately missed Cerdan, who remained in Europe. “I beg you, come quickly!” - Edith shouted into the telephone receiver. He, too, was impatient to see her, he heeded her pleas and abandoned the idea of ​​​​traveling by boat.

The plane crashed over the Azores... This is the end of the fairy tale about the queen of music and the king of the ring.

ANTHEM OF LOVE

The news of the death of her beloved devastated Edith. Her sister had a hard time keeping her from committing suicide, but she couldn’t save her from self-destruction. “I don’t want to live, I’m already dead,” Piaf repeated, seeking oblivion in drugs and alcohol.

The singer attended seances and sat alone for hours, tormenting herself with reproaches. Plunged into severe depression, the woman with a haggard face hardly resembled the great Piaf, who had recently sparkled with happiness.

It was never possible to recover from the loss of Edith. In memory of Marcel, she wrote the song “Hymn of Love,” which she never performed. Piaf's rare concerts took place with tragic anguish, which earned her fame as the “singer of grief.”

Charles Aznavour and Edith Piaf

Edith's loneliness was somewhat brightened up by her friendship with the young singer Charles Aznavour, who took on the duties of his personal secretary. And again a tragedy almost occurred - Edith and Charles were in a serious car accident.

To numb the pain in his broken arm and ribs, the doctor prescribed Piaf morphine. Relatives did not recognize the singer: she lived from dose to dose, purposefully destroying herself. Even the affair and subsequent marriage with chansonnier Jacques Pill did not give her strength.

Over the four years of family life, Piaf saw more doctors and nurses than her husband. Jacques, a faithful and caring husband, unfortunately also suffered from alcoholism. The outcome of the marriage was a foregone conclusion.

TRYING TO DOWN THE PAIN...

After the divorce, the singer faced another accident and more attempts to numb the pain with morphine. “I felt an indomitable need to destroy myself,” she admitted. “But, approaching the edge of the abyss, I always wanted to climb up.”

Piaf's premonition did not deceive: fate presented the 47-year-old singer with a farewell gift. 27-year-old Greek Theofanis Lambukas was handsome and well-built. And he looked at Edith so reverently with his dark eyes that she gave up...

Theo Sarapo. and Edith Piaf

So the hairdresser with a complicated name turned into singer Theo Sarapo. Edith chose this name, remembering that "sarapo" in Greek means "I love you." Because, weakened by illness and the sorrows of loss, Piaf fell in love again.

In October 1962, the couple got married. Many considered the Greek a gigolo, but Theo touchingly courted his wife, and the voices of his ill-wishers fell silent. He carried Piaf in a wheelchair, did not leave his wife’s bedside for a second and carefully hid the terrible diagnosis of cancer from her.

But Edith felt death approaching and therefore made her husband take an oath: he would never fly on airplanes. Theo kept his promise, but failed to deceive fate: he died in a car accident, outliving his wife by only seven years.

But that was later, and then Theo had to put an end to the beautiful and sad legend of Edith Piaf. She died on October 10, 1963 at Riviera. Bursting with tears, Theo put his wife's body in the car and rushed to Paris. He understood: the life of the great Piaf should end in the same place where it began - in the city of love.

A FEW FACTS

The singer got her name in honor of nurse Edith Cavell, who was shot by the Germans in the First World War.

Louis Leple strictly ordered the singer to wear a black dress to concerts. Later, black dresses became the singer's trademark.

Edith found out about Marcel’s death on the day of the next concert, but found the strength to go on stage, declaring that she would sing for the sake of her beloved.

Upon learning of Edith's death, her friend and poet Jacques Cocteau quietly said: “I want to die next.” He passed away a few hours later.

Theo did everything to give the public the impression that Edith died in Paris. He believed that the singer, who personified France, should complete her journey in this city.

Edith Piaf's height is 1.47 m. Zodiac sign is Sagittarius. Birthday: December 19, 1915. Day of death - October 10, 1963 (Grasse, France).

Case history of Edith Giovanna Gassion (Piaf)

The girl in a knee-length black dress, similar to a widow’s outfit, clearly possessed some kind of dark charm. Widow of life? A scanty symbol of an abandoned woman? A woman whom God forgot without reason?..

Sylvain Rainer

Her life was so sad that the story about her is almost unbelievable - it is so beautiful.

Sasha Guitry

No! Nothing!
I never regret anything!
Not a drop of good that was given to me,
Not about the grief that I have drunk to the dregs!
And I can swear with my whole life:
I will never regret anything!
No! Nothing!

