No Regrets - Carolyn Burke [94]
Although she omitted Dréjac’s name in letters to Bourgeat, the lyricist’s influence is clear when one reads between the lines. About this time, having also received a detailed account of the Rosicrucians’ beliefs from Bourgeat, Edith applied to join the order. She wished to do so, she wrote, “because I am passionately interested in the quest for truth and would feel closer to God while trying to deepen my comprehension of his marvelous mysteries.”
With Dréjac as her companion (to allay suspicions, he was introduced as her doctor), Piaf displayed “a joie de vivre that has nothing to do with vanity or success,” a journalist noted; her smile was that of “a rebellious adolescent.” The lyricist went with her to Hollywood in July, when she again appeared at the Mocambo, despite her repertoire’s mildly incongruous note among the club’s cockatoos, macaws, and Latin ambience. She planned to prolong her stay in the United States to earn enough for a country house in France, a project that became feasible when the director of the Riviera Casino in Las Vegas paid her not to honor her contract there after learning at the last minute that she did not correspond to his idea of a glamorous chanteuse.
Piaf spent the rest of the summer with Dréjac at an oceanside villa in Malibu, playing cards, entertaining French guests and stars like Marlon Brando (it is said that they had a fling), and using up her earnings from Las Vegas. “When I come back I want to dedicate myself to helping others,” she told Bourgeat. Certain that God had destined her for something more than singing, she was searching for what that might be. Jacquot would understand, since he and she were “the last of the romantics.”
In September, Dréjac accompanied Piaf to New York for her sixth engagement at the Versailles, where Judy Garland, Charlie Chaplin, Marilyn Monroe, and other stars came to applaud her. Dréjac and Edith shared an apartment with their “chaperones,” the Bonels. “It was a time of simple happiness,” Danielle recalled. Dréjac’s humor amused Piaf, especially when he tested pasta by tossing it at the ceiling: the strands that stuck were done, he said, but had to be taken down to be eaten. During this time, he also adapted two American hits for her. “Suddenly There’s a Valley” became the Rosicrucian-inflected “Soudain une vallée”: “Vous avez parcouru le monde / Vous croyiez n’avoir rien trouvé / Et soudain, une vallée / S’offre à vous pour la paix profonde.” (“You thought the world a waste / As you traveled all around / Suddenly a valley / Opens to peace that is profound.”) Dréjac also wrote a French version of a tune that could hardly be said to promote serenity—“Black Denim Trousers and Motorcycle Boots,” by Elvis Presley’s composers, Mike Stoller and Jerry Leiber. As “L’Homme à la moto,” the song, with its wild tempo and driven hero, made a striking addition to Piaf’s repertoire.
About this time, Chevalier, with whom Piaf discussed her plans for a country house, became concerned for her equilibrium: “She’s a moving bundle of complexes mixing courage, talent, and frailty with a nervous energy that inundates her little body and shows in her anxious eyes.” In December, Dréjac sailed to France to look after his mother just before the return of Pills, who was booked to sing with Piaf during the holidays. She too felt like leaving, she told Bourgeat: “I’ll come home around April and stay in France for a long time. I’ve had enough of exile!”
Nineteen fifty-six began with rehearsals for