Edith piaf message briefly. Edith Piaf. The Last Years of Edith Piaf

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

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

It cannot be said that the Maiar spouses were delighted with the appearance of the girl, but at least they did not refuse her. Grandparents' ideas about caring for children turned out to be quite peculiar. The whole family ate mainly "good wine", however, for Edith, as an exception, it was mixed with milk. In 1917, her father, having arrived on vacation, found his daughter, although not quite 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 Maiar couple, apparently, simply did not notice this. Grandma Louise did not spare money for treatment, but nothing helped. The doctors were powerless, but the "colleagues" 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 for her.

Edith began to work 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 former craft. At first she worked with two friends, and then with her half-sister Simone.

Men in Edith's life appeared early - almost immediately after her departure from her father. She fell in love regularly and just as regularly threw her lovers. So it was all her life.

The father of her only child, Louis Dupont, was no exception. And a year later they had a daughter.

When Edith was offered to sing in the cheap cabaret "Juan-les-Pins", Dupont's patience came to an end. He left her, soon took his daughter, who soon fell ill and died. Together with her 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. So the second time the Great Edith Piaf was born.

She had many men - and unknown legionnaires, and celebrities: Reymond 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 belongings have migrated to Edith's apartment.

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

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

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

She began to take painkillers, drugs remained her faithful companions. Once the singer tried to jump out of the window, and only the presence of her friend Marguerite Monod saved her life.

Realizing that she could no longer do without morphine, Edith Piaf decided on treatment. But when she returned home, she again began to inject. Then she went to the hospital again, unable to stand it, ran away from there, returned again ... She managed to recover, but she 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 unclench her hands, bound by arthritis, did not leave her, even fainting, and at forty-seven years old, just before the end, she fell in love with a twenty-seven-year-old hairdresser Theofanis Lambukas, married him and brought her lover to stage, but died before she could 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, acted in films (including the films "Nameless Star", "Paris continues to sing"). Piaf was distinguished by a voice rich in colors, expression and simultaneous simplicity of his performing manner, artistry. She created masterpieces of a lyrical song-confession (the author of the texts and music of some of them).

Keywords: When was Edith Piaf born? When did Edith Piaf die? Where was Edith Piaf born? Where did Edith Piaf die? Why is Edith Piaf famous? What is the nationality of Edith Piaf?

Who does not know the greatest French singer, whose songs have become world hits, and she herself is a role model for millions? But not everyone knows how many tests she had to share. She survived a difficult - almost hungry - childhood, the death of a child, 2 car accidents, 7 operations, 3 coma, several bouts of delirium tremens, a fit of insanity, a suicide attempt, two world wars.

She did not survive only liver cancer in 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 "sparrow" of Paris, a woman who, until her last days, went forward without giving up, conquering the hearts of millions, inspired and gifted with the power to love - Edith Piaf.

1. Edith Piaf was born (real name - Edith Giovanna Gasion) December 19, 1915. Almost on the same day, the girl's mother, the failed actress Anita Maiar, while her husband was at the front, gave the girl to her mother to raise. But she did not need it - in order to calm the girl who was disturbing her with her crying, the "loving" grandmother fed the child with diluted wine. Such feeding paid off - by the age of three, Edith was completely blind.

2. Later there will be a legend associated with the birth of Edith. However, it is unlikely that she is true, but according to her, a girl was born under a street lamp in the 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 his mother, who kept a brothel. However, she fell in love with her granddaughter and took care of her. She did everything to make the girl see clearly. And in 1925 she succeeded. When there was no longer any hope for Edith's recovery, her grandmother took her to Lisieux to St. Theresa. A few days later, my beloved granddaughter - oh, a 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 became 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 her. I 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 bear it, and soon her father took her to Paris. There, a 9-year-old girl begins to work with her father on the city squares: her father showed acrobatic stunts, and her daughter sang. Edith did not fully learn to read and write - even in the songs that 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. The father's new family experienced enormous financial difficulties. Edith, in turn, helped them financially, but later this led to the girl leaving her father. Forever and ever.

