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The Scarlet Letters

August 22, 2014, 9:31 am
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Big-budget studio films were heavily promoted, and The Scarlet Empresswas no exception. In addition to press coverage and ads, there were publicity stunts – worldwide.

Paramount's pitch to showmen.
In London, a waxwork of Marlene Dietrichwas unveiled at Madame Tussaud'sin conjunction with the opening of the film. John Armstrong, director of advertising at Paramount Theatres there arranged that the unveiling be broadcast via a transatlantic radio link to the US via NBC. The waxwork was dressed in ostrich feathers from South Africa– gaining press for the movie in far-flung parts of the British Empire. Even department store Selfridgesjoined in with displays. Across the channel, a special premiere was held at the Theatre Agriculteursin Paris, with American envoy in France, J I Strauss in attendance. And cinemas from New York to Shanghailured their patrons with special displays.





In the US, independent exhibitors were encouraged to make their own ballyhoo. Ross Hobson– who ran the Granada Theatre in Lewiston, Idaho– for example, had a masked “Scarlet Empress” do the rounds at shops around his home town. Shoppers who recognised the masked lady won free tickets and other prizes. Local dance halls also held a “Scarlet Empress” ball with prizes for the best Dietrich impersonator. Some theatres in other towns made their own front-of-house artwork.

Despite all the promotion, and whatever the critical consensus may have been be on The Scarlet Empress – and however it may have played in cities – independent, small town movie houses saw Dietrich's latest picture spilling scarlet ink all over their ledgers. They warned their fellow businessmen to avoid this one in the exhibitor's trade paper, Motion Picture Herald:

“Thirteen reels of thundering music and long-haired lovers. Things are getting better if anyone does any business on this colossal flop.”
– Deluxe Theatre, St John, Kansas

“I did not have a single person tell me they liked this picture. Some wanted their money back. Personally, I thought it was a fair picture. I guess I was wrong.”
– Opera House, Abbeville, S.C

“Marlene Dietrich – a black eye for the small town and if you don't have to play it shelve it and you'll be better off. Beautiful settings and all music. Dietrich says about 20 words...”
– Majestic Theate, Lake Mills, Wisconsin

“The star alone was the picture...”
– Lyric Theatre Circuit, McIntonsh S. Dakota

“100 minutes of 'opus' acting, direction and camera work – but unappreciated! Hot in spots – a real picture – better than Rasputin – but how many small towns care about Russia? Wake up, fellows! Kick about these Hollywood American versions of pictures intended for Europe! A few are O.K., but they are making too many.”
– Granada Theatre, Monte Vista, Colorado

“a wonderful spectacle but failed to get rental”
– New Piedmont Theatre, Piedmont, Mo

“grandeur wasted on a poor story … Let's get away from these 'costume' bewhiskered extravaganzas”
– Grand Theatre, Preston, Idaho

“Business below expectations. This picture is excellent if your audience likes grandeur in settings and acting; mine does not care for it, though we had a few favourable comments. The direction is excellent.”
– Colonial Theatre, Grandview, Washington


It's not surprising that, when Motion Picture Herald named their biggest box-office stars of 1933 – 1934, Marlene was way down on the list, which was headed by Will Rodgers and Clark Gable. Marlene's fellow Paramount co-star Mae West, riding high on Belle of the Nineties, was ranked fifth. Dietrich was ranked equally with Dolores Del Rio and John Barrymore, just above Charles Farrell and John Wayne.

The biggest box-office stars. (Click to enlarge.)

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El Morocco Memories

August 29, 2014, 5:46 pm
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With Clifton Webb, c 1937.
The zebra print on the banquettes was really dark blue, but that pattern (which reproduced so well in newsprint photos) served as background for the rich, the famous and the climbers of a generation and clearly identified their location at Manhattan's El Morocco nightclub.

The club, originally opened as a speakeasy, on 54th Street in in 1931, claimed to have invented not only the velvet rope at the entrance, but Sibera, too (on the wrong side of its tiny dance floor, to which the socially undesirable were banished). Nanette Fabray remembered: “One entered, and there was a hierarchy of where one sat. The first table on the right was the best; the second was reserved for the owner, John Perona. You didn't dare go unless you were perfectly turned out.”


Marlene Dietrich  and  Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney.
Mädchen in Uniform: a 1945 farewell party for daughter Maria before her leaving to entertain troops overseas. Marlene herself  had returned home from a USO tour only a few days prior.
Those who wanted to dance could do so to the two, alternating dance bands (one playing sweet showtunes and the other doing the latin bit). For those who didn't, there was the haute-haute Champagne Room — where favoured clients supped, serenaded by a  violinist playing continental melodies.



Marlene with two Canadian pilots. 1943.

Lord Snowdon with Dietrich in the 1960s.
In 1960, El Morocco relocated to a townhouse nearby, but by the end of the decade, the era of café society (people who didn't get invited to homes, according to Elsa Maxwell) was coming to a close, being replaced by the jet set and ladies who lunched. El Morocco limped along in the guise of a steakhouse and a topless bar, before finally closing in the 1990s. Some of its fixtures were installed in a private mansion in the Hamptons; the building itself was demolished to make way for a highrise condo, the Milan.




Items from the collection of El Morocco's original proprietor will be offered for sale by Doyle New York in September: some zebra print scarves and bow ties, momentos for those who never made it there. And hundreds of photos, of those who were.




Photos: Doyle, New York Daily News & Life Magazine
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Life of the Rathbone Party, 1937

September 23, 2014, 4:29 am
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From: Life Magazine, 19 April 1937.

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Making Fashion: Two New Exhibitions (With Books!)

October 1, 2014, 1:28 pm
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Two current exhibitions celebrate the work of those who helped shape Dietrich's image:

Photographer Horst P. Horst photographed Dietrich on several occasions for Vogue. A major career retrospective, focussing on the photographer's work at the fashion magazine, is currently on show at London's V&A (where it will run until 4 January 2015). 

Photographer of Style was was opened by Carmen Dell’Orefice, the one-time Vogue model who worked with the photographer from 1946. Using over 250 photographs from the magazine's archive — alongside items of clothing, Horst's papers, and film clips —  it explores Horst's creative efforts in collaboration with models, designers, artists and and stars like Marlene. 

Visitors to the exhibition will also be able to see all 94 of the covers Horst shot for Vogue, in addition to new exhibition prints of some of his colour work, printed from his original large-format transparencies.

The website about the exhibit includes fascinating information, including brief film footage of Marlene's friend, Alexander Liberman (whose photographs of her were published in 1993's An Intimate Photographic Memoir).  Anna Wintour has penned a forward to Susanna Brown's book, which accompanies the exhibit.

Across the pond, Boston's Museum of Fine Arts explores the combination of jewellery and fashion during Hollywood's golden age. 

Fittingly, one of Marlene's costumes from Desire, in which she played the chicest of jewel thieves, is on show. (The négligée, with its matching fur-trimmed cape — which, going by recent photos, looks like it may have been altered — is on loan from the FIDM Museum, who have several items from Dietrich's wardrobe in their collection.)

Also on show: a Travis Banton evening gown designed by Dietrich's costume collaborator for her one-timeco-star, Anna May Wong; and a Schiaparelli dress that adorned the curves of Marlene's Paramount pal, Mae West. Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, Jean Harlow and Carole Lombard are among the other stars represented.

The jewellery on view provide an opportunity to see the work of Trabert & Hoeffer-Mauboussin up close. The house, makers of Marlene's fabled suite of emerald jewellery, is represented by various items from the thirties to the fifties: notably, a multi-use platinum, emerald and sapphire necklace once owned by actress June Knight.

Hollywood Glamour: Fashion and Jewelry from the Silver Screen will be on show  until 8 March 2015. A book about The Jewels of Trabert & Hoeffer-Mauboussin draws on the museum's collection to chart the collaboration between the firms of Trabert & Hoeffer and Mauboussin during the thirties and forties.

(Updated: 4 October 2014)

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Garbo?

October 14, 2014, 2:32 pm
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A fantasy coupling, and an April fool's joke, from 1932.

New York, 1935.

Garbo and Dietrich. They were often compared to one another, but did they they ever meet? 

Marlene always denied it, which did nothing to stop speculation. Garbo's reported comment on the subject?: "Who is Marlene Dietrich?" 

One thing is certain — they may have had the opportunity to meet through shared friends and acquaintances, but they couldn't have met as often as those who knew both (and who supposedly witnessed such meetings) said they did! 

The Garbo site, GarboForever, has a nice summary of many of these legends: you'll have to decide for yourself how reliable they are. One supposed meeting, at a nightclub in 1935, was widely reported. Marlene's denials made the cover of the New York Post in March that year:





Speaking to a Swedish TV audience in 1971, Marlene expanded on the subject (starting at 9:50):


Did they — didn't they? Share your thoughts in the comments!
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Dietrich Interviewed: Advice from "An Old German Shoe"

November 1, 2014, 2:40 pm
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Marlene had recently completed her annual Las Vegas stint and was in the midst of her South American concert tour when this interview, with Lloyd Shearer, was published in an August 1959 edition of Parade:


BOOKERS WHO SCHEDULE the stage appearances of famous show business personalities loosely classify these celebrities in two groups  — talent and freak attractions. 

Marlene Dietrich, who each year is booked into the Sahara Hotel in Las Vegas, the Copacabana in Rio and several other night spots throughout the world at $25,000 a week, is classified as a freak attraction. 

The reason? People will pay to see her regardless of her act — an act in which she sings badly because her tremulous voice lacks timbre and range, and in which she dances inadequately because her dancing is limited to a series of offbeat kicks and cakewalks. And yet Marlene is always a sellout.  Wherever she plays she draws enthusiastic crowds. She stimulates tumultuous ovations. She arouses such awe and envy-inspired audience comment as, “How does she do it at her age?” or “Doesn't she ever grow old?” or “Look at the figure on that woman.” 

At 55, onstage, sheathed in a shimmering side-slit creation designed by Jean Louis, languorously slinking up to a microphone, incredibly immune to the ravages of age, Grandma Dietrich generates more glamor and sex appeal than any other actress you can think of, even those half her age. 

How does she do it? The honest answer is money, technique and style. 

“Let's not fool anyone,” Dietrich candidly declares. “It takes money to be glamorous nowadays. Glamor is what I sell in my act, and it costs plenty. 

Feathers from Argentina

“Take this dress I'm wearing. It costs around $12,000. I know that's fabulous but it's true. I bought two of them and the final bill came to something over $23,000. The beading alone for the two dresses came to $11,000. The rooster feathers I had flown up from Argentina. They cost more than $1,000. Jean Louis, who designs clothes for Columbia Pictures, was paid $6,000 for the design and the overall work. 

Vital statistics on La Dietrich:
she stands 5'5'', weighs 106 pounds,
enjoys measurements of 34-22-34.
“But it's worth it to me,” Marlene continues, “because glamor is my stock in trade. People say, 'Have you seen the dress Dietrich is wearing in her new act?' My clothes arouse more comment than anything except maybe my figure. On that I spend absolutely nothing. Fortunately I don't have to diet. Nature's been very kind to me. I think I've weighed 106 or 108 pounds for the past 20 years. I don't really know. The last time I got on a scale was in 1946. Other women aren't so lucky. But if they have money they can go to expensive reducing farms or health resorts. They can have their faces lifted and their bodies massaged, and they can hire cosmeticians to hide facial flaws.

“Then if they want to, they can learn style and technique. To be glamorous a woman must be intensely feminine. She must be glad and proud to use the attributes of the female figure to the best advantage, A good pair of legs, amply shaped bust, smiling or naughty eyes — these should rarely be hidden. 

“A woman should enter a room gracefully but at the same time as if it were an occasion. Truly glamorous women don't stride into a room, flop down on a sofa and say, 'Where are the martinis?' They study the art of making an entrance. They pause at the door until eyes are upon them, then slowly flow into a room.” 

The acquisition of glamor, according to to Marlene, takes time and painstaking effort even when one does have the money. She herself, for example, had 17 fittings before approving the dress on the next page.  Fitters, designers, seamstresses who have worked for her say Dietrich is a perfectionist who will never compromise when it comes to a professional appearance. 

Back to Hollywood 

Recently she flew one of Hollywood's crack photographers and his entire staff to Las Vegas to photograph her for poster art. When the proofs were submitted to her she refused to approve a single one. She paid the photographer his fee of $1,500, sent him and his assistants flying back to Hollywood. “I kept telling him,” she explains, “that he was using background that was too busy. It was detracting from me.” 

Dietrich knows that her trim figure, her famous legs, her bony face and seductive eyes are her primary physical attractions and she tries to perpetuate and combine these with what an old friend calls “the appearance of a world-weary woman.” 

But this glamor is reserved solely for the stage and the now infrequent screen job. 

Offstage Marlene Dietrich is “an old German shoe.” She goes around in slacks and open-throated shirt. A dab of lipstick is her only make-up. She has a penchant for scrubbing floors and cooking meals for herself or her daughter's family. Daughter Maria, a sometimes TV actress, has three sons — John Paul Riva, 2; John Peter Riva, 8, and John Michael Riva, 9, on whom Grandma Dietrich dotes.

