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87-509: Marie Magdalene " Marlene " Dietrich ( / m ɑːr ˈ l eɪ n ə ˈ d iː t r ɪ x / , German: [maʁˈleːnə ˈdiːtʁɪç] ; 27 December 1901 – 6 May 1992) was a German-born American actress and singer whose career spanned nearly 7 decades. In 1920s Berlin , Dietrich performed on the stage and in silent films . Her performance as Lola Lola in Josef von Sternberg 's The Blue Angel (1930) brought her international acclaim and

174-660: A German version of Pete Seeger 's anti-war anthem " Where Have All the Flowers Gone ", thus breaking the unofficial taboo against the use of German in Israel . She would become the first woman and German to receive the Israeli Medallion of Valor in 1965, "in recognition for her courageous adherence to principle and consistent record of friendship for the Jewish people". Dietrich in London ,

261-628: A Lost Girl (1929) directed by Georg Wilhelm Pabst and starring Louise Brooks , deals with a young woman who is thrown out of her home after having an illegitimate child, and is then forced to become a prostitute to survive. This trend of dealing frankly with provocative material in cinema began immediately after the end of the War. In 1919, Richard Oswald directed and released two films, that met with press controversy and action from police vice investigators and government censors. Prostitution dealt with women forced into " white slavery ", while Different from

348-454: A Woman (1935)—the most stylized of their collaborations—were their lowest-grossing films. Dietrich later remarked that she was at her most beautiful in The Devil Is a Woman . Von Sternberg is known for his exceptional skill in lighting and photographing Dietrich to optimum effect, so much so, that even 50 years later, one of Shanghai Express's production stills became the inspiration of

435-458: A career out of performing, the chorus line was a common place of entry. Big names of the day like Paulette Goddard , Barbara Stanwyck , and Betty Grable are just some of the stars who began successful performing careers by joining a chorus line. One of the most popular productions of the time was the Ziegfeld Follies , operating out of New York City , which was well-known for hiring only

522-513: A chorus girl and playing small roles in dramas. Dietrich's film debut was a small part in the film The Little Napoleon (1923). She met her future husband Rudolf Sieber on the set of Tragedy of Love in 1923. Dietrich and Sieber were married in a civil ceremony in Berlin on 17 May 1923. Her only child, daughter Maria Elisabeth Sieber , was born on 13 December 1924. Dietrich continued to work on stage and in film both in Berlin and Vienna throughout

609-410: A collage of film clips from her career. The film won several European film prizes and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary in 1984. Newsweek named it "a unique film, perhaps the most fascinating and affecting documentary ever made about a great movie star". In 1988, Dietrich recorded spoken introductions to songs for a nostalgia album by Udo Lindenberg . In an interview with

696-447: A concert album, was recorded during the run of her 1964 engagement at the Queen's Theatre . She performed on Broadway twice (in 1967 and 1968) and received a Special Tony Award in 1968. In November 1972, I Wish You Love , a version of Dietrich's Broadway show titled An Evening with Marlene Dietrich , was filmed in London. She was paid $ 250,000 for her cooperation but was unhappy with

783-517: A concert tour received a mixed reception—despite a consistently negative press, vociferous protest by Germans who felt she had betrayed her homeland, and two bomb threats, her performance attracted huge crowds. During her performances at Berlin's Titania Palast theatre , protesters chanted, "Marlene Go Home!" On the other hand, Dietrich was warmly welcomed by other Germans, including Berlin Mayor Willy Brandt , who was, like Dietrich, an opponent of

870-412: A contract with Paramount Pictures . She starred in many Hollywood films, including six iconic roles directed by Sternberg: Morocco (1930) (her only Academy Award nomination), Dishonored (1931), Shanghai Express and Blonde Venus (both 1932), The Scarlet Empress (1934), The Devil Is a Woman (1935). She successfully traded on her glamorous persona and exotic looks, and became one of

957-490: A degree in the 1920s. During the war, venereal diseases such as syphilis and gonorrhea spread at a rate that warranted government attention. Soldiers at the front contracted these diseases from prostitutes, so the German army responded by granting approval to certain brothels that were inspected by their own medical doctors, and soldiers were rationed coupon books for sexual services at these establishments. Homosexual behaviour