Edith Piaf

As a matter of fact, the disease, or rather, one of those diseases that brought the great singer to the grave at the age of 48, began even before she began to sing. Born into the family of a wandering acrobat and a street singer, who did not disdain prostitution, Edith immediately fell from the unkind embrace of her parents to her maternal grandparents - a couple of real scum, and also drinkers. The grandmother, an old shrew, actively treated her granddaughter to cheap red wine, with the help of which she solved all problems. Edith's father, who returned from the First World War, was horrified to see the terrible state in which his daughter was, and sent her to his mother, the owner of a brothel. There they treated the girl well, but she suffered... blindness! It is difficult to say what it was, and the local doctor, accustomed to “repairing” broken genitals, did not understand anything. He insisted that “Edith’s eyes were just tired.” They put a black bandage on her and began dripping a silver nitrate solution into her conjunctival sac. Both the grandmother and the inhabitants of the “fun house” fervently prayed to St. Teresa about Edith's recovery. She recovered, but forever retained her fear of the dark and belief in everything mystical, mysterious, occult...

From the age of eight to 14, Edith “assisted” her father: she invited the public, collected coins, and sang simple songs. The street was her living room, dining room, life-forming environment. No one looked after her health, and in 1930 (she was 15 years old), Edith, who smoked mercilessly, developed lung problems. At St. Anthony's Hospital she was examined by the famous French internist pulmonologist Raoul Kurilsky. On the x-ray, the doctor discovered darkening in the lungs, an enlargement of the right ventricle of the heart, compactions in the bronchi and recommended... oil inhalations! I’m not sure that his recommendations were followed; at least E. Piaf did not quit smoking until the end of her life.

At the age of 16, Edith gave birth to a daughter, but continued to sing in the streets, carrying the child with her, until the baby’s father, a certain Louis “Baby,” gave the girl to his mother. At that time, Edith looked, to put it mildly, very peculiar. She was small (147 cm), terribly dirty (she and her sister washed, as she later admitted, only on major holidays), with wild makeup, with hair slicked to her head with saliva... But the audience for whom she sang was not much cleaner, therefore, no one had any complaints. In 1933, two-year-old daughter Edith died of meningitis. Tormented by late repentance, she went to the hospital morgue and sawed off a lock of the child’s hair with a nail file as a souvenir. At the same time, the head on her small body shook terribly from side to side, and later, when it turned out that Edith would never be able to have children, she often recalled this terrible episode.

Edith's street performances continued, but she was already on the threshold of fame. In 1935, she was invited to perform at the Zhernice cafe by Louis Leple, known as a connoisseur of not only chanson, but also same-sex love. It is to him that the whole world owes the birth of Edith as a singer and the appearance of her name Piaf (“sparrow” in Parisian argot). During Edith's first concert, the entire elite was present in the cafe: Maurice Chevalier, Philippe Eria, the pop queen Mistinguett, the pilot Jean Mormoz and others. It was a complete success with such a discerning public. However, a year later, Leple was shot in the head and stabbed in the heart. Piaf was dragged to the police for a long time, believing that she knew the killer. Edith lost her job and began to drink terribly - now not cheap “ink”, but cognac and “Beaujolais”... Fortunately, Raymond Asso appeared in her life, who became Pygmalion for Piaf: he improved her skills, trained her voice, taught her to hold a fork and wash your face in the morning. It’s no wonder that the savage Edith threw terrible scandals at him. This love “war” lasted for three years, and Piaf herself initiated the breakup. Asso helped her perform at the largest Parisian cabaret, ABC, where she was seen by the musical and artistic elite. Jean Cocteau declared: “Madame Piaf is a genius!” From that moment on, like a swinging pennant, she passes from one strong male hand to another: Paul Meurisse, Michel Hémer, Henri Conte, Ivo Livi (Yves Montand). They ended up next to Piaf during the war.

She never had her own home. Yes, she rented luxury apartments and had a Chinese cook, but she didn’t have a home. And one more feature: in her mature years, Piaf led a completely unhealthy and nocturnal lifestyle. Her most active activities began at eleven in the evening and ended at six in the morning! But this was not the main thing: in the singer’s soul there was a territory of eternal loneliness that no one could fill, so she often demanded to write a song, which she sang in a duet with her beloved man. But this “injection of optimism” did not change anything in life, and Piaf could only throw out the “flood of feelings” in her creativity. The scene after the end of the war became everything for her, both from the point of view of history and from the point of view of love and the constant struggle with herself.