Family resemblance is seen in smiles of Maria Riva, TV actress,
and her mother, glamorous Marlene Dietrich.
The one reason Marlene lives in New York (in a two-bedroom apartment) on Park Avenue is “because I want to be near my daughter. She needs me more than my husband does.”

Few people know it, but Dietrich has been married 35 years to Rudolf Sieber, a German motion picture director she met in Berlin in 1924. Sieber today lives on a ranch in the San Fernando Valley north of Hollywood where he raises chickens. Here Marlene, unpublicized, spends as much time with him each year as her career permits — “sometimes three months, sometimes, four, it changes. He has been my only husband, and I try to make him as happy as I can.”

An authority of sorts on happiness — she runs a twice-a-day radio program over NBC entitled Dietrich Talks on Love and Life— Marlene says, “It's getting more difficult to be happy, but it can be done. I myself have found it hard to be happy because I'm part of such a two-war miserable generation. As a little girl I only knew my mother in mourning. She was grieving for my father, a cavalry major who was killed. In World War II my grandmother had 13 grandsons who were killed. I lost my original country, my original language, my original home. In 1937 I became an American citizen, and just when I was settling down another war broke out. So it's been hard for me. But even so I think I have learned some secrets of happiness. 

“First, you must give yourself away but only when you're wanted and needed. To do something for a man when he doesn't want you around, that's awful. But when a man needs you, then a woman should give everything. She should not hold back. She should also work with her hands, clean, cook, iron. Physical work is good happiness therapy. 

Second, you should try and earn a lot of money. Anyone who tells you that money is not an essential part of happiness hasn't lived. With money you can help those you love. You can afford good health protection. The reason I work nowadays is because I need the money to help others. [Ed. note: Marlene Dietrich has long been recognized as one of the softest touches in show business. How many people she currently supports on her annual income of $150,000 is anybody's guess. The figure, however, is sizable.] 

The Sin of Idleness 

“Third, I think it is very difficult to be happy without working, without taking some pride in achievement, however small. I was brought up in the old Germanic tradition, which holds that idleness is a sin, that men and women are put on earth to do something, to contribute to society by their labor. The happiest people are those who work hard at a task they enjoy. 

“Fourth, know your own limitations and be realistic about them. If you are a good carpenter, take pride in being a good carpenter. Try to reach any horizon you set for yourself, but if failure comes consistently, return to your original skill and perfect yourself in it.”

Marlene averages 3,000 letters a week on her radio program from problem-perplexed listeners who want her advice. From this ever-increasing mountain of mail, she is convinced that she knows what is bothering most people. 

“Today's women,” she declares, “are dissatisfied because their husbands are disappointing … sexually or in terms of humane consideration. 

“Today's men are unhappy because in my opinion they are essentially polygamous and feel guilty about their deeds or inclinations. 

“As for teenagers, they resent their parents, whom they classify as 'square' and with whom they cannot communicate.”

Marlene's solution to these problems: “Men are so easy to love. All women have to do is to orbit around them, to make them the center, the hard core of existence. The trouble with so many modern women is that they want the men to orbit around them. They want more to receive than to give.

“Men can please women very easily by being dominant in the major decisions, the major actions and considerate in the minor ones.

“Teenagers must be patient. Sure, we have botched the world into which we've brought them. But they should be more tolerant of our failures. We have love and some wisdom to give, and if they can be taught to communicate with us who knows? They may even profit from our errors end make the future world a happier and healthier world in which to live.”   ■

(Photos courtesy: Marlene Dietrich Collection)
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Dietrich in London: 50th Anniversary

November 18, 2014, 9:32 am
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Half a century ago, this week, Marlene Dietrich arrived in London to prepare for a concert season in that city. She had previously performed there, at the Café de Paris in the fifties, but that was in cabaret. This would be London's first opportunity to experience her expanded repertoire, in a theatrical event finessed by musical director, Burt Bacharach, and herself.

Dietrich at Heathrow airport, November 1964.




Her concerts were presented by impresario "Binkie" Beaumont of H M Tennent Ltd at the Queen's Theatre in Shaftesbury Avenue. (This Edwardian theatre, which opened in 1907,  had suffered bomb damage during the World War II: the façade was destroyed, but the interior remained largely undamaged. After repairs it reopened in 1959 with its unusual combination of modern exterior and period auditorium. Today, it is the home of the London production of Les Misérables.)




Opening night was on 23 November 1964.


Judy Garland, who had performed at the Palladium earlier in the month (with daughter Liza Minnelli) was at the first night; she shared anecdotes about the event with TV's Jack Paar (also in town) a few days later, also recalling Marlene's applause record (her comments start at 3:05):



Reviewers generally thought Marlene excellent. Writing for The Sunday Times, Harold Hobson gave particularly thoughtful commentary about Dietrich, and her show, in two reviews (click to enlarge):




Appreciative crowds gathered at the stage door after every night's show; this was as much a part of the event as the show itself.  Marlene would sign their programmes or get on the roof of her car and fan hundreds of fan photos into the sea of people surrounding her. She would often need a police escort to make a safe exit.




The season, advertised to run for two weeks, closed on 12 December. 




The final night's show was recorded by Pye Records. The record trimmed much of Marlene's performance (focussing on selections in the second part of her act) in order to fit it on a single disc, but captures Marlene in peak concert form. (Her live version of Where Have All the Flowers Gone?, not on the LP, was later issued on a single sold at her shows).



Such was the success of this season, and Marlene's enjoyment at performing in London, that she would make return visits to the city semi-annually until her retirement from the stage in 1975.




(Special thanks to the Crees Collection for sharing the materials used in this post.)
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Ol' Blue Eyes's Little Black Book

November 24, 2014, 1:58 pm
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Many Sinatra collectors will no doubt be eager to own his 1960s address book, when it comes under the hammer at Heritage Auctions in December (pre-auction internet bidding on the item is already underway: the current top bid is $1,300).

The address book, compiled by his long-time secretary, is a (circa) 1964 who's who, from Harold Arlen to Richard Zanuck and some people called Kennedy. 

Marlene's in there, too, seemingly with an outdated address (she'd surely moved further up, to 993 Park Avenue, by then: her alphanumeric phone number is correct, though!). Not sure what she would have made of her alphabetical billing below soon-to-be Mrs Bacharach, Angie Dickinson:


Let's ring Marlene ... she might just answer!



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Pretty Souvenirs: A 2014 Marlene Dietrich Auction Overview

December 4, 2014, 2:12 pm
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Many a Dietrich admirer (and lovers of fine jewellery) would love to be the owner of this tri-colour gold bracelet, with a lapis lazuli clasp, which is being offered by Sotheby's New York as part of their Magnificent Jewels sale next week. Made by Cartier, it was given to Marlene by Erich Maria Remarque. She was photographed wearing it by Harper's Bazaar's Louise Dahl-Wolfe. Sotheby's estimates the 14 karat bracelet will fetch between $ 20 000 - $ 30 000. 


Perhaps you'd prefer to strut your stuff à la Dietrich? That can be arranged!


This pair of custom-made Delman shoes, used by Marlene in her stage shows, will be sold this week by Julien's. Online bidding is already under way (the top bid is currently at $ 700: it should easily reach their estimate of $ 800 - $ 1 200).

Salerooms have been earning nice commissions offering an interesting mix of other Dietrich items for sale this year. Some other highlights:


In January,  Sotheby's also sold this Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot sketch of a landscape with cows, another gift from Remarque.  Previously, the sketch had been offered to the public in November 1997, when the contents of Marlene's New York apartment was sold by her heirs. This time around, it brought  $ 11 250 (buyer's premium included) — well in excess of the the estimate of $ 6 000 - $ 8 000.


The most high-profile Dietrich auction of 2014 was the “Marlene Dietrich Inheritance Sale” which garnered worldwide press coverage. The internet-only sale, held in March by UK-based newcomer Auction My Stuff, featured everyday items gifted by Marlene to of some of her grandchildren (many were from John-David Riva's collection).



Not since Julien's sold Dietrich items which had been abandoned in storage, in 2011, have such a large number of Dietrich-related items been sold in a single sale.  Egg cups and other household items, notes and letters by the likes of Hemingway and Coward, a dressing room plaque from the Queens Theatre and a slew of compacts and lighters were offered.  The very personal nature of some of these items make them impossible to link with the star, other than their provenance; whether the sellers issued letters of authenticity of the items after the sale is not known, but this will have an impact on their future value. 

Joseph went to an exhibition of the auction items at the Hollywood Museum; you can read his excellent coverage here. In the end, many of the items sold were bought by Nate D. Sanders, a memorabilia dealer who subsequently offered the items for resale on his own website and via ebay.

Soon after this sale, the Official Marlene Dietrich Facebook Page announced that further Dietrich-related items would be sold via Sotheby's in June, presumably also by her heirs:


These included a letter from Jean Cocteau (shown above left, which sold for $ 6 875, buyer's premium included). In the illustrated note, written in the South of France in November 1957 (around the time Marlene was filming The Monte Carlo Story)  to  “Marlène, mon bon ange”, Cocteau begs that Dietrich write a few lines to him, as he is “sad to be so near, and yet so far” from her. 

The Hemingway letter (above right), four pages dated September 1951, reads in part: “I feel truly badly for you to be alone now because we both have been in love enough to know what it is: better than heaven and worse than hell...”

According to Sotheby's,this was only the second letter from Hemingway to Dietrich to have been offered for sale; it fetched $ 37 500 (premium included). The other letter they refer to was also sold by them (in 2011, for $ 19 000). Interestingly, yet another Hemingway letter was offered this year, by John-David Riva in the Auction My Stuff sale; this seems to have gone unsold. (Thirty letters between  Hemingway and Dietrich were donated to the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum by Maria Riva in 2003: copies are held by the Marlene Dietrich Collection Berlin.)


At the same sale, a cache of Remarque's correspondence to Dietrich (comprising 42 pages) fetched $ 8 750 (buyer's premium included). The letters, addressed to “Angel” and “Enchanting one” from her “Rem” (and  his alter-egos “Ravic” and “Alfred”) had been estimated to sell for between $ 10 000 and $ 20 000.   



A unique item of social history offered at this particular Sotheby's auction was Marlene Dietrich's short snorter (made up notes of various currencies, strung-together these were collected by members of the military on tours of duty and signed by people they met on their travels). Marlene's, from the days of her USO tours, is made up of 83 notes with over a thousand signatures (including those of  Hemingway, Irwin Shaw, Irving Berlin, her fellow USO troupers Lyn Mayberry and Danny Thomas, and her husband, Lt Rudolf Sieber). Valued at between $ 15 000 and $ 20 000, this item appears to have gone unsold.



Trajan auctioned a diamond, gold and chrysoprase broach in Monte Carlo in July. Dating from the mid-1940s, the broach, which had originally been sold by Marlene as part of her 1987 Christie's jewellery sale, fetched € 6 064 (buyer's premium included).


A luminous study, c 1935. Inscribed to her future collaborator, John Engstead (then still a photographer's assistant at Paramount, but who would go on to take many of those amazing Vegas portraits of Marlene), "with lots of thanks!". This rarely-seen portrait was sold for $ 1 500 by Profiles in History in October.


More art from Marlene's collection: an Alberto Giacometti lithograph— gifted to her by the artist during their brief friendship in the late 'fifties. Sotheby's New York offered this as part of a print sale held at the end of October, but it failed to find a buyer. (The estimate had been $  6 000  - $ 8 000.)

This auction round-up would be incomplete without slipping in a little item sold at the end of 2013  — one which conjures up all those legendary images of Dietrich puffing away: a 14K gold lighter engraved  with her signature on the side. A gift to Destry Rides Again director, George Marshall, it was consigned to Heritage Auctions by his granddaughter. It fetched $ 3 000:


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Maria Riva at 90

December 12, 2014, 12:43 pm
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Happy birthday to Maria Riva, who turns 90 on Saturday!




Last year, at an OSS dinner in Washington, Riva eloquently recalled her evacuation from Europe on the eve of War in 1939:



Here are excerpts from the Queen Mary's passenger list for her final pre-war transatlantic crossing.  (Marlene and Sternberg were already in California):

Maria, by then an American citizen, was travelling under her US passport (click to enlarge):

Remarque, stripped of his German citizenship, had obtained a Nansen passport from a Panamanian consulate:

 Rudi said he was a  Dutch film actor:

And Tami: stateless; profession, "none":



The FBI made it their business to find out whether the new arrivals were Nazi sympathizers. They concluded none were: Dietrich told agents that Hitler was not a normal human being mentally, but he had a tic for her. 

Their sources provided gossip of questionable value or use:  Dietrich was promiscuous in a bland, glamorous sort of way and, despite her marriage to Sieber, with whom she [had] not lived for many years and her affairs, Marlene had never been able to 'hold a man'. Remarque was more or less a foil against which she prowled the night clubs looking for other men.