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 Marcel. However, her marriage was unsuccessful - her husband demanded that Edith give up work, and they broke up. For some time, Edith's daughter stayed with her, but one day, not finding her at home, Edith realized that her husband had a girl - he expected that then his wife would return. But she didn't come back. 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 notices her and invites 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 accompaniment, explained the importance of costume, facial expressions, behavior, and artist. It was he who made Edith Piaf out of Edith Gasion. Even 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 success did not last long. Soon, Louis is killed, and Edith falls under suspicion, as he left her a certain amount. 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 in 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. Hearing her voice on the radio, people ask again and again to put Little Piaf's songs on the air.

11. During the Second World War, “Baby Piaf” meets Jean Cocteau, who invited her to play in the play “Indifferent Handsome”. It was first shown in 1940. A year later, the play was made into a film in which Edith played the main role.

12. It's hard to believe, but Edith Piaf was so popular and in demand that she could afford to speak to French prisoners of war. And after the concert, she managed to give them everything they needed to escape. The countrymen appreciated her personal courage and mercy, because she risked her life.

13. The post-war period was a time of special success for Edith. Her work was admired by the suburbs 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 have become known to the whole world thanks to the "sparrow".

15. In the post-war years, Edith met the American boxer Marcel Cerdan, who became her greatest joy and greatest sadness. Fate again played a cruel joke with Edith - in 1949, having flown to his beloved from New York, he crashed in a plane crash. Edith fell into a severe depression: she began to drink morphine, after which she had seizures, and once she 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.

16. But mourning could not last forever, and Edith again returns to her solo career. And I even fell in love again.

In 1952, Edith gets into two car accidents and breaks almost all of her ribs and both arms. To alleviate 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 former pleasure, but Edith only immersed herself more in 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 in France - such loads caused great damage to her physical health. And in 1961, fate dealt the hardest blow to the singer - doctors discovered liver cancer in Edith. But she continued to perform until the end of her days.

18. In recent 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 hall applauded standing.

20. The songs of Edith Piaf have remained with us forever, and the courage and willpower of the singer left an indelible mark on the hearts of people. Even during her lifetime, an autobiography was published. Whether everything that is in it is true is unknown. But one thing is clear: this is how she wanted to remain in the memory of people.

“When I don’t die of love, when I have nothing to die from, then I’m ready to die!”

"I don't sing for everyone - I sing for everyone."

“Artists and the public should not meet. After the curtain falls, the actor must disappear as if by magic.

"Hands don't lie like faces."

In response to the words of the doctors that she kills herself, continuing to sing in front of the public: "This is the most beautiful way to commit suicide."

“I led a terrible life, it’s true. But also life is amazing. Because, above all else, I loved her."

“For love, for happiness, one often has to pay 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 felt like it, to dream… to hope.”

“This is the crowd that, I hope, will see me off on my last journey, because I don’t like loneliness. The terrible loneliness that embraces you at dawn or at nightfall, when you ask yourself whether it is still worth living and why to live?

Case history of Edith Giovanna Gassion (Piaf) / Édith Giovanna Gassion (Piaf)

The girl in a black knee-length dress, similar to a widow's outfit, clearly possessed some kind of gloomy charm. Widow of life? A stubby symbol of an abandoned woman? A woman whom the Lord forgot for no reason? ..

Sylvain Rainer

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

Sasha Guitry

Not! 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 by my whole life:
I will never regret anything!
Not! Nothing!

Edith Piaf

In 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 in the family of a wandering acrobat and a street singer who did not disdain prostitution, Edith immediately fell from unkind parental embrace to her maternal grandmother and grandfather - a couple of real scumbags, and besides, drinkers. Grandmother, an old vixen, 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 of his daughter, and sent her to his mother, the owner of a brothel. There, the girl was treated well, but she suffered ... blindness! It is difficult to say what it was, and the local doctor, who was used to "repairing" shattered genitals, did not understand anything. He assured that "Edith's eyes were just tired." They put a black bandage on her and began to drip a solution of silver nitrate into the 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 the fear of darkness and faith in everything mystical, mysterious, occult ...

