Marlene Dietrich (1901 - 1992)

German and American star of stage and film Marlene Dietrich was born Maria Magdelene Dietrich in Schoneberg, a suburb of Berlin. Her father, a police lieutenant, died when she was young, and she and her sister were raised by their mother.   From the beginning, she was a rebellious child, going against the customs and morals of her time.  At thirteen she combined her first two names to form Marlene.  She graduated school at eighteen and in 1922 began appearing on the stage in Berlin theaters and cabarets and had her first small parts in films.  In 1923, she married Rudolf Sieber, but after the birth of their daughter Maria in 1924, Marlene had very little to do with her husband and engaged in numerous love affairs with both men and women throughout her life.  In fact, when Rudolf died in 1976, Marlene did not even attend his funeral.

In 1929, Marlene Dietrich had her first leading part in Die Frau, Nach Der Man Sich Sehnt.  The following year she appeared in The Blue Angel and her performance as the unfaithful cabaret performer Lola Lola made her a star.  That same year she left for the US and appeared in her first American film, Morocco, in which she donned top hat and tails and kissed another woman on the lips, one of the first overtly lesbian scenes ever filmed.  This was followed by such films as Blonde Venus, in which she did a strip-tease out of a gorilla suit, a scene recreated (but not equaled) by Uma Thurman in Batman and Robin, and The Scarlet Empress, in which she played the bisexual Catherine the Great of Russia.   Destry Rides Again gave her the opportunity to give a Western-style version of the sort of gender-bending cabaret performances for which she had been so well-known in Berlin.  In 1935 she parted with her longtime director, Josef von Sternberg, and in 1937 became an American citizen to protest the policies of the Nazis in her homeland.  Marlene Dietrich spent the war years working for the USO and entertaining the American troops, for which she was branded a traitor by the Germans.  Despite her work for the American war effort, rumors persisted that she was a German collaborator, and she was even investigated by J. Edgar Hoover for possible subversive activities.  At least the French appreciated her efforts enough to induct her into the Legion of Honor in 1950.

After the war, Marlene Dietrich continued to appear in films, most notably The Spoilers with John Wayne, and Witness for the Prosecution with Tyrone Power and Charles Laughton.   But she began devoting more of her career to appearances in concert performances, especially in New York, Las Vegas, and London.  In 1960, she returned to her native Germany, where the adulations she received were nearly drowned out by the shouts of "Marlene Go Home!"   Many Germans apparently had not forgiven her for her support of the Allies in the war, and were further angered by her appearance in the film Judgement at Nuremberg.   Marlene's response to her treatment was, "The German people and I no longer speak the same language."  She continued her concert tours and stage performances until 1974, when she fell and broke her leg during a performance in Sydney.  Her last film appearance was in Just a Gigolo!(1975).  In the years that followed, she led an increasingly reclusive life in Paris, dealing with alcoholism and a scathing tell-all book by her daughter.  Her autobiography was published in 1979, and a biographical film, Marlene, was released in 1984.  Interviewed in this film, Marlene denied the existence of her sister.   Marlene in fact had disowned her sibling at the end of World War II after learning that she had worked with and married the film projectionist at the notorious Bergen-Belsen death camp, and was thus complicit in many of the atrocities there.  After Marlene's death at age ninety, she was buried in Berlin next to her mother, and the following year her collection of memorabilia from her long career was bequeathed to the State of Berlin.  Enough resentment over her efforts for the Allies in WWII remained, however, for the renaming of a Berlin street in her honor to be effectively blocked.  However, in April of 2002, the city of Berlin officially recognized her as a citizen.

Many years after her death, fandom and admiration for Marlene Dietrich remains unabated.  Her bisexuality, a known secret in Hollywood which was effectively outed first by Mercedes de Acosta and again by Marlene's daughter, has elevated her status among those in the gay comunity who worship the glamorous queens of the classic cinema.  Feminists have noted that her flouting of gender-biased fashion played a role in redefining the status of women in the twentieth-century.  And her apparent indifference and negligence as a wife and mother seem almost understandable when one considers that this was a career woman who was not about to be held back by the traditional strictures of the unassuming and monogamous "house frau."  But her appeal seems to lie most in her persona, based in a regal class and beauty which was as rare in her time as it is today.  As one of her biographers noted, "the word 'glamour" seems to have been written for her."

Marlene Dietrich, by Maria E. Riva	Marlene Dietrich (Lives of Notable Gay Men and Lesbians)	The Complete Films of Marlene Dietrich	Marlene Dietrich: Life and Legend	Blue Angel: The Life of Marlene Dietrich	Marlene Dietrich: Falling In Love Again
The Scarlet Empress	Marlene	Witness For The Prosecution	Destry Rides Again	Blonde Venus	The Blue Angel

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