No Regrets
Page 30
CHAPTER FIVE • 1937–1939
1 “It took him three”: EP, Ma vie, p. 32.
2 “could she submit”: Asso quoted in Duclos and Martin, p. 125.
3 “to facet her”: Asso, in Marchois, Edith Piaf: Opinions, p. 14.
4 “Distorting the words”: Asso quoted in Duclos and Martin, p. 125.
5 “My work was”: Asso quoted in Brierre, p. 43.
6 “Now do you understand”: EP, Radio Europe 1 broadcast, 1961, quoted in Crosland, p. 60.
7 “astonishing progress”: Le Figaro, April 1, 1937.
8 “The frail street flower”: Paris-Soir, April 3, 1937, reprinted in Marchois, Piaf: Emportée, p. 11.
9 “the voice of revolt”: Henri Jeanson quoted in Duclos and Martin, p. 133.
10 “Here is the miraculous”: Maurice Verne, L’Intransigeant, quoted in ibid., p. 132. Piaf liked Verne’s piece so much that she included it in Au bal (pp. 69–70), along with the praise of Asso’s lyrics quoted in the text.
11 “La Môme is dead!”: Duclos and Martin, p. 136.
12 “The ‘môme’ was charming”: Marc Blanquet, in Le Journal, Nov. 26, 1937; reprinted in Marchois, Piaf: Emportée, p. 11.
13 “She seemed to be standing”: Anon., Nov. 25, 1937; reprinted in Marchois, Piaf: Emportée, p. 11.
14 jazzy, lighthearted: Trenet, known as “le fou chantant” (the singing nut), became an immediate success with songs combining influences from jazz and swing with a popular lyricism and vision of happiness. He and Piaf were seen as the representative singers of their time in their contrasting but complementary ways of renewing la chanson.
15 “her perfect diction”: Gustave Fréjaville, Comoedia, n.d., in Marchois, Piaf: Emportée, p. 12.
16 “Edith Piaf has worked”: Feral, Granet, Lévy, n.d., no sources given, quoted in Duclos and Martin, pp. 138–39.
17 “Critics who acclaimed”: Adrian Rifkin, “Musical Moments,” p. 144.
18 “What news of the war?”: EP to RA letters, n.d., quoted in Duclos and Martin, pp. 142–44.
19 “I cried a lot”: Ibid.
20 “My dear love”: Ibid.
21 “For Suzanne”: Flon quoted in Duclos and Martin, p. 146.
22 “my best friend”: EP, Au bal, p. 92.
23 “I think you would be wrong”: Asso quoted in Duclos and Martin, p. 153.
24 “Far from the noise”: JB quoted in EP, Au bal, pp. 191–92.
25 “moral jailer”: Asso quoted in Duclos and Martin, p. 151.
26 “the critic Léon-Martin”: Marchois, Piaf: Emportée, p. 12.
CHAPTER SIX • 1939–1942
1 “We understood that terrible things”: Chevalier, p. 172.
2 “My job is to sing”: EP, in Notre Coeur, Oct. 28, 1940, in Duclos and Martin, p. 174.
3 “It’s better than anything”: EP to RA, c. Dec. 3, 1939, quoted in ibid., p. 156.
4 “not a word”: Paul Meurisse, Les Eperons de la liberté, pp. 106–107.
5 “Edith Piaf doesn’t”: Ibid., p. 110.
6 “She makes her way”: Salvador Reyes, in La Hora, Nov. 5, 1939, in Duclos and Martin, pp. 156–57.
7 “Ciel! Mon mari!”: Meurisse, p. 113. Asso’s resentment is apparent in his next song, “On danse sur ma chanson”: “They’re dancing / On my finest memories / On the taste of my desire.…”
8 “I won’t have to go to the composers’ ”: EP quoted in Meurisse, p. 114.
9 “It wasn’t so much that le savoir-vivre”: Ibid., p. 115.
10 “She would laugh and begin again”: Ibid., p. 116.
11 “shit”: Ibid., p. 130.
12 “The response was delirious”: Emer, in Marchois, Edith Piaf: Opinions, p. 103.
13 “Living with him”: EP, in Notre Coeur, Oct. 28, 1940, in Marchois, Piaf: Emportée, p. 27.