From eight to 14 years old, Edith "assisted" her father: she invited the public, collected coins, sang simple songs. The street was her living room, dining room, life-forming environment. Nobody followed her health, and in 1930 (she was 15 years old), Edith, who smoked mercilessly, had problems with her lungs. At St. Anthony's Hospital, she was examined by the famous French internist pulmonologist Raul Kurilsky. On the X-ray, the doctor found darkening in the lungs, an increase in the right ventricle of the heart, seals 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 on the streets, carrying the child with her, until the baby's father, a certain Louis "The Kid", gave the girl to his mother. At that time, Edith looked, to put it mildly, very peculiar. Small in stature (147 cm), terribly dirty (she and her sister bathed, according to her later confession, only on big holidays), with wild make-up, with hair slicked to the head with saliva ... But the audience for which she sang was not much cleaner, so there were no complaints. In 1933, her two-year-old daughter Edith died of meningitis. Tormented by late remorse, she went to the hospital mortuary and sawed off a strand of the child's hair with a nail file. At the same time, the head on a small body dangled 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 Café Zhernis by Louis Leple, known as a connoisseur not only of chanson, but also of 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 slang). During the first concert of Edith, the entire beau monde was present in the cafe: Maurice Chevalier, Philippe Eria, pop queen Mistinguett, pilot Jean Mormoz and others. The success of such a demanding audience was complete. However, a year later, Leplé 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 it’s not cheap “ink”, but cognac and Beaujolais ... Fortunately, Raymond Asso appeared in her life, who became Piaf Pygmalion: he improved her skills, set her voice, taught her to hold a fork and wash in the morning. No wonder the savage Edith threw terrible scandals at him. This love "war" continued for three years, and Piaf herself initiated the break. Asso helped her perform in the largest Parisian cabaret ABC, where she was seen by the musical and artistic elite. Jean Cocteau said: "Madame Piaf is brilliant!" From that moment on, she, like a swinging pennant, passes from one strong male hand to another: Paul Meurisse, Michel Emer, Henri Conte, Ivo Livy (Yves Montand). They ended up next to Piaf during the war years.

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

After the war, Yves Montand was replaced by Jean-Louis Jaubert, with whose ensemble "Le Companion de la Chanson" Piaf successfully performed in France and the USA. In 1947, Piaf, who was already not in good health, suffered a heavy blow: she fell ill rheumatoid arthritis. The pharmaceutics 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 appeared 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 longing, reaching the degree of depression. In 1948, she tried to poison herself with a package of sleeping pills, washing it down with a glass of alcohol, but her hand trembled - the pills crumbled, and she could not collect them, and therefore only plunged into heavy sleep. Already by 1949, Piaf had an undoubted dependence on alcohol and barbituric sleeping pills. She, like M. Monroe, sometimes went over the drugs so much that she disrupted concerts ... It is amazing that alcohol and sleeping pills, and later tranquilizers, still did not really affect Piaf's phenomenal working capacity! True, after the death of M. Serdan in a plane crash, who was identified only by the watch on both hands, Piaf drank furiously and plunged into the occult. Around her appeared all sorts of charlatans, clairvoyants, sorcerers, African magicians. She bought a table for practicing spiritualism for big money, through which she “communicated” with Serdan. A sense of guilt (it was precisely in obedience to her hysterical-egoistic whim that Serdan 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, her arm and two ribs were broken. 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 grow. The drug cost the same as cortisone, but interruptions in taking the drug led the singer to a severe breakdown, during which she tried to jump out of the window. On July 29, 1952, Piaf married René Victor Eugene Ducos (Jacques Pils). He was rather cold-blooded about the fact that his wife “got on the needle”, and tried to “distract” her with wine, because before the wedding she assured him that she was using ... cortisone! However, her condition soon forced her husband to send Piaf to a psychiatric clinic in Meudon. This helped little - while on tour in the USA, Piaf kept 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 use the “step by step” tactic (“step by step”), limiting the number of injections. Nothing came of it - the dose has not decreased, she is already injecting right through her dress and stocking ... When she was hospitalized, the psychiatrists did not yet have a methadone rehabilitation program and again applied the "step by step" method. The drug-free day came and... Piaf writes: “I thought I was going crazy that day. Terrible pains tore me apart, the tendons moved by themselves.

