Marlene_Dietrich

Francesca Sarpola Humanities 11 30 Jan. 2009 A Diamond Encrusted Advocate for Peace: The Contrasting Images of Marlene Dietrich Plagued with poor vision, a 77-year-old Marie Magdalene Dietrich (1901-1991) strains in front of the mirror searching for Marlene. Although unable to see well enough to recreate the illusion of Marlene herself, she is brought close to tears upon seeing that a young makeup artist has recreated her former self for one last time. (Spoto) Marie Magdalene Dietrich served a double life in more ways than one. German-born Dietrich long served as the idolized, quintessential symbol of glamour for the Golden Age of Hollywood. Not only a film actress, Dietrich also traveled the world performing in front of live audiences, making her active career last over 50 years. Although she was known as a glamorous movie star, who was proud of her home country, her fervent opposition to Adolf Hitler and the German Nazi Party led to her support of Allied troops during World War II. Dietrich is remembered by Donald Spoto, author of Blue Angel (The Life of Marlene Dietrich), as “a kind of theatrical phoenix, ever rising from the cinders of one life to triumph in another.” Dietrich will always be remembered for creating a forever worshipped and unduplicated being that embodied the essence of glamour during the 20th century, and for supporting what she believed in unwaveringly. Marie Magdalene did not mold herself into the illusion of Marlene all on her own. Her earliest and possibly most consequential contributor was German film director, Josef von Sternberg (1894-1969). In September of 1929, in Berlin, Germany, Dietrich performed in a play, entitled Two Neckties, which would forever change her life. Sternberg needed only to hear one line to fall in love with Marlene. (Spoto) Although Two Neckties was the last play that Dietrich performed in she went on to star in six films directed by Sternberg. Their first, The Blue Angel, turned out to be internationally acclaimed and guaranteed her and von Sternberg a contract with Paramount Pictures in Hollywood. Almost daily photo shoots arranged by Paramount were chances for Sternberg to assert his usual control over his Marlene. [Von Sternberg] insisted that a high spotlight be used to bring out the shadows under her cheekbones. [He] asked Dietrich to assume the most uncomfortable positions. Such a pose she held without complaint. When the stance was suitable, he began to work on her face. Because of this meticulous attention to her image and…Paramount, Dietrich was, by the end of 1931, the most famous actress in America. (Spoto) Sternberg’s meticulous nature paid off for Dietrich in the end. Not only did their films together yield huge success, but his habits rubbed off on her. Even after their parting Marlene was never seen without perfect hair and makeup, nearly all of the time self-adorned, but she also became a lighting genius in order to always have the illusion of Marlene perfectly preserved. Although Marlene was married in 1924 in Germany to her lifelong husband Rudolph Sieber, she made no attempt to conceal her notorious Hollywood affairs. (Spoto) Sieber for the most part stayed out of his wife’s way and in 1953 retired from movies to become a chicken farmer. (Spoto) Not only did she enjoy the presence of men such as John Wayne, Erich Maria Remarque and Jean Gabin, but also of women. In her early Hollywood years, Dietrich could often be found, in one of her many, perfectly tailored, men’s tuxedoes, at clubs in Hollywood whose patrons were most certainly lesbian. Here in 1933 she met Mercedes de Acosta, with whom Dietrich shared an almost exclusive relationship for a time. (Spoto) Dietrich’s film career came to a close in the early 1950’s, which presented her with the task of recreating Marlene. Las Vegas, Nevada was a new scene developing and a breeding ground for new entertainment. In 1953 Dietrich opened her show at the Hotel Sahara, acting mainly as a diseuse. This show would provide grounds for Marlene to flourish for the next twenty years. She was to sing half a dozen songs nightly to awestruck audiences. Her voice was nothing incredible to pine after; it was the vision that Marlene embodied. It was not Dietrich’s talent as a vocal artist that was earning her headlines, feature photographs and the greatest press coverage of her career. Her singing was ignored by critics; her success was in what she wore and how she was lighted—in other words it was all style. (Spoto) Furs, feathers, diamonds and the most revealing dresses of the time was the new Marlene. Her wardrobe came to be greatly anticipated by fans and critics alike. (Naudet) Yes, there were dozens of seamstresses working on her ever changing wardrobe, but Dietrich would spend hours moving beads and perfecting seams to ensure the effect she wanted was achieved. In the late 1950s Dietrich left Las Vegas to proceed with a world tour of her now perfected show. The dedication to her tour ultimately led Dietrich down a lonely path. The years 1972 and 1973 prove to be dangerous when she falls on numerous occasions on stage, resulting in serious injury. “[After her fall in 1973] Dietrich refused to be moved until she was covered with a blanket, to conceal the split in her dress which revealed the intricate foam rubber “living foundation” that gave her the figure of a woman one-third her age.” (Spoto) As a good magician would do, Dietrich hid the secrets behind every one of her illusions no matter the cost. An infection, contracted from a gash in her leg due one of her falls, resulted in her needing a skin graft and confinement to a wheelchair. By 1975 Dietrich had turned to the bottle and was “in her last years a restless, pathetic alcoholic” (Spoto). An entire life spent in isolation had finally caught up to Dietrich. “All her life she was wearing a mask. The real Marlene was never visible” (Maximilian Schell qtd. in Spoto). She spent her last years a prisoner in her own apartment, surrounded by mementos of her former self, refusing to leave for fear of being photographed. In February 1978, when Anthony Clavet, a young makeup artist assigned to makeover Dietrich, finished Dietrich’s transformation for her final film role in Just a Gigolo, Marie Magdalene once again saw Marlene in the mirror. The illusion was complete, as was she. Marlene Dietrich was quite possibly one of the greatest actresses of all time. Her friends and countless lovers believed in the illusion that was Marlene. The whole world believed in Marlene. Although so much of Dietrich’s life was spent sustaining an illusion, there were times she was true to herself and her beliefs. Dietrich’s blatant opposition to her home country, Germany, during World War