“He’s the only one I never have to call, he’s always there! “. A few months before her disappearance, exactly 60 years ago on October 10, Édith Piaf spoke in these terms of Théo Sarapo, the last man in her life. Three years previously, invited by a friend, he had turned up one evening at her house on Boulevard Lannes. He then planned to move to New York and work as a hairdresser. He eventually changed his plans. He was then called Theophanis Lamboukas, she renamed him “Sarapo” because in Greek it means “love”. Their marriage, on October 9, 1962, in Paris, in the Orthodox church, caused a scandal. He was 20 years her junior and the interviews where Edith brushed aside their age difference did not convince many people. No doubt because they were published in the tabloid press, the ancestor of the celebrity press. And yet, they truly loved each other. The images that Madelen invites you to discover or rediscover constitute blatant proof of this. In the show À l’école des lettres, when Théo gives the answer to Édith in What is love for, the eyes of “la Môme” shine like those of a child. She gives him a look that combines passion and affectionate encouragement. Before meeting her, he was unable to push the bill. She made him work for days and nights and the success of their duet, which has now become a classic, was her ultimate professional happiness.

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He returned to her a hundredfold what she had offered him. A few weeks after Edith’s death, a notary revealed to her the amount of her debts. He doesn’t hesitate for a moment. He accepts the inheritance. Little by little, he will manage to sort everything out. At the same time, he had a career as a singer and actor which ended prematurely. He actually disappeared in 1970, following a car accident in Limoges. He was only 34 years old. A legend justifies the origin of this drama: Edith would have called him, so that he would join her for Eternity…

It is true that, for her, throughout her life, “The Hymn to Love” was much more than a song: a permanent fight for the happiness of her heart. She multiplied passionate stories, which she took the initiative to put an end to by assuring those around her that this made it possible to have new blood at home. Many of his ex-lovers were marked by this separation. This is the case, in particular, of Yves Montand. It took him two years to recover from a breakup which she had justified thus: “you have to know how to leave your sun! “. On the other hand, Jean-Louis Jaubert, the leader of the Compagnons de la Chanson, was much less expansive when he suffered the same fate. “When Piaf separated from Montand by choosing to live with me, he looked everywhere in Paris to beat me up,” he said. I have just discovered that Marcel Cerdan has taken over from me. I won’t move an ear! “. The legendary romance with the world boxing champion mainly took place in the United States. They had met one evening in a Parisian music hall, Le Club des Cinq, but it was in New York that they really got to know each other. Their romance, long secret, began to become legendary when a young journalist, Georges Cravenne – future creator of Césars and Molières, revealed it in a French weekly. A few days later, Cerdan summoned him to his apartment, near Fifth Avenue. He congratulated him on his scoop by landing a masterful right hook. His opponent for a moment kept the mark for several months! During her short life, Piaf was only left once. In 1959, after 18 months of living together, Georges Moustaki broke down. One morning, while accompanying her on tour in the United States, he slammed the door of their hotel room in New York, then boarded the first liner bound for France. Edith was undoubtedly deeply hurt by this, but, obviously, she did not blame him, quite the contrary. After she disappeared, it was discovered that in the bag that never left her side, there was only one photo: that of the author of Milord. A love story which, paradoxically, was not a cliché.