Edith Piaf

Book excerpt: The legend that emerged from a journalist's imagination, and maintained by Piaf, gave birth to it on 19 December 1915 in Paris, at 72, rue de Belleville, in the 20th arrondissement, according to the plaque affixed to the house located at that address. Some sources even say that she was born "on the steps" of the front door of the building, on the pilgrimage of a police officer who took the baby out of her mother's womb. However, according to her birth certificate at the Paris Registry Office, Édith Giovanna Gassion was born at 4, rue de la Chine, the address of Tenon Hospital, which is indeed one of the health establishments closest to rue de Belleville. Born into poverty, Edith Piaf is a child of the ball whose parents had been in the entertainment business for two generations.