French singer during the Second World War. Edith Piaf. Career before the war

Edith Piaf, real name Edith Giovanna Gassion, was born on December 19, 1915 in Paris (France). Her mother was the singer Anita Maillard, who went by the stage name Lina Marsa. Father, Louis Gassion, was a street acrobat who fought in the First World War.

Soon after birth, the baby was given to be raised by her maternal grandmother, who treated the child poorly.

The father, who arrived on vacation, sent his daughter to his own mother in Normandy, in Bernay. It soon became clear that the girl was blind.

When there was no hope for recovery, the grandmother took Edith to Lisieux to Saint Therese, where thousands of pilgrims from all over France gather annually, and the girl regained her sight.

Edith went to school until she was eight, but then her father took her to Paris, where they began working together in the squares - the father showed acrobatic tricks, and the daughter sang.

Later she began performing alone as a street singer. At the age of 17, Edith gave birth to a daughter, Marcelle, who died of meningitis two years later.

The turning point in Edith's fate was when the impresario Louis Leple, the owner of the fashionable cabaret "Jernice", located next to the Champs-Elysees, heard her singing and invited her to perform in his establishment with the song "Homeless Girls".

The singer's small stature (less than one and a half meters) and her appearance prompted the cabaret owner to come up with the idea for her to come up with the stage name Baby Piaf, which means “sparrow” in Parisian slang.

The success of the first performances was enormous. Especially for Edith, Jacques Bourget wrote the first songs - “Words without history” and “Ragman”.

In February 1936, Edith Piaf performed in a big concert at the Medrano circus along with leading French pop stars. A short performance on Radio City allowed her to take the first step towards fame.

After the murder of Louis Leple in April 1936, Edith came under police suspicion. The newspapers published her photograph as a suspect. As a result, the Parisian public was so hostile that Piaf was forced to leave the city and perform in its suburbs, Nice and Belgium.

When the scandal subsided, the singer was able to return to Paris. In 1937, she became close to the poet and composer Raymond Asso, who helped her create the “Piaf style,” based on the singer’s individuality. He wrote the songs “Paris - Mediterranean”, “She lived on Pigalle Street”, “My Legionnaire”, “Pennant for the Legion”. The story of Edith Piaf became the story of her songs. Asso secured a performance for the singer at the ABC music hall on the Grands Boulevards, the most famous music hall in Paris.

From that time on, the singer performed under the name Edith Piaf. In 1939, Edith separated from Asso.

During this period, she met the famous French poet, playwright and director Jean Cocteau, who invited her to play in a short play of his composition, “The Indifferent Handsome Man,” first shown in the 1940 season. Edith's performance impressed director Georges Lacombe, who based the play on the film "Montmartre-sur-Seine" (Montmartre-sur-Seine, 1941) with Edith Piaf in the title role.

During the occupation of France (1940-1944), the singer performed a lot in prisoner-of-war camps in Germany, took photographs with German officers and with French prisoners of war “as a souvenir,” and then in Paris, these photographs were used to make false documents for soldiers who fled the camp. Edith would then go to the same camp and secretly distribute false identification cards to the prisoners of war.

In 1947, Edith went on tour to Greece and then to the USA, where she met the greatest love of her life - boxer Marcel Cerdan, who was married and had three sons. In 1949, Cerdan died in a plane crash. His tragic death caused the singer severe depression.

In 1952, the singer was involved in two car accidents in a row. To alleviate the suffering caused by the fractures, doctors injected her with morphine, and Edith became addicted to drugs.

In July 1952, she married the poet and singer Jacques Pils; four years later the marriage broke up.

In 1958, Edith performed successfully at the Olympia concert hall. That same year, her 11-month tour of America began, followed by further performances at Olympia and a tour of France.

In 1961, the singer learned that she was terminally ill with liver cancer.

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

In October 1962, she married hairdresser Theo Lambukas, a Greek by nationality. Edith came up with the pseudonym Sarapo (Greek for “I love you”).

In April 1963, Piaf recorded her last song.