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1044-534: A fitting tribute because Dietrich loved flowers, even saving the flowers thrown to her at the end of her performances for use in subsequent shows. Dietrich was interred at the Städtischer Friedhof III , Schöneberg, close by the grave of her mother Josefine von Losch, and near the house where she was born. 1920s Berlin The Weimar Republic era began in the midst of several major movements in

1131-479: A large number of homosexual venues for men and for lesbians ; sometimes transvestites of one or both genders were admitted, otherwise there were at least five known establishments that were exclusively for a transvestite clientele. There were also several nudist venues. Berlin also had a museum of sexuality during the Weimar period, at Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld 's Institute of Sexology . These were nearly all closed when

1218-422: A much longer period but which were not created for Hepburn the way the last six von Sternberg/Dietrich collaborations were. Dietrich's first film after the end of her partnership with von Sternberg was Frank Borzage 's Desire (1936) with Gary Cooper, a commercial success that gave Dietrich an opportunity to try her hand at romantic comedy . Her next project, I Loved a Soldier (1936), ended in shambles when

1305-569: A musical, Cabaret , and an Academy Award winning film of the same name . Spender's semi-autobiographical novel The Temple evokes the attitude and atmosphere of the time. The University of Berlin (today Humboldt University of Berlin ) became a major intellectual centre in Germany, Europe, and the World. The sciences were especially favored — from 1914 to 1933. Albert Einstein rose to public prominence during his years in Berlin, being awarded

1392-475: A robot, trying to recapture the wonderful woman he helped make out of me. I even succeeded in this effort for years, because I always thought of him, always longed for him, always looked for him in the wings, and always fought against self-pity ... He had become so indispensable to me that, without him, I no longer took much joy in singing. When he left me, I felt like giving everything up. I had lost my director, my support, my teacher, my maestro. She often performed

1479-619: A salary of $ 450,000, which made her one of the best paid film stars of the time. While both films performed decently at the box office, her vehicles were costly to produce and her public popularity had declined. By this time, Dietrich placed 126th in box office rankings, and American film exhibitors proclaimed her " box office poison " in May 1938, a distinction she shared with Greta Garbo , Joan Crawford , Mae West , Katharine Hepburn , Norma Shearer , Dolores del Río , and Fred Astaire among others. While in London, Dietrich later said in interviews, she

1566-420: A schmaltzy German love song, 'Das Lied ist Aus' or a French one ' La Vie en Rose ', she lends each an air of the aristocrat, yet she never patronises ... A folk song, 'Go 'Way From My Window' has never been sung with such passion, and in her hands ' Where Have All the Flowers Gone? ' is not just another anti-war lament but a tragic accusation against us all." Francis Wyndham offered a more critical appraisal of

1653-589: A simple bouquet of white wildflowers and roses from the French President François Mitterrand . Three medals, including France's Légion d'honneur and the U.S. Medal of Freedom were displayed at the foot of the coffin, military style, for a ceremony symbolizing the sense of duty Dietrich embodied in her career as an actress, and in her personal fight against Nazism. The officiating priest remarked: "Everyone knew her life as an artist of film and song, and everyone knew her tough stands ... She lived like

1740-578: A soldier and earnestly tell him, "Oh, think of something else. I can't possibly talk about that !" American church papers reportedly published stories complaining about this part of Dietrich's act. In 1944, the Morale Operations Branch of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) initiated the Musak project, musical propaganda broadcasts designed to demoralize enemy soldiers. Dietrich, the only performer who

1827-546: A soldier and would like to be buried like a soldier". By coincidence, her picture was used in the Cannes Film Festival poster that year which was pasted up all over Paris. In her will Dietrich expressed the wish to be buried in her birthplace Berlin, near her family. Her body was flown there to fulfill her wish on 16 May 1992. Her coffin was draped in an American flag befitting her status as an American. As her coffin traveled through Berlin bystanders threw flowers onto it,

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1914-402: A song dressed in a man's white tie and kisses another woman, both provocative for the era. The film earned Dietrich her only Academy Award nomination. Morocco was followed by Dishonored (1931) with Victor McLaglen , a major success with Dietrich cast as a Mata Hari -like spy. Shanghai Express (1932) with Anna May Wong , which was dubbed by the critics " Grand Hotel on wheels",