Rudi, who had received a paltry $50 a week working for Paramount in Paris, was redeployed to the New York foreign language department of Marlene's new studio, Universal. In Manhattan, he and Tami lived in interconnected apartments: he called her his ward; she called herself his secretary.  Tami tended to stay in her apartment for most of the day, and staff were instructed not to put calls through in the afternoons, when she took her nap. 

Back in LA, on one occasion, an informant tried to overhear Dietrich and Maria's chit-chat with Remarque at Schwab's Pharmacy, but he was so obvious that they all switched to German. (Marlene was so pro-German, according to this misinformant, that she had even forbidden her daughter to go horse-riding in an English saddle!)

[Photos of Marlene and Maria courtesy of  Marlene Dietrich Collection]


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A Suite of Ivory Suits

December 18, 2014, 8:20 am
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Spoliansky in Berlin.
Bonhams sold an ivory cloqué Balenciaga evening suit from Marlene's wardrobe earlier this month (it fetched £3 250, premium included). According to the auctioneer's description, Marlene had gifted it to composer Mischa Spoliansky's daughter, whose family offered it for sale.

Spoliansky was one of the people who could have claimed to have "discovered" Marlene: he auditioned and cast her in two of his revues in Berlin. 

She made her first recordings as a cast member of 1928's  Es liegt in der Luft; the following year, Josef von Sternberg spotted her on-stage in Zwei Krawatten, and arranged her screen test for The Blue Angel. While Marlene went on to Hollywood stardom, Spoliansky emigrated to London in 1933, where he became a well-respected film composer. 

For decades, the pair would catch up when Marlene was in London. (Spoliansky later wrote one of Marlene's songs in Stage Fright and she included his lilting Auf Der Mundharmonika in her 1964 album, Die Neue Marlene). 

Here's the evening suit sold by Bonhams, and a photo of Marlene wearing a similar outfit  in 1962:

Spot the differences.
Dietrich wore similar ensembles to the one auctioned: in 1962, when she was received the Edison Award in the Netherlands; and in 1963, when she performed in London at The Royal Variety Performance. Both of those suits had differing detailing to one another, and the suit sold is again slightly different to both of those.

Dietrich in The Netherlands, 1962 (left); and Marlene Meets The Beatles at The Royal Variety Performance, 1963 (right).
[Photos: Bonhams & Crees Collection]
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Happy Birthday: Stars and Cake!

December 27, 2014, 8:59 am
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Dietrich was born 113 years ago, on this day in 1901.  


A Capricorn, she was one of the first stars to use the services of astrologer Carroll Righter, who had come to Hollywood in 1938. ("The stars impel, they don't compel. What you make of your life depends on you," he said).

"Anyone with troubles can unload them safely onto Capricorn's shoulders," Marlene said of her own zodiac sign, ruled by Saturn — "the celestial taskmaster. He won't let you get away with anything."

Righter either looked at his charts of the screenplay of The Lady Is Willing in 1941 and advised Marlene not to go to the studio one day. She disregarded his advice: while filming a scene with 'Baby X' in her arms, she tripped over a toy on the set and broke her ankle as she shielded the baby. Columbia's publicity men had a field day supplying photos of Marlene recuperating to the press. (She completed filming of the movie with her ankle in a cast, deftly hid out of view).

"Don't mess around with old Carroll — 'cause he must know something." Marlene concluded.


As late as 1978, according the New York Daily News, Marlene still rarely made "a move without consulting the zodiac ... with Righter". (The paper was reporting about a lunch date between Maria Riva and the astrologer. Riva had just become a "very happy" grandmother; great-grandmother was in Paris working on her autobiography).

oOo

Today being Marlene's birthday, here's a "birthday" cake: her recipe for Dutch Apple Cake, shared with readers of New Movie magazine in 1932. 



1cake yeast
¼ cup lukewarm milk
¾ cup scalding hot milk
¼ cup sugar
2 ½ cups flour
¼ cup shortening
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg yolk, beaten

Soak the yeast in lukewarm milk. Add to scalded milk. Add half the sugar and flour. Let rise until doubled in bulk. Then eat in the rest of the sugar, flour and other ingredients. Spread thinly in greased baking pan. Let rise in warm place until doubled again. Press thinly sliced apples into dough in even rows. Sprinkle with ½ teaspoon cinnamon mixed with a half cup brown sugar and dot with currants. Bake in hot oven.

(Let us know what it tastes like!)


Happy Birthday Marlene!
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Marlene Dietrich Movie Tie-In Books

January 2, 2015, 9:31 pm
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Want to the cut to the chase and see my Marlene Dietrich movie tie-in collection? Click here.

During one of my covens with fellow Marlene Dietrich collectors, I discovered a niche of memorabilia that had never before caught my attention--movie tie-in books. This 1936 photoplay edition of The Garden of Allah enraptured me, its endpapers illustrated with a photograph (or composite photo?) of Dietrich raising her arms like angel's wings while co-star Charles Boyer prays before her. Soon after spotting it, I was on the hunt for more examples of Marlene Dietrich movie tie-in books and for more information about this genre of books.

Initially, I searched Google, Ebay, Amazon, and AbeBooks for combinations of terms that included "marlene dietrich,""tie-in," and "photoplay," which greatly expanded my knowledge of existing Marlene Dietrich movie tie-in books and the range of prices for titles on the market. I also scoured the global library catalog WorldCat for the same terms and tested its more refined search functions and controlled vocabularies, such as limiting my search to books, adding "photoplay editions" or "novelizations" as a subject term in an advanced search, and sometimes taking a wild guess that searching a Dietrich film title or its non-English equivalent and setting a date range might retrieve some fruitful results. In fact, this last search technique revealed the existence of a Danish movie tie-in publication for Blonde Venus, which I hope to find one day on the market. While searching for Marlene Dietrich-related movie tie-ins, I realized that the most common reason why I initially missed certain books was because catalogers or booksellers did not include Dietrich's name anywhere in their records or listings; therefore, I knew I would have to investigate the research of others to identity even more books if I didn't want to rely solely on my hunches.

The first printed resource I checked happened to be one of the first--if not the first--resources on movie tie-in books, Emil Petaja's 1975 book, Photoplay Edition, the title of which is synonymous for "movie tie-in book." Petaja (1975) stated that photoplay editions likely began in 1913, surmising that they promoted serial films (p. 6). According to Petaja (1975), the production of photoplay editions fell during the advent of talkies and semi-talkies, perhaps due to the depression, the ability of movies to now “[speak] for themselves,” or the competition books had with radio (p. 13-14), but I knew these books had not become extinct after seeing that extraordinary example of The Garden of Allah. Petaja (1975) observed a lack of novelizations (p. 14); however, Dietrich’s second American film, Dishonored, was novelized by Frank Vreeland for Grosset & Dunlap in 1931. As a photoplay edition bibliography, Petaja's book gave me the impression that its author was not much a fan of Dietrich, given its dearth of Dietrich-related titles. Nevertheless, Petaja (1975) gave me some good leads by noting that Grosset & Dunlap and A.L. Burt were the two top American publishers of photoplay editions (p. 2).

Of course, I also came across useful Internet resources about movie tie-in books in general, such as an essay on the 11 East 14th Street blog entitled "See the Movie, Then Read the Book: Photoplay Editions." The author of this piece, Gene Zonarich, covered the etymology of the term "photoplay edition," explained the appeal and appraisal of this genre of books, shared some examples from his own collection, and referenced a brief but useful AbeBooks page on photoplay editions. None of his examples pertained to Miss Dietrich, but I found all his information invaluable, particularly the insight that booksellers are willing to email photographs of books upon request and that dust jacket illustrations may merely resemble a movie star.

When I read an article by Peter Jewell called "Collectors' Tales: A Personal Overview of Film Fiction at Bill Douglas Centre" (note that you'll probably need to visit a library to access this), I gleaned some useful information about the movie tie-in book genre in the United Kingdom. Jewell (2008) stated that publishers such as Readers Library and World Film Publications copied the American tie-in (p. 150), which gave me more publisher names to add to my search of relevant Dietrich tie-in books. Furthermore, I learned of a jaw-dropping movie memorabilia collection at the University of Exeter's Bill Douglas Cinema Museum. This collection includes movie tie-in books, which I found easier to search in the University of Exeter Library Catalogue by using the keyword terms "douglas" and "jewell" with "photoplay,""tie-in," the British "book of the film," or a Marlene Dietrich film title.

Returning to print resources, I struck gold when I started digging through the pages of Arnie Davis'Photoplay Editions and Other Movie Tie-in Books: The Golden Years 1912-1969, which listed many Dietrich-related movie tie-ins and delineated the types of movie tie-in books that were published. Davis (2002) categorized movie tie-ins as reprints of already-published books, screenplay novelizations or adaptations, or screenplays themselves and pointed out that books can tie into movies in at least one of the following ways: with photo still illustrations, artwork depicting cast members or scenes, or written mention of the film, production company, or stars (p. 1). I highly recommend this book, and I would be curious to know how it compares to another book that I unfortunately could not acquire, Rick Miller's Photoplay Editions: A Collector's Guide.

I did, however, obtain a book by Moe Wadle called The Movie Tie-In Book, which focused only on paperback movie tie-ins and adhered to a stricter definition of movie tie-ins than Davis' book. Wadle's (1994) criteria for a movie tie-in book were that it "must give some statement referring to the film and must name or depict at least one person associated with the movie" (p. A-2). I was not concerned with whether a book was a paperback, but I did find Wadle's restrictions appealing. According to the guidelines, my Triangle Books copy of Destry Rides Again would not be a movie tie-in book because the dust jacket merely mentions Dietrich's film and depicts no one associated with that particular film. As a Dietrich fan and collector, I would have no problem accepting this because I find it rather dissatisfying that no image of Dietrich appears on this dust jacket or anywhere else in the book. Complications arose when I bought books that fit Wadle's criteria but lacked Dietrich's image, such as Just a Gigolo, and I decided to include these books as well as books that merely mentioned Dietrich with no depictions of anyone involved in the associated films for the sake of completeness.

Collecting Marlene Dietrich movie tie-in books has become a year-long obsession of mine, and I predict it will continue as I come across specimens published long after Dietrich's film releases (such as my copy of The Woman and the Puppet) and/or in many non-Anglophone countries. One potentially tricky aspect of these books is that they may also be reissues of previous novels that have subsequently adopted the film adaptation's title (Larson, 1995, p. 3). This was the case with James Hilton's Without Armour, which was reissued as Knight Without Armor (or Knight Without Armour in the U.K.) in conjunction with Dietrich's 1937 film. I have even found an example of a tie-in that had nothing to do with Dietrich aside from its dust jacket--the 1931 Archer Press Corp. edition of J.W. McConaughy's Madame X. Despite featuring a lounging Dietrich from her Paramount film Dishonored on its jacket, perhaps the only connection between this novel and Dietrich's film is the "X" in the novel's title and in Dietrich's character's spy name--X-27.

All the aforementioned factors have made the search of Marlene Dietrich movie tie-ins a fun mission for me, and I present below an illustrated bibliography of the books in my collection, arranged alphabetically by author, with publication information, a form description (e.g., novel, film script), and a physical description. I recommend that you consult this Alibris glossary for definitions of any jargon that I may use. Furthermore, I urge you to share images or information about any Marlene Dietrich movie tie-in books from your collection in the comments section because my collection is far from complete, and my books may differ from yours. Also, please correct my errors! I have tried to be as descriptive as I could because--with all the printings and editions out there--it can be tricky to ensure that the book you have found online is indeed a Marlene Dietrich tie-in, and I want to help lead you to them.

PLEASE NOTE THE FOLLOWING: I imagine that some of you may wish to know what I paid or what I would recommend that you pay for Dietrich movie tie-in books. I prefer not to discuss such matters in this public post because I am no expert on appraising movie tie-in books and--as you will notice from my scans--my books are often not in the most pristine condition; however, I will address such questions to the best of my knowledge and experience via the blog email. Davis' book gives some guidance about the pricing of movie tie-in books, but I have found that many of the books that I could obtain cost more than these figures.

MY MARLENE DIETRICH MOVIE TIE-IN BOOK COLLECTION  

(as of January, 2015)


Barrows, R.M. & Foster, Margarete. (©1944). Kismet. Chicago: Consolidated Book Publishers. Adaptation of screenplay by John Meehan. 48 unnumbered pages, almost all of which are illustrated with film stills. Stapled pamphlet binding. Front cover illustrated with a still of Dietrich and Ronald Colman. "A photoplay version"--Front cover.


Beach, Rex. (©1905). The spoilers. New York: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers. Novel. 309 numbered pages. Blue cloth over boards, cover stamped in blind and spine lettered in gilt. Top edge dark blue. Dust jacket printed in gold, blue, and red and illustrated with a film still of Dietrich, John Wayne, and Randolph Scott. "Starring Marlene Dietrich, John Wayne, Randolph Scott"--Dust jacket. "A Universal production"--Dust jacket. "Madison Square"--Front dust jacket flap. "By arrangement with Harper & Brothers"--Title page.