In the cinema, Edith Piaf played leading roles in the films Star Without Light (1946) and Lovers of Tomorrow (Les Amants de demain, 1959), she also starred in the dramas Affairs in Versailles. and “French Cancan”, released in 1954, etc.

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 consciousness duty to be performed. 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. While the new lover could not yet live with her under the same roof, she remained 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 There is still a warm jacket on the back of the chair - 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 “a real actress, but she had no heart.”

When Louis Gassion was able to come on his next vacation in 1917, 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. Permanent home she didn’t have any now - 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 cursed, put a large bill on the table and left.

A few days later, Edith no longer remembered her dead daughter - the streets during the day, the cabaret 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 of her entire career, but until her death she considered it 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, more love fits into one day than ten years. The townsfolk 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 the people who had recently formed 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 she should 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 complete opposite of Paul, but he entered Piaf’s life not so much as her next lover, but 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 for the 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 need to be able to change, this is the secret of 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 her greatest Love, who 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 true 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 to the blessed memory of 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.

It’s strange, but some sad coincidences are noticeable in the biography of Edith Piaf: two of her lovers died in plane crashes, and she herself was in car accidents four times. 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, take your checkbook, Madam has a fair amount written down for her.”

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 said "Good night" to her! 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. In 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. Evil tongues claimed that Theo coveted her wealth and sacrificed himself for them. 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 with an extraordinary love,” recalled Simone Berto, “the kind that they write about in novels, about which they say: this doesn’t happen, it’s 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 lost small body great singer. 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!”

This text is an introductory fragment. From the book Behind the Scenes Passions. How theater prima donnas loved author Foliyants Karine

Why is love needed? The Two Loves of Edith Piaf “My life was disgusting, it’s true. But my life was also amazing. Because I loved her, life, first of all. I would like it to be said about me as about Mary Magdalene: she will be forgiven a lot, for she

From the book Conversations with Ranevskaya author

Edith Piaf sings - Do you know Natalia Konchalovskaya? - asked F.G. - Always ready! - I saluted. - She not only writes pioneer verses. - Glad to try, your honor! - Well, that’s stupid! I don’t understand what causes such an attack of dementia in you? - The shortest thing in the world

From the book “Sparrow” at the Ball of Fortune (collection) by Berto Simone

From the book The Most Spicy Stories and Fantasies of Celebrities. Part 1 by Amills Roser

EDITH PIAF - Do you know Natalia Konchalovskaya? - asked F.G. - Who wrote the shortest poem in the world in collaboration with her husband? With Sergei Mikhalkov himself! I decided to compete with Chukovsky and write a new, antibacterial fairy tale poem for children. A fly sat on

From the book Divine Women [Elena the Beautiful, Anna Pavlova, Faina Ranevskaya, Coco Chanel, Sophia Loren, Catherine Deneuve and others] author Vulf Vitaly Yakovlevich

Edith Piaf Many connectionsEdi?t Piaf?f (Edi?t Giova?nna Gassio?n) (1915–1963) - French singer and actress. She was born under the light of a street lamp on a Parisian street, where a gendarme helped during the birth of her mother. Her parents were alcoholics, divorced and left her

From book Strong women[From Princess Olga to Margaret Thatcher] author Vulf Vitaly Yakovlevich

Edith Piaf. Love of the Parisian streets In October 1935, visitors, including famous journalists, Radio-Cité director Marcel Blestein-Blanchet and Maurice Chevalier, gathered in the former Zhernice restaurant on rue Pierre-Charron for the opening of the cabaret. Director of the new establishment

From the book 50 Greatest Women [Collector's Edition] author Vulf Vitaly Yakovlevich

Edith Piaf Love of the Parisian Streets In October 1935, visitors, including famous journalists, Radio-Cité director Marcel Blestein-Blanchet and Maurice Chevalier, gathered in the former Zhernice restaurant on rue Pierre-Charron for the opening of the cabaret. Director of the new establishment

From the book My Queens: Ranevskaya, Zelenaya, Peltzer author Skorokhodov Gleb Anatolievich

