Speaker 1: Some people live a life that seems, I don't know,
Speaker 1: just beyond imagination. You know. Well, this chick, now mostly forgotten,
Speaker 1: was a star fashion model in the nineteen twenties and
Speaker 1: acclaimed surrealist artist and a renowned war photographer. And that's
Speaker 1: not even half her story. I'm Patty Steele. Lee Miller
Speaker 1: posing for a photo in Hitler's bathtub the day he
Speaker 1: committed suicide. That's next on the backstory. The backstory is back. Okay,
Speaker 1: she's dropped dead. Gorgeous, ambitious, brilliant, and kind of quirky.
Speaker 1: Lee Miller is born in nineteen o seven into a
Speaker 1: wealthy family in upstate New York. She becomes a fashion model,
Speaker 1: an artist, and a war photographer. She also has a
Speaker 1: string of famous lovers. So from the outside, her life
Speaker 1: seems pretty golden. But it was anything but. When Lee
Speaker 1: was a little girl, she was raped while staying with
Speaker 1: a family friend in Brooklyn. That attack infected her with
Speaker 1: gonorrhea she was just seven years old. On top of that,
Speaker 1: her father, an amateur photographer, used his daughter as his
Speaker 1: model and took tons of photos of Lee in the
Speaker 1: nude when she was a little girl, and again as
Speaker 1: a young teen no surprise that she had troubles in school.
Speaker 1: In fact, despite her talent and brains, Lee was expelled
Speaker 1: from almost every school she was sent to. In nineteen
Speaker 1: twenty five, she turns eighteen and decides to move to
Speaker 1: Paris to study theater, lighting, costume and design. Back in
Speaker 1: New York just a year later, she goes to Vassar College,
Speaker 1: and then after just another year, moves to New York
Speaker 1: City to study painting at the Art Students League, but
Speaker 1: nothing really satisfies her. Then her big break It happened
Speaker 1: when she apparently tricked the very famous Vogue publisher Conde
Speaker 1: Nast into noticing her. Lee saw him on the sidewalk
Speaker 1: outside his office and promptly stepped in front of an
Speaker 1: oncoming car. He grabbed her, pulled her back, and noticed
Speaker 1: her beauty and style, and the rest is history. That story,
Speaker 1: by the way, is legendary in the fashion world, because
Speaker 1: very soon Lee became an in demand fashion model and
Speaker 1: was on the cover of Vogue within a year. Now,
Speaker 1: the problem is it didn't last long. When she first
Speaker 1: arrived in New York City, the famous photographer and artist
Speaker 1: Edward Steichen had taken some pics of her and wound
Speaker 1: up selling them to the feminine hygiene company Cotex after
Speaker 1: she became well known in the modeling world. It was
Speaker 1: the first time a recognized woman was featured in that
Speaker 1: kind of an ad, and it was wildly scandalous in
Speaker 1: those days. Even Lee was a little bit uncomfortable at first,
Speaker 1: but then kind of started to like the notoriety. It
Speaker 1: cost her a lot of modeling gigs, but she didn't care. Next,
Speaker 1: she moved to Paris again and became the lover and
Speaker 1: muse of the famous surrealist photographer and artist Manray. After
Speaker 1: a turbulent couple of years, she left him and headed
Speaker 1: back to New York City, where she opened her own
Speaker 1: photography studio. Her clients included the ad agency Giant BBDO,
Speaker 1: which of course inspired the AMC show Madmen, cosmetic companies
Speaker 1: like Elizabeth Arden and Helena Rubinstein, luxury department stores including
Speaker 1: Sasmith Avenue and I Magnin, and a number of Broadway
Speaker 1: and film stars. But in nineteen thirty four she abandoned
Speaker 1: the studio to marry an Egyptian businessman and moved to
Speaker 1: Cairo with him, where she continued to create amazing photographs.
Speaker 1: Think That's the fairytale ending she was looking for, not
Speaker 1: even close. Within three years, she was bored with Egypt
Speaker 1: and most likely with her husband, so she headed back
Speaker 1: to Paris, where she reconciled with Manray. In the years
Speaker 1: leading up to World War Two, her photographs were displayed
Speaker 1: in several exhibits, including one at the Museum of Modern Art.