Brand, Max. (reprinted 1940). Destry rides again. London: Hodder and Stoughton. Novel. 319 numbered pages. Red cloth over boards, cover stamped in blind and spine lettered in black. Red endpapers. Yellow dust jacket illustrated with a colorized film still of Dietrich and James Stewart. "Marlene Dietrich & James Stewart in the Universal Picture Destry Rides Again"--Dust jacket. "The novel of the film"--Dust jacket. "H&S yellow jacket"--Dust jacket.


Brand, Max. (1938 [reprinted May 1941]). Destry rides again. New York: Triangle Books. Novel. 296 numbered pages. Green cloth over boards, lettered and decorated in black. All edges red. Illustrated dust jacket does not depict anyone associated with the 1939 film starring Dietrich. "The novel from which the movie starring Marlene Dietrich was made"--Dust jacket.


Christie, Agatha. (©1948 [February 1958 printing date]). The witness for the prosecution (New Dell edition, 1st printing). New York: Dell Publishing Co., Inc. Novel. 192 numbered pages. Blue wrappers with an illustration of a woman who resembles Marlene Dietrich on the front and back covers. All edges teal. "D218"--Front cover and spine. "A Dell mystery"--Title page. "The Witness for the Prosecution, from which the smash Broadway hit and the big United Artists film (starring Tyrone Power, Marlene Dietrich, and Charles Laughton) were adapted, is a story of courtroom suspense with a dazzling double climax"--Page [1].


Foldes, Yolanda. (©1946 [May 1947 printing date]). Golden earrings (Forum Books edition, 1st printing). Cleveland: The World Publishing Company. Novel. 239 numbered pages. Gray cloth over boards, lettered and decorated in burgundy. Top edge burgundy. Dust jacket printed in yellow, black, and red with a photomontage of film stills chiefly depicting Dietrich and Ray Milland. "A Forum motion picture edition"--Dust jacket. "F-181"--Dust jacket. "The novel from which the Paramount film was made starring Ray Milland and Marlene Dietrich"--Front dust jacket flap.


Franck, Pierre. (©1931). Le navire des hommes perdus. Collection hebdomadaire cinéma-bibliothèque ; no. 397. Paris: Editions Jules Tallandier. Novel adapted from Dietrich's film The Ship of Lost Men (Das Schiff der verlorenen Menschen). 94 numbered pages, 16 numbered pages of plates of captioned film stills, 1 unnumbered page of publisher's advertisements at end. Wrappers printed in red and blue and illustrated with colorized film still of Dietrich, Robin Irvine, and other cast members.


Hichens, Robert. (1937). The garden of Allah (44th edition). London: Methuen & Co., Ltd. Novel. 520 numbered pages. Orange cloth over boards, with spine lettered in black. Dust jacket illustrated with a film still of Dietrich. "Marlene Dietrich in a Selznick International Production"--Dust jacket.


Hichens, Robert. (©1907). The garden of Allah. New York: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers. Novel. 490 numbered pages. Red cloth over boards, lettered and decorated in black. Endpapers illustrated with film still of Dietrich and Charles Boyer. Dust jacket printed in red and blue with an illustration of Dietrich and Boyer. "Marlene Dietrich and Charles Boyer in the David O. Selznick Production released thru United Artists"--Dust jacket.


Hilton, James. (©1937). Le chevalier sans armure (10e édition). Paris: Gallimard. French translation of English-language novel. 257 numbered pages, 1 unnumbered leaf with printing statement. Wrappers printed in blue and black, with a film still of Dietrich from Knight Without Armour on the front cover. Deckled fore edge and top edge. Front cover and title page printed with "nrf" logo.


Hilton, James. (1935 [December 1936 printing date]). Knight without armor (4th printing). New York: Grosset & Dunlap. Novel. 309 numbered pages. Blue boards lettered and decorated in gilt and blind. Dust jacket printed in silver, red, blue, yellow,and pink with an illustration of Dietrich and Robert Donat. "An Alexander Korda production starring Marlene Dietrich and Robert Donat"--Dust jacket. "Photoplay title of Without Armor"--Title page.


Hilton, James. (1937). Knight without armour. London: Macmillan and Co., Limited. Novel. 315 numbered pages. Blue boards lettered and decorated in gilt. Rounded page corners. All edges dark blue. Dust jacket depicts an illustration printed in light blue and dark blue of Dietrich and Robert Donat. "The book of the film"--Dust jacket. "The jacket-design of this volume is based on photographs from the London Film Production Knight Without Armour starring Marlene Dietrich and Robert Donat produced by Alexander Korda and directed by Jacques Feyder"--Dust jacket. "The Cottage Library"--Title page verso.


Kingsland, Rosemary. (©1978 [printed 1979]). Just a gigolo. London: Corgi Books. ISBN: 0552110051. Novelization of film script. 155 numbered pages. Brown wrappers illustrated with film still of David Bowie. "Based on the startling new movie starring David Bowie and Marlene Dietrich"--Front cover.


Louÿs, Pierre. (1999). The woman and the puppet. Dedalus European classics. Sawtry, UK: Dedalus. English-language translation of the French-language novel. 168 numbered pages. "Cover picture is Marlene Dietrich in 'The Devil is a Woman' (1935) reproduced courtesy of the Ronald Grant Archive and Paramount Pictures"--Back cover.


Mann, Abby. (1961). Judgment at Nuremberg. London: Cassell. Film script. 182 numbered pages, 9 unnumbered pages of plates illustrated with captioned film stills (including frontispiece). Black boards, with spine lettered in silver. Dust jacket printed in red and black with film still of Spencer Tracy on the front and frames of film costars, including Dietrich, on the back. Some text on the title page verso covered with black tape. "The film-stills are from Judgment at Nuremberg, produced and directed by Stanley Kramer, released through United Artists"--Title page verso.


Mann, Abby. (1961). Judgment at Nuremberg. London: The New English Library. Novel adapted from the film script by the same author. 139 numbered pages, 5 unnumbered pages of publisher's advertisements. Wrappers printed in black, red, and blue and illustrated with a group profile photograph of the cast, including Dietrich, on a blue background. "A film epic that explodes into greatness starring Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Richard Widmark, Marlene Dietrich, Judy Garland, Maximilian Schell, Montgomery Clift"--Front cover. "A United Artists release"--Front cover. "389"--Spine. "Four Square"--Title page. "First published in the United States of America by The New American Library of World Literatures Inc. in 1961. Simultaneous publication in Great Britain in a Four Square edition in 1961"--Title page verso.


Mann, Abby. (1961 [December 1961 printing date]). Judgment at Nuremberg (1st printing). New York: The New American Library. Novel adapted from the film script by the same author. 139 numbered pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates of captioned film stills, 5 unnumbered pages of publisher's advertisements. Wrappers printed in black, orange, blue, and goldenrod and illustrated on the front cover with a group profile photograph of the cast, including Dietrich, and on the back cover with a film still. All edges red. "A new motion picture that explodes into greatness starring Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Richard Widmark, Marlene Dietrich, Judy Garland, Maximilian Schell, Montgomery Clift"--Front cover. "D2025"--Front cover. "A Signet book"--Title page.


McConaughy, J.W. (©1931). Madame X. Triangle monthly books. New York: The Archer Press Corporation. Novel adapted from the play of the same name by Alexandre Bisson. 247 numbered pages. Dark red boards lettered in gilt. Dust jacket depicts a color illustration of Dietrich from the film Dishonored. "The girl on the cover, Marlene Dietrich, Paramount Pictures"--Front dust jacket flap. Note that the novel itself is not related to Dietrich's film Dishonored.


Shute, Nevil. (©1948 [in Roman numerals]). No highway. New York: Dell Publishing Company, Inc. Novel. 287 numbered pages, 1 unnumbered page with note to reader by author. Wrappers with a colorized [?] film still of James Stewart and Dietrich on the front cover and a map of their characters' flight on the back cover. All edges teal. "Dell book 516"--Front cover. "A 20th Century Fox picture starring James Stewart and Marlene Dietrich"--Front cover.


Verne, Jules. (©1956). Around the world in 80 days. New York: Avon Publications, Inc. Novel. 192 numbered pages. Gold wrappers illustrated with cropped film stills of the actors' faces in circular blue borders and a film still of Dietrich in a white border. "The complete novel--with film photos from the great Michael Todd production''--Front cover. "An Avon red & gold edition, complete and unabridged"--Front cover. "T-148"--Front cover and spine. Cast list on page [1]. Illustration on title page and 20 captioned illustrations throughout the book.


Von Sternberg, Josef. (©1968). The blue angel (2nd printing). Classic film scripts. New York: Simon and Schuster. English-language translation of the German continuity script. 111 numbered pages. Wrappers with front color illustrated with a film still of Dietrich and Rosa Valetti from The Blue Angel. Film stills on the frontispiece (4 pages) and throughout the book (20 pages), courtesy of L'Avant Scène du Cinéma and the British Film Institute. Film stills identical to those in 3rd printing.


Von Sternberg, Josef. (©1968). The blue angel (3rd printing). Classic film scripts. New York: Simon and Schuster. English-language translation of the German continuity script. 111 numbered pages. Wrappers with front color illustrated with a cut-out film still of Dietrich from The Blue Angel on a blue background. Film stills on the frontispiece (4 pages) and throughout the book (20 pages), courtesy of L'Avant Scène du Cinéma and the British Film Institute. Film stills identical to those in 2nd printing.


Vreeland, Frank. (©1931). Dishonored. New York: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers. Novelization of film. 265 numbered pages, 8 unnumbered leaves of plates illustrated with captioned film stills (including frontispiece), 3 unnumbered pages of publisher's advertisements at end. Red cloth over boards, lettered in black. Top edge dark blue. Dust jacket printed in black and pink, with film still of Dietrich. "Illustrated with scenes from the Paramount picture starring Victor McLaglen, Marlene Dietrich"--Dust jacket. Reverse side of dust jacket printed with a list of fiction titles available from the publisher.


Wegner, Hart (Editor). (©1982). Der blaue Engel. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc. ISBN: 0-15-517350-2. Transcribed German-language film script. viii, 214 numbered pages. Silver wrappers. Front cover illustrated with a high-contrast film still of Dietrich and Rosa Valetti from Der blaue Engel. 14 unnumbered film stills, courtesy of The Museum of Modern Art/Film Stills Archives, throughout book.


References 

 

Davis, Arnie. (2002). Photoplay editions and other movie tie-in books: The golden years 1912-1969. East Waterboro, Maine: Mainely Books.

Jewell, Peter. (2008). Collectors' tales: A personal overview of film fiction at Bill Douglas Centre, Film History, 20 (2), 149-163.

Larson, Randall D. (1995). Films into books: An analytical bibliography of film novelizations, movie, and TV tie-ins. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, Inc.

Petaja, Emil. (1975). Photoplay edition. San Francisco, Calif.: SJSU Publishers.

Wadle, Moe. (1994). The movie tie-in book: A collector's guide to paperback movie editions. Coralville, Iowa: Nostalgia Publishers.
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Leatrice Gilbert Fountain (1924 - 2015)

January 22, 2015, 5:13 am
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Leatrice Gilbert Fountain, daughter of John Gilbert and Leatrice Joy, died on Tuesday, aged 90.

She recalled that “Marlene Dietrich was just incredible to my mother and me. She was so kind, considerate and sweet to me. She loved my father truly and was his last girlfriend. 

“In fact, she was with him when he died. A lot has been written about this supposed meeting with John Gilbert and Garbo with Dietrich the day when he died, and it's all lies ... 

“Anyway, back to Marlene. She was wonderful and very stylish and beautiful. She was so sweet to mother and me when father passed on. She also knew of a will that my father made (she saw it with her own eyes!) leaving everything to me. His last wife, Virginia Bruce, hired his last crooked attorney and the two of them destroyed or repressed it or whatever. Whatever, Marlene kept up the good fight and encouraged my mother to fight Miss Bruce and the crooked attorneys. Mother dropped it, and Marlene was furious. She was looking out for me and my dear departed father's last wishes. 

“I'm sure Marlene's daughter, Maria Dietrich Riva [sic], has some legitimate gripes about her world-famous mother, but she was always fantastic to me, my mother, and of course John Gilbert.”

— from Children of Hollywood: Accounts of Growing Up as the Sons and Daughters of Stars  by Michelle Vogel (McFarland, 2005).

Fountain wrote  Dark Star, a biography of her father, in 1985.

“Angel — keep on loving me, rush home to me, I love you ever so. Jack.”

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Elsa Mars, 'American Horror Story: Freak Show"

January 27, 2015, 7:20 pm
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Did anyone happen to catch this season's American Horror Story: Freak Show? It featured Dietrich references and imagery throughout. Jessica Lange turned in a brilliant, Marlene-styed ("She stole my act.") performance as Elsa Mars, the owner of the Freak Show, who wants to be a star while hiding more secrets than Witness For The Prosecution. Lange turned in  show stealing Dietrich like musical performances of Lana Del Rey's Gods and Monsters and Life on Mars  and Heroes originally performed by that Dietrich fan and delightful androgyne David Bowie.  The homage to MD and DB sent me over the moon. For those who don't like horror her's the link to Life On Mars:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5D1-VlrWcA

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Interview: Marlene Dietrich – bourgeois, geranium-lover

February 10, 2015, 11:20 am
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Betty Best interviewed Marlene Dietrich, backstage at London's Golder's Green Hippodrome, in 1965. Special thanks to the Crees Collection for sharing this material.