Edith Piaf THE LOVE OF PARISIAN STREETS In October 1935, visitors, including famous journalists, Radio-Cité director Marcel Blestein-Blanchet and Maurice Chevalier, gathered in the former Zhernice restaurant on rue Pierre Charron for the opening of the cabaret. Director of the new establishment

From the book Women Who Changed the World author Velikovskaya Yana

Edith Piaf sings - Do you know Natalia Konchalovskaya? – asked F.G. – Who wrote the shortest poem in the world in collaboration with her husband? With Sergei Mikhalkov himself! I decided to compete with Chukovsky and write a new, antibacterial fairy tale poem for children. – Mukha Sela

From the book 100 Great Love Stories author Kostina-Cassanelli Natalia Nikolaevna

Edith Piaf Edith Piaf, whose real name was Edith Giovanna Gasion, was born on December 19, 1915 in Paris, and died in Grasse on October 10, 1963. Edith Piaf was a French singer and actress who gained worldwide recognition and popularity thanks to

From the book by Edith Piaf author Nadezhdin Nikolay Yakovlevich

Edith Piaf and Marcel Cerdan This little woman, whose pseudonym is translated from Parisian slang as “sparrow,” had such a big heart and such a stunning voice that it was unclear how both fit in her thin body! Thirst for life Piaf Just

From the book by Edith Piaf. Without love we are nothing author Brillard Jean-Dominique

30. The great Edith Piaf Having essentially no education and no musical literacy, Piaf sang other people’s songs and composed herself. One of the poets whom she fell in love with immediately and unconditionally was Raymond Asso. His poems fit perfectly with the music that I loved so much

From the author's book

32. Wealthy Edith Piaf During that concert on the Grand Boulevards, Edith sang songs that Raymond Asso wrote especially for her - “She lived on the Rue Pigalle,” “My Legionnaire,” “Pennant for the Legion.” And the very next day it flashed across France: “Yesterday on the ABC stage

From the author's book

Jean-Dominique Brillard Edith Piaf. Without love we are nothing. We express special gratitude to the literary agent Anastasia Lester for her help in acquiring the rights to publish this book. It was first published in French by the Hors Collection, a division of Place

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 ever once again want to complain about your fate, just remember the “little sparrow” of Paris, the woman who, until her last days, walked 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 a 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 St. 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, Edith was immediately disliked, which is not surprising - the girl lived in a 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. My father's new family 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 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 again and again to play Baby Piaf’s songs.

11. During the Second World War, “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 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 the future Queen of 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. In the post-war years, Edith meets the American boxer Marcel Cerdan, who became her greatest joy and greatest sadness. 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 a 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 the mourning could not last forever, and Edith returned to her 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 the historical film “If They Tell Me About Versailles.” A little later, she had an 11-month tour of America, and then of France - such stress caused great damage to her 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 - Piaf's last love. 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. magic wand».

“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’s still worth living and what to live for?”

Edith Piaf (real name Gasion) was born on December 19, 1915, a French singer (chansonnier).

Her mother, circus performer Anette Maillard, gave her to her parents to raise and wisely disappeared. The baby's father, Louis Gasion, went to the front immediately after her birth.

It cannot be said that the Mayar couple were happy about the appearance of the girl, but at least they did not abandon her. Grandparents' ideas about child care turned out to be quite unique. The whole family ate mostly “good wine,” although for Edith, as an exception, it was mixed with milk. In 1917, her father, arriving on vacation, found his daughter, although not entirely healthy, but still alive.

Edith agreed to take his mother Louise, a cook in a brothel. It turned out that in the very first months of her life, Edith began to develop cataracts, but the Maillard couple, apparently, simply did not notice this. Grandma Louise spared no expense on treatment, but nothing helped. The doctors were powerless, but the “employees” of the brothel were kind to Louise’s granddaughter. They went to church and prayed for her. Soon a miracle happened - Edith began to see.

The girl went to school, but respectable inhabitants did not want to see a child living in a brothel next to their children, and her studies ended very quickly.