After the war, Yves Montand was replaced by Jean-Louis Jaubert, with whose ensemble “Le Compagnon de la Chanson” Piaf successfully performed in France and the USA. In 1947, Piaf, who was already in poor health, suffered a serious blow: she fell ill with rheumatoid arthritis. The pharmaceutical industry of that time did not yet know either indomethacin, or selective COX-2 inhibitors, or methotrexate, so Piaf had to resort (for life) to injections of the newly introduced cortisone, which she bought at black market prices - 50,000 francs per bottle! But even without this misfortune, Piaf’s mood consisted of a continuous alternation and interweaving of fear of life and extreme cheerfulness, frantic fun and melancholy, reaching the level of depression. In 1948, she tried to poison herself with a packet of sleeping pills, washed down with a glass of alcohol, but her hand trembled - the pills scattered, and she could not collect them, and therefore only fell into a heavy sleep. Already by 1949, Piaf had an undoubted dependence on alcohol and barbiturate sleeping pills. She, like M. Monroe, sometimes went so overboard with drugs that she disrupted concerts... It is amazing that alcohol and sleeping pills, and later tranquilizers, still did not have too much of an effect on Piaf’s phenomenal ability to work! True, after the death of M. Cerdan in a plane crash, who was identified only by the watches on both hands, Piaf began to drink furiously and plunged into the occult. All sorts of charlatans, clairvoyants, sorcerers, and African magicians appeared around her. She bought a table for practicing spiritualism for a lot of money, through which she “communicated” with Cerdan. The feeling of guilt (it was precisely in obedience to her hysterically selfish whim that Cerdan flew to her in the USA and died) tormented her for a year, but even then she took this “phone” with her on tour to communicate with the kingdom of the dead...

The beginning of the 50s was marked for Piaf by a whole chain of misfortunes, the worst of which was drug addiction. On July 24, 1951, while on tour, Piaf got into an accident and had a broken arm and two ribs. The doctor did not take into account her dependence on barbiturates and alcohol and prescribed morphine. Dependence on it arose instantly (from the first injection!), Then the doses began to increase. The drug cost the same as cortisone, but interruptions in taking the drug led the singer to severe withdrawal symptoms, during which she tried to throw herself out of a window. On July 29, 1952, Piaf married René Victor Eugene Ducos (Jacques Pils). He was quite calm about the fact that his wife was “on the needle” and tried to “distract” her with wine, because before the wedding she assured him that she was using... cortisone! However, soon her condition forced her husband to send Piaf to a psychiatric clinic in Meudon. This helped little - while on tour in the USA, Piaf relied only on morphine injections. There was no question of undergoing detoxification and treatment in the USA: publicity would immediately lead to the termination of the contract with all financial consequences. Returning home, Piaf tried to apply the “step by step” tactic, limiting the number of injections. Nothing came of this - the dose has not been reduced, she is already injecting directly through her dress and stockings... When she was hospitalized, the psychiatrists did not yet have a methadone rehabilitation program and again used the “step by step” method. The day has come without the drug, and... Piaf writes: “I thought I was going to go crazy that day. Terrible pains tore me apart, the tendons moved on their own.”

One circumstance is not without curiosity: Piaf nurtured a certain special illness within herself - an unwillingness to get better, to survive, to withstand, to “jump out.” She made every effort, moving from one hospital to another, to die little by little, to destroy the life in herself, little by little. And at the same time (female logic!) Piaf demanded the intensity and surprise of events. Her whole life was determined by chance, outbursts of sensuality and a passionate attitude towards her profession. Years came in her life that one of the biographers called “the holiday of hell”: Piaf continued to secretly mix alcohol and drugs. Once after such a “cocktail” she “Yelled for twelve hours straight.” Repeated detoxification led only to a short-term remission, the possibility of relapse with morphine addiction is always very high, and the “withdrawal” is the most severe of all narcotic drugs... From 1951 to 1962, Piaf had two road accidents, suffered two alcoholic psychoses (delirium tremens) and several narcotic drugs com, made two suicide attempts. But she didn’t stop taking drugs and injecting herself! During a tour in the USA, she was taken straight from the concert to the Presbyterian Hospital in New York, where within four hours, under general anesthesia, the ulcer (?) bleeding was stopped and the perforation of the ulcer was sutured. Soon she was operated on again. Why did Piaf’s work, who created a unique image on stage, require so much suffering? I can't answer this question, but they say she answered it herself : “I like being unhappy.” But this is masochism! In 1960, Piaf was admitted to an American hospital in Neuilly near Paris. Another operation followed. Reluctance to live, inescapable melancholy - this is how Piaf’s state at this time is described by her biographers. More and more injections, more and more sleeping pills. There was an attempt to treat insomnia at the Ville d'Avrouz psychiatric clinic. In the winter of 1961, Piaf was admitted to St. Anthony's Hospital with double pneumonia, and Professor R. Kurilsky, who knew her well, examined her again. “The patient developed acute pulmonary failure, accompanied by attacks of suffocation,” he said. — My colleagues and I had almost decided on a tracheotomy, but we managed to avoid surgery. However, pulmonary-diaphragmatic adhesions still seriously threaten the health of Edith Piaf and cause severe shortness of breath. In addition, the patient suffers from severe anemia caused by constant loss of blood due to peptic ulcer disease...”