Marlene Dietrich in her dressing room.
It had been a month since I'd seen her. A month since she'd held out a delicate, tiny hand and agreed to the idea of a private interview with a brief, "Yes, yes, call me at Claridges"–  and sounded as if she meant it. 

But I'd made at least ten telephone calls every day since then, from Brighton to Birmingham and back to London, without ever once getting through to that inimitable, halting voice. A month of pleading with agents and publicity officers, all of whom sounded terrified at the very thought that I should claim a whole hour of Miss Dietrich's time to myself. 

By then my mental picture of her was becoming a little unsure. Perhaps that brief meeting among a horde of people in the excitement of a first arrival had been misleading. Perhaps the apparent ease and friendliness of the magic Marlene was just an effect, switched on like her magnificent stage personality, for an audience which expected it. 

Police cordons 

In between times I'd heard of the packed schedule of a tour which stopped in each city for only a week, which included intense rehearsals with each orchestra, with her arranger Burt Bacharach (who flew from the U.S.A. especially), an entire one-woman radio play for the BBC somehow jammed into the London week; of fantastic hold-ups every night after each show while fans besieged the stage doors so that Dietrich could not emerge without special police cordons.

Perhaps I was hoping for too much. Then I got word that she was fed up with English reporters asking about nothing but her age, her looks, her clothes, and that most forbidden of all subjects, her family – about whom she will never speak.

All the signs were against my ever getting to see her at all. Yet, throughout I had a curious belief that it would come off – because of the geranium.

Miss Dietrich had, that first night, told an endearing story: ''I've just made a new LP. The songs of old Berlin as I remember them as a child. They are beautiful songs, real songs of the people. And because they always meant so much to me, I wanted to do everything about this record myself. Even to designing the cover. Me, I'm not an artist. But I had my ideas. I always see Berlin as a grey city – grey walls, streets, everything.

"So I got paints and made a beautiful grey pattern. Then, because I'm not an artist, I went to a stationer's and bought those letters children use to scratch with a pencil and that come out on paper.

"Then on the bar of the 'H' at the end of my name I put a lovely little pot of bright red geraniums. When I took it proudly to the publisher, he said, 'Why the geraniums there?' I tried to explain that it is the flag of the little people in grey cities everywhere. The big gesture of the bourgeois toward beauty. And I am a bourgeois and I love geraniums.

"But, of course, he couldn't understand. Never mind, I kept my geranium on the cover – just as I always keep one in my dressing-room wherever I go."

And sure enough, when finally, after many cancellations, I got to her dressing room at Golder's Green Hippodrome on the outskirts of London, there it was. Not a grand florist's specimen,but a simple little scarlet single in a common terracotta pot sitting on the wash basin in the corner. 

Beside it on the wall was a symbol of that very private side of Dietrich's life she seldom mentions, a
large framed and inscribed portrait of Ernest Hemingway, wearing a polo-necked sweater and looking young and adventurous.

On a previous occasion I had once managed to get her to touch on her great friend ship with this man who wrote of her: "I think she knows more about love than anyone. I know that every time I have seen Marlene Dietrich she has done some thing to my heart and made me happy.''

It was when she was railing against the agonies of work on tour: "It is not the performances I mind. They are fine. Once I am in front of people I can recharge my batteries from them.

''It is the terrible chore of packing and unpacking. Of never having a minute to myself or a second for reading."

Then someone asked who was her favourite author and, suddenly, the whole face softened and glowed. She replied with the single word, "Hemingway."

She began to speak of the great respect and love she felt for him; her voice broke, she turned away with a final, "Life is not the same now he has gone."

Bag of heather

Beside his picture, which so dominated the little room at the Hippodrome, hung a pair of pink satin ballet point shoes and a bag of heather. The first looked like a tribute from Russia, the second reminded me of her fondness for Scotland and her unashamed superstition.

Nearly half the heather blossoms had fallen from their sprigs, so I guessed she had carried it with her at east all last year since she first appeared at the Edinburgh Festival.

It was there she said she had the greatest surprise of her life as far as a doting audience was concerned. In the cool dark after midnight the entire audience had lined up outside the stage door, not only to cheer but to walk her all the way home to her hotel.


Directions

I had just time to glance around the dressing-room and to notice the gossamer fine, flesh-tinted chiffon gown embroidered with diamonds lying under a fresh white tissue on the chaise-longue  when there was a flurry at the door and in came Marlene.

Behind her was Tony Chardet, H. M. Tennents' stage manager for the English tour. His face was a picture of intense concentration. Miss Dietrich marched straight to her bag on the dressing table, extracted a handful of scaled envelopes with a christian name on each, in bold, determined handwriting, and handed them to him with quick, precise directions.

"Here are the lists. This one for Eileen, this for Tom. Oh, now I have one somewhere for Blezard. Yes, here it is. Now everything is there tell them, everything. Someone should clean that room with all the flowers. It is a mess, yes?" 

She had him back out through the door. I took a deep breath ready to begin, but Miss Dietrich had thought of something and was speaking to someone else through the door. For three more minutes her meticulous organising continued. 

Then she was with me – but only just.

"Oh, there is so much to do.

"People ask me why I don't have six people travelling with me to do it. I say by the time I've explained how I want it I could have finished doing it myself, and as I want it.

"It was different last year when my daughter was with me. She knows how it is done without discussion. Now I must do it myself."

Over on the wall-shelf sat a small pincushion in yellow velvet and a businesslike needle case. Miss Dietrich picked them up, went to the chaise-longue and began to turn a sleeve of the famous Jean Louis gown inside out with infinite care.

"Can I help you?" I ventured.

"No, no, it is better for me to do it. The diamonds are set in metal. They catch the material. It is so delicate it tears."

She reversed the sleeve over a specially folded white napkin, settled herself on the couch, cut a small piece of spare chiffon and began to patch the sleeve. 

Somehow there seemed nothing odd in the fact that this 20th-century goddess of glamour was settling down to a little home sewing job.  She was completely at home with it and looked more than competent.

The voice went on with out a glance in my direction: "Last night they threw hundreds of flowers onto the stage. I stooped down to pick some up and put my elbow through the sleeve. Look. That dress was not made for bending..."

The first smile I'd seen that day lit her lovely, sad face. "No, it is not," she added.

"Jean Louis is the best designer in the world. He is in Hollywood, you know. He has always made my stage costumes for me. It is not only the design, but also the workmanship.

"I shall go to Los Angeles for five days on my way to Australia for him to work on my gowns. I cannot get such craftsmanship anywhere else, not even in Paris.

"You see the metal settings? When we designed this dress we tried to make it with unset stones. It was flat under the lights – nothing. Set in metal there is a true jewelled effect."

Like a glittering second, skin

I remembered the time a year ago I had first seen that dress. The house lights went down, the orchestra blared forth with Falling In Love Again, and into the spotlight at the side of the blackened stage stepped the glittering, golden figure.

From the diamond choker at the neck to the tips of her shoes and the end of her finely boned wrists, the gown clung like a second skin alive with flashing fire. The entire audience gasped. It was sheer magic, and the dress now being patched with loving care was part of that magic.

For a moment I wished the bravo-ing audiences could see her now.

Without looking up from her work she answered my questions about her first night in London on this trip.

"Oh, it was fabulous. So many hundreds had waited outside the stage door I just could not get to my car. They would not let me through. I tried for a quarter of an hour and even with two policemen helping it was hopeless.

"One of the policemen, a nice young man, said he would ring for reinforcements. He went to the public phone inside. After he had talked for a while I went in and asked him, 'Who are you calling?''Scotland Yard,' he said.

"I could not believe him. It sounded too much like a film.

"I said: 'But you don't call Scotland Yard for me. That's for big things,' and took the phone myself and asked, "Who is it?'

"Back came the answer, 'Scotland Yard.' Then they said 'We hear you're in trouble, we're sending all we can get!'

"I laughed and thought they were mad until a little later a big shiny black van came up with 30 men in it!

"Even then they had to form a cordon around the car when I was in it because people at the back always push the ones in front and I won't let my driver begin until they are safely away. It would be so easy to hurt someone.

"Oh, but the whole thing was unbelievable. Now the men come regularly every night or I can't get home."


The pure joy of this escapade was reflected in her eyes. They sparkled with pleasure like a child's. It was clearly one more tale she would treasure and tell again and again like the Edinburgh walking home, or the Polish audiences who came from their villages to kneel at her hotel door.

"They brought me their cherished medals to show they knew I had been with them during the war. So many from concentration camps who knew I worked against the Nazis, who told me it had helped them to know that someone they respected was working for them outside.

"We still don't know how their underground movement got the messages through to them. But they knew and never forgot."

When she tells this her eyes fill with tears.

Her compassion for people in trouble is obvious the greatest impetus in all the more serious songs she sings.

"Where Have All The Flowers Gone? is a passionate plea for peace; Shir Hatan, a ballad in Hebrew from Israel of the lonely, hungry child, a call for sanity and help for children everywhere.

Even "Lili Marlene," of which she says ''it is not the song they cheer at the end. Their applause is for me as a person and what I did during the war. They all remember.

No doubt this is why her clothes, even the Chanel suits with their simple boxy jackets and pleated skirts, carry a little embroidered strip of scarlet over the left breast.

It is the Legion d'Honneur which she was awarded after her constant travels through the war zones of Europe when millions of Allied servicemen heard that husky, insinuating voice, and took heart.

I asked, "Do you believe that someone like yourself going between nations of Europe, here, and in Australia can help international understanding?"

It helps to cry, and to laugh

"Maybe not on the great scale we need now. But, yes, a little.

"When I went to Israel in 1960 there had been a ban on the German language ever since the war. Even in opera it could not be sung. I understood after all they had been through. But I said, 'I must try it or I lose a lot of songs from my program I'm not counting on losing. If they start hating it I stop.'

"But when I sang German songs they wanted more and more. They let me sing in German because they knew my past history."

"Do you believe, then, that the job you do will help prevent war?"

Her face became even sadder, almost despairing.

"There'll always be war. There always has been, no? I can't say I really believe this helps. The people who hear and respond to my songs already agree with my philosophy of humanity.

Marlene in Warsaw, at the Ghetto Heroes Monument.
"There is not a human being alive who wants war. I have never met one. But it's not the people who govern the world. Power always lies with people who have interests other than humanity. You can never get a message like this through to people who want money and power. They cannot hear."

"Then what do you want to give with your performance?"

"Emotion. Emotion. People want to be emotion ally disturbed. To feel free to cry – and to laugh.

"I only want to go to the theatre to cry. The artistic things I remember, in books, in a theatre, are always the sad ones."

"Why?"

"I suppose it goes right back to the fairy tales we heard when we were children. And all the greatness of Shakespeare, all that upheaval."

"Your performances to me are like an intimate dialogue with each member of the audience," I said.

Suddenly she was happy again. "Yes. You have noticed that? Each performance is different, that is
why. It is most intimate in countries where people have suffered; in Holland, for instance, where you may think people are not very emotional.

"Every time I sing in Amsterdam they cry, and I cry. Tears flow all the time. It is wonderful. Also in
Russia and Poland – and, of course, Israel."

"You once said you were brought up to think very little about yourself. Isn't that hard for an actress?"

"On the contrary. This profession is like a continuation of that upbringing. Ours is the one profession where you can't go to the boss and say 'I have a headache or a fever' and he lets
you go home.

"If an actress does not turn up to work they say she is drunk or something awful. That phrase 'The show must go on' may sound corny. But it is strictly true. We go on no matter how bad we feel.

"The theatre is a wonderful teacher. Whatever the profession demands you must obey. It is impossible to bring your private worries into the theatre and indulge them. You do the show and that's that.

"This is very Anglo-Saxon, isn't it? Look at the British people. They proved they could take so much. I admire this. They never take themselves too seriously.

"Well, that is how I was brought up."

"Is that how "Is that how you brought up your own daughter, Maria?" Just for a second she looked cross. I had gone out of bounds to mention a member of her family. Then she decided perhaps I was speaking more generally. She gave me one warning look not to pry further and then:

"I tried. But it is not easy in America. You cannot make a child a lone wolf. It is not fair, but I tried."

"Would it have been easier in Europe?"

"Tweak, tweak, and my hair is done"

"Perhaps. Of course, today I do not know how children are brought up in various countries. Certainly in America they think too much of themselves. Fortunately I did not have that trouble, so discipline was easy for me."

The mending was completed. She stood up and went carefully to put her needle case in its place, then to the rather simple, uncluttered dressing-table.

Without apparent concentration she began to put on her eye make-up. There was a feeling in the air that I should go.

"I'm told you take care of all your own grooming, hair and everything."

"Oh, yes. I always have. Now with my lovely little electric hair iron from Belgium it is easier.