One circumstance is not devoid of curiosity: Piaf cherished in herself a certain special illness - an unwillingness to get better, to survive, to endure, to "jump out." She did her best, moving from one hospital to another, to die little by little, to destroy life in herself in a small piece. And at the same time (women's logic!) Piaf demanded the intensity and unexpectedness of events. Her whole life was determined by chance, outbursts of sensuality and a passionate attitude towards the profession. The years came in her life, which one of the biographers called the "holiday of hell": Piaf continued to secretly mix alcohol and drugs. One day after such a "cocktail" she yelled for twelve hours straight. Repeated detoxification led to only short-term remission, the possibility of relapse in morphine addiction is always very high, and withdrawal is the most severe of all narcotic drugs... From 1951 to 1962, Piaf twice got into an accident, suffered two alcoholic psychoses (delirium tremens) and several drug coma, made two suicide attempts. But she didn’t stop “applying” and injecting! While on tour in the United States, she was taken straight from the concert to the Presbyterian Hospital in New York, where for four hours under general anesthesia stopped ulcerative (?) bleeding and sutured ulcer perforation. Soon she was operated on again. Why did Piaf's work, which 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 to be unhappy." But this is masochism! In 1960, Piaf was admitted to the American hospital in Neuilly near Paris. Another operation followed. Unwillingness to live, inescapable longing - this is how her biographers describe Piaf's state at that time. More injections, 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 bilateral pneumonia, and her well-known professor R. Kurilsky examined her again. “The patient developed acute pulmonary insufficiency, accompanied by attacks of suffocation, - he said. — My colleagues and I have almost decided on a tracheotomy, but the operation was avoided. 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 ... "

Even the wedding with Theo Sarapo in 1962 did not change Piaf - immediately after the marriage, she goes to a drug treatment clinic for another detox! Hepatic coma, constant massage chest, manual therapy of the 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 miraculous drug from an amniotic extract. It should be noted that Piaf had severe anemia (occult bleeding continued), cirrhosis of the liver, Cushing's syndrome (from long-term use of hormones), 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 a coma by Professor Kar at the Ambroise Pare clinic, but this was already the final. The latest diagnosis, signed by Dr. Marion, reads: “Coma with complete loss of consciousness, jaundice. The patient is subject to immediate hospitalization for treatment with dehydrated liver extract and adrenal cortex extract. It is desirable to place under a dropper and the introduction of saline. After being introduced into abdominal cavity jaundice practically did not decrease after the amnion implant. The liver, like the whole body of the patient, is in an extremely unsatisfactory condition.. It was October 9, 1962. The next day, the doctor did not have time to call. Arginine injection didn't help...

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

Nikolai Larinsky, 2002-2014

Childhood and family of Edith Piaf

It so happened that Edith was born when her father was at the front, and her mother was left alone. Since it was hard for her mother to perform on stage with her little daughter, she decided to “throw” the baby to her parents. The maternal grandmother did not care about her granddaughter at all, she was in an absolutely neglected state. Since grandmother often drank wine, so that Edith would not bother her, she poured wine into her bottle with milk. It was in such conditions that the father who came from the front found his daughter. Taking her, he went to Normandy, where his mother lived.