14 “regal simplicity”: Jean Cocteau, “Je travaille avec Edith Piaf,” Paris-Midi, April 19, 1940.
15 “at the summit”: Meurisse, pp. 136–37.
16 “handsome, indifferent man”: Cocteau, “Le Bel Indifférent,” in Théâtre complet, p. 856.
17 “dream theater”: Cocteau, “Je travaille.”
18 “Mademoiselle Piaf”: Marianne, in Cocteau, Théâtre complet, p. 1742.
19 “Her acting is”: Le Figaro, in ibid.
20 “magnificent”: Les Nouvelles littéraires, in ibid.
21 “Krauts or no Krauts”: “Boches ou pas Boches, la capitale de la France, c’est Paris” (Meurisse, p. 148).
22 “It was a terrible shock”: Meurisse, p. 150.
23 “At this time”: Ibid., p. 152.
24 “the sharp wind”: Aujourd’hui, Sept. 22, 1940, in Marchois, Piaf: Emportée, p. 26.
25 “excessively fearful”: EP quoted in Duclos and Martin, p. 174.
26 “Edith Piaf has more”: Babette, “Salle Pleyel: Edith Piaf,” Paris-Soir, Oct. 1, 1940.
27 “On the one hand”: Henri Contet, in Duclos and Martin, p. 215.
28 “Everything she did”: Jean-Louis Barrault, in Marchois, Edith Piaf: Opinions, p. 20.
29 “Je ne veux plus laver la vaisselle”: The sheet music for “Je ne veux plus laver la vaisselle” identifies it as a song from Montmartre-sur-Seine. Though Piaf recorded the song in 1943, it was not included in any of her records and was rediscovered only in 2003 at the Bibliothèque Nationale.
30 “this false street set”: Henri Contet, “Edith Piaf chante dans la rue,” Paris-Midi, Sept. 16, 1941.
31 “What to do”: Henri Contet, “Edith Piaf pleure son amour perdu,” Ciné-Mondial [1941], in Marchois, Piaf: Emportée, p. 28.
32 “that little person”: Je suis partout, n.d., and Révolution nationale [July 15, 1944] quoted in Brierre, p. 55.
33 “that laugh”: Meurisse, p. 159.
34 “She knew that because”: Norbert Glanzberg quoted in Astrid Freyeisen, Chansons pour Piaf, p. 89.
35 “When Edith leaned”: Ibid., p. 82.
36 “What could I do?”: Ibid., p. 90.
37 “We were opposites”: Meurisse, p. 160.
38 “without any question”: Léo Ferré, in L’Eclaireur de Nice [March 1942], quoted in Duclos and Martin, p. 183.
39 “I’m worried”: EP to Glanzberg, Oct. 26, 1942, in Freyeisen, p. 94.
40 “Whatever people say”: Andrée Bigard, in Marchois, Edith Piaf: Opinions, p. 31; cf. Freyeisen, p. 85.
CHAPTER SEVEN • 1942–1944
1 “easy recipes”: Marie Claire, May 20, 1942, p. 12.
2 “Edith Piaf is coming”: T. Marval, in Marchois, Piaf: Emportée, p. 29; cf. Legrand-Chabrier in Le Nouveau Temps, Oct. 21, 1942: “Edith Piaf’s return to her adoring Paris public is the big event of the week,” n.p.
3 “all of Paris”: EP to Glanzberg, Oct. 11, 1942, in Freyeisen, p. 91.
4 “in the person”: Louis Terrentrov, in L’Auto, Oct. 30, 1942, in Marchois, Piaf: Emportée, p. 29.
5 “the best tour de chant”: Legrand-Chabrier, “Rentrée d’Edith Piaf à l’A.B.C.,” Le Nouveau Temps.
6 “a purity of intention”: Françoise Holbane, in Paris-Midi, quoted in Duclos and Martin, p. 192.
7 “She no longer looks”: Gustave Fréjaville, in Comoedia, Oct. 31, 1942, quoted in ibid., pp. 191–92. Fréjaville warned Piaf not to “push” her voice, whose capacity to touch the listener “[was] not in the volume of her sound but in the quality of her timbre.”