"I used to wash my hair every day, set it, dry it, and only then be ready for the theatre. It took three hours. Now I come in, plug in the hair iron, and tweak, tweak, I am ready. Very bad for the hair, of course."

I looked at the healthy, sleek mop of gold and found it hard to believe. "But surely you're lucky. You have a strong constitution?"

She rushed to a wooden backed chair and touched it for luck, giving me a look of "Don't tempt the fates."

"So far yes, thank God!"

"Are you religious?" I asked.

"Not really. I prefer people to ideas. In Birmingham just now they said to me, 'You must make time to see Coventry Cathedral.' I said I had not time, I was busy.

"At that moment I was sitting, as I did every night, with a young boy called Dennis, who worked the theatre lights.

"He has multiple sclerosis and is half paralysed, so each night I used to share my champagne with him and we talked and talked.

"'Come now,' they said, 'you have time,' I said I would rather be with Dennis and I stayed.

"Actually today I am rather excited. You see, when I left Birmingham I told him he had to write to me and he said he couldn't with his bad hands. Today I sent him a nice typewriter and now he can go bang with one finger and write me."

"So you do make friends on tour?"

"I'm not good at making friends. Only keeping the few I have. Now I must go and dress."

As we shook hands and I wished her luck in Australia she suddenly looked terribly alone. "Will you be there when I am? I know no one at all in Australia."

I said no, but offered to give her the names of some friends she might like.

"Yes, please, tell them to come backstage and say they are friends of yours. I should like that." She smiled and shook hands.

"No, I won't ring them, they will come if they want to."

Two things became clear quite suddenly. Marlene Dietrich is often very alone and always rather shy.

Dietrich, in front of impresario Binkie Beaumont’s London home.

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A Bilingual Review of Alfred Polgar's Marlene: Bild einer berühmten Zeitgenossin

February 27, 2015, 11:50 am
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Polgar, Alfred (2015). Marlene: Bild einer berühmten Zeitgenossin. Wien: Paul Zsolnay Verlag. [160 pages; € 17,90]

Blog reader Horst Zumkley has kindly contributed the following reviews in English and German of the latest Marlene Dietrich-related publication, Alfred Polgar's Marlene: Bild einer berühmten Zeitgenossin, edited and with an afterword by Ulrich Weinzierl, which is currently available at Amazon.de.

During the 1920s, Alfred Polgar (1873-1955) was a well-known Austrian critic and columnist who lived in Berlin. He later had to flee the Nazis and relied on the help of others also in exile. Through the mediation of a Swiss friend, Polgar received financial support from Marlene Dietrich. Sort of in return, Polgar agreed to write a portrait of her, which he composed during 1937 and 1938.

In 1984, Ulrich Weinzierl, who had edited Polgar's posthumously published works and written a biography about Polgar, found the biographical portrait in a suitcase in the New York apartment of Selma (Sally) Ell, the widow of Polgar's stepson Erik G. Ell. At that time, Weinzierl did not publish it because the circumstances under which the manuscript was written were still unclear.

Now, 60 years after Polgar’s death and nearly 80 years after its creation, Polgar’s manuscript finally appears in print as the first part of the book, Marlene: Bild einer berühmten Zeitgenossin. Polgar’s text traces the career of Marlene during the period between 1927 and 1937 and describes the "famous contemporary" as a quasi-god, gifted artist, and perfect human being

The second part of the book was written by Weinzierl, who retraces "the history" of this manuscript and contextualizes its emergence and meaning in Polgar's life as a Jewish emigrant.

This portrait of Marlene is more a book for Polgar fans than Dietrich admirers. The text, until now unknown, is pure hagiographical prose and brings nothing new; nevertheless, its belated publication is welcome.

Likely, Polgar played no special role for Marlene; he was one of many emigrants whom she helped. In Dietrich's autobiography, the name Polgar does not appear, and the manuscript, in which she participated, is not mentioned. Nor is the name Polgar mentioned in the Dietrich biographies by Maria Riva (Marlene's daughter), Bach, Freeman, Higham, Spoto, Walker, etc. Only in the biography by Werner Sudendorf (2001, p 124) is there is a mention of Polgar's support by Marlene and their cooperation in his book about her.

In contrast, Dietrich and the portrait that Polgar wrote about her were of particular importance for Polgar during his emigration period. This is convincingly pointed out by Weinzierl in his epilogue.

The best and most unique parts about this book are the subject, the previously unknown history of the origin of the manuscript, and its subsequent odyssey. It is a document of emigration history, interesting, sometimes grotesque, and certainly characteristic of that time.

--Horst Zumkley

Please read Zumkley's German-language review as well:

(1)     Dies kleine Büchlein besteht aus zwei Teilen:
Der erste Teil (S. 7-71) beinhaltet ein biographisches Portrait über Marlene Dietrich, das Alfred Polgar (1873-1955) bereits im Jahr 1937/1938 verfasst hat und das erst jetzt, 60 Jahre nach seinem Tod und fast 80 Jahre nach der Niederschrift zum ersten Mal gedruckt erschient.
Der zweite Teil (S. 75-119) wurde vom Herausgeber des Buches, Ulrich Weinzierl, verfasst, der auch Polgars Schriften herausgab. Er fand das Manuskript 1984 im Nachlass von Polgars Stiefsohn Erik G. Ell in dessen New Yorker Wohnung in einem Koffer und wollte das Ms nicht unkommentiert abdrucken, da damals die Umstände der Entstehung noch sehr unklar waren.
In diesem, als „Anhang“ bezeichnetem Nachwort, zeichnet Weinzierl die „Geschichte“ dieses Polgar-Manuskripts nach und ordnet dessen Entstehung und  Bedeutung in Polgars Leben als jüdischer Emigrant ein.
Es schließen sich noch Anmerkungen, Erläuterungen zu Textvarianten des Ms,  editorische Hinweise und Danksagungen, Bildnachweise, ein Namensregister und das Inhaltsverzeichnis an (S. 120-159).


(2)    Der Text von Polgar zeichnet die Karriere der Dietrich in der Zeit von 1927 bis 1937 nach und schildert die „berühmte Zeitgenossin“ voller Bewunderung als quasi Gottbegnadete Künstlerin und perfekten Menschen. Polgars „Bild“ von Marlene ist ohne Fehl und Tadel, ein Lob reiht sich an das andere, alles wird in Superlativen ausgedrückt.
So heißt es z.B. über die Schauspielerin:

  • „Dieses Ineinander von Bewusstheit und Ahnungslosigkeit, von Willen und Willenlosigkeit, von Leben und Gelebt-Werden, hat ja vielen, und zwar den stärksten, darstellerischen Schöpfungen der Dietrich ihren  besondersten, unnachahmlichen Reiz gegeben“ (S. 15).
  • „Der Besonderheit der Erscheinung und des Wesens dieser Frau entspricht genauest die Besonderheit ihrer Stimme“ (S.23).
  • „Von Extase bis zur vollkommenen Gleichgültigkeit ist dieses Gesicht jeder Expression, vom Hochmut bis zur Demut jedes Charakters, von Teufelei bis zur engelhaften Güte jedes Reflexes seelischen Zustands fähig“(S.  38f).
  • „Der Reichtum an natürlichen und Kunstmitteln, über die zum Ausdruck differenzierten seelischen Vorganges Frau Dietrich verfügt, macht sie zur Filmschauspielerin par excellence..(S.50).

Und über den Menschen Marlene:
  • „Sie ist ein einfacher, lieber warmherziger, neidloser, unverlogener  Mensch, besessen von dem chronischen Willen, gut zu sein und Gutes zu tun“ (S. 53).
  • „Grazie ist ein besonderes Wirkungs-Element der Frau und Schauspielerin Dietrich.“(S. 43).
  • Die Fragen und Antworten der Gespräche zwischen Polgar und Marlene über das Buch sind nur teilweise enthalten. Polgar stellt insgesamt fest: „Marlene Dietrichs Antworten waren bezaubernd unbefangen, so klug wie fein, und enthielten den Höchstprozentsatz an Aufrichtigkeit, den ein Gespräch zwischen Kulturmenschen verträgt“(S. 58f).

Hier noch einige konkrete Beispiele für Fragen und Antworten:
  • „Ist es angenehm berühmt zu sein? Oh, es hat seine Annehmlichkeiten“(S. 61).
  • „Haben Sie schon in den ersten Anfängen an sich und Ihre Carrière geglaubt? Ja.“ „Warum? Darum“ (S.61).
  • „Was für schlechte Eigenschaften haben Sie? Keine.“ … Herr Sieber kommt    ins Zimmer und bekräftigt nachdrücklichst die Auskunft seiner Frau. (S. 66).


(3)       Dieser Text ist nicht besonders gut, denn hier wird ein unglaubwürdiges „Heiligen-Bild“ gezeichnet, das heute - auch für Marlene-Bewunderer -  nur noch schwer erträglich ist. Neues über Marlene wird hier nicht geboten. Nach all den vielen ernsthaften Biographien, die über Marlene inzwischen vorliegen, kann man auf diese eigentümliche Hofberichterstattung über Marlene gut verzichten. Auch wenn Weinzierl schreibt, dass der Text „jene schwebende Leichtigkeit besitzt, die wir von Polgar kennen und an ihm schätzen“ (S. 115), so ist er doch weit entfernt von der sprachlichen Meisterschaft, die der „Kritikerlegende“ Polgar sonst attestiert wird.


(4)     Aber: Wie konnte ein damals berühmter Theater-, Film- und Literaturkritiker nur so ein misslungenes (weil Gefälligkeits-) Portrait schreiben?
Im Nachwort unternimmt Ulrich Weinzierl den Versuch, unter Heranziehung verschiedener Quellen dem „Marlene"-Manuskript  in Polgars Leben seinen Platz zuzuweisen, d.h. die Geschichte seiner Entstehung verständlich zu machen und dessen schicksalhafte Odyssee nachzuzeichnen.


(5)    Alfred Polgar war in den zwanziger Jahren ein bekannter Kritiker und Feuilletonist in Berlin. Er musste vor den Nazis fliehen und war im Exil auf Hilfe von Freunden angewiesen. Durch die Vermittlung eines Schweizer Freundes (Carl Seelig) erhielt er von Marlene Dietrich über längere Zeit eine finanzielle Unterstützung. Quasi als Gegenleistung vereinbarte er mit Marlene, ein Buch über sie zu schreiben. Und es gab auch einen Wiener Verlag, der Polgar mit Marlenes Einverständnis einen Vorschuss dafür zahlte. Es fanden mehrere Treffen und Gespräche zwischen ihm und Marlene in Österreich (St. Gilgen) und Frankreich (Paris) statt, deren Inhalte in das Portrait einflossen.

Weinzierl legt anhand von verschiedenen Quellen (u.a. der Marlene Dietrich Collection Berlin) dar, dass sich Polgar zunehmend schwer tat mit der Arbeit am Manuskript. In einem Brief schrieb Polgar: „Dabei hat der Gedanke, in heutiger Zeit als Psalmodist einer Film-Diva 150 Seiten unter meinem Namen von mir zu geben, etwas kaum Erträgliches“ (S. 99). Aber in seiner Situation könne er sich „keinerlei litterär-moralischen Luxus erlauben“ (S.99).

Auch die Treffen und Gespräche mit Marlene wurden von Polgar zunehmend als anstrengend empfunden. Polgar hatte das Gefühl, dass Marlene sich nur halbherzig der Sache zuwandte: “Die ganze Sache bekam den falschen Anstrich, als brenne ich auf das Buch, und sie lasse sich dazu bewegen, sein Erscheinen zu dulden“ (S. 100). Das Manuskript war für Polgar eine „bittere, schwere Arbeit“ (S.101) und er nötige sein „ obstipiertes Gehirn unter Krampferscheinungen Geeignetes von sich zu geben (S. 101).
Das Manuskript, das vom Ehepaar Dietrich / Sieber gegengelesen wurde, war dennoch Anfang 1938 fertig gestellt, konnte dann aber nach dem “Anschluss“ Österreichs natürlich nicht mehr als Buch erscheinen.


(6)    Polgar floh mit seiner Frau im März 1938 zunächst in die Schweiz, dann nach Frankreich. Seine Bemühungen, das Buch jetzt „über die Dietrich erscheinen zu lassen“ (S. 107f) oder von einem amerikanischen Autor bearbeiten zu lassen, scheiterten und der Kontakt zu Marlene brach ab.

Nach dem Einmarsch von Hitlers Truppen in Paris flohen die Polgars im Juni 1940 zunächst nach Marseille und von dort aus unter abenteuerlichen Umständen über Spanien nach Portugal. Am 4. Oktober 1940 verließen sie per Schiff Lissabon in Richtung New York, wo sie am 13. Oktober 1940 ankamen. Das Marlene-Manuskript hatte Polgar ungeachtet aller Strapazen und Widrigkeiten immer dabei und mit ins Exil genommen.
Der Wiener jüdische Emigrant Alfred Polgar wurde später amerikanischer Staatsbürger und starb am 24. April 1955 in Zürich. Das unveröffentlichte Marlene-Manuskript wurde erst 1984 von Weinzierl entdeckt.