Edith began working on the street with her father (before the war he was an acrobat). Louis demonstrated tricks to the public, Edith sang and collected money.

At the age of fourteen, Edith decided that she was already completely independent, left her father and got a job in a dairy shop, but Edith returned to her previous craft. At first she worked with two friends, and then with her half-sister Simone.

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. And a year later their daughter was born.

When Edith was offered to sing in the cheap cabaret Juan-les-Pins, Dupont's patience came to an end. He left her and soon took her daughter, who soon fell ill and died. Together with his daughter, Louis finally left Edith’s life.

Several years passed and Piaf “woke up famous.” After her debut at the ABC music hall, her name appeared in all the newspapers. It was a sensation. This is how the Great Edith Piaf was born for the second time.

She had many men - both unknown legionnaires and celebrities: Raymond Asso, Jacques Pilet, Yves Montand.

At the end of 1946, Piaf was introduced to Marcel Cerdan. Edith went on tour to America and met him there. Since then, this couple has become inseparable, and Marcel’s things moved to Edith’s apartment.

But Marcel had a wife and three sons. He couldn’t leave them, and he couldn’t hide his affair. Despite all her love, Edith only once (in Lock Sheldrake) agreed to give up ordinary life for Marcel. She never limited herself again.

But Marcel Cerdan died in a plane crash. Edith began to experience severe depression. She began to drink and sought salvation from melancholy in spiritualism. She was drawn back to where she started: Edith went out into the streets, dressed in old clothes, sang and rejoiced like a child that no one would recognize her. She returned home almost at a crawl, bringing with her men whose names she could not remember by morning.

Time heals, and the wound caused by Marcel's death has healed. But she was not the last. A few years after Cerdan's death, Edith Piaf was in a car accident.

She began taking painkillers; drugs remained her faithful companions. One day the singer tried to jump out of a window, and only the presence of her friend Marguerite Monod saved her life.

Realizing that she could no longer cope without morphine, Edith Piaf decided to undergo treatment. But when she returned home, she started injecting drugs again. Then I ended up in the hospital again, unable to bear it, ran away from there, came back again... I managed to recover, but I didn’t get rid of alcoholism and depression. Cancer completed the list of her 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, shackled by arthritis, did not leave her, even fainting, 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 took her lover to stage, but died without having time to make a real star out of him.

Edith Piaf died on October 11, 1963. The great Edith Piaf - a woman who was loved, performed in the music hall, drama theater, and acted in films (including the films "The Nameless Star", "Paris Continues to Sing"). Piaf was distinguished by her richly colored voice, expression and simultaneous simplicity of her performing style, and artistry. She created masterpieces of lyrical confessional songs (author of the lyrics and music of some of them).

Key words: When was Edith Piaf born? When did Edith Piaf die? Where was Edith Piaf born? Where did Edith Piaf die? What is Edith Piaf famous for? Whose citizenship is Edith Piaf?

December 2015 marked the 100th anniversary of the birth of a French star named Edith Piaf. But it seems that no matter how many more centuries pass, the name of this brilliant singer will be just as famous, and her work will be just as revered as it is today. Edith Piaf's life is a series of ups and deepest downs. Perhaps, the heavens measured out the trials measured out for the life of this tiny woman, one and a half meters tall, as would be enough for ten people.

Death of an only child, two (according to other sources four) car accidents, seven heavy operations, addiction to drugs and alcohol, bouts of insanity and delirium tremens, a suicide attempt, three comas due to hepatitis, two world wars and the loss of a loved one - this is just the tip of the iceberg. The biography of Edith Piaf is a string of tragedies that make it possible to call this woman a martyr and a sinner in equal measure.

Childhood and youth

Piaf was born in December 1915. Her parents - failed actress Anita Maillard and acrobat Louis Gassion - earned a living as best they could. The girl was born at the height of the First World War. The father went to the front, and the mother sent the baby to her grandmother. The woman abused alcohol and her granddaughter became a real burden for her. Therefore, wine was mixed into her bottle of milk so that she would constantly sleep.