8 “I’m terribly afraid”: EP to Glanzberg, Nov. 27, 1942, in Freyeisen, p. 94.
9 “guide fish”: Madame Billy, La Maitresse de “maison,” pp. 111, 116.
10 “They all knew her”: Ibid., p. 115.
11 Piaf spent her whole life: Contet, letter, in Témoignages sur Edith et chansons de Piaf, p. 17.
12 “We writers”: Contet quoted in François Lévy, Passion Edith Piaf, p. 89.
13 “Her enthusiasm compensated”: Contet quoted in Duclos and Martin, p. 201.
14 “nuances of feeling”: Gustave Fréjaville, in Comoedia, in ibid., p. 197.
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15 “What marvelous evenings”: Madame Billy, p. 115.
16 “She was very unstable”: Ibid., p. 117.
17 “She became the good”: Ibid., pp. 126–27.
18 “She was as beautiful”: Ibid., p. 127.
19 “She transcends herself”: Jean Cocteau, “Edith Piaf,” clipping, Jan. 2, 1947; reprinted in EP, Au bal, preface.
20 “his closest intimates”: Anon. quoted in Jean Cocteau, Journal, 1942–1945, p. 347.
21 “You have skillfully renewed”: Anon., “L’Art d’Edith Piaf,” n.d., in Marchois, Piaf: Emportée, p. 30.
22 “keep going to see”: Didier Daix, “Edith Piaf à ‘La Vie en Rose,’ ” Paris-Midi, May 11, 1943.
23 “like her daughter”: “Line Marsa chante avec la même voix et les mêmes gestes que sa fille, Edith Piaf,” La Semaine, May 9, 1942.
24 “petite Didou”: Line Marsa, aka Jacqueline Maillard, to EP, in Bonel and Bonel, p. 116.
25 “more upset than indifferent”: Madame Billy, p. 117.
26 “enough for several doses”: Ibid., p. 119.
27 “Every morning”: Manouche quoted in Bret, p. 52.
28 “I’m not a chanteuse réaliste!”: EP quoted in “Je n’aime pas les chansons réalistes,” Actu, June 20, 1943, in Duclos and Martin, pp. 201–2.
29 “but they could still”: Georges Bozonnat, “Sur le gril,” L’Appel, Aug. 26, 1943.
30 “Groomed and coiffed”: Contet quoted in Duclos and Martin, p. 220.
31 “He didn’t seem to feel”: Madame Billy, p. 118.
32 “Mademoiselle, that just isn’t done”: Ibid., p. 116.
33 “with her remarkable intuition”: Andrée Bigard, in Marchois, Edith Piaf: Opinions, p. 29.
34 “I don’t think it would be helpful”: EP quoted in H. D. Fauvet, “Edith Piaf va chanter pour les prisonniers,” Paris-Midi, Aug. 9, 1943.
35 “top-notch”: EP quoted in H. D. Fauvet, “Edith Piaf est revenue heureuse d’avoir fait des heureux,” Paris-Midi, Oct. 3, 1943.
36 “Ma chanson, c’est ma vie”: EP’s lyrics in H. D. Fauvet, “Edith Piaf est entrée à la Société des auteurs,” Paris-Midi, Jan. 13, 1944.
37 “It’s all I could find”: Robert Dalban, in Marchois, Edith Piaf: Opinions, pp. 80–81, and Duclos and Martin, p. 218.
38 “Edith, the pianist, and I”: Andrée Bigard, in Marchois, Edith Piaf: Opinions, p. 29.
39 “I loved him”: EP to Glanzberg, March 31, 1944, in Freyeisen, p. 163.
40 “She wasn’t up to”: Gassion, pp. 78–79.
CHAPTER EIGHT • 1944–1946
1 “We said goodbye”: Madame Billy, p. 130.
2 “powerful emotions”: Françoise Holbane, “Edith Piaf au Moulin de la Galette,” Paris-Midi, June 6, 1944.
3 “His personality was terrific”: EP, Au bal, p. 109.
4 “I had fallen in love”: Yves Montand, with Hervé Hamon and Patrick Rotman, You See, I Haven’t Forgotten, pp. 108–9.
