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Marlene Dietrich Berlin 'Walk of Fame'
From The Archive
Celebrating Josef von Sternberg
Veteran Recalls D-Day Lead Flight
Kate O'Mara plays Marlene
Marlene Dietrich Waxworks In Hollywood
Marlene Dietrich Letters Go To Auction
Lunch with Marlene
MD Exhibition In Moscow (Pictures)
Marlene Dietrich Exhibition In Moscow
Philip French's Screen Legends MD
Marlene Dietrich's Music Hall Faces Bankruptcy
Berlin Marks Birthplace
Parfums Grès Marlene Dietrich
Dietrich's Fury In Letter
Dietrich's Dancefloor
Letters Of Noel Coward
Marlene Dietrich Airport ?
Dietrich/Hemingway Letters
Marlene's Lost Earring (?)
The Saga of Lili Marleen
Lili Marleen
BBC MD News Archive
Marlene Dietrich News Archive New York Times
Marlene In Berlin (MDCB)
Lost Poetry Of Dietrich
German Federal Film Archives
Marlene's Birth House (2009)
Germany Honours Dietrich
Dietrich (German-Hollywood Connection)
Marlene Dietrich/Gottfried Helnwein
Marlene's Lenci Dolls
Marlene On The Wall
Larry King Interviews Maria Riva 2003
James Leavey Interviews Peter Riva 2001
Marlene Dietrich Sells Jewelry Items At Auction
Photographic Memory William Claxton
82nd Airborne Division Memories (MD)
Tea
''The British have an umbilical cord which has never been cut and through which tea flows constantly. It is curious
to watch them in times of sudden horror, tragedy or disaster. The pulse stops apparantly, and nothing can be done, and not
one move made, until a 'nice cup of tea' is quickly made. There is no question that it brings solace and does steady the mind.
What a pity all countries are not so tea-conscious. World-peace conferences would run smoothly if a 'nice cup of tea' or indeed
, a samovar, were available at the proper time''- Marlene Dietrich.
The extract below appears with kind permission.
İ Andrew Davidhazy, Gunars Viksnins
Click on articles to enlarge.



Marlene Dietrich astrological chart. İKozmik horoscope.
Marlene Dietrich Orchid Cactus
Named Marlene Dietrich in 1997. The breeder is Harold F.Watts.
ESA-registration number is: 12197 Official description: Light shrimp
pink with slightly brighter pink-cerise edge on sides of petals. Next row medium shrimp pink with cerise overcast. Outer petals
amber-pink. Overlapping, bell shape. Ruffled petal edges.
(Special Thanks to Karin at Epikakteen for information).
The photograph below appears with kind permission from İTeresa Rodriguesz.
Click on image to enlarge

Lili Marleen (Bare Root Rose) Floribunda, Deep Crimson Flowers: Double, Cupped, Exhibition Form, Medium, 25 Petals, Lightly
Fragrant Flowering Habit: Clusters Blooming
Season: Repeat Height: 3 feet x , Habit: Bushy Foliage:
Leathery Semi-Glossy Bronzed Cultivation: Good for Bedding, Vigorous, Good for Cutting
, Good for Bedding , Needs Sun , Vigorous Strengths: Profuse Blooms Weaknesses: Disease prone Hardiness: In general,
Floribunda, roses are hardy to Zone 6, Zone 5 with winter protection, but there is considerable variation between varieties. GermanyIntroducer: KOR- Kordes (Sparrieshoop) 1959 Parentage: (Our Priness
x Rudolph Timm) x Ama ARS Colour: mr Medium Red ARS Rating: 7.7 Awards: Gold Medal(s) RNRS Also known as: Lili Marlene, KORlima, Lily Marlene, Lilli Marlane Averages of Responses from
EveryRose.com visitors:
Garden Rating Average: - / 10 Fragrance Rating
Average: - / 3 Cut Flower Rating Average: - / 10 Exhibition Rating Average: - / 10
The photograph below of the Lili Marleen Roses was taken by İN.H.
Click on image to enlarge.

