1 00:00:02,720 --> 00:00:06,680 Speaker 1: In the early days of Hollywood's Golden Age, German immigrant 2 00:00:06,840 --> 00:00:11,840 Speaker 1: Marlena Dietrich electrified audiences around the world. She defied the 3 00:00:11,880 --> 00:00:15,760 Speaker 1: expectations of traditional women's roles in her films and in 4 00:00:15,840 --> 00:00:19,320 Speaker 1: her life. But it wasn't her acting that led Adolf 5 00:00:19,440 --> 00:00:23,320 Speaker 1: Hitler to label her a traitor to the quote unquote fatherland. 6 00:00:23,760 --> 00:00:28,000 Speaker 1: It was her patriotic support for her adopted homeland. When 7 00:00:28,000 --> 00:00:31,680 Speaker 1: the United States went to war, so did Marlena Dietrich. 8 00:00:32,280 --> 00:00:35,560 Speaker 1: It was the beginning of a lifelong dedication to American 9 00:00:35,640 --> 00:00:40,720 Speaker 1: soldiers that never wavered. I hope you enjoy hearing her story, 10 00:00:41,280 --> 00:00:45,160 Speaker 1: which I recorded for the audio version of my Mobituaries book. 11 00:00:53,400 --> 00:00:59,080 Speaker 1: Marlena Dietrich was one hundred percent. In nine two, the 12 00:00:59,160 --> 00:01:03,760 Speaker 1: German borns Green legend and internationally known cabaret artist, was 13 00:01:03,800 --> 00:01:07,839 Speaker 1: in London rehearsing for a concert. She was seventy years old. 14 00:01:08,600 --> 00:01:12,600 Speaker 1: As with everything related to her image, Dietrich knew exactly 15 00:01:12,720 --> 00:01:16,959 Speaker 1: how she wanted to be lighted. Her trusted longtime lighting designer, 16 00:01:17,040 --> 00:01:20,360 Speaker 1: Joe Davis, was on hand to make sure her expectations 17 00:01:20,400 --> 00:01:24,600 Speaker 1: were met. Dietrich's twenty two year old grandson, Peter Reeva 18 00:01:24,959 --> 00:01:29,960 Speaker 1: was also there. He remembers the scene vividly. I'm standing 19 00:01:30,000 --> 00:01:33,080 Speaker 1: next to her on the London stage with Joe Davis 20 00:01:33,120 --> 00:01:35,000 Speaker 1: and way up in the clouds at the top of 21 00:01:35,000 --> 00:01:37,960 Speaker 1: the theater. There's a guy pointing a spotlight on her face. 22 00:01:38,440 --> 00:01:40,840 Speaker 1: She kept telling him, waving a hand where to move 23 00:01:40,840 --> 00:01:43,600 Speaker 1: the light. The man called down. I think that's perfect, 24 00:01:43,600 --> 00:01:47,800 Speaker 1: Miss Dietrich. Joe Davis called up. Do exactly as Miss 25 00:01:47,800 --> 00:01:51,840 Speaker 1: Dietrich says. Marlena gestured again a few times and then 26 00:01:51,880 --> 00:01:55,360 Speaker 1: turned to Joe and said that's fine. So I asked 27 00:01:55,440 --> 00:01:59,400 Speaker 1: Joe how she knew it was fine. His reply, when 28 00:01:59,400 --> 00:02:02,560 Speaker 1: it begins to burn her eyes, she knows it is 29 00:02:02,600 --> 00:02:07,480 Speaker 1: a dead center. Like Elizabeth Taylor, Marlena Dietrich is today 30 00:02:07,520 --> 00:02:11,600 Speaker 1: remembered by many for her beauty, but Dietrich's persona cool, 31 00:02:11,880 --> 00:02:16,400 Speaker 1: husky voiced at times androgynous, was always more daring. As 32 00:02:16,440 --> 00:02:20,480 Speaker 1: the theater critic Kenneth Tynan wrote, her masculinity appeals to 33 00:02:20,480 --> 00:02:24,640 Speaker 1: women and her sexuality to men. In the Western destri 34 00:02:24,840 --> 00:02:28,200 Speaker 1: Rides