5 “Yves never argued”: Contet quoted in ibid., pp. 110–11.
6 “Montand, who is beginning”: Midi-Soir, Nov. 10, 1944, quoted in ibid., p. 124.
7 “Don’t be a fool!”: EP quoted in ibid., p. 118.
8 “No sanction”: Herbert Lottman, The People’s Anger, pp. 259–60. Cf. Duclos and Martin, pp. 225–26.
9 “some of which were”: EP quoted in “Les 118 Evadés d’Edith Piaf,” Ce Soir, Oct. 21, 1944.
10 “the songs you can’t drop”: Montand, p. 124.
11 “this tall handsome guy”: “Edith Piaf triomphe aux nouveautés,” Victoire Tendance, Nov. 25, 1944, in Marchois, Piaf: Emportée, p. 32.
12 “She was a little shaken”: Lydia Livi Ferroni quoted in Montand, p. 125.
13 “Don’t try to rise”: Serge Weber, in Francs-Tireurs, Feb. 15, 1945, in Brierre, p. 67.
14 “tristesse souriante”: Pierre Francis, “Edith Piaf et Yves Montand au Théâtre des Variétés” [April 1945], in Marchois, Piaf: Emportée, p. 43.
15 “When I toured with Yves”: EP quoted in Monique Lange, Piaf, p. 100.
16 title, lyrics, and music: Because Piaf had SACEM accreditation as a lyricist but not as a composer, she asked Marguerite Monnot to lend her name to “La Vie en rose.” When Monnot refused, Piaf turned to her old friend and accompanist Louiguy (Louis Guglielmi), who agreed.
17 “What triggered their shared distress”: Montand, p. 128 (these remarks by Hamon and Rotman).
18 shouting “Bravo!”: René Bizet, in Paris-Presse, Sept. 15, 1945, quoted in Duclos and Martin, p. 242.
19 “small-time hoods”: Jean Wiener, in Spectateur, Oct. 3, 1945, in Marchois, Piaf: Emportée, p. 44.
20 “the strongest personality”: Max Favalelli, in La Dépêche de Paris, Oct. 28–29, 1945, in Montand, p. 133.
21 “Maybe you’re right”: Enclosed in EP to JB, Oct. 29, 1945.
22 “A telegram”: Ibid.
23 “I shall always be proud”: EP, Au bal, pp. 112–13.
24 “When Edith managed”: Danielle Bonel quoted in Brierre, p. 69, where the author also quotes a contemporary of Piaf’s who claims that she engineered the break by telling Montand that he did not need her. It is tempting to think that Piaf’s way of provoking the ends of liaisons in some way replayed the dynamics of her abandonment by her mother.
25 “mountains of snow”: EP to JB, Saint Moritz, Feb. 19, 1946.
26 “boy-scout-like”: EP, Au bal, pp. 115–16.
27 “the strange marriage”: Jean Cocteau, “Les Compagnons de la Chanson,” Diogène, May 24, 1946, in Marchois, Piaf: Emportée, p. 45.
28 “lessons”: EP to JB, June 20, 1946.
29 “Words and music”: Henri Contet, “Du Palais de Chaillot au Club des Cinq,” Toujours Paris, May 23–29, 1946, in Marchois, Piaf: Emportée, p. 46.
CHAPTER NINE • 1946–1948
1 “In the troubled post-Liberation”: Jean-Claude Klein, Florilège de la chanson française, p. 206.
2 “modernize”: EP, Au bal, p. 117.
3 “Madame Edith Piaf is a genius”: Jean Cocteau, text read May 16, 1946, in EP, Au bal, preface, and in Duclos and Martin, p. 253.
4 “I cannot allow”: Fred Mella, Mes Maîtres enchanteurs, pp. 100, 105.
5 “She thought of herself”: Jean-Louis Jaubert, in Marchois, Edith Piaf: Opinions, p. 144.
6 “Know that all of Paris”: EP telegram quoted in Dominique Grimault and Patrick Mahé, Piaf Cerdan, p. 34.
7 “It began very badly”: EP quoted in Duclos and Martin, p. 260.
8 “the heat”: EP to JB, Sept. 4, 1946.