Even the wedding with Theo Sarapo in 1962 did not change Piaf - immediately after the wedding she went to a drug treatment clinic for another detoxification! Hepatic coma, constant chest massage, manual therapy of joints and moving around the park in a wheelchair - these were the last months of Piaf’s life... A nurse who was constantly in Piaf’s house, in September 1962, on the advice of the attending physician Claude de Lacoste de Laval, “a true aristocrat of the pancreas, liver and immune system”, went to Geneva for a miracle drug made from amniotic extract. It should be noted that Piaf had severe anemia (hidden bleeding continued), liver cirrhosis, Cushing's syndrome (from many years of hormone use), and chronic pancreatitis. S. Berto assumed that Piaf had stomach cancer, which American surgeons found during the first operation, but they didn’t tell her anything... Piaf was once again brought out of her coma by Professor Kar at the Ambroise Paré clinic, but this was already the end. The latest diagnosis, signed by Dr. Marion, reads: “Coma with complete loss of consciousness, jaundice. The patient must be immediately hospitalized for treatment with dehydrated liver extract and adrenal cortex extract. It is advisable to place the patient under a drip and administer saline solution. After introducing the amnion implant into the abdominal cavity, the jaundice practically did not decrease. The liver, like the whole sick body, is in extremely unsatisfactory condition.”. It was October 9, 1962. The next day there was no time to call a doctor. The arginine injection did not help...

Piaf once said: “There is only one type of suffering that cannot be ignored: the suffering of the soul. No doctor can cure them.” Alas, many sufferings of the body cannot be cured either...

Nikolay Larinsky, 2002-2014

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 her half-sister Simone. They earned about 300 francs a day. 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 have a shortage of wine and canned food (the sisters didn’t even think that clothes could be washed, food could be cooked, and dishes could be cooked). wash).

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 her death, Cerdana was involved in a 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: April 14, 2019 by: Elena

Edith Piaf

Edith Piaf (French: Édith Piaf), real name: Edith Giovanna Gassion (French: Édith Giovanna Gassion). Born December 19, 1915 in Paris - died October 10, 1963 in Grasse (France). French singer and actress.

Edith Giovanna Gassion, known throughout the world as Edith Piaf, was born on December 19, 1915 in Paris.

She was born into the family of failed actress Anita Maillard, who performed on stage under the pseudonym Lina Marsa, and acrobat Louis Gassion.

At the beginning of the First World War, he volunteered for the front. He specifically received a two-day vacation at the end of 1915 to see his newborn daughter Edith.

There is a legend that the future singer received her name in honor of the British nurse Edith Cavell, who was shot by the Germans on October 12, 1915.

Two years later, Louis Gassion learned that his wife had left him and given his daughter to be raised by her parents.

The conditions in which little Edith lived were terrifying. The grandmother had no time to take care of the child, and she often poured diluted wine into her granddaughter’s bottle instead of milk so that she would not bother her. Then Louis took his daughter to Normandy to his mother, who ran a brothel.

It turned out that three-year-old Edith was completely blind. In addition, it turned out that in the very first months of her life, Edith began to develop keratitis, but her maternal grandmother, apparently, simply did not notice this.

When there was no other hope left, Grandma Gassion and her girls took Edith to Lisieux to Saint Therese, where thousands of pilgrims from all over France gather every year. The trip was scheduled for August 19, 1921, and on August 25, 1921, Edith received her sight. She was six years old. The first thing she saw were the piano keys. But her eyes were never filled with sunlight. The great French poet Jean Cocteau, in love with Edith, called them “the eyes of a blind man who has received his sight.”