again, Dietrich gets into a bar fight, a real 35 00:02:28,320 --> 00:02:31,680 Speaker 1: knockdown drag out with another woman rolling around the floor 36 00:02:31,720 --> 00:02:34,519 Speaker 1: before Jimmy Stewart dumps a bucket of water on both 37 00:02:34,560 --> 00:02:38,320 Speaker 1: of them, then Dietrich attacks him with a bottle, a chair, 38 00:02:38,400 --> 00:02:42,000 Speaker 1: and her fists. Incidentally, this is the movie where she 39 00:02:42,040 --> 00:02:45,240 Speaker 1: sings Boys in the back Room brilliantly parodied by Madeleine 40 00:02:45,280 --> 00:02:49,519 Speaker 1: Khan as I'm Tired in Blazing Saddles. Turns out Dietrich 41 00:02:49,680 --> 00:02:53,119 Speaker 1: wasn't afraid of a good fight in real life. Destric 42 00:02:53,200 --> 00:02:57,800 Speaker 1: came out in ninety nine, the year Hitler's Germany invaded Poland, 43 00:02:58,000 --> 00:03:01,880 Speaker 1: commencing World War Two, and Dietrich stepped right into the 44 00:03:01,880 --> 00:03:05,400 Speaker 1: breach to help her new beloved homeland, the United States 45 00:03:05,400 --> 00:03:09,320 Speaker 1: of America, defeat the country of her birth. I don't 46 00:03:09,360 --> 00:03:12,160 Speaker 1: think she was ever happier, more fulfilled than when she 47 00:03:12,280 --> 00:03:16,000 Speaker 1: was serving the Allied troops, Peter Reeva told me. Perhaps 48 00:03:16,040 --> 00:03:20,480 Speaker 1: that's because she knew well what was at stake. Born 49 00:03:20,560 --> 00:03:26,000 Speaker 1: in Berlin as Marie Magdalena Dietrich, Dietrich lost her father 50 00:03:26,080 --> 00:03:29,080 Speaker 1: when she was just five. While still a girl, she 51 00:03:29,200 --> 00:03:32,040 Speaker 1: came up with the name Marlena by fusing her first 52 00:03:32,080 --> 00:03:36,400 Speaker 1: and second names. It was her first act of self creation. 53 00:03:37,280 --> 00:03:40,280 Speaker 1: She embarked on a career in entertainment as a chorus 54 00:03:40,320 --> 00:03:43,320 Speaker 1: girl in Berlin reviews, and then as an actress in 55 00:03:43,360 --> 00:03:47,280 Speaker 1: the city's vibrant cinema scene. Her breakout performance came as 56 00:03:47,320 --> 00:03:52,160 Speaker 1: a cabaret singer in Joseph von Sternberg's Blue Angel. Immediately, 57 00:03:52,200 --> 00:03:56,520 Speaker 1: Paramount Studios came calling, and Dietrich moved to Hollywood to 58 00:03:56,600 --> 00:03:58,880 Speaker 1: star in a series of six films in the early 59 00:03:58,960 --> 00:04:03,480 Speaker 1: nineteen thirties, all directed by Sternberg. She was usually cast 60 00:04:03,560 --> 00:04:06,240 Speaker 1: in the role of a vamp or femme fatale, but 61 00:04:06,400 --> 00:04:10,800 Speaker 1: fast won a reputation for breaking the rules. In n three, 62 00:04:10,840 --> 00:04:13,840 Speaker 1: while sailing from New York to France, she received a 63 00:04:13,880 --> 00:04:17,279 Speaker 1: warning from Paris's chief of police that should she arrive 64 00:04:17,320 --> 00:04:20,600 Speaker 1: in the city wearing men's trousers, she would be arrested, 65 00:04:21,040 --> 00:04:24,039 Speaker 1: and so naturally, she made sure to wear a white 66 00:04:24,040 --> 00:04:27,479 Speaker 1: pant suit when she disembarked. The Paris papers hailed it 67 00:04:27,520 --> 00:04:30,320 Speaker 1: as a revolution in fashion, and the next day the 68 00:04:30,400 --> 00:04:33,200 Speaker 1: chief of