Marlene Dietrich DayLily
Information courtesy of Plant Files at davesgarden.com
|
Family:
Hemerocallidaceae() Genus: Hemerocallis(hem-er-oh-KAL-iss) Cultivar: Marlene Dietrich Hybridized by Kirchhoff;
Year of Registration or Introduction: 2005
Height: 24-36 in. (60-90 cm)
Spacing: 18-24 in. (45-60 cm)
Hardiness: USDA Zone 4a: to -34.4 °C (-30 °F)USDA Zone
4b: to -31.6 °C (-25 °F)USDA Zone 5a: to -28.8 °C (-20 °F)
USDA
Zone 5b: to -26.1 °C (-15 °F)USDA Zone 6a: to -23.3 °C (-10 °F)USDA Zone 6b: to -20.5 °C (-5 °F)
USDA
Zone 7a: to -17.7 °C (0 °F)USDA Zone 7b: to -14.9 °C (5 °F)USDA Zone 8a: to -12.2 °C (10 °F)
USDA
Zone 8b: to -9.4 °C (15 °F)USDA Zone 9a: to -6.6 °C (20 °F)USDA Zone 9b: to -3.8 °C (25 °F) USDA Zone 10a: to -1.1 °C (30
°F)USDA Zone 10b: to 1.7 °C (35 °F)
Sun Exposure: Full Sun Soil pH requirements: 6.6 to 7.5 (neutral) Propagation
Methods: By dividing the rootball
Bloom Time: Early (E)Reblooming (Re) Flower Size: Large (more than 4.5"
diameter) Blooming Habit: Extended (ext.)
Flower Type: Double Bloom Color: PinkCoral/Apricot Color Patterns: Blend
Flower Fragrance: No fragrance
Foliage Habit: Evergreen (ev.) Ploidy: Tetraploid |
Photograph courtesy İDavid Kirschhoff.
Click on image to enlarge.

With its total floor space of 60,000sqft and its 46ft.
ceiling, Marlene Dietrich Halle counts amongst Europe’s largest sound stages – an ideal location for feature film
production. The complex is divided into three stages, the main 22,600sqft. stage and two additional stages, offering 17,760sqft.
each. The stages at Marlene Dietrich Halle are all equipped with a broadband communication network (Monomode). Photograph
and text appear courtesy Babelsberg Studios. Click on image to enlarge.

Marlene Dietrich Cocktail
"Cadillac Database, Museum and Research Center, Cadillac & LaSalle Club, Inc." (Yann Saunders)
The two photographs below of Marlene's Cadillac were taken by İOrinoko
and appear with kind permission. The Cadillac is housed at the Southward Car Museum, nr.Wellington, New Zealand.
Click on images to enlarge.


Below, Marlene with her Cadillac.
Click on image to enlarge.

Below, Marlene and Gary Cooper filming 'Desire' 1936, Pontiac & Auburn
V-8.
Click on image to enlarge.

The photograph below of the1935 Auburn was taken by İAlex Small
and appears with kind permission. Click on image to enlarge
The 1935 Auburn
851 has been part of the collection at the Museum for many years. Unfortunately almost nothing is known of it's history before
about 1956. It was owned by a high ranking RAF officer before passing initially into joint ownership between the then Montagu
Motor Museum and another individual and later into the Montagu Collection.
The car is
reputed to have been used in the film 'Desire' however I can find no documentation in
the vehicles file to confirm whether or not Marlene Dietrich actually owned the car. I believe the connection between the
car and the film may have been originally made by another Dietrich enthusiast.- Patrick Collins Enquiries Officer, National Motor Museum, Beaulieu, Hampshire, U.K.
Beaulieu Motor Collection
Nationality
Capacity
Cylinders
American 4,585cc
In-Line 8
Valves
Output
Max Speed
Side 115bhp@3,600rpm 100mph
Price New
£800