(7)     Fazit: Dieses Marlene-„Bild“ ist eher ein Buch für Polgar- als für Dietrich-Fans. Der Text, bisher unbekannt,  ist reine Bewunderungs-Prosa und bringt nichts Neues. Als Zeitdokument ist seine späte Publikation trotzdem zu begrüßen.
Polgar spielte für Marlene wohl keine besondere Rolle; er war einer von vielen Emigranten, denen sie half. In Ihrer Autobiographie taucht der Name Polgar nicht auf, das „Marlene-Buch“, an dem sie ja mitwirkte, wird nicht erwähnt. Und ebenso wenig wird Polgar in den bekannten Dietrich-Biographien von Maria Riva (Marlenes Tochter), Bach, Freeman, Higham, Spoto, Walker u. a. erwähnt. Einzig in der Biographie von Werner Sudendorf findet sich eine Erwähnung von Polgars  Unterstützung durch Marlene und ihres Zusammenwirkens bei seiner Marlene-Monographie (2001, S. 124).
Umgekehrt  waren Marlene Dietrich und das Portrait-Buch, das er über sie verfasste, für Polgar in seiner Emigrationszeit sicher von besonderer Bedeutung. Das wird von Weinzierl in seinem Nachwort facettenreich und überzeugend darlegt.

Das Beste und das Besondere an diesem Buch sind das Motiv, die bisher unbekannte Geschichte der Entstehung des Manuskripts und seine sich anschließende Odyssee. Es ist ein Dokument der Emigrationsgeschichte, interessant, teils auch grotesk und sicher charakteristisch für jene Zeit.

Literatur:

Sudendorf, Werner (2001). Marlene Dietrich. München. Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag.

--Horst Zumkley
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The "Russian Soul" in Marlene Dietrich’s Flicks

March 10, 2015, 1:27 pm
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This post is part of the Russia in Classic Film Blogathon,
sponsored by Movies Silently& Flicker Alley. 
Please explore posts by other participants here. 

In her memoirs, Marlene Dietrich proclaimed "I have a ‘Russian soul' (which means that I easily give what is close to my heart)," a sentiment that at least dates backs to her 1964 appearance in Moscow. Given that her husband Rudolf Sieber's longtime mistress Tamara Matul was a White émigré, Russia may have very well been close to Marlene's heart and soul for decades before that. Russia has also breathed life into Dietrich's films, which include The Ship of Lost Men (1929), Dishonored (1931), The Scarlet Empress (1934), The Garden of Allah (1936), Knight Without Armour(1937), Angel (1937), Destry Rides Again (1939), Seven Sinners (1940), and The Flame of New Orleans (1941). This overview of the Russian characters, depictions of Russia and Russians, Russian caricatures, and even Russified characters in these films draws attention to the rarely acknowledged Russian essence of Dietrich's oeuvre.

 

Russian Characters

 

Primarily set in Russia, The Scarlet Empress and Knight Without Armour portray more Russian characters than any other Dietrich flick, with an emphasis on the tensions arising from these characters' political leanings and social status. Taking on 18th century Russia, The Scarlet Empress includes noble Russian officers, mustachioed and with long flowing hair, who don fur caps and military orders as they ride tall horses. The clergy wear long beards and robes, swing incense burners, and swish aspergilla. Occasional scenes of the peasant masses show them in headscarves and fur caps, reacting to every event related to the imperial family.

As for the imperial family, its reeks of idiosyncrasy. Reigning with a down-home approach, the Empress Elizabeth (Louise Dresser) eschews protocol during preparations for Sophia Fredericka's (Dietrich) wedding to Elizabeth's nephew, the Grand Duke Peter (Sam Jaffe), by telling Sophia Fredericka's ladies-in-waiting not to bother bowing to her and by removing her rings to fix Sophia Fredericka's hairstyle herself. The matter-of-fact Elizabeth later dismisses Austrian and French ambassadors with whom she is to dine because she finds that diplomatic functions "lead to nothing," urging the young officers around her to take their place at the table.

Sophia Fredericka/Catherine's strange spouse, Peter
Unlike his aunt, Peter uses his social status to indulge in oddball hijinks, sometimes entering palace chambers with an entourage of dwarves, dogs, and mistress and sometimes marching through palace halls with Hessian troops. Furthermore, the wild-eyed Peter plays with toy soldiers and drills holes through walls to peep at the palace's occupants, never bothering to endear himself to the powerful nobility and clergy as his aunt does. By the time he becomes Tsar, Peter ultimately prompts these groups to rebel against him by slapping the Archimandrite/Arch-Episcope Simeon (Davison Clark) during a traditional call for alms and ripping Captain Gregori Orloff's (Gavin Gordon) orders off his jacket.

Amidst World War I and the Russian Revolution, Knight Without Armour details the clash between the Bolshevik "Reds" and the imperialist "Whites."Countess Alexandra Vladinoff (Dietrich) represents the latter faction, enjoying privileges such as visiting a horserace abroad in Ascot, receiving the Russian Tsar's congratulations for her engagement to Colonel Adraxine (Austin Trevor), and--after marrying Adraxine--lounging around her palatial estate, summoning servants to attend to her every whim with the ring of a bell. Meanwhile, her servants huddle together in the kitchen, reading about the revolutionary cry to "wipe out the bourgeois and aristocrats from the face of the earth."

Countess Alexandra confronting a peasant mob
Even though she seems to live blithely as war and revolution erupt, Alexandra has already narrowly escaped an assassination attempt when a Bolshevik tossed a bomb at her wedding procession and has already become a widow after her husband went to war. Eventually, she confronts her opponents head-on when she struts toward an angry mob of peasants who have invaded her estate, taunting them with the words, "What are you waiting for?" The Tsarist social order falls apart before her eyes as two elderly women in headscarves grab her and a Red soldier snatches a piece of her robe, mockingly tying it around his neck like a scarf. While Alexandra is held prisoner in her library, the peasants loot her home and destroy its artwork, and one of her loyal servants caught trying to run is taken to be executed.

Once Soviet commissar Axelstein (Basil Gill) arrives, some order is restored. Formerly a bookseller, Axelstein grounds the Revolution in intellectual rhetoric, reprimanding a Soviet soldier for letting the peasants "[destroy] the property of the people." His assistant Peter Ouranoff (formerly known in the film as A.J. Fothergill, and played by the actor Robert Donat) checks on Alexandra, who shouts at him, "I hate you all! I despise you! You're Red vermin! Long live Russia! Long live the Tsar!" Like Axelstein, Ouranoff keeps a cool head and persuades Alexandra to let him escort her to Petrograd, but an unlikely alliance ensues between the two as love conquers their emotions.

Countess Alexandra in peasant drag
Through various disguises, Alexandra manages to survive during her flight from Russia. Ouranoff helps her leave her estate without being "[torn] to pieces" by the Bolshevik mob by finding a peasant woman's outfit for her, complete with a headscarf. Ouranoff later comes to Alexandra's rescue by putting her in a soldier's uniform the second time the Reds apprehend her. Fortunately and unfortunately for her, costumes can only camouflage so much. When Alexandra arrives at a White-run town, she demands to speak to the commanding officer, who immediately recognizes her and refers to her "Sasha" as if she were a relative or family friend, providing her with a bath, the best room in the inn, and a choice of gowns. On the other hand, Alexandra's soft hands expose her aristocratic background at a Red checkpoint in Kazan, leading a keen guard to identify Alexandra from a photograph. Thanks to perhaps an ingrained fealty, a former gardener of Alexandra's who has found work at the checkpoint spares her from a firing squad by pretending he doesn't recognize her.

Despite the opposition between the Reds and the Whites, they share inherent similarities as a Russian people. At a town captured by the Whites, the victors perform folk dances in the street to accordion music. After the Reds wrest control, its victors replicate this revelry. The town's sycophantic innkeeper accommodates the needs of whatever faction that rules, addressing the White captain as "your Excellency" and later a Red trooper as "comrade." One Red fighter observes to Ouranoff, "Soldiers are soldiers. White or Red, they're no different." Earlier in the film, when Ouranoff and Alexandra await a train to Petrovgrad, Alexandra sums up her view of her people, regardless of politics, with a poem that she calls "hopeless and pessimistic like we Russians." Indeed, the half-Russian, half-French Boris Androvsky (Charles Boyer) embodies this morose attitude by pouting throughout another Dietrich film, The Garden of Allah, although his demeanor seems more influenced by his guilt for abandoning his Trappist monastic vows, a decidedly non-Russian vocation.


Dowdy Grand Duchess Anna Dmitrievna
A Russian penchant for hopelessness and pessimism is not, however, apparent in Dishonored's Colonel Kranau (Victor McLaglen) and Angel's Grand Duchess Anna Dmitrievna (Laura Hope Crews), neither of whom would otherwise register as Russian due to their Transatlantic accents. As a spy during World War I, Kranau naturally must not betray his Russian identity, explaining to rival Austrian agent X-27 (Dietrich), "I'm a colonel in the Russian army and when necessary I fly across the line and play the clown or the Austrian officer." Instead, he asserts his Russianness through patriotic acts and declarations, telling X-27 after he burns her musical composition encoded with military secrets, "I destroy everything that's dangerous to Russia." Even after being captured and identified from a photograph like Knight Without Armour's Alexandra, Kranau doesn't succumb to disillusionment and--when X-27's clumsiness provides him an opportunity--he climbs out of a window to steal one of the planes outside. Looking more Russian in his astrakhan hat and military uniform than he ever did earlier in the film, his risk surprisingly appears to pay off as the rumbling of an off-screen plane suggests flight.

The address to "Club de la Russie"
Regarding Angel's Grand Duchess, a well-dressed yet dowdy matron, she may lack any distinct Russian traits, yet her surroundings act as markers of her identity, her servant speaking with what could pass as a vaguely Slavic accent, her escort service being the "Club de la Russie," and her address plaque decorated with double-headed eagles. One of her clients observes, "If it hadn't been for the Revolution, the Grand Duchess would still be in Russia instead of providing us with such a delightful salon," which speaks of the lady's ability to etch out a living despite being ousted from her native country by the Bolsheviks.

 

Russia and Russians, According to Non-Russians

 

To supplement these Russian roles, the directors of Dietrich's pictures as well as their non-Russian characters also express their impressions of Russia and Russians. At the beginning of The Scarlet Empress, a tutor gives the young Prussian princess Sophia Fredericka(played by Marlene's daughter, Maria Riva) a lesson on Russia's "hangmen" Tsars and Tsarinas that dissolves into a montage chiefly of women in various stages of undress tortured by men.  Later, when the deranged Peter inherits the Russian throne, he issues a series of proclamations shown in a second montage that corroborates the brutality of the first, with scenes of peasants being shot, peasants fleeing from horsemen, a soldier attacking a shirtless woman, soldiers dragging peasants from a cabin, soldiers looting coins from under a floorboard, and a man being tied to bars in a crowded dungeon. This second montage may not represent ideas of Russia and Russians espoused by any of the film's credited non-Russian characters, but if one considers the Austrian-born director Josef von Sternberg's omnipotent presence in The Scarlet Empress, one might regard him as one of the film's uncredited actors.
Empress Elizabeth nesting in her throne
Sometimes, von Sternberg resorts to conventional images of Russia such as snow, iconography, Orthodox crosses, and onion domes. His overall presentation of the Russian Imperial court, however, embodies a singular aesthetic. A double-headed eagle statue hovers over the throne in which Empress Elizabeth presides as if she is its chick, and the disjointed scale becomes more apparent when the camera zooms out. Opening palace doors requires group effort, the court's ladies-in-waiting practically stretching their arms out of their sockets just to reach the handles. Ghoulish statues, some pierced with arrows, lurk in every corner. A human skeleton atop a dinner table fazes none of those feasting in honor of the imperial wedding.

Editorializing Russian history and culture not only with images, von Sternberg also verbalizes a biased perspective in the title cards, which inform viewers that "Peter III terrorized Russia" and characterize Russia as "a vast empire that had built its foundations on ignorance, violence, fear and oppression," a land "where the populace hid behind closed shutters--out of the way of the feared Cossacks, who with reckless fury protected their nobles from even a glance of the enslaved people."

Fothergill/Ouranoff and Axelstein's Siberian cabin under snow
Directing Knight Without Armour with more subtlety, the Belgian Jacques Feyder envisions a wintery Russia before the Reds launch a full-on uprising, where Alexandra's wedding procession is interrupted on icy streets and Ouranoff and Axelstein get banished to a Siberian cabin buried to its roof in snow. Ouranoff moans that it is "night all the time," yet Axelstein assures him, "The Imperial Army is sure to be defeated. Perhaps even now the war is over. Russia's fate is in the hands of her own people. There's bound to be a revolution." Trains may not be running on time after the peasant movement, but seasons at least seem to change with the politics. After being liberated from Siberia, Ouranoff and Axelstein sail on flowing water, and Alexandra's estate boasts lush trees when the proletariat overtake it. At a later point in the film, Ouranoff conceals Alexandra under a pile of autumn leaves to evade the increasingly powerful Reds.