police showed up with a bracelet inscribed with 69 00:04:33,279 --> 00:04:38,320 Speaker 1: an apology. During the same years that Dietrich was conquering Hollywood, 70 00:04:38,600 --> 00:04:42,360 Speaker 1: Adolf Hitler was coming to power back in Germany. Dietrich 71 00:04:42,440 --> 00:04:46,680 Speaker 1: watched political developments in her home country warily. Although the 72 00:04:46,680 --> 00:04:50,880 Speaker 1: German government had banned Blue Angel in ninety three, Sternberg 73 00:04:50,960 --> 00:04:54,800 Speaker 1: was Jewish. Hitler loved the film. He wanted Dietrich to 74 00:04:54,839 --> 00:04:59,200 Speaker 1: return to Germany to continue her career. As her grandson 75 00:04:59,279 --> 00:05:03,080 Speaker 1: Peter Riva told me more, Lena was staunchly opposed to 76 00:05:03,200 --> 00:05:06,800 Speaker 1: autocrats and fascists. When she got to that position of 77 00:05:06,839 --> 00:05:10,279 Speaker 1: security and fame, she took every opportunity she could to 78 00:05:10,360 --> 00:05:14,599 Speaker 1: oppose the Nazis. German foreign minister von Ribbentroff came to 79 00:05:14,680 --> 00:05:18,400 Speaker 1: visit her in seven at the Lancaster Hotel in Paris, 80 00:05:18,720 --> 00:05:23,120 Speaker 1: bearing a mother's cross to woo Marlena back to Germany. 81 00:05:23,440 --> 00:05:26,120 Speaker 1: It would have essentially made her Queen of Germany with 82 00:05:26,200 --> 00:05:29,000 Speaker 1: the promise of a care free life. She said no 83 00:05:29,200 --> 00:05:32,960 Speaker 1: then and many other times. Hitler never asked again, just 84 00:05:33,080 --> 00:05:37,800 Speaker 1: labeled her a traitor to the fatherland. Instead, Dietrich worked 85 00:05:37,839 --> 00:05:42,200 Speaker 1: with Jewish emigrade director Billy Wilder. Jews had been leaving 86 00:05:42,240 --> 00:05:46,040 Speaker 1: Germany since the Nazis came to power in three, but 87 00:05:46,120 --> 00:05:52,280 Speaker 1: in eight, with Crystal Knocked a nationwide program against Jewish homes, businesses, 88 00:05:52,400 --> 00:05:57,760 Speaker 1: synagogues and schools, the refugee problem became a crisis, Dietrich 89 00:05:57,800 --> 00:06:01,520 Speaker 1: and Wilder started a fund to spawn her refugees, and 90 00:06:01,640 --> 00:06:06,000 Speaker 1: Dietrich s grote her entire salary from Seven's Night Without 91 00:06:06,160 --> 00:06:09,119 Speaker 1: Armor at four hundred and fifty thousand dollars per film. 92 00:06:09,400 --> 00:06:12,719 Speaker 1: She was one of Hollywood's highest paid stars to support 93 00:06:12,760 --> 00:06:17,240 Speaker 1: the cause. And then in ninety nine, this woman, who 94 00:06:17,320 --> 00:06:21,480 Speaker 1: was culturally German to the core, publicly renounced her home 95 00:06:21,520 --> 00:06:25,520 Speaker 1: country and became an American citizen. She made sure the 96 00:06:25,560 --> 00:06:28,960 Speaker 1: cameras were there when she was sworn in. She wanted 97 00:06:28,960 --> 00:06:32,159 Speaker 1: the oath of American citizenship to be captured on film, 98 00:06:32,360 --> 00:06:35,200 Speaker 1: says Riva, in order to send a message to the 99 00:06:35,279 --> 00:06:38,440 Speaker 1: Third Reich and good Germans for them to know she 100 00:06:38,560 --> 00:06:42,599 Speaker 1: was taking that stand. This didn't go over well back home. 101 00:06:43,240 --> 00:06:46,600 Speaker 1: The Nazi newspaper Dark