2001-557: A third—the mysterious force of her belief in her own magic. Those who find themselves unable to share this belief tend to blame themselves rather than her." Her use of body-sculpting undergarments, nonsurgical temporary facelifts (tape), expert makeup and wigs, combined with careful stage lighting, helped to preserve Dietrich's glamorous image as she grew older. Dietrich had owned a penthouse in New York City at 993 Park Avenue since 1959. Dietrich's return to West Germany in 1960 for

2088-456: A variety of literature ( Döblin , Berlin Alexanderplatz , 1929), film ( Lang , Metropolis , 1927, Dietrich , Der blaue Engel , 1930), painting ( Grosz ), and music ( Brecht and Weill , The Threepenny Opera , 1928); criticism ( Benjamin ), philosophy/psychology ( Jung ), and fashion. This culture was often considered to be decadent and socially disruptive by rightists . Film

2175-573: The American Film Institute named Dietrich the ninth greatest female screen legend of classic Hollywood cinema . She was born Marie Magdalene Dietrich on 27 December 1901 at Leberstraße 65 in the neighborhood of Rote Insel in Schöneberg , now a district of Berlin . Her mother, Wilhelmina Elisabeth Josefine ( née Felsing), was from an affluent Berlin family who owned a jewelry and clock-making firm. Her father, Louis Erich Otto Dietrich,

2262-506: The Café de Paris in London the following year; her Las Vegas contracts were also renewed. Dietrich employed Burt Bacharach as her musical arranger starting in the mid-1950s; together, they refined her nightclub act into a more ambitious theatrical one-woman show with an expanded repertoire. Her repertoire included songs from her films as well as popular songs of the day. Bacharach's arrangements helped to disguise Dietrich's limited vocal range—she

2349-877: The Medal of Freedom in November 1947, for her "extraordinary record entertaining troops overseas during the war". She said this was her proudest accomplishment. She was also awarded the Légion d'honneur by the French government for her wartime work. While Dietrich never fully regained her former screen profile, she continued performing in motion pictures, including appearances for directors such as Mitchell Leisen in Golden Earrings (1947), Billy Wilder in A Foreign Affair (1948) and Alfred Hitchcock in Stage Fright (1950). Her appearances in

2436-608: The Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921. He served as director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics in Berlin, only leaving after the anti-Semitic Nazi Party rose to power. Physician Magnus Hirschfeld established the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft (Institute for Sexology) in 1919, and it remained open until 1933. Hirschfeld believed that an understanding of homosexuality could be arrived at through science. Hirschfeld

2523-670: The Shady Grove Music Fair in Maryland in 1973 injured her left thigh, necessitating skin grafts to allow the wound to heal. She fractured her right leg in August 1974. Dietrich's show business career largely ended on 29 September 1975, when she fell on the stage and broke a thigh bone during a performance in Sydney , Australia. The following year, her husband, Rudolf Sieber, died of cancer on 24 June 1976. Dietrich's final on-camera film appearance

2610-487: The Weimar Republic , housing construction, which up to that time had been mainly privately financed and profit-oriented, had found itself at a dead end. Inflation was on the up and for citizens on low incomes decent housing was becoming increasingly unaffordable. Consequently, the search was on to find new models for state-initiated housing construction, which could then be implemented with a passion from 1920 on following

2697-559: The film noir of the era (such as the classic M ), explored methods of scientific detection and psychosexual analysis. Apart from the new tolerance for behaviour that was technically still illegal, and viewed by a large part of society as immoral, there were other developments in Berlin culture that shocked many visitors to the city. Thrill-seekers came to the city in search of adventure, and booksellers sold many editions of guide books to Berlin's erotic night entertainment venues. There were an estimated 500 such establishments, that included

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2784-406: The occult , and esoteric religions and off-beat religious practices becoming more mainstream and acceptable to the masses as they entered popular culture. Berlin in the 1920s also proved to be a haven for English writers such as W. H. Auden , Stephen Spender and Christopher Isherwood , who wrote a series of 'Berlin novels' , inspiring the play I Am a Camera , which was later adapted into