At the age of seven, 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.

The father took Edith to Paris, where they began to work together in the squares: the father showed acrobatic tricks, and his nine-year-old daughter sang. Edith earned money by singing on the street until she was hired at the Juan-les-Pins cabaret.

When Edith was fifteen years old, she met her younger half-sister Simone. Simone's mother insisted that her eleven-year-old daughter start bringing money into the house; relationships in the family, where seven other children besides Simone grew up, became difficult, and Edith took her younger sister to sing on the street. Before this, she already lived independently.

In 1932, Edith began living with store owner Louis Dupont, with whom she gave birth to a daughter, but she died of meningitis. Edith herself was seriously ill.

In 1935, when Edith was twenty years old, she was noticed on the street by Louis Leplée, the owner of the cabaret “le Gerny’s” on the Champs-Elysees, and invited her to perform in his program. He taught her to rehearse with an accompanist, select and direct songs, and explained the enormous importance of an artist’s costume, his gestures, facial expressions, and behavior on stage.

It was Leple who found a name for Edith - Piaf, What in Parisian slang it means "little sparrow". In torn shoes, she sang on the street: “Born like a sparrow, lived like a sparrow, died like a sparrow.”

In Zhernis, her name was printed on the posters as “Baby Piaf”, and the success of her first performances was enormous.

On February 17, 1936, Edith Piaf performed in a big concert at the Medrano circus along with such French pop stars as Maurice Chevalier, Mistenguette, Marie Dubas. A short performance on Radio City allowed her to take the first step towards real fame - listeners called the radio live and demanded that Baby Piaf perform more.

However, the successful takeoff was interrupted by tragedy: soon Louis Leple was shot in the head, and Edith Piaf was among the suspects, since he left her a small amount in his will. The newspapers fanned the story, and visitors to the cabaret where Edith Piaf performed behaved hostilely, believing that they had the right to “punish the criminal.”

Then she met the poet Raymond Asso, who finally determined the singer’s future life path. It is he who is largely responsible for the birth of “The Great Edith Piaf”. He taught Edith not only what was directly related to her profession, but also everything that she needed in life: the rules of etiquette, the ability to choose clothes and much more.

Raymond Asso created the “Piaf style”, based on Edith’s individuality, he wrote songs suitable only for her, “made to order”: “Paris - Mediterranean”, “She lived on the Rue Pigalle”, “My Legionnaire”, “Pennant for the Legion” "

The music for the song “My Legionnaire” was written by Marguerite Monnot, who also later became not only “her” composer, but also a close friend of the singer. Later, Piaf created several more songs with Monnot, including “Little Marie,” “The Devil Next to Me,” and “Hymn of Love.” It was Raymond Asso who ensured that Edith performed at the ABC music hall on the Grands Boulevards - the most famous music hall in Paris.

Performing in “ABC” was considered an entry into the “big water”, an initiation into the profession. He also convinced her to change her stage name "Baby Piaf" to "Edith Piaf". After the success of her performance at ABC, the press wrote about Edith: “Yesterday a great singer was born on the ABC stage in France.” An extraordinary voice, true dramatic talent, hard work and stubbornness of a street girl in achieving her goal quickly led Edith to the heights of success.

With the outbreak of World War II, the singer broke up with Raymond Asso. At this time, she met with the famous French director Jean Cocteau, who invited Edith to play in a short play of his own composition, “The Indifferent Handsome Man.” The rehearsals went well and the play was a great success. It was first shown in the 1940 season. Film director Georges Lacombe decided to make a film based on the play. And in 1941, the film “Montmartre on the Seine” was shot, in which Edith received the main role.

Edith's parents died during World War II. Fellow countrymen appreciated both the personal courage of Piaf, who performed during the war in Germany in front of French prisoners of war, so that after the concert, along with autographs, she gave them everything they needed to escape, and her mercy - she organized concerts in favor of the families of the victims. During the occupation, Edith Piaf performed in prisoner-of-war camps in Germany, 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.

Edith Piaf - Padam Padam

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 and other talents.

The post-war period became a period of unprecedented success for her. Residents of the Parisian suburbs and sophisticated art connoisseurs, workers and the future Queen of England listened to her with admiration.

In January 1950, on the eve of a solo concert in the Pleyel Hall, the press wrote about “songs of the streets in the temple of classical music” - this was another triumph for the singer.