Speaker 1: Lee was living just outside of London when World War
Speaker 1: II broke out. Friends, family, and co workers told her
Speaker 1: to go back to the US to be safe, but
Speaker 1: her ambition and curiosity went out and she signed on
Speaker 1: as a war correspondent for Vogue, who knew a fashion
Speaker 1: magazine would need a war correspondent. Following the D Day
Speaker 1: invasion in France, she was on the front line and
Speaker 1: her photographs included the first recorded use of napalm. A
Speaker 1: problem is, as a woman, she wasn't supposed to be
Speaker 1: in a battle zone, but she stayed on until military
Speaker 1: authorities realized where she was and put her under temporary
Speaker 1: house arrest, strictly limiting where she could go. Eventually, Lee
Speaker 1: was allowed to continue documenting the war. She teamed up
Speaker 1: with a Life magazine correspondent photographing the liberation of Paris.
Speaker 1: The battle of Alsace and the Nazi concentration camps at Buchenvo, Docow.
Speaker 1: The evening after they visited Dacau, they got into Hitler's
Speaker 1: private quarters. While there, Lee took off her muddy combat
Speaker 1: uniform in boots and climbed into Hitler's bathtub. She had
Speaker 1: set up her camera so her partner could take the
Speaker 1: iconic photograph of Lee bathing in Hitler's tub. It was
Speaker 1: taken on the evening of April thirtieth, nineteen forty five,
Speaker 1: the very same day Hitler committed suicide. She slept in
Speaker 1: his bed that night. At the same time, she was
Speaker 1: photographing the end and then the aftermath of the war
Speaker 1: and how it had impacted families, soldiers, and cities across Europe. Eventually,
Speaker 1: she continued working for Vogue, covering fashion and celebrities. Imagine that,
Speaker 1: but the atrocities that she had witnessed really took a toll.
Speaker 1: She was now dealing with clinical depression, likely due to PTSD,
Speaker 1: and she became an alcoholic. When she recovered, she got
Speaker 1: ignant by another well known artist, Roland Penrose, and moved
Speaker 1: to a farm in the English countryside, where the entertained.
Speaker 1: Other surrealist artists like Picasso and Miro, but those images
Speaker 1: from the war, especially the concentration camps, were implanted in
Speaker 1: her mind and continued to haunt her. Her depression came back,
Speaker 1: especially while she was being investigated as a Soviet spy
Speaker 1: by the British government and after her husband began an
Speaker 1: affair with a trapeze artist. Can't make this stuff up right,
Speaker 1: Lee Miller died of cancer at her home in the
Speaker 1: English countryside in nineteen seventy seven, at the age of seventy.
Speaker 1: Her house is now a museum and her life has
Speaker 1: become a fascinating new movie called Lee, starring Kate Winslet
Speaker 1: as Lee. It's hard to imagine how one life can
Speaker 1: be so packed with accomplishment as well as heartbreak, but
Speaker 1: her legacy is all about curiosity and the ambition to
Speaker 1: reach for more. I hope you're enjoying the Backstory with
Speaker 1: Patty Steele. Follow or subscribe for free to get new
Speaker 1: episodes delivered automatically, and feel free to dm me if
Speaker 1: you have a story you'd like me to cover. On Facebook,
Speaker 1: It's Patty Steele and on Instagram Real Patty Steele. I'm
Speaker 1: Patty Steele. The Backstories a production of iHeartMedia, Premiere Networks,
Speaker 1: the Elvis Durand Group, and Steel Trap Productions. Our producer
Speaker 1: is Doug Fraser. Our writer Jake Kushner. We have new
Speaker 1: episodes every Tuesday and Friday. Feel free to reach out
Speaker 1: to me with comments and even story suggestions on Instagram
Speaker 1: at Real Patty Steele and on Facebook at Patty Steele.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to the Backstory with Patty Steele, the
Speaker 1: pieces of history you didn't know you needed to know.