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SPEAKER_01: And now, you can get a free $100 gift card. From Wonder Media Network, I'm Emily Rudder and this is Encyclopedia Wamanica. Merry Christmas, or should I say, Joie Noel. As a Francophile, it's my distinct pleasure to guest host today's episode about local legend, Adit Piaf. A singer and actress, she was known for her hauntingly emotional voice and her equally dramatic personal life. Though she died young, Edith is still remembered as a symbol of French passion.
SPEAKER_03: ["Ode to Joy"]
SPEAKER_01: Edith was born on December 19th, 1915 in Paris. Some say she was born outside on the pavement of the Rue de Belleville, but her birth certificate says she was born at the Tenant Hospital. In some ways, it's hard to separate fact from fiction when it comes to Edith's biography. What we know for sure is that Edith had her start in the streets of Paris. Her mother was a cafe singer and her father was a street acrobat. When Edith was born, her mother abandoned her to the care of her grandmother, who ran a brothel in the city. Edith grew up there, singing for her own enjoyment. Little Edith reportedly lost her eyesight at age three due to meningitis, but recovered it a few years later. According to some of her biographers, Edith attributed her recovery to a religious miracle after some of the brothel's sex workers joined her on a pilgrimage. When Edith was seven, she joined her father on his travels with the circus. This arrangement lasted a few years before Edith struck out on her own. She did so in part to escape her father's short temper. She began singing on the street for a meager living. In 1932, at 17, Edith met Louis de Pont and the two had a baby girl named Marcel. The couple didn't last long and Marcel died at the age of two from meningitis. In 1935, Edith got her big break. She was discovered by Louis Le Plaie, the owner of the popular Le Gernie cabaret off the Champs-Elysees. He gave Edith her first nightclub job, as well as a name that would stick with her for the rest of her life, La Montpiaf, or the Little Sparrow. Louis ran a substantial publicity campaign to attract a crowd for Edith's first show. He also hired a tutor in the literary arts and gave her tips on how to present herself. It's said Louis was the one to suggest Edith wear a black dress as her standard costume, which she wore for nearly every public appearance thereafter. Edith's show was a hit. Her voice was acclaimed by famous actors in the audience and she became so popular, she recorded her first two albums in the same year.
SPEAKER_03: ["La Montpiaf, La Montpiaf, La Montpiaf"]
SPEAKER_01: Soon, Edith was singing in the biggest music halls of Paris, but tragedy was just around the corner. Louis was murdered the following spring. In the resulting investigation, Edith was under suspicion and was questioned as an accomplice to the murder. Allegedly, she had previous ties to the gangsters who had killed Louis. Edith was eventually acquitted, but not before a firestorm of bad press. She recruited the help of Raymond Assaux, a lyricist. The two became lovers and she became his muse. Raymond commissioned songs that romanticized Edith's earlier life on the streets and helped Edith fine-tune her public persona. All of this helped her regain popularity and escape the scandal of Louis' death. Edith's star continued to rise, even during World War II. She held several controversial concerts for German servicemen during the Nazi occupation of Paris. After the war, she was deemed a traitor to the country and nearly banned from radio appearances. But members of the French resistance spoke out on Edith's behalf. They said she performed at prisoner of war camps in Germany and that she was instrumental in aiding allies and Jewish prisoners to escape persecution. Following the war, Edith gained more and more popularity internationally. She became famous for her ability to captivate listeners with her emotive voice and songs about life, love, and loss. In 1945, she penned and sang her most famous release, La Vie en Rose.
SPEAKER_04: ["La Vie en Rose"]
SPEAKER_01: Though her sad demeanor and dark, dreary costume initially put off new audiences, she quickly won them over with her voice. She appeared in several movies and even made repeat appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show. She also performed at Carnegie Hall. Throughout her career, Edith's personal life was a constant source of intrigue. She had several passionate, brief affairs. Perhaps her deepest relationship was Marcel Sedan, a famed middleweight boxer. He was a celebrity in his own right and he was married. Their relationship came to a tragic end when Marcel died in a plane crash on his way to meet her. The following year, Edith recorded the song Hymn to Love in his honor. In 1952, Edith met and married Jacques Piel, a singer. The couple divorced five years later. During this time, Edith was involved in a near-fatal car accident. Her slow recovery, along with two other significant collisions, exacerbated Edith's pre-existing drug and alcohol addictions. By 1960, Edith's health was declining rapidly. She hoped to retire, but her career continued to thrive after she recorded one of her most famous songs titled, No, I Don't Regret Anything. Non, je ne regret tréant. In 1962, Edith married Theo Serapou, a Greek hairdresser and performer who was 20 years her junior. The pair stayed together and even sang at a few public appearances until Edith's death the following year. Edith died in October of 1963, likely from liver cancer. The archbishop of Paris denied her a mass due to her irreligious lifestyle, but the people of the city were determined to honor her life. Thousands of people lined the streets for Edith's funeral procession. One of her contemporaries said the funeral was the first time he saw Paris traffic standstill since the end of the war, a testament to the little sparrows placed in Parisian's hearts. All month, we're talking about local legends. For more on why we're doing what we're doing, check out our newsletter, Womanaka Weekly. Find us on Facebook and Instagram at Encyclopaedia Womanaka. Special thanks to Liz Kaplan and Jenny Kaplan for inviting me to guest host this episode. As always, we'll be taking a break for the weekend. Talk to you on Monday.
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