WEBVTT - The Backstory: The American fashion model in Hitler's bathtub

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<v Speaker 1>Some people live a life that seems, I don't know,

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<v Speaker 1>just beyond imagination. You know. Well, this chick, now mostly forgotten,

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<v Speaker 1>was a star fashion model in the nineteen twenties and

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<v Speaker 1>acclaimed surrealist artist and a renowned war photographer. And that's

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<v Speaker 1>not even half her story. I'm Patty Steele. Lee Miller

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<v Speaker 1>posing for a photo in Hitler's bathtub the day he

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<v Speaker 1>committed suicide. That's next on the backstory. The backstory is back. Okay,

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<v Speaker 1>she's dropped dead. Gorgeous, ambitious, brilliant, and kind of quirky.

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<v Speaker 1>Lee Miller is born in nineteen o seven into a

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<v Speaker 1>wealthy family in upstate New York. She becomes a fashion model,

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<v Speaker 1>an artist, and a war photographer. She also has a

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<v Speaker 1>string of famous lovers. So from the outside, her life

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<v Speaker 1>seems pretty golden. But it was anything but. When Lee

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<v Speaker 1>was a little girl, she was raped while staying with

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<v Speaker 1>a family friend in Brooklyn. That attack infected her with

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<v Speaker 1>gonorrhea she was just seven years old. On top of that,

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<v Speaker 1>her father, an amateur photographer, used his daughter as his

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<v Speaker 1>model and took tons of photos of Lee in the

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<v Speaker 1>nude when she was a little girl, and again as

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<v Speaker 1>a young teen no surprise that she had troubles in school.

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<v Speaker 1>In fact, despite her talent and brains, Lee was expelled

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<v Speaker 1>from almost every school she was sent to. In nineteen

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<v Speaker 1>twenty five, she turns eighteen and decides to move to

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<v Speaker 1>Paris to study theater, lighting, costume and design. Back in

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<v Speaker 1>New York just a year later, she goes to Vassar College,

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<v Speaker 1>and then after just another year, moves to New York

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<v Speaker 1>City to study painting at the Art Students League, but

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<v Speaker 1>nothing really satisfies her. Then her big break It happened

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<v Speaker 1>when she apparently tricked the very famous Vogue publisher Conde

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<v Speaker 1>Nast into noticing her. Lee saw him on the sidewalk

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<v Speaker 1>outside his office and promptly stepped in front of an

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<v Speaker 1>oncoming car. He grabbed her, pulled her back, and noticed

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<v Speaker 1>her beauty and style, and the rest is history. That story,

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<v Speaker 1>by the way, is legendary in the fashion world, because

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<v Speaker 1>very soon Lee became an in demand fashion model and

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<v Speaker 1>was on the cover of Vogue within a year. Now,

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<v Speaker 1>the problem is it didn't last long. When she first

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<v Speaker 1>arrived in New York City, the famous photographer and artist

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<v Speaker 1>Edward Steichen had taken some pics of her and wound

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<v Speaker 1>up selling them to the feminine hygiene company Cotex after

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<v Speaker 1>she became well known in the modeling world. It was

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<v Speaker 1>the first time a recognized woman was featured in that

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<v Speaker 1>kind of an ad, and it was wildly scandalous in

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<v Speaker 1>those days. Even Lee was a little bit uncomfortable at first,

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<v Speaker 1>but then kind of started to like the notoriety. It

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<v Speaker 1>cost her a lot of modeling gigs, but she didn't care. Next,

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<v Speaker 1>she moved to Paris again and became the lover and

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<v Speaker 1>muse of the famous surrealist photographer and artist Manray. After

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<v Speaker 1>a turbulent couple of years, she left him and headed

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<v Speaker 1>back to New York City, where she opened her own

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<v Speaker 1>photography studio. Her clients included the ad agency Giant BBDO,

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<v Speaker 1>which of course inspired the AMC show Madmen, cosmetic companies

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<v Speaker 1>like Elizabeth Arden and Helena Rubinstein, luxury department stores including

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<v Speaker 1>Sasmith Avenue and I Magnin, and a number of Broadway

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<v Speaker 1>and film stars. But in nineteen thirty four she abandoned

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<v Speaker 1>the studio to marry an Egyptian businessman and moved to

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<v Speaker 1>Cairo with him, where she continued to create amazing photographs.

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<v Speaker 1>Think That's the fairytale ending she was looking for, not

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<v Speaker 1>even close. Within three years, she was bored with Egypt

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<v Speaker 1>and most likely with her husband, so she headed back

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<v Speaker 1>to Paris, where she reconciled with Manray. In the years

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<v Speaker 1>leading up to World War Two, her photographs were displayed

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<v Speaker 1>in several exhibits, including one at the Museum of Modern Art.