9 “I love you as I have never”: EP to Dimitris Horn, in Helena Smith, “Yes, Piaf Did Have One Great Regret,” Guardian, Dec. 8, 2008, p. 17.
10 “If a song”: EP quoted in Henri Spade, “Edith Piaf chante le malheur mais croit au bonheur,” Radio 46, Nov. 22, 1946, in Marchois, Piaf: Emportée, p. 47.
11 a lushly orchestrated ballad: Emer wrote “Si tu partais” for Piaf after she told him of her “platonic” affair with Horn, according to Bret (p. 68).
12 “We’re street kids”: Charles Aznavour, Le Temps des avants, p. 120.
13 “I wasn’t in love”: Ibid., p. 122.
14 “her sense of humor”: Ginou Richer, Mon Amite Edith Piaf, p. 20.
15 “When you’ve been singing”: EP, Au bal, p. 128.
16 “fervor” was justified: G. Joly, “Edith Piaf à l’Etoile,” Aurore, Sept. 10, 1947, in Marchois, Piaf: Emportée, p. 49.
17 “She didn’t just sing”: Freedland, in William Laurent, Edith Piaf, p. 69.
18 “I don’t do things”: EP, Au bal, p. 129.
19 “during the war”: Louis Calta, “Edith Piaf Bows to Rialto Tonight,” New York Times, Oct. 30, 1947, p. 31.
20 “no sequins”: Lester Bernstein, “The Perils of Piaf,” New York Times, Oct. 26, 1947, p. X3.
21 “a quality that I find commendable”: EP, Au bal, p. 134.
22 “What a marvelous country”: EP to JB, Oct. 25
, 1947.
23 “of the kind encountered”: George Jean Nathan, “Edith Piaf and Company,” in Theater Book of the Year, 1947–1948, pp. 124–25.
24 “She is a genuine artist”: Brooks Atkinson, “At the Theatre,” New York Times, Oct. 31, 1947, p. 30.
25 “syrupy melodies”: EP, Au bal, p. 123.
26 “I’ve had enough”: EP to JB, Nov. 4, 1947.
27 “the art of the chansonnière”: Virgil Thompson, “La Môme Piaf,” New York Herald Tribune, Nov. 9, 1947, Sec. V, p. 6.
28 “brightened up her repertory”: “Lugubrious Mama,” New Yorker, Nov. 15, 1947, pp. 26–27.
29 “She had us mesmerized”: Jeanne McDonagh interview with the author, Oct. 15, 2007.
30 “quaint but understandable”: Nerin E. Gun quoted in EP, Au bal, pp. 133–34.
31 “She said that she was dying”: Bonel and Bonel, pp. 234–35.
32 “we both have to make our names”: EP to JB, New York, Jan. 5, 1948.
33 “She was for ever calling herself”: Dietrich quoted in Bret, p. 73.
34 “When she saw me downcast”: EP, Au bal, p. 137.
35 “Men treated me”: EP, in France Dimanche [n.d.], quoted in Bret, pp. 73–74.
36 “Edith Piaf has won”: “Edith Piaf a conquis Broadway,” Ce Soir, Feb. 2, 1948.
CHAPTER TEN • 1948–1949
1 “conquered the American public”: M.M., in Le Matin, March 13, 1948, in Marchois, Piaf: Emportée, p. 52.
2 “I’ve felt all sorts”: EP quoted in Robert Bré, “Merci, Marcel, tu es un grand bonhomme,” Paris-Presse, March 16, 1948, quoted in Grimault and Mahé, pp. 108–9.
3 “With Marcel”: Quoted in Mella, p. 154.
4 “I worshipped him”: EP, Ma vie, p. 44.
5 “Just look at her”: Quoted in Jacques Marchand, “L’Affaire Cerdan,” L’Evénement, April 12, 1983, p. 4.
6 “with things that aren’t too complicated”: EP to JB, n.d.
7 “When I went outside”: EP, quoted in Duclos and Martin, p. 277.
8 “Since his return”: France Dimanche, May 30, 1948.
9 “Oh, the bastards”: EP quoted in Grimault and Mahé, p. 123. Piaf summoned the journalist she suspected of writing the article to her apartment, where Cerdan punched him after he admitted his guilt.