The
piece below sent in by Jodie North (edited from the Sheila Variations).Peter Bogdonavich on Dietrich:What a remarkably dedicated Old World artist she was! The only German superstar,
the one European with the longest international appeal -- and this despite two World Wars that made Germany not exactly the
most popular country to be from. In a brand-new medium for which no one really knew the rules of the game, Dietrich -- which
means "passkey" in German -- had to make them up for herself. There was no way to predict the price she would have
to pay: her last ten-plus years in seclusion so as not to destroy the legend she had created, the myth that was a part of
her art, both of which -- though pretending otherwise -- she took very seriously. Her unique qualities and upbringing, and
fate, gave her the remarkable ability and opportunity to express -- through the first six decades of women's official
emancipation (the right to vote) -- the many faces of Woman: sacred to profane, victim and killer combined, nurse, bohemian
artist, siren, vamp or love goddess to Great Earth Mother. Marlene's German-born mother -- "the good General," she called her -- had told Dietrich
repeatedly: "Do something." And to her European sensibility, implicit in that injunction was: "Do something
well." Marlene did everything extremely well, made it all look so easy that many people eventually took her for granted.
Many still do: separating her always from the 'serious' actors of the time, as opposed to 'personalities'.
But personality-actors were those star-players whose actual personae were uniquely appropriate to the closely analytic eye
of a camera: the character and actor merge into one -- a seminal difference about this new performing art-form.Perhaps the best description of her face
was provided by Erich Maria Remarque, her longtime friend, in his novel "Arch of Triumph": "The cool, bright face that didn't ask for anything,
that simply existed, waiting -- it was an empty face, he thought; a face that could change with any wind of expression. One
could dream into it anything. It was like a beautiful empty house waiting for carpets and pictures. It had all possibilities
-- it could become a palace or a brothel." The face of an icon. "One could dream into it anything." People continue to project fantasies
and dreams onto the face of Marlene Dietrich - her face existed in the realm of fantasy. She knew it - which was why she lived
as a recluse for the last years of her life. Sure, she was probably very vain - didn't want people to see her as an old
woman - but on another level - she didn't want to ruin the fantasy for others. The fantasy of Marlene Dietrich. Best to
just disappear quietly - and leave the face intact in the mind of the world - so that they can continue dreaming, speculating,
projecting ...They don't
make 'em like Marlene Dietrich any more. Peter Bogdonavich’s book Who the Hell's In it, describes meeting Marlene Dietrich."Marlene Dietrich's taken your seats."
The assistant director was a little out of breath. "You don't care, do you? She likes to sit in the first two on
the right. They moved you guys behind her." It was September 1972, and Ryan O'Neal and I were at Los Angeles International
Airport with a few others of the cast and crew of Paper Moon, which we were flying to Kansas to shoot. I said we
didn't mind. Ryan was incredulous.
"Marlene Dietrich is on our plane going to Kansas?"No, it turned out she was flying to Denver (we had to switch planes there) to give six concert
performances at the Denver Auditorium. Hard to believe, but sure enough, there she was, sitting across from us at the gate,
all in white -- wide-brimmed hat, pants, shirt, jacket -- looking great and also bored and a little suspicious of the noisy
good spirits around our group.We
went over to say hello. I introduced myself. Ryan said, "Hello, Miss Dietrich. I'm Ryan O'Neal. Love Story?"
He grinned."Yes,"
she said. "I didn't see it -- I liked the book too much. I won't see The Godfather for the same reason
-- Brando is too slow for it anyway -- why didn't they use Eddie Robinson?" She had that deep voice and distinct
German accent.There were several
people I knew who had worked with and loved her, and I mentioned a few of them, trying to get a conversation going, but she
was a little frosty, so we slipped away after a few moments. Ryan said, "I think we did great," but I didn't.She was right behind us as we waited to have
our hand baggage searched, not a common event then, and I can't recall why it was done. We tried again; she was nicer
this time. "I saw The Last Picture Show," she said to me; the film had opened a year before. "I thought
if one more person stripped slowly, I would go crazy.""Did you see What's Up, Doc?" Ryan said. "We did that together."
The picture was still in theatres at the time."Yes, I saw it," she said and nothing more.Not an auspicious beginning, huh? But during the flight she warmed up. Not only did she warm
up, but she basically joined their entourage and they all had a riotous flight together - with Bogdonavich pumping her for