2871-717: The violin and became interested in theater and poetry as a teenager. A wrist injury curtailed her dreams of becoming a concert violinist, but by 1922 she had her first job playing violin in a pit orchestra for silent films at a Berlin cinema. She was fired after only four weeks. The earliest professional stage appearances by Dietrich were as a chorus girl on tour with Guido Thielscher's Girl-Kabarett vaudeville -style entertainments and in Rudolf Nelson revues in Berlin. In 1922, Dietrich auditioned unsuccessfully for theatrical director and impresario Max Reinhardt 's drama academy; however, she soon found herself working in his theatres as

2958-565: The "Red" stronghold of Wedding that turned into a violent brawl. "Beer glasses, chairs and tables flew through the hall, and severely injured people were left lying covered with blood on the floor. Despite the injuries, it was a triumph for Goebbels, whose followers beat up about 200 communists and drove them from the hall." The government began printing tremendous amounts of currency to pay reparations ; this caused staggering inflation that destroyed middle-class savings. However, economic expansion resumed after mid-decade, aided by U.S. loans. It

3045-471: The 1920s and 30s, as the life and possibilities of a "chorus girl" became sensationalized in fiction, newspapers, and film, capturing the imaginations of young women seeking independence, adventure, and a happily ever after. Real-life examples of the Cinderella narrative included Lilian Russel and Billie Dove , both of whom began their careers as chorus girls and married into wealth. For women hoping to make

3132-554: The 1920s. During the interwar period high-quality architecture was built on a large scale in Berlin for broad sections of the population, including poorer people. In particular the Berlin Modernism housing estates built before the beginning of National Socialism set standards worldwide and therefore have been added to the UNESCO World-heritage list in 2008. As a result of the economically difficult situation during

3219-507: The 1920s. On stage, she had roles of varying importance in Frank Wedekind 's Pandora's Box , William Shakespeare 's The Taming of the Shrew and A Midsummer Night's Dream , and George Bernard Shaw 's Back to Methuselah and Misalliance . It was in musicals and revues such as Broadway , Es Liegt in der Luft , and Zwei Krawatten , however, that she attracted the most attention. By

3306-562: The 1950s included films such as Fritz Lang 's Rancho Notorious , (1952) and Wilder's Witness for the Prosecution (1957). She appeared in Orson Welles 's Touch of Evil (1958). Dietrich had a kind of platonic love for Welles, whom she considered a genius. Her last substantial film role was in Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) directed by Stanley Kramer ; she also presented the narrative for

3393-469: The 1950s to the 1970s touring the world as a marquee live-show performer. Dietrich was known for her humanitarian efforts during World War II, housing German and French exiles, providing financial support and even advocating their American citizenship. For her work on improving morale on the front lines during the war, she received several honors from the United States, France, Belgium, and Israel. In 1999,

3480-689: The Dietrich sisters, so Dietrich's surname was never von Losch, as has sometimes been claimed. Dietrich's family nicknamed her "Lena", "Lene", or "Leni" ( IPA: [leːnɛ] ). Aged about 11, she combined her first two names to form the name "Marlene." Dietrich attended the Auguste-Viktoria Girls' School from 1907 to 1917 and graduated from the Victoria-Luise-Schule (today Goethe-Gymnasium) in Berlin-Wilmersdorf in 1918. She studied

3567-520: The German magazine Der Spiegel in November 2005, Dietrich's daughter and grandson said Dietrich was politically active during these years. She kept in contact with world leaders by telephone, including Ronald Reagan , Mikhail Gorbachev , and Margaret Thatcher , running up a monthly bill of over US$ 3,000. In 1990, her appeal to save the Babelsberg Studios from closure was broadcast on BBC Radio . She had spoken on television via telephone on

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3654-596: The German village of Belsen throughout the war years, running a cinema frequented by Nazi officers and officials who oversaw the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp . Dietrich's mother remained in Berlin during the war, while Dietrich vouched for her sister and her sister's husband, sheltering them from possible prosecution as Nazi collaborators. However, Dietrich later omitted the existence of her sister and her sister's son from all accounts of her life, completely disowning them and claiming to be an only child. Dietrich received

3741-448: The Nazi regime became a dictatorship in 1933. Artists in Berlin became fused with the city's underground culture as the borders between cabaret and legitimate theatre blurred. Anita Berber , a dancer and actress, became notorious throughout the city and beyond for her erotic performances (as well as her cocaine addiction and erratic behaviour). She was painted by Otto Dix , and socialized in

