Many mysteries and myths surround the brilliant, tragic life of the great Edith
Piaf...one of them that she was born on a pavement in a sleazy back street of
Paris. Her mother was a café singer, her father an acrobat and Piaf was
reputedly raised by prostitutes when put in the care of her grandmother, who ran
a brothel in Normandy. Constantly sickly, she first sang in public when she was
14, at her father's street entertainment shows. She became a mother at 17, but
her daughter died of meningitis at two and Piaf herself lived on the streets
singing for small change before being o...