The paternal grandmother raised her granddaughter in love, sparing nothing for her. It turned out that three-year-old Edith was completely blind, due to cataracts that developed after birth. The treatment turned out to be useless. The baby began to see clearly only after she was taken to St. Teresa in the city of Lisieux. Edith studied at school for a very short time, soon her father arrived and took her to Paris. Together they began to perform on the streets, so earning a living. To the singing of his daughter, the father performed acrobatic numbers.

Early career: the first songs of Edith Piaf

This existence continued until the owner of the Zhernis cabaret heard her street performance and offered to sing in his institution. The man's name is Louis Leple. For the first performance, the aspiring singer decided to knit a dress for herself, but by the time she entered the stage, one sleeve was not tied. That was the reason why she made her debut in a long black dress with a white scarf over it.

Edith Piaf - Padam, Padam

From the beginning of Edith's work with Leple, she had a pseudonym. Leple named her Edith Piaf. Translated from the Parisian slang, the pseudonym was translated as "sparrow". On the posters it was written - "Baby Piaf". The girl's career was rapidly going up, but she was destined to be interrupted due to the tragedy that happened to Leple - he was shot dead. It so happened that the singer was also suspected of his murder.

The rise of Edith Piaf's career

From Raymond Asso, the singer left with the outbreak of World War II. She performed throughout the entire period of hostilities. Often it was singing in front of prisoners of war, whom she tried to help as best she could: more than once she handed over documents and everything necessary for escaping.

Edith Piaf. Non Je Ne Regrette Rien

Having become famous in France, the singer went to conquer America. During her short career, she performed extensively in different countries. The disease ended her life very early.

The last years and causes of death of Edith Piaf

To all her troubles, cancer and severe arthritis were added. Sometimes she fainted from the pain. The last time Edith performed was in March 1963. The concert ended with a five-minute standing ovation. The singer died in October 1963. Forty thousand people came out to bury her.

Personal life of Edith Piaf

The singer's great love was a boxer named Marcel Cerdan. Their romance developed rapidly, but her lover died in a plane crash. Shortly before her death, Edith married a hairdresser, falling in love with him. To a young man was only twenty-seven years old. The singer managed to bring her husband to the stage.

Edith Piaf

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

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

She was born in the family of the failed actress Anita Maillard, who performed on stage under the pseudonym Lin Mars, and the acrobat Louis Gassion.

At the beginning of World War I, he volunteered for the front. Specially received a two-day leave at the end of 1915 to see his newborn daughter Edith.

There is a legend that the future singer got 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 found out that his wife had left him, and her daughter had been given to her parents to raise.

The conditions in which little Edith lived were appalling. 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 kept a brothel.

It turned out that three-year-old Edith is 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, grandmother Gassion and her girls took Edith to Lisieux to Saint Teresa, 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 was 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 seen clearly."

At the age of seven, Edith went to school, surrounded by the cares 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.

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

When Edith was fifteen years old, she met her younger half-sister Simone. Simone's mother insisted that the eleven-year-old daughter begin to bring money into the house, relations in the family, where seven more children grew up in addition to Simone, were difficult, and Edith took her younger sister to her to sing on the street. Prior to that, she had already lived on her own.

In 1932, Edith began to live with the owner of the store, Louis Dupont, from 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 "Zhernis" (le Gerny's) on the Champs Elysees, and invited to perform in his program. He taught her how to rehearse with an accompanist, how to choose and direct songs, and explained how important the artist's costume, his gestures, facial expressions, and behavior on stage are.

It was Leple who found a name for Edith - Piaf, what in Parisian slang means "sparrow". Wearing torn shoes, she sang in the street: "Born like a sparrow, lived like a sparrow, died like a sparrow."

In "Zhernis" on the posters her name was printed as "Baby Piaf", and the success of the first performances was huge.

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

However, a successful takeoff was interrupted by tragedy: soon Louis Leple was shot in the head, and Edith Piaf was among the suspects because he left her a small amount in his will. The newspapers inflated this story, and visitors to the cabaret, in which Edith Piaf performed, behaved with hostility, believing that they had the right to "punish the criminal."