3828-470: The Nazis who had lived in exile during their rule. The tour was an artistic triumph, but a financial failure. She was left emotionally drained by the hostility she encountered, and she left convinced never to visit again. East Germany , however, received her well. She also undertook a tour of Israel around the same time, which was well-received; she sang some songs in German during her concerts, including, from 1962,

3915-501: The Others dealt with a homosexual man's conflict between his sexuality and social expectations. By the end of the decade, similar material met with little, if any opposition when it was released in Berlin theatres. William Dieterle 's Sex in Chains (1928), and Pabst's Pandora's Box (1929) deal with homosexuality among men and women, respectively, and were not censored. Homosexuality

4002-571: The U.S. entered World War II, and Dietrich became one of the first public figures to help sell war bonds . She toured the U.S. from January 1942 to September 1943 (appearing before 250,000 troops on the Pacific Coast leg of her tour alone) and was reported to have sold more war bonds than any other star. During two extended tours for the USO in 1944 and 1945, she performed for Allied troops in Algeria, Italy,

4089-524: The UK, France and Heerlen in the Netherlands, then entered Germany with Generals James M. Gavin and George S. Patton . When asked why she had done this, in spite of the obvious danger of being within a few kilometers of German lines, she replied, " aus Anstand "—"out of decency". Wilder later remarked that she was at the front lines more than Dwight Eisenhower . Her revue, with Danny Thomas as her opening act for

4176-508: The United States under contract to Paramount Pictures , the U.S. film distributor of The Blue Angel . The studio sought to market Dietrich as a German answer to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer 's Swedish star Greta Garbo . Sternberg welcomed her with gifts, including a green Rolls-Royce Phantom II . The car later appeared in their first U.S. film Morocco . Dietrich starred in six films directed by von Sternberg at Paramount between 1930 and 1935. Von Sternberg worked effectively with Dietrich to create

4263-471: The autumn of 1926 and had only been in charge a week before organizing a march through a communist -sympathizing area that devolved into a street riot. The communists, who adopted the motto "Beat the fascists wherever you encounter them!" had their own paramilitary organization called the Roter Frontkämpferbund to battle the Nazis' Sturmabteilung (SA). In February 1927 the Nazis held a meeting in

4350-510: The city, beginning as petty thefts and other crimes linked to the need to survive in the war's aftermath. Berlin eventually acquired a reputation as a hub of drug dealing (cocaine, heroin, tranquilizers) and the black market. The police identified 62 organized criminal gangs in Berlin, called Ringvereine . The German public also became fascinated with reports of homicides, especially " lust murders " or Lustmord . Publishers met this demand with inexpensive criminal novels called Krimi , which like

4437-438: The cover of rock band Queen 's album Queen II which was integrated into the music video of their single " Bohemian Rhapsody ". His signature use of light and shadow, including the impact of light passed through a veil or slatted window blinds, combined with the scrupulous attention to set design and costumes makes the films they made together among cinema's most visually stylish. Critics still vigorously debate how much of

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4524-636: The cowboy saloon girl, Frenchie, in the western-comedy Destry Rides Again (1939), with James Stewart . This was a significantly less well paid role than she had been accustomed to. The bawdy role revived her career and " See What the Boys in the Back Room Will Have ", a song she introduced in the film, became a hit when she recorded it for Decca. She played similar types in Seven Sinners (1940) and The Spoilers (1942), both with John Wayne . Dietrich

4611-450: The creation of Greater Berlin and the accompanying reform of local and regional government. The requirements for the type of flats to be built and the facilities they were to have were clearly defined, and the city was divided into different building zones. Following some basic ideas of the Garden city movement two- to three-storey housing estates that were well integrated into the landscape of

4698-421: The credit belonged to von Sternberg and how much to Dietrich, but most would agree that neither consistently reached such heights again after Paramount fired von Sternberg and the two ceased working together. The collaboration of one actress and director creating seven films is still unmatched in motion pictures, with the possible exception of Katharine Hepburn and George Cukor , who made ten films together over

