Encore une fois


1950/51 saw Edith taking tours of France, Canada and America; along with her went not only Charles Aznavour, but a new lover, Eddie Constantine. His initial meeting with her had been in Paris at the Bacarra where he showed her an English translation of Hymne a l'Amour. Their romance only lasted until the latter end of a comedy play they were jointly appearing in - "La P'tite Lili". "La P'tite Lili" was dogged with production problems virtually up to the opening night. Arguments between producer, director, actors and songwriters over salaries,set design and personality clashes, plus the discovery that the play hadn't even been written when rehearsals were due to start meant that it was a miracle it opened at all, let alone be the resounding success it was! Edith was - in no small way - responsible for holding it all together. However, during the seven months of the play's run she found another interest in the form of sportsman Andre Pousse, a racing cyclist. They originally met in 1948/49 when Edith was involved with Marcel Cerdan - she had no romantic interest in anyone else at that time - but they had a mutual friend in Louis Barrier, and in 1951 she began to invite him to her newly-acquired farm at Hallier, Dreux. It wasn't long before she had asked him to move into the house at the Bois de Boulogne. Things seemed to be looking up for her despite her continuing sorrow for the loss of Cerdan, but once again this was to change.

In mid-August 1951, Edith sustained broken ribs and a fracture to her left arm in an automobile accident. The car had skidded off the road. Andre Pousse was driving at the time, Edith and Charles Aznavour were in the back. Three weeks previously she had been involved in an accident whilst being driven by Aznavour, but both had escaped unharmed. Her injuries were treated and she was prescribed painkillers - morphine - to enable her to continue singing, although the accident effectively closed the play. This was the start of a long-running battle with drug dependence, and the end for Andre Pousse. It wasn't long before she was betraying him with a friend of his, another cyclist named Louis Gerardin. Gerardin had a wife however, who was less than happy at his abandonment of her. When he moved into Pousse's newly vacated spot at the Bois de Boulogne, taking with him a number of items from the marital home (all valuable), Mme Gerardin had a private detective follow him and; much to the delight of the press, charges of being an accessory to theft and a receiver of stolen goods were laid at Edith's door. Edith threw him out.


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