tarting with her breakthrough role as the sultry, unfaithful Lola Lola in The Blue Angel (Der blaue Engel) in 1930, Marlene Dietrich, the “Kraut” (as Ernest Hemingway called his pal), went on to make film history with her alluring looks in films such as Blonde Venus (1932), Destry Rides Again (1939), Witness for the Prosecution (1957), and Judgment at Nuremberg (1961). In a varied career of acting, singing, and dancing, Dietrich conquered Las Vegas and Broadway in the 1960s, and made a world tour in the 1970s. Over a period of several decades Marlene Dietrich was the ultimate Hollywood woman of mystery and a symbol of erotic allure for several generations of moviegoers.

	A new book about Marlene Dietrich by David Riva. Order A Woman at War from Amazon.com.

She was born December 27, 1901 in Schöneberg (later part of Berlin) as the second daughter of Louis Erich Otto and Josephine Dietrich. (Most people never knew Marlene had a sister, and they were unlikely to learn about it from her either.) Herr Dietrich was a police lieutenant, and his newest daughter was born in their modest apartment on Sedanstraße. The future film star, who would later declare, “When you’re dead, you’re dead. That’s it,” was given the angelic name Maria Magadelene. Her family called her Lene (lay-na) or Leni and this may have influenced her when at the age of only thirteen she cut out the center of Maria Magadelene to form the unique name Marlene. She would later use this childhood creation to identify the budding film star who was to be known around the world as Marlene Dietrich.

Dietrich's star on the "Hollywood Walk of Fame." Photo: Copyright © Hyde Flippo

Marlene’s father died when she was young. She and her sister were raised by her mother. From the beginning, Dietrich was a rebel, running counter to what people expected and social mores. Later she was a married woman (until husband Rudi Sieber's death in 1976) who spent little time with her husband and had numerous affairs with both men and women throughout her film career. Thanks to her daughter Maria Riva (who gives Dietrich a low rating as a mother), Dietrich became a grandmother in 1948, with her still-alluring picture adorning the August 9th cover of Life magazine. She often dressed as a man and sang in films and on stage in a style that could be interpreted as lesbian or bisexual at a time when such things were just not done. (This was no doubt influenced by her life in the wild and woolly Berlin of the 1920s.) But Dietrich, even as a child, had a certain aura and strength of character that often made people overlook her flaws and excesses.

	The author pays his respects at Dietrich's resting place in Berlin. The gravestone inscription says, "Here I stand on the marks of my days." Nearby lies her mother's grave. Husband Rudi was buried in California in 1976 — without Marlene in attendance. Dietrich's cemetery: 3. Städtischer Friedhof (Waldfriedhof in Friedenau), Stubenrauchstr. 43-45, 12161 Berlin > Larger view of this image

As a USO entertainer in World War II, often in uniform and near the front, Marlene displayed her devotion to her adopted country. (Dietrich became a U.S. citizen in 1939.) She seemed to thrive on entertaining the troops and cavorting about in uniform.

In 1960, for the first time since leaving Germany 30 years before, she performed in her hometown of Berlin. She drew a mixed reaction of adulation and “Marlene Go Home!” As a result, she firmly refused to return to Germany until after her death. (“The Germans and I no longer speak the same language.”) In her seventies, problems with those famous Dietrich legs, other health concerns, and an obsessive vanity led her to withdraw from public view. Her last stage appearance was in Sydney, Australia (where she fell and broke her left leg) in September 1975. Dietrich made her last film appearance in Just a Gigolo (1979) at the age of 77 — lured back into a studio by $250,000 for two half-days work. Thirteen years later, a sad recluse, alcoholic, and prisoner of her own legend, Marlene Dietrich died in Paris at her Avenue Montaigne apartment in 1992. She is buried in her native Berlin and, in a posthumous gesture of forgiveness, she bequeathed her vast memorabilia collection to that city.

2 > Dietrich's Street

NEW DVD > Marlene Dietrich: The Glamour Collection

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