4785-590: The documentary Black Fox: The Rise and Fall of Adolf Hitler , which won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 1962. She cut the ceremonial ribbon to celebrate the grand opening of the Paris Theater in New York City in 1948. From the early 1950s until the mid-1970s, Dietrich worked almost exclusively as a cabaret artist, performing live in large theatres in major cities worldwide. In 1953, Dietrich

4872-463: The era's highest-paid actresses. Throughout World War II , she was a high-profile entertainer in the United States. Although she delivered notable performances in several post-war films, including Billy Wilder 's A Foreign Affair (1948), Alfred Hitchcock 's Stage Fright (1950), Billy Wilder's Witness for the Prosecution (1957), Orson Welles 's Touch of Evil (1958), and Stanley Kramer 's Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), she spent most of

4959-492: The face of competition from burlesque and strip clubs . Some popular chorus lines found their way onto the golden screen. One group in particular was Samuel Goldwyn 's dancers, the Goldwyn Girls . Popping up in numerous MGM productions, the famous Goldwyn Girls included stars who went on to find great success on-screen like Lucille Ball , Virginia Mayo , and Jane Wyman . To this day, some live performance venues keep

5046-546: The film and thereafter took credit for having "discovered" Dietrich. The film introduced Dietrich's signature song " Falling in Love Again ", which she recorded for Electrola . She made further recordings in the 1930s for Polydor and Decca Records . In 1930, on the strength of The Blue Angel's international success, and with encouragement and promotion from Josef von Sternberg, who was established in Hollywood, Dietrich moved to

5133-440: The film was scrapped several weeks into production due to script problems, scheduling confusion and the studio's decision to fire the producer Ernst Lubitsch. Extravagant offers lured Dietrich away from Paramount to make her first color film The Garden of Allah (1936) for independent producer David O. Selznick , for which she received $ 200,000, and to Britain for Alexander Korda's production, Knight Without Armour (1937), at

5220-404: The fine arts. German Expressionism had begun before World War I and continued to have a strong influence throughout the 1920s, although artists were increasingly likely to position themselves in opposition to expressionist tendencies as the decade went on. A sophisticated, innovative culture developed in and around Berlin, including highly developed architecture and design ( Bauhaus , 1919–33);

5307-452: The first part of her show in one of her body-hugging dresses and a swansdown coat, and change to top hat and tails for the second half of the performance. This allowed her to sing songs usually associated with male singers, like " One for My Baby " and " I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face ". "She ... transcends her material," according to Peter Bogdanovich . "Whether it's a flighty old tune like ' I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Baby ' ...

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5394-452: The first tour, included songs from her films, performances on her musical saw (a skill taught to her by Igo Sym that she had originally acquired for stage appearances in Berlin in the 1920s) and a " mindreading " act that her friend Orson Welles had taught her for his Mercury Wonder Show . Dietrich would inform the audience that she could read minds and ask them to concentrate on whatever came into their minds. Then she would walk over to

5481-399: The image of a glamorous and mysterious femme fatale . He encouraged her to lose weight and coached her intensively as an actress. She willingly followed his, sometimes imperious, direction in a way that a number of other performers resisted. In Morocco (1930) with Gary Cooper , Dietrich was again cast as a cabaret singer. The film is best remembered for the sequence in which she performs

5568-466: The late 1860s, the scandalous trend found its way to the United States with a more conservative trend of chorus lines hitting England, including Tiller Girls and Gaiety Girls . Chorus lines throughout Western Europe and the United States largely owned the stages of the early twentieth century. Chorus line dancers in early Broadway musicals and revues were referred to by slang terms such as ponies , gypsies and twirlies . Chorus lines hit vogue in

5655-579: The late 1920s, Dietrich was also playing sizable parts on screen, including roles in Café Elektric (1927), I Kiss Your Hand, Madame (1928), and The Ship of Lost Souls (1929). In 1929, Dietrich landed her breakthrough role of Lola Lola, a cabaret singer who caused the downfall of a hitherto respectable schoolmaster (played by Emil Jannings ), in the UFA production of The Blue Angel (1930) shot at Babelsberg film studios . Josef von Sternberg directed

