Bibliographic Information
A personal story by Edith Piaf sent to Ed Sullivan:
Dear Ed,
My father was a circus performer in a tiny French circus which played all the village fairs. There was only one clown, one acrobat, and one man who beat the drum. My father was both the clown and the acrobat.
My father and I were very close. My mother had left him shortly after I was born, and he did his best to be both father and mother to me.
Our little circus, I know now, was not very good. My father never had enough money, and every day there were the same problems of eating, of finding a place to sleep, and of saving sufficient fare for travel to the next village.
As a child, I heard others tell of Santa Claus. And every Christmas Eve, I put my shoes by the campfire, expecting them to be filled with presents. But year after year, nothing happened. I could only think it was because we traveled so much that Santa Claus couldn't find me.
The Christmas Eve I was nine years old, our circus had arrived in a tiny French mining town. That night, once again, I placed my shoes near our campfire but when I woke up, they were empty.
Later that Christmas morning, a lady came to see my father. As they spoke, she seemed to become very angry, and she turned from him toward me. "Please," she said, "next year give Santa Claus your right address. He came to my house by mistake last night, and I can't tell you the mess he made. And what noise!"
Bewildered, I tried to tell the lady that I didn't give Santa Claus my address, but she interrupted, "Well, whether you did or not is beside the point. Come to my house and take away the things he left for you. They're in my way."
When I arrived at her home, what a wonderful sight there was for my eyes, and for my heart! All the toys I had ever dreamed of having were there, and they seemed to be everywhere. I couldn't believe it, and I remember that I stood in the room crying for joy.
It was the first real Christmas I ever had.
Years later, my father told me that the lady had heard about my disappointment every Christmas morning, with Santa Claus forgetting where I was. She had lost a little girl, he explained, a little girl about my age, and her name was also Edith.
I hope that lovely lady was able to find other little Ediths like myself, in case Santa Claus made other mistakes.
Edith Piaf
Edith Piaf's Universe Information
EPU-identifier : DZJ-01-0043-US-1959
| Period | : 1924 |
| Pages | : 63-65 |
