No Regrets - Carolyn Burke [69]
Though Edith wished that Bourgeat could come to New York to help her through this time, she found solace in her growing rapport with Marlene Dietrich, the “fairy godmother” to whom she turned for advice. The actress was touched by Edith’s lack of self-confidence. “She was for ever calling herself ugly and insecure,” Dietrich recalled, “yet such was her charisma that she could have had any man she wanted.” Piaf’s memoirs are dithyrambic on the subject of the tall, self-disciplined actress: “When she saw me downcast, worried, near breaking point, she made it her mission to help me; she took care not to leave me alone with my thoughts. Because of her I was able to face my problems.… I owe her a profound debt of gratitude.” In the future, she would always wear Marlene’s gift, a gold cross set with emeralds, around her neck.
Men like Garfield, Piaf came to see, were attracted to her fame. Years later, she wrote, “Men treated me like some territory which had to be conquered, even though deep inside I still felt pure.… I have never kept the man of my life in my arms for very long. Sometimes it is over nothing—a word out of place, or some unimportant lie and my lover vanishes. Then I pray that a miracle will lead me into other arms.” During the icy winter of 1948, she closed each performance at the Versailles with “La Vie en rose,” the audience’s favorite and her private prayer for a miracle. As far as the French were concerned, the little chanteuse had conquered New York: “Edith Piaf has won the Americans’ hearts,” Ce Soir told its readers. “She will have a career there for many years now that Broadway has adopted her.”
CHAPTER TEN
1948–1949
On February 27, 1948, as Piaf’s engagement at the Versailles was coming to an end, Cerdan returned to New York to prepare for his March 12 match with Lavern Roach, boxing’s “Rookie of the Year” in 1947. The contest between the young ex-marine and the “Moroccan Bombardier” was something of a mismatch, given Cerdan’s greater experience—except that the American had the local boxing world’s support. If Roach prevailed, Cerdan believed, he would lose his chance at the world middleweight championship, the crown he coveted.
Marcel spent as much time as he could with Edith despite his managers’ attempts to keep him in training, which required celibacy. More cautious than usual about their affair—it was too new and mattered too deeply—she did not mention it again to Bourgeat, saying only that she missed her old friend and looked forward to seeing him after her return on March 17. She would explain everything once she was in Paris.
It would have been difficult to tell all at this point. Piaf still had strong ties to Les Compagnons, who had just come back from an engagement in Boston. They planned to sail to France together on the day of Cerdan’s bout until Piaf announced that she intended to take the plane a few days later with Jaubert (who would unwittingly serve as her cover). After seeing off the group, Jaubert accompanied Piaf to Madison Square Garden. Cerdan had asked her to stay to bring him luck, she told the French journalist who noted her presence there. (A photo shows her in an uncharacteristically frilly hat with a bow tied under her chin.) Having “conquered the American public,” he wrote, Piaf was now “giving her whole voice to encourage Marcel.”
Cerdan would not have needed extra support except that the referee, a certain Donovan, was said to favor his opponent. Edith watched from her ringside seat as Marcel kept knocking Roach down while Donovan waited however long it took for the younger