Dietrich, Marlene (1901-1992)

Marlene Dietrich is a mythical woman and actress who worked actively on the creation of her myth. Her ability to create and manipulate a recognizable and durable star image influenced modern popular icons such as Madonna. The German Marlene Dietrich emerged onto the world stage as a screen idol taking Hollywood by storm in the 1930s, moved on to become a troop entertainer during the Second World War, and ended her career as an age-defying concert singer in the 1950s and 1960s. Gender-bending Marlene enjoyed many decades of a stardom that was predicated on one core attribute—her ability to remain ambivalent and mysterious.

Maria Magdalene Dietrich was born a policeman's daughter in Berlin, although her father died when she was young. She was a schoolgirl during the upheavals of World War I, during which her step-father, a colonel, died of war wounds. Although Marlene—a contraction of her first two names—played the violin and the piano, she was not accepted at the Weimar music school. Thus, after the depression following the war and with Weimar cultural life blooming around her, Marlene forsook her middle-class background and embarked on a more dangerous and decadent path: the stage. She found entry into the Max Rheinhardt School, a renowned theater school with very good stage connections. By 1922, Marlene Dietrich was on the stage. With ceaseless energy, Dietrich worked her way through small supporting roles and, like many stage actors of the time, appeared in many silent films. By 1927, Dietrich had made it. Her sensuous appearance had won her the Berlin audience. Two years later, a big Hollywood director decided to come to Berlin to look for his latest star for the film The Blue Angel (1930), and a Hollywood legend began: the collaboration of Marlene Dietrich and Joseph von Sternberg. Dietrich was already well aware of her ability to embody ambivalent sex. Her risque performances with well-known lesbian Maro Lion in their duet "It's in the air" had been deliciously scandalous. Under the guidance of her "Svengali" von Sternberg, this ability became the core of her star persona. Together, they fashioned the myth of Dietrich, a myth of sex, sadomasochism, cool poise, and darkness, which transplanted surprisingly well from permissive Weimar Berlin to a more strict Hollywood. In The Blue Angel, Dietrich played Lola Lola, the ruin of a professor who falls desperately in love with her and is treated cruelly and dismissively by his love object. In this film, Dietrich established her gender-bending image for the American audience by donning tails and a top hat. Another trademark which was to become mythical was displayed in detail to U.S. audiences—the long, sensual Dietrich legs.

The legs and trousers became fetishes of a woman surrounded by mystery. Dietrich wore her slacks outside the studio and, as a result, was called "the best dressed man in Hollywood." In a time when studios had a morality clause in their contracts allowing them to dispense with any star overstepping the rules, Dietrich's open bisexual affairs were indulged. Her foreign, ambivalent, dangerously sexual image, portrayed by an equally mysterious foreigner with strange tastes, was recognized as the main box-office draw. Films such as Morocco (1930) and Blonde Venus (1932) consolidated Dietrich as the cool, poised femme fatale in feathers and fur: an image of an erotic and sophisticated dominatrix made immortal in Sacher-Masoch's novel Venus in Furs. After the end of her relationship with von Sternberg, Dietrich continued to be a successful and (in)famous star, even if occasionally touted as "box office poison." Dietrich's desire to broaden her appeal and develop her image led to leads in productions by Ernst Lubitsch—Desire (1936) and Angel (1937)—which allowed her to display humor as well as sex. Other ventures into different genres include a western parody, Destry Rides Again, directed by George Marshall and released in 1939.

During the war-years, however, a new side was added to Marlene Dietrich's image. Her foreign origin, accent, and the decadent sexual persona of continental European ancestry were a recognized part of her image, but now a vehemently anti-Nazi stance and a belief in the American way of life led Dietrich to help the war effort. She worked for the United States Entertainment Organization, appeared at fund-raising events, and entertained the troops on the front-lines in Europe. Her most famous song, "Lili Marleen", stems from this period. The head of the German Nazi Ministry of Culture had earlier asked her to return, to be a great Nazi star, even after some of her films were banned in Germany. As an answer, Dietrich became a United States citizen in 1939. In 1945, she was back in Germany, to bury her mother, and, according to her daughter Maria Riva, to bury the Germany she once knew and loved.

After the war, Dietrich's film roles were sporadic. Films such as Rancho Notorious (1952) and A Touch of Evil (1958) are tongue-in-cheek takes on her own carefully nurtured star persona. Dietrich's main activity was now the stage: she had recaptured her original calling from the years in Weimar, and embarked on a new, successful career as an international cabaret star. Although her singing voice was criticized, Dietrich's delivery was a full-blown stage cabaret show. Her repertoire embraced sexy songs, often originally written for male singers, allowing her worldly charm and eroticism full range. Numbers recorded by Dietrich include "One for My Baby," "One More for the Road," and "Makin' Whoopee." The older image of Dietrich as femme fatale was soon supplemented by a newer strand of anti-war songs including "Sag mir wo die Blumen sind" (Where Have All the Flowers Gone), as well as other Pete Seeger and Bob Dylan songs. During her concert in Israel she broke the taboo against the German language by singing her cry against wars in her mother tongue. She also went back to Germany, despite the fact that the voices calling her a traitor had not stopped. The concert was a success.

Dietrich paid a price for her decades of working and the self-fashioned myths around her. More and more scotch accompanied her touring. Finally, she ended her stage career when she broke a leg on stage in 1975. With many of her old friends dead, including her husband from her Weimar years, Dietrich led a lonely existence in Paris.

For decades, she had been a focal point for the famous. Her rumored lovers included Ernest Hemingway, Greta Garbo, and Jean Gabin. At the end of her career, she claimed that it was not vanity that made her camera-shy, but her need to sustain and nurture the myth of what she had become—an icon of glamour, ambivalent sexuality, erotic sophistication, and unknowable mystery. Her skill was well rewarded. Later generations of artists have plundered and recycled the rich image of Dietrich. Her most well-known "interpreter" has become Madonna—another star of ambivalence and mystery.

In her book ABC, Dietrich writes: "Dietrich—In the German language the name for a key that opens all locks. Not a magic key. A very real object, necessitating great skill in the making." Even her death did not erase this fascinating object.

—Petra Kuppers

Further Reading:

Bach, Steven. Marlene Dietrich—Life and Legend. New York, William Morrow, 1992.

Riva, Maria. Marlene Dietrich. New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1992.

Spoto, Donald. Marlene Dietrich. New York, Doubleday, 1992.