5742-548: The most striking women for the chorus line. Florenz Ziegfeld Jr received the reputation of being able to objectively define and select exceptionally beautiful women. Ziegfeld's standards, then, soon became the ideal, and publications and news articles circulated with headlines like, "How I pick my Beauties" and "Picking out pretty girls for the stage". Decades later, chorus lines of a more erotic flavor found huge success on America's west coast in Las Vegas, before declining again in

5829-625: The occasion of the fall of the Berlin Wall the previous year. Also in spring 1990, she spoke on French forces radio station addressing her fellow Berliners in Germany about her then most recent conversation with French president Mitterrand regarding his promise to her that Berlin would be the capital city of a united Germany later on—at that point in time, a quite appealing but non-official French presidential statement. On 6 May 1992, Dietrich died of kidney failure at her flat in Paris at age 90. Her funeral

5916-409: The phenomenon of Dietrich in concert. He wrote in 1964: "What she does is neither difficult nor diverting, but the fact that she does it at all fills the onlookers with wonder ... It takes two to make a conjuring trick: the illusionist's sleight of hand and the stooge's desire to be deceived. To these necessary elements (her own technical competence and her audience's sentimentality) Marlene Dietrich adds

6003-729: The result. The show was broadcast in the UK on the BBC and in the U.S. on CBS in January 1973. Dietrich continued with a busy performance schedule until September 1975. When Clive Hirschhorn asked her why she continued to perform, she said, "Do you think this is glamorous? That this is a great life, and that I do it for my health? Well, it isn't. It's hard work. And who would work if they didn't have to?" In her 60s and 70s, Dietrich's health declined: she survived cervical cancer in 1965 and suffered from poor circulation in her legs. Dietrich became increasingly dependent on painkillers and alcohol. A stage fall at

6090-466: The same circles as Klaus Mann . 1920s Berlin was a city of many social contrasts. While a large part of the population continued to struggle with high unemployment and deprivations in the aftermath of World War I, the upper class of society, and a growing middle class, gradually rediscovered prosperity and turned Berlin into a cosmopolitan city. Cinema in Weimar culture did not shy away from controversial topics, but dealt with them explicitly. Diary of

6177-508: The suburbs of the city were planned. The first large estate of this type with more than 2,000 residential units was the so-called Hufeisensiedlung (Horseshoe Estate) designed by Bruno Taut in Berlin, which introduced a new type of high quality housing and became a prominent example for the use of colors in architecture. Prostitution rose in Berlin and elsewhere in the areas of Europe left ravaged by World War I. This means of survival for desperate women, and sometimes men, became normalized to

6264-497: Was a contralto —and allowed her to perform her songs to maximum dramatic effect; together, they recorded four albums and several singles between 1957 and 1964. In a TV interview in 1971, she credited Bacharach with giving her the "inspiration" to perform during those years. Bacharach then felt he needed to devote his time fully to songwriting. But she had also come to rely on him in order to perform, and wrote about his leaving in her memoir: From that fateful day on, I have worked like

6351-504: Was a requiem mass conducted at the Roman Catholic church of La Madeleine in Paris on 14 May 1992. Dietrich's funeral service was attended by approximately 1,500 mourners in the church itself—including ambassadors from Germany, Russia, the US, the UK, and other countries—with thousands more outside. Her closed coffin, draped in the French flag, rested beneath the altar and was adorned with

6438-640: Was a brief appearance in Just a Gigolo (1978), starring David Bowie and directed by David Hemmings , in which she sang the title song. Dietrich withdrew to her apartment at 12 Avenue Montaigne in Paris . She spent the final 13 years of her life mostly bedridden, allowing only a select few—including family and employees—to enter the apartment. During this time, she was a prolific letter-writer and phone-caller. Her autobiography Nehmt nur mein Leben ( Take Just My Life ),

6525-566: Was a police lieutenant. Dietrich had one sibling, Elisabeth (5 February 1900 – 8 May 1973). Dietrich's father was born on 26 August 1867 and died in August 1908. His best friend, Eduard von Losch, an aristocratic first lieutenant in the Grenadiers , courted Wilhelmina and married her in 1914, but he died in July 1916 from injuries sustained during the First World War. Von Losch never officially adopted

6612-454: Was a vocal advocate for homosexual , bisexual , and transgender legal rights for men and women, repeatedly petitioning parliament for legal changes. His Institute also included a museum. Politically, Berlin was seen as a left wing stronghold, with the Nazis calling it "the reddest city [in Europe] after Moscow." Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels became his party's " Gauleiter " for Berlin in