Gassion, returning from the front, found his daughter in terrible condition. Exhausted, seemingly never washed, with festering eyes, the girl melted the soldier’s heart. Louis took the baby to Normandy to live with his elderly mother. Here, 3-year-old Edith Giovanna Gassion, which is Piaf's real name, finally learned what care and attention means. The grandmother noticed with horror that her granddaughter was blind. As it turned out, the former always tipsy “nanny” simply did not see the developed keratitis.

There is a legend that Saint Teresa, to whom thousands of pilgrims from all over the country came to Lisieux every year, managed to heal the blind Edith Giovanna. According to other sources, the baby was cured in the hospital, but at the same time the grandmother tirelessly prayed for her insight to Saint Teresa. Be that as it may, Edith’s vision returned. From then on, the portrait of the saint was constantly with her until the end of her life.

And everything would have been fine if it weren’t for the place where little Edith Piaf had to live with a kind old lady. It was a brothel. According to some sources, the woman worked here as a servant. According to others, she maintained the house. At school, a little girl was bullied so much that she had to leave her studies. The grandmother sent her 9-year-old granddaughter to her father in Paris.

Louis Gassion himself barely survived. He supported 8 children, Edith's half-brothers and sisters. All the father could do to help his eldest daughter was to take the child with him to work. He performed acrobatic acts in the streets and squares.

It turned out that the daughter could sing. While the man was performing, a tiny girl sang some simple song. Compassionate passersby, looking at the singing child in beggarly rags, donated more money.

This is how the creative biography of Edith Piaf began, on the street. When the girl turned 14, she began to live an independent life, earning her rent by singing in various hot spots. Skinny, ugly, with vulgarly painted lips and eyes, in bright, never-washed rags, she looked terrible. But the voice - the voice was magnificent.

Music

The street singer was noticed by the owner of the Juan-les-Pins cabaret. When this awkward girl came on stage to sing, everyone froze. Surprisingly, at these moments she seemed unusually beautiful. Shop owner Louis Dupont fell in love with a cabaret singer. They started living together. At 17, Piaf became a mother. But she couldn’t nurse little Marcel for days. The stage had long become a place for Edith, outside of which she could not imagine life.

To force the “negligent mother” to stay at home, Du Pont moved the baby to his home. He hoped that this way his wife would return to him. But Marcelle fell ill with meningitis that was raging in Paris, which doctors at that time did not really know how to treat. Edith Piaf came to the girl in the hospital and also became infected. She managed to recover, but Marcel died. The singer never had any more children. She left Louis after all.

In 1935, the 20-year-old singer came to the attention of the owner of the Zhernis cabaret, which was located on the Champs-Elysees. Louis Leple compared this priceless find to a rough diamond. It was he who came up with her stage name Piaf (little sparrow). The cut turned out to be tough. The future star was taught everything: to work with an accompanist, to dress tastefully, to behave correctly on stage, to watch facial expressions, to gesticulate.

Edith Piaf performs the song Padam, Padam

Some biographers write that Leple did not stand on ceremony with the “acquisition.” He could easily slap the artist on the head. But he achieved the desired result. Soon new star sparkled on the stage of Zhernis. On the first posters her name sounded like “Baby Piaf.” The success followed was unexpectedly loud.

And her debut performance on the radio allowed her to become famous throughout the country. Radio listeners flooded the editorial office with letters demanding “Baby Piaf.” The rapid rise was followed by a fall. Leple was found shot to death. Piaf also fell into the circle of suspects, because Louis also mentioned her in his will. The persecution began in the newspapers. The audience started riots during the singer’s performances.

A new takeoff occurred after a meeting with the famous poet Raymond Asso. He taught the rising star everything that Leple had not learned. Asso is credited with creating the "Piaf style". The songwriter wrote specially for her the compositions “Paris - Mediterranean”, “She lived on Pigalle Street”, “Pennant for the Legion” and “My Legionnaire”.

Soon the composer Marguerite Monnot joined this tandem, from whose collaboration the songs “Little Marie”, “The Devil Next to Me” and “Hymn of Love” were born.

