Louis Leplée (7 April 1883 – April 6, 1936) was a French
nightclub
A nightclub (music club, discothèque, disco club, or simply club) is an entertainment venue during nighttime comprising a dance floor, lightshow, and a stage for live music or a disc jockey (DJ) who plays recorded music.
Nightclubs gener ...
owner who discovered the singer-songwriter and actress
Édith Piaf
Édith Piaf (, , ; born Édith Giovanna Gassion, ; December 19, 1915– October 10, 1963) was a French singer, lyricist and actress. Noted as France's national chanteuse, she was one of the country's most widely known international stars.
Pia ...
, who was singing on a Paris street corner in 1935.
Leplée starred Piaf at the popular Parisian nightspot
Le Gerny's
Le Gerny's is the name of a former Parisian nightclub located at 54 rue Pierre-Charron, at the intersection with the , in the of the 8th arrondissement of Paris.
The nightclub is now mostly known as the venue where internationally renowned singer ...
as "La Môme Piaf" (The Little Sparrow).
Leplée was murdered in his apartment in
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
,
on 6 April 1936. Piaf was questioned extensively by the police before being cleared of wrongdoing. The case has never been solved, and there has been speculation and theories of
mob involvement in Leplée's death.
In popular culture
He is portrayed by
Gérard Depardieu
Gérard Xavier Marcel Depardieu, CQ (, , ; born 27 December 1948) is a French actor, filmmaker, businessman and vineyard owner since 1989 who is one of the most prolific thespians in film history having completed over 250 films since 1967 alm ...
in the 2007 film ''La Môme'', also known as ''
La Vie en Rose
"La Vie en rose" (; ) is the signature song of popular French singer Édith Piaf, written in 1945, popularized in 1946, and released as a single in 1947. The song became very popular in the US in 1950, when seven versions reached the ''Billboard ...
''.
References
External links
Little Sparrow web site
20th-century French businesspeople
1883 births
1936 deaths
Nightclub owners
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