6699-414: Was also documented among soldiers at the front. Soldiers returning to Berlin at the end of the War had a different attitude towards their own sexual behaviour than they had a few years previously. Prostitution was frowned on by respectable Berliners, but it continued to the point of becoming entrenched in the city's underground economy and culture. Crime in general developed in parallel with prostitution in

6786-402: Was also present more tangentially in other films from the period. The following significant films about 1920s Berlin show the metropolis between 1920 and 1933: Chorus line A chorus line is a large group of dancers who together perform synchronized routines, usually in musical theatre . Sometimes, singing is also performed. While synchronized dancing indicative of a chorus line

6873-485: Was another major success, earning $ 1.5 million in worldwide rentals. Dietrich and von Sternberg again collaborated on the romance Blonde Venus (1932) with Cary Grant . Dietrich worked without von Sternberg for the first time in three years in the romantic drama Song of Songs (1933), playing a naïve German peasant, under the direction of Rouben Mamoulian . Dietrich and Sternberg's last two films, The Scarlet Empress (1934) with John Davis Lodge and The Devil Is

6960-632: Was approached by Nazi Party officials and offered lucrative contracts, should she agree to return to be a foremost film star in Nazi Germany . She refused their offers and applied for U.S. citizenship in 1937. She returned to Paramount to make Angel (1937), another romantic comedy directed by Ernst Lubitsch ; the film was poorly received, leading Paramount to buy out the remainder of Dietrich's contract. Dietrich, with encouragement from Josef von Sternberg , accepted producer Joe Pasternak 's offer to play against type in her first film in two years: that of

7047-418: Was known to have strong political convictions and the mind to speak them. In the late 1930s, Dietrich created a fund with Billy Wilder and several other exiles to help Jews and dissidents escape from Germany. In 1937, her entire salary for Knight Without Armor ($ 450,000) was put into escrow to help the refugees. In 1939, she became an American citizen and renounced her German citizenship. In December 1941,

7134-576: Was made aware that her recordings would be for OSS use, recorded a number of songs in German for the project, including " Lili Marleen ", a favorite of soldiers on both sides of the conflict. Major General William J. Donovan , head of the OSS, wrote to Dietrich, "I am personally deeply grateful for your generosity in making these recordings for us." At the war's end in Europe, Dietrich reunited with her sister Elisabeth and her sister's husband and son. They had resided in

7221-409: Was making huge technical and artistic strides during this period of time in Berlin, and gave rise to the influential movement called German Expressionism . " Talkies ", the sound films, were also becoming more popular with the general public across Europe, and Berlin was producing many of them. The so-called mystical arts also experienced a revival during this time-period in Berlin, with astrology ,

7308-515: Was offered $ 30,000 per week to appear live at the Sahara Hotel on the Las Vegas Strip. The show was short, consisting only of a few songs associated with her. Her daringly sheer "nude dress"—a heavily beaded evening gown of silk soufflé, which gave the illusion of transparency—designed by Jean Louis , attracted a lot of publicity. This engagement was so successful that she was signed to appear at

7395-399: Was published in 1979. In 1982, Dietrich agreed to participate in a documentary film about her life, Marlene (1984), but refused to be filmed. The film's director is her former co-star from Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), Maximilian Schell , and even with that familiarity, he was still only allowed to record her voice. Schell used his interviews with her as the basis for the film, set to

7482-472: Was then that culture blossomed especially. The heyday of Berlin began in the mid-1920s when it was the most industrialized city of the Continent . Tempelhof Airport was opened in 1923 and a start was made on S-Bahn electrification from 1924 onwards. Berlin was also the second biggest inland harbor of Germany; all of this infrastructure was needed to transport and feed the over 4 million Berliners throughout

7569-526: Was vogue during the first half of the 20th century, modern theatre uses the terms " ensemble " and " chorus " to indicate all supporting players in a stage production . In the mid-1800s, chorus lines of cartwheeling, synchronized dancing can-can "girls" began sprouting up throughout Paris with even edgier, more erotic cabarets found in venues like the Moulin Rouge , Le Lido , and the Folies Bergẻre . By

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