{"id":4005,"date":"2023-07-27T15:29:36","date_gmt":"2023-07-27T15:29:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ismardavidarchive.org\/indexofnames\/?p=4005"},"modified":"2023-12-14T18:57:37","modified_gmt":"2023-12-14T18:57:37","slug":"new-york-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ismardavidarchive.org\/indexofnames\/new-york-debut\/","title":{"rendered":"American Debut"},"content":{"rendered":"

Edith Piaf, 1915\u20131963, France\u2019s little sparrow, legendary, iconic singer.<\/em><\/p>\n

A street performer<\/span> from the age of fourteen, Edith Piaf burst onto the Paris nightclub scene in 1935. The petite singer captivated French audiences with her unique renditions of chansons r\u00e9alistes,<\/em> songs of love, struggle and loss. International renown preceded her American debut at the Playhouse Theater on West 48th Street in Manhattan in 1947, where Piaf headlined a variety show that began its run on October 30. The opening act, Les Compangnons de la Chanson, whom Piaf herself had discovered, were \u201cnine young Frenchmen in white shirs and blue slacks\u201d who showed \u201chow \u2018Au Claire de la Lune\u2019 sounds, 1, as played by and American hot band, 2, as sung by a Cossack chorus and, 3, as played by a symphony orchestra.\u201d1<\/a><\/sup>Atkinson, Brooks, At the Theatre, Edith Piaf, Minstrel from Paris, and Les Companons de las Chanson in a Variety Show of Continental Entertainers.<\/em> New York Times, October 31, 1947, p.26.<\/span> The show was extended through Decemer 6th.2<\/a><\/sup>Calta, Louis, Edith Piaf\u2019s Show Will Extend Run, French Variety Program Held Over at Playhouse a Week by Clifford C. Fischer.<\/em> New York Times, November 25, 1947, p. 38.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ismar David attended in November, well before the Weizmann Dinner<\/a> on the twenty-fifth: \u201cI went to the theater yesterday and it was unusually beautiful. Madame Piaf, a French singer, was the main part of the evening. She sang simple songs ravishingly beautifully and accompanied by fantastic facial expressions. In addition, an unbelievably funny French group of nine men appeared. They presented musical parodies for the most part, with a lot of humor and spirit. An athletic group, a dancing couple and an emcee also appeared. All were especially good.\u201d3<\/a><\/sup>David, Ismar, Undated letter to Aliza Wirz, 1947. Translated from German. \u201cGestern war ich in einem Theater wo es ungew\u00f6hnlich sch\u00f6n war. Madame Piaff eine Franz\u00f6sische Chancon [sic] S\u00e4ngerin war der Hauptteil des Abends. Sie sang einfache Lieder hinrei\u00dfend sch\u00f6n u. begleited [sic] von fantastischer Mimic. Au\u00dferdem trat eine unglaublich komische franz\u00f6sische Gruppe von 9 Man auf die mit viel Humor u. Esprie [sic] haupts\u00e4chlich musikalische Parodien vortrugen. Ferner traten eine Athleten gruppe ein Tanzpaar & ein Conferancier [sic] auf. Alle besonders gut.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Edith Piaf, 1915\u20131963, France\u2019s little sparrow, legendary, iconic singer. A street performer from the age of fourteen, Edith Piaf burst onto the Paris nightclub scene in 1935. The petite singer captivated French audiences with her unique renditions of chansons r\u00e9alistes, songs of love, struggle and loss. International renown preceded her American debut at the Playhouse […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-p"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ismardavidarchive.org\/indexofnames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ismardavidarchive.org\/indexofnames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ismardavidarchive.org\/indexofnames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ismardavidarchive.org\/indexofnames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ismardavidarchive.org\/indexofnames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4005"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.ismardavidarchive.org\/indexofnames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4005\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4116,"href":"https:\/\/www.ismardavidarchive.org\/indexofnames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4005\/revisions\/4116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ismardavidarchive.org\/indexofnames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ismardavidarchive.org\/indexofnames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ismardavidarchive.org\/indexofnames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}