II showed that she was more capable of standing up for her beliefs than other artists of the time. “Most children inherit medals from their father; you will inherit them from your mother.” (Naudet 148) were words that a young Maria Dietrich would often hear from her mother, Marlene Dietrich. Throughout her life, the eldest Dietrich received several handfuls of medals for her dedication and support to the Allied troops for the duration of World War II. Dietrich’s world fame and her German blood resulted in her being recruited by the Nazi party. Dietrich fervently opposed Adolf Hitler and refused. In 1944 Dietrich joined forces with The United Service Organization, referred to as the USO, to travel to the front entertaining troops (Spoto 185). Years after the War she was recognized for her dedication to the troops. Despite the fact that the majority of Dietrich’s life was defined by her live stage performances and daring costumes, we must not fail to recognize the contributions she made to a country that was not even her own. Marlene Dietrich was beloved by the Nazi party for her beauty, fame and tremendous talent. She was offered the opportunity “to provide the cinema and soundtrack to [the Nazi’s] murderous misdeeds.” (Hitler’s) Unlike many other artists of the time, such as Leni Reifenstahl who was recruited by the Nazi party to create propaganda films glorifying the Nazi party and did so ungrudgingly, Dietrich flat out refused and rushed to become a US citizen. Hitler, unhappy that she declined the opportunity offered to her, made sure that Dietrich was shown (by Nazi propaganda) “as a woman of low moral fiber” (Hitler’s) leading ignorant Germans to believe her denunciation of the Nazi party was due to a lack of character and moral decency. To even further combat Hitler, she fought in the best way she knew how, by entertaining. Marlene Dietrich’s work with the USO began in the US. Not only was this a chance for her to recover from a string of bad films, but it would prove to be a perfect place for Dietrich to receive the male attention that she thrived on. On April 2nd 1944, Marlene Dietrich flew on her first airplane from New York to Casablanca with Danny Thomas, her accompanist (Spoto 187-8). She would leave the majority of her cosmetics behind and discover a new part of herself while overseas. In Casablanca she visited a makeshift hospital and was moved by what she experienced there. She went to a makeshift hospital and could scarcely suppress her horror at the sight of so many boys wounded, limbless and blind. She visited each bedside. Soldiers were surprised to see a short, weary woman over forty. Dietrich was disdaining safety, rejecting special treatment and risking her life. [Also] she was a naturalized German who loudly sided with the men fighting against her native country. (Spoto 191) From this moment on, she would stick with the boys, no matter the cost. She would constantly be heard around the camps referring to Hitler as an “idiot”, showing that her disgust towards the Nazi party had not faltered. (Hitler’s) Dietrich truly believed in these men and she was doing everything and anything she knew how to do in order to help them fight the war. Dietrich was assigned to ten weeks on the front performing for the USO. In May 1944, just before this time was up, she contracted viral pneumonia but continued to perform which resulted in her coming very close to delirium (Spoto 194). In June she returned to New York but only stayed until August before voluntarily returning to the USO camp shows on the front. Dietrich could never be bothered with the conduct of war and would “Dangle naked legs from truck platforms before sighing soldiers, which led more than one angry officer to label her a cruel tease.” (Spoto 198) As it turns out, Dietrich would be more than a tease to some. During the winter of 1944, Dietrich’s performance troupe moved North into Belgium from France with Gen. George S. Patton. Patton was a tank brigade commander in World War I, who went on in World War II to be nicknamed Old Blood and Guts (Tuleja). It was later proved that throughout the duration of Dietrich’s attachment to Patton’s army, there was an intense affair between the two (Spoto 199). As with her first tour with the USO, Dietrich did not subject herself to special treatment during her time spent with Patton. [While accompanying Patton] Dietrich suffered severe frostbite that plagued her for the rest of her life. “Like the rest of us that winter, she had to wear long, woolly, drop-seat underwear, heavy trousers and gloves,” according to Oldfiled, who was there with a press corps, “but she ignored the weather and changed into nylon stockings and a sequined evening gown and played for her audience.” (Spoto 200) Dietrich truly believed in the causes that she was standing up for. She would later be awarded the US Medal of Freedom “for entertaining troops and also making a strong and public stand against the horrors of Nazism” (Hitler’s), the Medallion of Honor of the State of Israel, and the French Ordre Nationale de la Légion d’Honneur only to name a few (Naudet 148). The number of lives that she touched during the war was countless. Patton, his army, nor the other troops she befriended and followed, would never forget her. The entertainment that she provided the troops on the front of World War II was not superficial. At the moment, it was all that mattered to her. She knowingly risked her life, denounced her home country and suffered consequences in order to bring happiness to these men, if only for an evening. The memories left behind by Marlene Dietrich are countless. Many remember her for her legs, her shows in Las Vegas, or simply as a Blue Angel, but there is another side of her that must not be forgotten. The kind of dedication that Dietrich showed by entertaining allied troops does not come with an average entertainer. It can only be found within the unique and one of a kind, Marlene Dietrich. The Marlene that she created will not be forgotten, and she will still remain a great mystery. She reflects at the end of her autobiography “I’ve done my duty. I’ve always assumed my responsibilities and that’s all that counts for me. Only I know the truth about myself.” (Dietrich). She was constantly pushing the limit and breaking boundaries. Celebrities today need only to donate an article of clothing to an auction in order to raise money to seem like they are making a difference in the world. America today is run by the media and a strange fascination and worship for celebrities. Perhaps we would all be better off if we were to have more icons to look up to such as Dietrich. She is a representation of glamour, strength and beauty. Her legacy must not be forgotten.