Edith Piaf’s lover (2/2), Marcel Serdan, Jacques Pills, Theo Sarafo.
Edith Piaf (born December 19, 1915 in 1963) is the greatest popular singer of France, and the main character who wrote and sang “La Vie en Rose”.
Edith Piaf was born to an acrobat father and a singer’s mother in a poor street in Paris, France.
When Edith rose to fame after singing in nightclubs, Edith’s male hunt began. And Edith Piaf’s lovers diversified.
When the patron Yves Montand became similar to Edith’s reputation, Edith boldly announced a breakup from his relationship.
1. Edith Piaf’s fateful meeting with Marcel Serdan
Edith, who became famous, became famous internationally beyond France after the fierce and boring World War II.
They toured Europe, the United States, and South America for performance tours. Initially, American fans expected Edith to perform splendid and spectacular.
However, disappointed by Piaf’s simple expressive power, it was not successful for American audiences.
However, when influential New York music critic Virgil Thomson received favorable reviews in 1947, his popularity in the United States was restored.
Eventually, it became so popular that it performed eight times on the Ed-Sullivan Show, a famous American talk show, and two times at Carnegie Hall (1956 and 1957).
Then, during a concert tour in the United States in 1947, he met and fell in love with boxer Marcel Serdan.
After breaking up with Yves Montand, Piaf, who had been quiet for a while, fell for Marcel Serdan, a muscular, charming married man.
Marcel Cerdan (July 22, 1916 – October 28, 1949) was born in the French colony of Algeria.
A professional French boxer and world middleweight champion, he was considered France’s greatest boxer by many boxing experts and fans.
He was born the fourth son of Antonio Serdan (1880-1946), an Algerian daily laborer, and a Spanish mother.
He made his professional debut in 1934 and won 47 consecutive games, winning French and European middleweight titles.
Marcel Cerdán was married to Marnett and was a married man with three children.
He did not meet Edith very often because he lived in his own country, Algeria.
Marcel promised Edith that he would marry her someday so that they would not live far from each other. He also planned to divorce his wife and set a date for his marriage to Piaf.
Their affair made international headlines when it became known.
Serdan became even more famous because he was a middleweight world champion and was also famous in France as a national boxer.
Serdan’s marriage to Marnette Lopez became difficult when he met Piaf.
When his affair with Piaf became public and became the talk of the town, Marcel and Marnett eventually divorced in 1948.
On September 21, 1948, while dating Piaf, Serdan became world champion by knocking out Tony Zale of the United States in the 12th round at Roosevelt Stadium in New Jersey.
When he became world champion, he went wild in France. In a short period of time, he became the most popular figure in Paris, France.
2. the sudden death of Marcel Serdan
However, the love between Piaf and Marcel was short-lived. In October 1949, just under two years ago, Serdant flew from Paris to New York to meet Piaf.
However, his Air France flight 009 crashed while attempting to land at a stopover in Portugal.
The accident killed all aboard, including Cerdan and renowned violinist Ginette Neveu (1919-1949).
For Edith Piaf, that was the beginning of the end of her tragic life.
Even the strength gained when she collapsed from pain or disappointment was of no use to Marcel after his departure.
Piaf couldn’t forget her love with Serdan, so in May 1950 he composed and sang “Hymne à l’amour” to dedicate it to Serdan.
In 1983, the life of Serdant and Piaf was made into a film by Claude Lelouch.
Ironically, Marcel’s son, Marcell Jr., who was born to Marnette, was also a boxer, playing his father in the film.
He played the role of a father in the love story of Piaf and his father, who hurt his mother’s divorce.
I wonder how my son felt.
3. Edith’s first husband, Jacques Pills
Before her pain with Marcel went away, Piaf was injured in a car accident in 1951. Piaf and singer Charles Aznavour (then her assistant) were both in the vehicle, and Piaf broke her arm and two ribs.
The doctor prescribed a drug called morphine as a treatment, which, along with alcohol problems, became a drug dependence. It was psychologically difficult, and he even had a car accident.<<
In such a difficult situation, he meets French singer and actor Jacques Pills and is consoled.
Throughout their musical career, they became close and inspired each other. They are getting married on September 20, 1952. They were the first married couple among many of Piaf’s men.
Their marriage lasted only four years. Edith and Jacques’ love was different from the one mentioned earlier.
I wasn’t the one to put on the list of anonymous men who met Edith lightly and slept with him and then just let them go the next day.
Jacques Pills (1906-1970) was a French singer and actress. He married French singer Lucienne Boyer in 1939, and he divorced Boyer in 1951 before meeting Piaf.
However, Piaf suffers another car accident. Two near-death car crashes exacerbated the situation.
In 1952, Jacques Pills forced Piaf into a detox clinic three times for treatment.
Jacques remains the one who gave Piaf some peace in his time of need. Piaf and Fields divorced in 1957 after exchanging musical inspiration with each other.
4. Piaf’s second husband, Theo Sarafo
Edith Piaf, the last man to enter her life was Theophanis Lamboukas, a 26-year-old Greek.
Theo Sarapo (1936-1970) was a French singer, actress, and former hairdresser. He was born in Paris to Greek parents.
As a child, he fled to Paris and made a living by working as a hairdresser.
He was a hairdresser in charge of stroking the curls of Piaf and other singers, and Piaf used his natural talents to make him a lover.
And she decided to marry him. The date was Oct. 9, 1962, when Piaf was 46.
Sarapo was 20 years younger than Piaf and the two remained married until Piaf died.
The following year, in early 1963, shortly after recording “Berlin Homme” with her husband, Theo Sarafo, Piaf fell into a coma due to liver cancer.
For the following months, she fell unconscious and woke up repeatedly before passing away on October 10, 1963, at the age of 47. It has been only a year since I married Theo.<<<
Piaf’s body was buried in Paris’s Per Laschet cemetery, making her tomb one of the most visited by the French people.
Upon Piaf’s death, a French court ordered Sarapo to pay off her debt worth 7 million francs.
Theo, who married Piaf after seeing Edith Piaf’s wealth, rather inherited a large amount of debt as a legacy and was struck by lightning.
And not long after Piaf’s funeral, he was evicted from his apartment.
He once dreamed of financial freedom and got married after seeing Piaf’s property, but unfortunately, he died in a car accident in August 1970.
He was buried at the Peracez Cemetery in Paris with Piaf’s daughter Marcel (who was born to his one-time lover Louis Dupont).
Is there any other artist whose love and artistic life are more closely linked than Edith Piaf’s life?
Piaf, a strange, four-dimensional, and popular being for a short life, could never sing without love.
And the stupidity, brutally passionate, set ablaze with an extremely egocentric excess, burned a life marked by an obsession with men and a passion for singing.
Her name is Edith Piaf.
