Edith Piaf

• Watch the Movie “La Vie en Rose” the Read the Following Slides.

• Once you have completed the powerpoint presentation and the movie see Ms. Osters or Ms. Kreuger for your extension assignment.

• Edith Piaf was born Edith Giovanna Gassion in Paris on 19 December 1915.

• Her mother, Anetta Maillard, an Italian café singer, abandoned her at the age of two months.

• Her father, a travelling acrobat, placed her in the care of her grandmother.

• Her grandmother was the owner of a low-class brothel in Normandy.

• Edith Piaf stayed there until she was seven.

• At the age of seven she began travelling from town to town with her father, singing as part of his show.

• At the age of fifteen, she took a job as a servant, to free herself from her father's authority.

• She quickly left this job to return to singing.

• Initially she was singing as part of a duo with Simone Berteaut.

• The two girls entertained people on the streets and in military camps.

• In one of these military camps, the sixteen-year-old Edith met a young soldier, Louis Dupont. He fell in love with her.

• In 1932 Edith became pregnant.

• Louis was transferred before the baby was born.

• Edith wasn't a good mother. In 1935 the girl Cécelle died of meningitis.

• While she was performing, she was spotted by impresario Louis Leplée.

• He booked her to sing at Gerny's club.

• He became her mentor and presented her as 'la môme Piaf' (Parisian slang for 'the kid sparrow')

• She was wearing a plain black dress which was to become her trademark.

• From then on she was Piaf.

• In early 1936, however, Leplée was murdered.

• As the war began, Edith was earning her living singing for a Night Club.

• In 1946 Edith met married boxer Marcel Cerdan in Paris.

• When she made her first trip to America, she encouraged Cerdan to come and fight in Washington, where she stayed.

• He did so and beat George Abrams. He became a national hero.

• Edith and Marcel began a short romance.

• Marcel was killed in a plane crash in 1949.

• In 1951 Piaf was involved in a car crash along with Charles Aznavour, a famous French singer.

• Breaking an arm and two ribs in this accident lead to a morphine and alcohol addiction.

• Piaf was world famous but a wreck.

• Piaf died of liver cancer, on the French Riviera, on 10 October 1963.

• She is buried in Paris, Père Lachaise cemetery.