Stormer wrote that she had been 102 00:06:46,640 --> 00:06:49,920 Speaker 1: corrupted from her years spent among the Jews of Hollywood, 103 00:06:50,279 --> 00:06:55,280 Speaker 1: calling her decision a betrayal of the fatherland. Dietrich didn't care, 104 00:06:55,760 --> 00:06:58,840 Speaker 1: but the bombing of Pearl Harbor she went further. In 105 00:06:59,680 --> 00:07:03,120 Speaker 1: two she traveled throughout the United States to promote the 106 00:07:03,160 --> 00:07:06,919 Speaker 1: purchase of war bonds. Some estimates credit her with raising 107 00:07:06,960 --> 00:07:10,560 Speaker 1: a million dollars in sales. I'm delighted to have the 108 00:07:10,600 --> 00:07:13,320 Speaker 1: opportunity to help my country in any way I can, 109 00:07:13,600 --> 00:07:16,120 Speaker 1: she told The New York Times that year. I consider 110 00:07:16,160 --> 00:07:19,760 Speaker 1: it a privilege, not a duty. She also supported the 111 00:07:19,800 --> 00:07:24,960 Speaker 1: government's wartime propaganda, which used German language radio to demoralize 112 00:07:25,000 --> 00:07:30,000 Speaker 1: the Nazi troops, but Dietrich's greatest efforts were for the USO. 113 00:07:30,760 --> 00:07:34,200 Speaker 1: In ninety four and nineteen forty five, she volunteered for 114 00:07:34,360 --> 00:07:40,240 Speaker 1: multiple tours entertaining troops and prisoners of war in Algeria, Italy, France, 115 00:07:40,280 --> 00:07:44,080 Speaker 1: and Germany for eighteen straight months, with more time at 116 00:07:44,080 --> 00:07:48,640 Speaker 1: the front, Billy Wilder said, than General Eisenhower. She earned 117 00:07:48,680 --> 00:07:52,680 Speaker 1: a reputation for abiding the rough conditions a lack of electricity, 118 00:07:52,760 --> 00:07:55,920 Speaker 1: sleeping in tents, and for being willing to tour near 119 00:07:56,040 --> 00:07:58,760 Speaker 1: enemy lines. The closer the better, as far as a 120 00:07:58,800 --> 00:08:03,640 Speaker 1: Dietrich was concerned. Riva recalls Danny Thomas, who was a 121 00:08:03,640 --> 00:08:06,520 Speaker 1: young comic at the time touring with Dietrich, once said 122 00:08:06,560 --> 00:08:09,960 Speaker 1: to me, your grandmother, laughing and shaking his head. She 123 00:08:10,080 --> 00:08:12,960 Speaker 1: tried to get us killed. We were performing our act 124 00:08:13,000 --> 00:08:16,760 Speaker 1: for five guys in a foxhole with Howard Sirs. Firing overhead. 125 00:08:18,000 --> 00:08:21,040 Speaker 1: She performed for as many as half a million troops, 126 00:08:21,120 --> 00:08:24,280 Speaker 1: singing and even playing the saw, which she bowed like 127 00:08:24,320 --> 00:08:27,560 Speaker 1: a violin. As a teenager, she had aspired to be 128 00:08:27,600 --> 00:08:31,360 Speaker 1: a concert violinist, until a severe wrist injury dashed her hopes. 129 00:08:31,920 --> 00:08:34,800 Speaker 1: She did some comic bits too. In one act, she 130 00:08:34,920 --> 00:08:37,520 Speaker 1: purported to be a mind reader. She would call a 131 00:08:37,600 --> 00:08:40,400 Speaker 1: serviceman up on stage and state that she would tell 132 00:08:40,440 --> 00:08:43,240 Speaker 1: the audience his thoughts. After a sly look at the 133 00:08:43,280 --> 00:08:46,320 Speaker 1: young man, she'd quip, oh, think of something else. I 134 00:08:46,360 --> 00:08:50,600 Speaker 1: can't talk about that. Actually, I think Dietrich