Countess Alexandra concealed by autumn leaves
In Dietrich's films set far from Russia, Russia and Russians still arise as topics of conversation. The Flame of New Orleans'Charles (Roland Young) asks his fiancé Claire (Dietrich) whether she has visited St. Petersburg, to which she responds, "Oh, no. It's much too cold, and I don't like Russians." An English valet and English manservant (Edward Everett Horton and Douglas Ernest Cossart, respectively) in Angel discuss Soviet delegates at a dinner who were "properly dressed" in white tie and tails, yet "still dunk[ed]," an etiquette no-no in polite British society. After Kranau's capture in Dishonored, X-27 insists on questioning him, despite an Austrian soldier's advice that "you can't make Russians talk." To contradict this notion of Russian reticence, Deputy Tom Destry (James Stewart) observes that Boris' (Mischa Auer) outburst at the end of Destry Rides Again is probably the Russian way of expressing oneself.

 

Russian Caricatures

 

Boris, wannabe cowboy?
As one of the few native Russian actors to take on Russian roles in Dietrich's films, Mischa Auer uses his identity not to glorify his people but to provide comic relief, thus aiding to diffuse the sex appeal of the ambiguously French characters that fellow foreigner Dietrich plays. He first appears in Destry Rides Again as Boris Alexandrovich Stavrogin, a wannabe cowboy better known as Callahan, the surname of his ball-busting wife Lily Belle's (Una Merkel) first husband, an upstanding buckaroo who died of unknown causes and whose portrait looms over Boris and Lily Belle's bed. According to Lily Belle, Boris is a "no-good Russian lummox. Frankly, the "lummox" part isn't far from the truth.

Despite his bad credit, Boris gambles with Frenchy (Dietrich), who wants to put his pants on the table. Just before they finish their game, the newly-appointed sheriff (Charles Winninger) arrives to tell Boris that his wife has commanded he return home to help with Destry's luggage. The emasculated Boris stands, ready to go because he's afraid his wife will "skin [him] alive," but Frenchy forces him to play her game. Boris begins babbling to himself in Russian, ultimately capitulating to Frenchy and losing his pants to her. The person who really wears the pants in Boris' household, Lily Belle, later comes to unsuccessfully reclaim her husband's lost garment.

Resorting to subterfuge, Boris steals the pants of a man several sizes larger than him in his wife's boarding house and tries to escape through the window, but Lily Belle catches him, berating him as a "misfit Cossack." Boris bemoans living under Callahan's shadow and says, "All I want to do is to be a cowboy and wear my own pants." Nevertheless, his aspirations don't stop him from attempting to purloin another man's pants, Destry's, who offers them to Boris only if Boris takes on the role as second deputy of Bottle Neck and uncovers the body of the former Sheriff Keogh.

Working alongside Destry, Boris grows a backbone, although not one strong enough to keep him from being trampled by a mob of women. At the very least, Boris eventually manages to stand up to one woman, Lily Belle, stomping on the portrait of Callahan, replacing it with one of himself, and proclaiming "Boris Alexandrovich Stavrogin is the head of his house!"

Sasha, kleptomaniac magician?
As Bijou's (Dietrich) cohort in Seven Sinners, Auer's character Sasha works two jobs--magician and petty thief. Sometimes, Sasha's five finger discounts pay off, but Bijou disapproves of his kleptomania, frequently quashing his criminal acts or ordering him to return the stolen goods. As a magician, Sasha is less successful, accidentally setting a bird loose from his coat during his physical exam, burning a hole in the handkerchief of one of the guests at Seven Sinners café, and inciting the aggressive Andro's (Oscar Homolka) ire by turning Bijou into Seven Sinners café owner Tony (Billy Gilbert). Although Sasha is adept at hiding when brawls ensue over Bijou, he fails at his disappearing act when the authorities arrive, who always spot Sasha crawling away from behind a table. When he does put up a rare fight, he gets punched across the room and through a bar panel.

Zolotov, panty salesman from St. Petersburg?
In The Flame of New Orleans, Auer plays Zolotov, a man from St. Petersburg who attends a party with his friend Bellows (Franklin Pangborn), where he ogles the female guests. His eyes pop when he recognizes Claire, and after giving her a wink, he whispers to Bellows stories that he heard about Claire when she was in his hometown. The gossip spreads around the room to Claire's fiancé Charles, who becomes incensed enough to want to duel Zolotov. Later, Charles runs into Bellows and asks for Zolotov's whereabouts. Bellows relays Zolotov's dubious message that he is in hiding because dueling is against his religion and that he is in the diplomatic service of the Tsar. In the scene that follows, Zolotov is sitting with two women, employing his consular skills to convince them that he is an underwear salesman in St. Petersburg.

As much as Marlene would have wanted us to forget her silent film career, she made a film called The Ship of Lost Men (Das Schiff der verlorenen Menschen) in which Russian actor Vladimir Sokoloff plays a Russian cook named Grischa. Like Auer's Boris, Sasha, and Zolotov, the diminutive Grischa lacks physical prowess, enduring beatings from his burly boss, captain Vela (Fritz Kortner), and failing to keep marauding sailors out of his kitchen. Nevertheless, Grischa exhibits a strong character, insisting upon hiding Ethel (Dietrich) from the lusty ship crew and slipping a gun to a man of equal merit, the American doctor Cheyne (Robert Irvine). Rather than sneak away from fights to save himself like an Auer character, Grischa escapes the riotous seamen to send light signals, which catches the attention of an ocean liner and leads to everyone's rescue.

 

Becoming Russian?

 

Englishman Fothergill...
 Because The Scarlet Empress and Knight Without Armour mainly take place in Russian territory where Russian culture can exert a powerful influence, a phenomenon occurs in both films--Russification. In The Scarlet Empress, Prussian princess Sophia Fredericka arrives to Russia, where almost immediately she must convert to Orthodoxy and adopt a name more fitting for a Russian, Catherine. Similarly, Knight Without Armour's Englishman A.J. Fothergill assumes the identity of a Russian named Peter Ouranoff so that he can remain in Russia after a critical article he has written about the Imperial Court leads to his expulsion. Perhaps to pass as Ouranoff, he grows facial hair and finds himself entangled in the activities of Russian revolutionaries, which result in his two-year Siberian exile, where he suffers with fellow insurgent Axelstein. Once the Bolsheviks gain power and free Axelstein and Ouranoff, the two receive a hero's welcome and are greeted as fellow comrades. Whether he encounters Reds or Whites, Ouranoff can't shake his newfound Russian identity, finding himself either accepting a commissarship or escaping a firing squad.

...becomes Russian Ouranoff
For the newly baptized Catherine, assimilation occurs at a slower pace. Naïve and old-fashioned even for the 18th century, Catherine initial rejects Count Alexei's (John Lodge) romantic overtures, insisting that she'll always be faithful to her husband because she isn't a Russian. It requires her mother's dismissal and her attachment to Empress Elizabeth's personal staff to "educate her and teach her what it means to be a Russian wife and how to accept the embraces of a husband like a Russian wife." Rather, Catherine must face heartbreak by witnessing Alexei enter Elizabeth's bedchambers, which induces her to adopt more libertine sexual attitudes and--rather than accept her husband's embraces--accept the embraces of any man in court willing and able to help her conceive a male heir and thereby secure her place in the Russian court.

Meeting with the clergyman Simeon, Catherine asserts, "Now that I've learned how Russia expects me to behave, I like it here. And I intend to stay, Grand Duke or no Grand Duke." Simeon hopes Catherine will conspire with him, but she does not wish to take advantage of his "political machine," to which Simeon replies, "I'm afraid you don't know Russians, my child." Catherine answers, "That's possible, Father, but I'm taking lessons as fast as I can." Proving to be an apt pupil, Catherine totally wins over the army when she inspects them and earns the clergy's respect by generously providing alms. During her coup d'état of Peter's government, Catherine is decked out like Russian soldier and rides a horse alongside them through the palace, ushered by clergymen upon her arrival at the conspirators' meeting place. Representing the military, Captain Orloff declares, "We soldiers in the service of the holy Russian empire do hereby solemnly swear to acknowledge and defend with our lives the authority of Catherine, our Empress, and to destroy her enemies," and Simeon offers the following blessing, "God grant you victory, Catherine. All Russia is waiting for the sound of our bell." Like Ouranoff, Catherine has earned the reverence of her Russian supporters, who embrace her as one of their own.
Empress Catherine II, fully Russified
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The Testatrix Is Willing

April 9, 2015, 4:30 pm
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Totally unrelated. Fred MacMurray & Marlene Dietrich
on the set of The Lady is Willing.;)
Marlene Dietrich's last will and testament as well as its codicil became public record after it was granted probate by the New York County Surrogate's Court in September 1992. Even though private recorded conversations and letters between Marlene and her friends as well as photographs of Marlene's wounded leg after her 1973 fall at Shady Grove Music Fair have circulated among Dietrich fans for years, her will--accessible to anyone--never appears to have emerged. Until now.

Marlene's will, which is quoted in a September 1992 decree granting probate, dates back to March 7, 1964--over 28 years before her death. Could this have been around the time when Marlene started having serious health problems, such as when she was diagnosed with cervical cancer? Mischa Spoliansky (a longtime friend of Marlene's, who played piano on her first recording, "Wenn die beste Freundin"), his wife Elsbeth, and their daughter Irmgard Mills signed the will as witnesses in London. If anyone knows why Marlene would have been in London at this time, do let us know in the comments section. Years later on July 28, 1981, Dietrich put her signature on an accompanying codicil (also quoted in the decree granting probate), this time with witnesses AlainBosquet (author of Marlene Dietrich: un amour par téléphone), his wife Norma (Marlene's secretary during her seclusion, who later penned Marlene Dietrich: Les derniers secrets), and Eddy Marouani (Marlene's agent, who devoted a chapter to her in his memoirs, Pêcheur d'étoiles).

According to a May 17, 1992 New York Times article called "Dietrich Buried in Berlin, and Sentiment Is Mixed" by Stephen Kinzer, Dietrich "said in her will that she made the choice [of being buried in Berlin] because she wanted to lie near her mother, in Friedenau Cemetery in the Schoneberg section of the western part of Berlin." In fact, Dietrich specified no location for her funeral or burial in Article First of her will, leaving both to her daughter Maria Riva's discretion. In newspapers such as Los Angeles Times, Marlene has been quoted from an unmentioned source as stating, "When I die, I'd like to be buried in Paris. But I'd also like to leave my heart in England, and in Germany--nothing."Her will, however, made no such declarations, perhaps vindicating Maria.

As Dietrich admirers would have expected, Marlene left all her personal property to Maria (Article Second), a display of a mother's undying devotion to her daughter. Furthermore, Marlene bequeathed to Maria her apartments 12D and 12E at 993 Park Avenue in New York City (Article Fourth) as well as any of her "residuary estate" (Article Sixth). Did any of you already know that Marlene had two apartments in this building? Were they separate units, or were they combined? Dietrich also detailed how her residuary estate would be divided among her grandchildren if Maria predeceased her, with special instructions for grandson John Paul (Article Seventh), but this article never applied because Maria, of course, is still alive. In her codicil, Marlene also directly named her grandson John Paul, bequeathing him the proceeds from any dramatization of her life because he had shown "devotion" in "continuing to correspond" with her (Article First). Would that mean that John Paul received the proceeds of the 2000 Vilsmeier biopic?

Marlene extended her familial affections to her publicly unacknowledged sister, Elizabeth Will, with the requests that Maria give her aunt some unspecified "tangible personal property" as well as provide financial assistance through Elizabeth's lifetime, exhibiting confidence in Maria's judgment (Articles Second and Third), which Maria never had to exercise because Elizabeth died on May 8, 1973. Also predeceasing Dietrich was her husband Rudolf Sieber, who was to receive a trust fund equaling one third of his wife's net estate in quarterly installments and in additional payments that her estate trustees deemed appropriate for Rudi's needs (Article Fifth). For Rudi's trust fund, Marlene nominated Maria and her friend Iva Patcevitch (president of Conde Nast Publications and likely the so-called "Cavalier" in Maria's book) as both her executors and trustees, choosing her son-in-law William Riva as Maria's substitute (Article Eleventh). Iva and William were also nominated as trustees in the event that Article Seventh applied (Article Eleventh).

Interestingly, Marlene indicated in her codicil that none of the private letters written by or to her should be published or sold (Article Second). Shall we enumerate the examples of when this directive was not followed? Also worth noting is that Marlene's will makes no mention of Tamara "Tami" Matul, Rudi's longtime mistress. Was she already at Camarillo State Mental Hospital by 1964? Another question that comes to mind is whether Marlene wrote a previous will, particularly before she bravely put herself in potential danger during World War II. If you have any thoughts or questions, please don't hesitate to add them to the comments section, where we hope to have a lively conversation.
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Kylie Minogue as Marlene.

April 11, 2015, 6:32 am
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From the spring issue of Sorbet magazine. Two of my favorites merge!
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