Then she met the poet Raymond Asso, who finally determined the future life of the singer. It is to him in many respects that the merit of the birth of the "Great Edith Piaf" belongs. 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 the personality of Edith, he wrote songs suitable only for her, "tailor-made": "Paris - Mediterranean", "She lived on Pigalle Street", "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 own” composer, but also a close friend of the singer. Later, Piaf created several more songs with Monnot, and among them - "Little Marie", "The Devil is 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.

A performance at the ABC was considered an exit to 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 the performance in ABC, the press wrote about Edith: “Yesterday, a great singer was born on the ABC stage in France.” An extraordinary voice, true dramatic talent, diligence 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 small play of her own composition, Indifferent Handsome. 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 filmed, in which Edith received the main role.

During World War II, Edith's parents died. The countrymen also appreciated 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 would give them everything they needed to escape, and her mercy - she arranged concerts in favor of the families of the victims. During the occupation, Edith Piaf performed in prison camps in Germany, took pictures with German officers and French prisoners of war "as a keepsake", and then in Paris, these photographs were used to make fake documents for soldiers who had fled from the camp.

Edith Piaf - Padam Padam

Edith helped to find themselves and start their way to success to many novice performers - Yves Montand, the Companion de la Chanson ensemble, Eddie Constantin, Charles Aznavour and other talents.

The post-war period was a period of unprecedented success for her. Residents of the Parisian suburbs and sophisticated connoisseurs of art, 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 the listeners, a life devoted entirely to the song made her lonely. Edith herself understood this well: “The audience pulls you into their arms, opens their heart and swallows you whole. You are filled with her love, and she is filled with yours. Then, in the fading light of the hall, you hear the sound of departing steps. They are still yours. You no longer shudder with delight, but you feel good. And then the streets, the darkness, the heart becomes cold, you are alone..

In 1952, Edith had two car accidents in a row - both with Charles Aznavour. To alleviate the suffering caused by fractures of the arm and ribs, the 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 Secrets of Versailles 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, after - the next performances at Olympia, a tour of France.

Edith Piaf wrote two autobiographies "At the Ball of Luck" and "My life", and her friend of 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 severely undermined her health. The functions of the liver were seriously impaired - sclerosis was combined with cirrhosis, and the whole organism was too weakened.

During 1960-1963. she repeatedly ended up in hospitals, sometimes for several 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 song "No, I do not regret anything", "Crowd", "My Lord", "You do not hear", "The right to love". All of Paris listened to her.

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

On October 10, 1963, Edith Piaf died. The body of the singer 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 the death of Piaf.

The singer's funeral took place at the Pere Lachaise cemetery. More than forty thousand people gathered on 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 Piaf Square (Place Edith Piaf).

Height of Edith Piaf: 147 centimeters.

Personal life of Edith Piaf:

In 1932, Edith met the shop owner Louis Dupont(Louis Dupont). A year later, 17-year-old Edith had a daughter, Marcel (Marcelle). However, Louis did not like that Edith devoted too much time to her work, and he demanded to leave her. Edith refused and they parted ways.

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 cured poorly, there were no suitable medicines, and doctors often could simply observe the disease in the hope of a favorable 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 meet Piaf, who again performed there on tour. The plane crashed over the Atlantic Ocean near the Azores and Serdan died, which was a shock to Piaf. In deep depression, she was rescued by morphine.

In 1952, Piaf fell in love again and married a 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), the hairdresser Theo, whom she, like Yves Montana, brought to the stage. Edith gave him a pseudonym Sagapo(Greek for "I love you"). She was with him until her death.

Sagapo outlived her by seven years, he died in a car accident.

Filmography of Edith Piaf:

1941 - Montmartre on the Seine (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 (French cancan) - Eugenie Buffet
1959 - Lovers of Tomorrow (Les amants de demain)
2007 - Life in pink (La môme)