wanted to 135 00:08:50,640 --> 00:08:53,120 Speaker 1: be a soldier, and you couldn't very well be a soldier, 136 00:08:53,200 --> 00:08:56,360 Speaker 1: so she fought her way, said her daughter, Maria Riva, 137 00:08:56,880 --> 00:09:02,199 Speaker 1: mother of Peter, in British documentary re Maria Riva's acclaimed 138 00:09:03,120 --> 00:09:06,520 Speaker 1: two memoir described Dietrich as not so much a mother 139 00:09:06,880 --> 00:09:09,600 Speaker 1: as a queen with her family as court. But on 140 00:09:09,679 --> 00:09:13,800 Speaker 1: Dietrich's contributions to the war effort, Maria Riva is unstinting. 141 00:09:14,360 --> 00:09:18,400 Speaker 1: She did a magnificent job. Certainly when she was finally overseas, 142 00:09:18,520 --> 00:09:21,240 Speaker 1: she practically was a soldier. She never said I was 143 00:09:21,280 --> 00:09:24,440 Speaker 1: with the U. S O. She was in the army. 144 00:09:25,120 --> 00:09:29,680 Speaker 1: One of Dietrich's more famous paramours, the actor Douglas Fairbanks Jr. 145 00:09:30,000 --> 00:09:33,520 Speaker 1: Claimed that she entertained the idea of helping the Allied 146 00:09:33,600 --> 00:09:38,439 Speaker 1: cause in an even grander way by killing Hitler. Dietrich 147 00:09:38,480 --> 00:09:43,679 Speaker 1: biographer Charlotte Chandler quotes Fairbanks is saying that Dietrich toyed 148 00:09:43,679 --> 00:09:47,439 Speaker 1: with plans to seduce and then assassinate the German leader 149 00:09:48,040 --> 00:09:50,760 Speaker 1: back in the thirties, when Hitler still held out hopes 150 00:09:50,840 --> 00:09:54,040 Speaker 1: that Dietrich would return to Germany more. Lena suggested to 151 00:09:54,080 --> 00:09:57,400 Speaker 1: Fairbanks that she might accept the offer on the condition 152 00:09:57,440 --> 00:09:59,920 Speaker 1: that she be granted a private audience with the few 153 00:10:00,000 --> 00:10:04,360 Speaker 1: her Her plan was to gush about Hitler, soften him up, 154 00:10:04,559 --> 00:10:09,240 Speaker 1: and then strike the fatal blow. When Fairbanks expressed skepticism 155 00:10:09,280 --> 00:10:12,240 Speaker 1: about the plan, surely she would be searched before being 156 00:10:12,280 --> 00:10:15,160 Speaker 1: allowed to meet privately with Hitler, she countered that she 157 00:10:15,200 --> 00:10:18,160 Speaker 1: would subject herself to a strip search and use a 158 00:10:18,200 --> 00:10:22,520 Speaker 1: poisoned hairpin as the lethal weapon. She always felt a 159 00:10:22,559 --> 00:10:26,720 Speaker 1: responsibility to do one percent, says Peter Riva. If you 160 00:10:26,800 --> 00:10:30,079 Speaker 1: detest Hitler enough, you're going to give that one percent 161 00:10:30,160 --> 00:10:34,360 Speaker 1: of your effort. After the war, the United States honored 162 00:10:34,400 --> 00:10:38,800 Speaker 1: its adopted citizen with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In Ye, 163 00:10:39,400 --> 00:10:42,480 Speaker 1: France named her a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor 164 00:10:42,880 --> 00:10:46,240 Speaker 1: Belgium a Knight of the Order of Leopold. In nine 165 00:10:46,520 --> 00:10:49,640 Speaker 1: sixty five, she became the first German and the first 166 00:10:49,679 --> 00:10:52,880 Speaker 1: woman to receive the Medallion of Valor from the State 167 00:10:52,880 --> 00:10:56,200 Speaker 1: of Israel. She was also honored by