The magic of Guyana

ÉDITH PIAF: A CULTUR AL HISTORY ÉDITH PIAF A Cultural History David Looseley LIVERPOOL UNIVERSITY PRESS Édith Piaf: A Cultural History First published 2015 by Liverpool University Press 4 Cambridge Street Liverpool L69 7ZU Copyright © 2015 David Looseley The right of David Looseley to be identified as the author of this book has ... part i: narrating piaf 1 Inventing la Môme 27 2 Piaf and her public 45 3 A singer at war 65 pa rt i i: pi a f a n d ch a nson 4 A new Piaf 83 5 High art, low culture: Piaf and la chanson française 97 6 Ideology, tragedy, celebrity: a new middlebrow 113 part iii: afterlives 7 Losing Piaf 135 8 Remembering Piaf 153 9 Performing Piaf 171 Conclusion 185 Notes 193 References 233 Index 243 Contents CONTENTS For my granddaughter ... Judt, Rhiannon Looseley, Bernard Marchois of the Musée Édith Piaf, Sue ... French chanson and over a period of some fifty years put together a ... most of all my wife, Avril, not only for reading and discussing the ... 1 What follows is not by any means a detailed charting of Piaf’s life but a sketch to help readers situate and make better sense of the moments highlighted in the book. Some of the dates, particularly those relating to her early life, are approximate or uncertain. A much more detailed chronology appears in Marchois, 1993, passim, but even here the dating is sometimes unreliable. 1915 19 December: birth of Édith Giovanna Gassion in Belleville, Paris. Her parents are Louis Alphonse Gassion (born 1881) and Annetta Giovanna Maillard, known professionally as Line Marsa (born 1895). Louis’s ancestry was mainly Norman. Line’s was French, Moroccan and Italian. Both came from families of street or circus performers. 1918 31 August: Édith’s brother or half-brother Herbert Gassion is born to Line in Marseille. 1921 The young Édith’s eyesight problem, whatever it was, is cured. ... 1922–29 Édith goes on the road with her father, either in the circus or when he works alone. 1929 4 June: Édith’s parents are divorced, though they have lived separate lives for some years. 1929 Édith leaves her father and begins singing in the street in Pigalle. 1931 Meets Momone (Simone Berteaut), who collects the money when Chronology Chronology 2 Édith Piaf: A Cultural History Édith sings in the street. The two will also perform sometimes in ... October: meets Louis Leplée. 24 or 25 October: begins performing at Le Gerny’s as la Môme Piaf. ... meets Asso around this time. She records her first Asso song in early May: ‘Mon amant de la Coloniale’. ... 19 November: second engagement at ABC begins, for two weeks, this time under the name Édith Piaf. ... May–June: France defeated. Pétain signs an armistice and the ... 4 Édith Piaf: A Cultural History December: resits SACEM exam and passes. 1944 2 February: second concert at Pleyel. ... dies, aged 63. June: meets Yves Montand; they become lovers. ... April–May: working and performing with Les Compagnons de la chanson. ... 1950 Danielle Vigneau becomes part of her team; she will marry Marc Bonel in 1951. March: back from America, Piaf begins touring France. She does ... Constantine. Begins another three-month booking at the Versailles on the 13th. 6 Édith Piaf: A Cultural History ... sleeping pills; also suffering from exhaustion. January: release of the film Paris chante toujours, directed by Pierre ... 16 and 20 September: civil and religious marriage to Jacques Pills in New York, with Marlene Dietrich as maid of honour. Autumn: appears twice on Ed Sullivan Show. ... 5 January: death of Mistinguett. 7 May: arrives back in Paris after 14 months away. ... February: meets Georges (‘Jo’) Moustaki. 8 Édith Pia