Edith Piaf performs the song Non, Je ne regrette rien

Asso achieved a performance by Edith Piaf on the stage of the most popular music hall in Paris, ABC. Performing on these stages was equivalent to launching a ship on big water. After the first performance, all Parisian newspapers wrote about the birth of the great French singer Edith Piaf.

During World War II, the star left Asso and began working with, a famous French director. He filmed the singer in his film “Indifferent Handsome Man”. A year later, in 1941, the artist again appeared on screen in Georges Lacombe's film Montmartre on the Seine.

It is known that the French legend contributed to the approach of victory. She performed for French prisoners of war and was photographed with them after the concert. These photographs were then used to make photographs for documents with which the prisoners could escape from the camp.

The singer's popularity in the post-war period was enormous. In 1955, Piaf performed at the Olympia, the legendary concert hall. After the performance, she immediately went on a multi-month tour throughout America.

Edith Piaf performs the song La vie en rose

Even then the star was very sick. Her health, undermined by serious illnesses, alcohol and drugs, which she used to suppress the pain from worsening arthritis, was completely undermined by this trip. The singer spent several months in the hospital.

In 1961, she was diagnosed with liver cancer. And in September 1962, the French “sparrow” was heard throughout Paris. Edith Piaf sang to her compatriots from the heights of the Eiffel Tower best songs“No, I Regret Nothing,” “My Lord,” and “The Right to Love.” The last time she came out to fans was on March 31, 1963. This was the stage of the opera house in Lille.

Personal life

Legends were told about her novels. Surprisingly, this small, generally ugly and even to some extent caricatured woman had incredible power over men. At the same time, she was always the first to leave her lovers, as soon as she realized that her feelings had cooled down.

So, for example, after 2 years of marriage, she did this with a 23-year-old man, whom she paved the way to the stage and taught him everything. There is talk of her having an affair with a Hollywood star. Allegedly, these two legendary women were connected not only by friendly feelings.

While touring America, the star met her famous compatriot, boxer Marcel Cerdan. He became the main man in Edith Piaf's life. At the time of their acquaintance, Cerdan had a wife and three sons. But he could not resist this great little woman, torn between his family and Piaf until the end of his life. Wherever he was, he ran as fast as he could if Edith called him.

This is what happened on that terrible October day in 1949. She invited Marcel to New York, where she was then touring. Cerdan dropped everything and flew out. His plane crashed near the Azores. Marcel's remains were identified by a watch given to him by Piaf. The star saved herself from deep depression with morphine, alcohol and work.

Edith Piaf's personal life got a chance to change when the singer turned 36. She married singer Jacques Pils, but the marriage soon broke up. She never learned how to build a family nest and create comfort. Her home was a walk-through courtyard with a half-room piano, poor furniture and signs of neglect.

At the very end of Edith Piaf’s life, the son of Greek emigrants, Theofanis Lamboukis, wandered into this home. He turned out to be her longtime fan. This was the singer's last passion. The 20-year age difference, like all other conventions, did not interest the woman. At that time, she already knew her terrible diagnosis - cancer.

Edith married young Theophanis. She came up with his stage name Theo Sarapo and even tried - with the last of her fading strength - to bring him on stage. The attempt failed. The newspapers were choked with angry articles about the gigolo and his elderly patroness. Nevertheless, they were happy.

Death

Sarapo looked with adoration at this woman, emaciated by illness, almost bald, and until her last days he touchingly looked after her. He took her out for a walk and fed her. This continued throughout their entire life together. family life, which lasted 11 months. But Theo did not survive Edith for long. He died in an accident 7 years after her death.

On October 10, 1963, the legend passed away. The church refused to perform her funeral service and burial ceremony, explaining that Edith Piaf’s whole life was a complete sin.

But the singer’s fans didn’t think so. More than 40 thousand people gathered at the Père Lachaise cemetery, where the star was buried. They brought with them so many flowers that they covered the entire alley to the grave in a thick ball.