Despite the love of her listeners, a life completely devoted to song made her lonely. Edith herself understood this well: “The audience pulls you into its arms, opens its heart and swallows you whole. You are overwhelmed with her love, and she is filled with yours. Then, in the fading light of the hall, you hear the sound of leaving steps. They are still yours. You no longer shudder with delight, but you feel good. And then the streets, the darkness, your heart gets cold, you’re alone.”.

In 1952, Edith was involved in two car accidents in a row - both with Charles Aznavour. To alleviate the suffering caused by broken arms and ribs, doctors gave her morphine injections, and Edith again fell into drug addiction, from which she was cured only after 4 years.

In 1954, Edith Piaf starred in the historical film “The Secrets of Versailles” along with Jean Marais.

In 1955, Edith began performing at the Olympia concert hall. The success was stunning. After that, she went on an 11-month tour of America, followed by further performances at Olympia and a tour of France.

Edith Piaf wrote two autobiographies "At the Fortune Ball" And "My life", and her friend from her youth, who called herself Edith’s half-sister, Simone Berto, also wrote a book about her life.

Illness and death of Edith Piaf

Great physical, and most importantly, emotional stress greatly undermined her health. The functions of the liver were seriously impaired - sclerosis was combined with cirrhosis, and the whole body was too weakened.

During 1960-1963 she was repeatedly hospitalized, sometimes for months.

On September 25, 1962, Edith sang from the height of the Eiffel Tower on the occasion of the premiere of the film “The Longest Day” of the songs “No, I don’t regret anything,” “The Crowd,” “My Lord,” “You Can’t Hear,” “The Right to Love.” All of Paris listened to her.

Her last performance on stage took place on March 31, 1963 at the Lille Opera House.

On October 10, 1963, Edith Piaf passed away. The singer's body was transported from the city of Grasse, where she died, to Paris in secrecy, and her death was officially announced in Paris only on October 11, 1963. On the same day, October 11, 1963, Piaf's friend Jean Cocteau passed away. There is an opinion that he died upon learning of Piaf's death.

The singer's funeral took place at the Père Lachaise cemetery. More than forty thousand people gathered at them, many did not hide their tears, there were so many flowers that people were forced to walk right along them.

Edith Piaf - Non, je ne regrette rien

The minor planet (3772) Piaf, discovered on October 21, 1982 by an employee of the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory Lyudmila Karachkina, is named after the singer.

In Paris in 2003, a monument to Edith Piaf was opened, which is installed on Place Edith Piaf.

Edith Piaf's height: 147 centimeters.

Personal life of Edith Piaf:

In 1932, Edith met the owner of the store Louis Dupont(Louis Dupont). A year later, 17-year-old Edith had a daughter, Marcelle. However, Louis was not happy that Edith was spending too much time on her work, and he demanded to leave her. Edith refused and they separated.

At first, the daughter stayed with her mother, but one day, when she came home, Edith did not find her. Louis Dupont took his daughter to him, hoping that the woman he loved would return to him.

Daughter Edith fell ill with meningitis and was hospitalized. After visiting her daughter, Edith herself fell ill. At that time, this disease was poorly cured, there were no suitable medications, and doctors could often simply observe the disease in the hope of a successful outcome. As a result, Edith recovered, and Marcel died (1935). She was the only child born to Piaf.

After the war, she was in a relationship with the famous boxer, a Frenchman of Algerian origin, world middleweight champion, 33-year-old Marcel Cerdan. In October 1949, Cerdan flew to New York to visit Piaf, who was again touring there. The plane crashed over the Atlantic Ocean near the Azores and Cerdan died, which came as a shock to Piaf. In deep depression, she saved herself with morphine.

In 1952, Piaf fell in love again and married the poet and singer Jacques Pils, but the marriage soon broke up.

In 1962, Edith Piaf fell in love again - with a 27-year-old Greek (she was 47 years old), hairdresser Theo, whom she, like Yves Montand, brought to the stage. Edith came up with a pseudonym for him Sagapo(Greek for “I love you”). She was with him until her death.

Sagapo survived her by seven years; he died in a car accident.

Filmography of Edith Piaf:

1941 - Montmartre-sur-Seine
1945 - Star without light (Etoile sans lumière)
1947 - Nine guys, one heart (Neuf garçons, un coeur)
1950 - Paris always sings (Paris chante toujours)
1954 - If they tell me about Versailles (Si Versailles m"était conté)
1954 - French cancan - Eugenie Buffet
1959 - Lovers of Tomorrow (Les amants de demain)
2007 - La life in pink (La môme)