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<v Speaker 1>Lee was living just outside of London when World War

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<v Speaker 1>II broke out. Friends, family, and co workers told her

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<v Speaker 1>to go back to the US to be safe, but

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<v Speaker 1>her ambition and curiosity went out and she signed on

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<v Speaker 1>as a war correspondent for Vogue, who knew a fashion

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<v Speaker 1>magazine would need a war correspondent. Following the D Day

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<v Speaker 1>invasion in France, she was on the front line and

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<v Speaker 1>her photographs included the first recorded use of napalm. A

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<v Speaker 1>problem is, as a woman, she wasn't supposed to be

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<v Speaker 1>in a battle zone, but she stayed on until military

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<v Speaker 1>authorities realized where she was and put her under temporary

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<v Speaker 1>house arrest, strictly limiting where she could go. Eventually, Lee

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<v Speaker 1>was allowed to continue documenting the war. She teamed up

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<v Speaker 1>with a Life magazine correspondent photographing the liberation of Paris.

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<v Speaker 1>The battle of Alsace and the Nazi concentration camps at Buchenvo, Docow.

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<v Speaker 1>The evening after they visited Dacau, they got into Hitler's

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<v Speaker 1>private quarters. While there, Lee took off her muddy combat

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<v Speaker 1>uniform in boots and climbed into Hitler's bathtub. She had

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<v Speaker 1>set up her camera so her partner could take the

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<v Speaker 1>iconic photograph of Lee bathing in Hitler's tub. It was

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<v Speaker 1>taken on the evening of April thirtieth, nineteen forty five,

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<v Speaker 1>the very same day Hitler committed suicide. She slept in

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<v Speaker 1>his bed that night. At the same time, she was

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<v Speaker 1>photographing the end and then the aftermath of the war

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<v Speaker 1>and how it had impacted families, soldiers, and cities across Europe. Eventually,

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<v Speaker 1>she continued working for Vogue, covering fashion and celebrities. Imagine that,

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<v Speaker 1>but the atrocities that she had witnessed really took a toll.

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<v Speaker 1>She was now dealing with clinical depression, likely due to PTSD,

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<v Speaker 1>and she became an alcoholic. When she recovered, she got

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<v Speaker 1>ignant by another well known artist, Roland Penrose, and moved

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<v Speaker 1>to a farm in the English countryside, where the entertained.

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<v Speaker 1>Other surrealist artists like Picasso and Miro, but those images

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<v Speaker 1>from the war, especially the concentration camps, were implanted in

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<v Speaker 1>her mind and continued to haunt her. Her depression came back,

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<v Speaker 1>especially while she was being investigated as a Soviet spy

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<v Speaker 1>by the British government and after her husband began an

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<v Speaker 1>affair with a trapeze artist. Can't make this stuff up right,

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<v Speaker 1>Lee Miller died of cancer at her home in the

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<v Speaker 1>English countryside in nineteen seventy seven, at the age of seventy.

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<v Speaker 1>Her house is now a museum and her life has

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<v Speaker 1>become a fascinating new movie called Lee, starring Kate Winslet

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<v Speaker 1>as Lee. It's hard to imagine how one life can

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<v Speaker 1>be so packed with accomplishment as well as heartbreak, but

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<v Speaker 1>her legacy is all about curiosity and the ambition to

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<v Speaker 1>reach for more. I hope you're enjoying the Backstory with

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<v Speaker 1>Patty Steele. Follow or subscribe for free to get new

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<v Speaker 1>episodes delivered automatically, and feel free to dm me if

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<v Speaker 1>you have a story you'd like me to cover. On Facebook,

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<v Speaker 1>It's Patty Steele and on Instagram Real Patty Steele. I'm

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<v Speaker 1>Patty Steele. The Backstories a production of iHeartMedia, Premiere Networks,

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<v Speaker 1>the Elvis Durand Group, and Steel Trap Productions. Our producer

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<v Speaker 1>is Doug Fraser. Our writer Jake Kushner. We have new

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<v Speaker 1>episodes every Tuesday and Friday. Feel free to reach out

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<v Speaker 1>to me with comments and even story suggestions on Instagram

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<v Speaker 1>at Real Patty Steele and on Facebook at Patty Steele.

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<v Speaker 1>Thanks for listening to the Backstory with Patty Steele, the

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<v Speaker 1>pieces of history you didn't know you needed to know.