the Jewish veterans 168 00:10:56,200 --> 00:10:59,920 Speaker 1: of World War Two, but not everyone honored her. When 169 00:11:00,000 --> 00:11:04,200 Speaker 1: she returned to Germany in nine sixty she encountered threats, protests, 170 00:11:04,559 --> 00:11:08,040 Speaker 1: and chance of Marlena go home from those who still 171 00:11:08,080 --> 00:11:11,240 Speaker 1: felt she had betrayed the nation. For the rest of 172 00:11:11,240 --> 00:11:13,720 Speaker 1: her life, she shared a bond with the young men 173 00:11:13,840 --> 00:11:18,240 Speaker 1: alongside whom she'd served. They were her boys, says Peter Va. 174 00:11:18,679 --> 00:11:22,040 Speaker 1: She felt responsible for them, She felt grateful to them. 175 00:11:22,520 --> 00:11:25,479 Speaker 1: When she sang in Vegas the first time in Ninette 176 00:11:25,559 --> 00:11:29,000 Speaker 1: at the Sahara, many of her boys wore uniforms. She 177 00:11:29,160 --> 00:11:32,439 Speaker 1: called us the next morning, crying, happy that her boys 178 00:11:32,480 --> 00:11:35,360 Speaker 1: remembered and that she was able to thank them once more. 179 00:11:35,880 --> 00:11:40,679 Speaker 1: Every time I saw her perform London, Switzerland, Paris, New York, Jersey, 180 00:11:41,040 --> 00:11:43,640 Speaker 1: it was always the same. She'd ask if any of 181 00:11:43,679 --> 00:11:47,040 Speaker 1: her boys were in the audience. They'd whoop and holler. 182 00:11:47,400 --> 00:11:51,720 Speaker 1: She'd smile, flash a leg and sing provocatively. They were 183 00:11:51,760 --> 00:11:56,440 Speaker 1: hers and she was theirs. She knew their sacrifice, never forgot. 184 00:11:57,200 --> 00:12:00,559 Speaker 1: She loved this country, says Peter Riva. She did loved 185 00:12:00,600 --> 00:12:03,640 Speaker 1: the spirit of can do. When the first space shuttle 186 00:12:03,640 --> 00:12:06,559 Speaker 1: flew in nineteen eight one, she called everyone she knew 187 00:12:06,559 --> 00:12:09,319 Speaker 1: to turn on the TV and watch. It wasn't about 188 00:12:09,320 --> 00:12:13,520 Speaker 1: space travel, it was about the American ability to reach out, explore, 189 00:12:13,840 --> 00:12:19,240 Speaker 1: improve try. She loved that Americans built their lives on trying, 190 00:12:19,600 --> 00:12:24,319 Speaker 1: persevering the real immigrant spirit, and she was an immigrant. 191 00:12:25,640 --> 00:12:29,760 Speaker 1: This special episode of the Mobituaries podcast is also included 192 00:12:29,800 --> 00:12:33,560 Speaker 1: in the audio book edition of Mobituaries. While you just 193 00:12:33,679 --> 00:12:37,800 Speaker 1: heard the surprising history of Marlena Dietrich, the Mobituaries audio 194 00:12:37,840 --> 00:12:41,320 Speaker 1: book is filled with stories you won't hear on the podcast. 195 00:12:41,960 --> 00:12:45,960 Speaker 1: You'll get profiles of presidents who aren't on Mount Rushmore, 196 00:12:46,520 --> 00:12:51,000 Speaker 1: tributes to cars now consigned to the scrap heap of history, 197 00:12:51,240 --> 00:12:56,559 Speaker 1: tales of long gone sports teams, and dragons, Yes, dragons, 198 00:12:56,760 --> 00:13:00,160 Speaker 1: you see, people believed in dragons until well anyway. You 199 00:13:00,160 --> 00:13:04,040 Speaker 1: can download the audiobook edition of Mobituaries wherever you get 200 00:13:04,120 --> 00:13:06,439 Speaker 1: your audio books. Thanks for listening.