information about her career. She was more than forthcoming.The next excerpt from Bogdonavich:On the plane she sat in front of us, with her blond girl Friday, and by now, she had obviously
decided we weren't so bad; she spent almost the whole flight turned backward and leaning over the top of her seat, on
her knees, talking to us. She was animated, girlish, candid, funny, sexy, with her baby-talk "r" (that becomes "w")
and everything. I told her I
was trying to stop smoking again. "Oh, don't," she said. "I stopped ten years ago and I've
been miserable ever since. I never drank before -- and now I drink. I never had a cough when I was smoking -- now I cough.
Don't stop -- you'll get fat and you don't want to do that."We talked about movies she had been in and directors she had worked
for. After a while, it became apparent to her that I had seen an awful lot of her pictures. "Why do you know so much
about my films?""Because
I think you're wonderful, and you've worked for a lot of great directors.""No," she said dubiously. "No, I only worked for two
great directors -- Sternberg and Billy Wilder.""And what about Orson?""Oh, well, yes. Orson -- of course."I guess she wasn't so impressed with Lubitsch or Alfred Hitchcock or Fritz Lang, Raoul
Walsh or Tay Garnett or Rene Clair or Franz Borzage. Here's a picture of her from Orson Welles' Touch of Evil.Bogdonavich talked with her about her performance in Touch
of Evil:I had read somewhere
that her own favorite performance was in Welles' Touch of Evil (1958). "Do you still feel that way?" I said."Yes. I was terrific in that. I think I never said a line
as well as the last line in that movie -- 'What does it matter what you say about people ...?' Wasn't I good there?
I don't know why I said it so well. And I looked so good in that dark wig. It was Elizabeth Taylor's. My part wasn't
in the script, you know, but Orson called and said he wanted me to play a kind of gypsy madam in a border town, so I went
over to MGM and found that wig. It was very funny, you know, because I had been crazy about Orson -- in the forties when he
was married to Rita Hayworth and when we toured doing his magic act [The Mercury Wonder Show, benefits exclusively
done for servicemen] -- I was just crazy about him -- we were great friends, you know, but nothing ... Because Orson doesn't
like blond women. He only likes dark women. And suddenly when he saw me in this dark wig, he looked at me with new eyes. Was
this Marlene ...?""Well,
he certainly photographed you lovingly.""Yes. I never looked so good."More from Bogdonavich - watch her total honesty with herself in this excerpt - she is one of the greats:I asked her if she'd been upset about
Sternberg's acerbic autobiography Fun in a Chinese Laundry, first published in 1965, in which he'd said that
he had created her, and implied that she would have been nothing without him. (He once said to me, "I am Marlene
Dietrich -- Miss Dietrich is me.") She pursed her lips, lifted her eyebrows slightly. "No -- because it was true. I didn't know what
I was doing -- I just tried to do what he told me. I remember in Morocco, I had a scene with [Gary] Cooper -- and
I was supposed to go to the door, turn and say a line like, 'Wait for me' and then leave. And Sternberg said, 'Walk
to the door, turn, count to ten, say your line and leave.' So I did and he got very angry. 'If you're so stupid
that you can't count slowly, then count to twenty-five.' And we did it again. I think we did it forty times, until
finally I was counting probably to fifty. And I didn't know why. I was annoyed. But at the premiere of Morocco -- at Grauman's
Chinese Theatre" -- she said the original name of the LA movie palace with just the lightest of mockery -- "when
this moment came and I paused and then said, 'Wait for me' ... the audience burst into applause. Sternberg knew they
were waiting for this -- and he made them wait and they loved it."Bogdonavich again, watching her concert in Denver (she invited the entire cast of
Paper Moon to come see her):Of course she saw World War II at close range, entertaining the troops for three years with "benefits" --
more than any other star performer did, for which she was awarded America's highest civilian honor, the Medal of Freedom,
as well as France's most valued order of distinction, the Legion d'honneur. And the experience was all brought
back through her touching introduction to "Lili Marlene" - an old German song, forbidden by Hitler in her own country
-- which was comprised mainly of a recitation of all the countries in which she had sung "Lili Marlene" during the
war. It called to mind what Hemingway had written in his World War I novel, A Farewell to Arms: ... There were many words that you could not stand to hear and
finally only the names of places had dignity. Certain numbers were the same way and certain dates and these with the names
of the places were all you could say and have them mean anything. Abstract words such as glory, honor, courage, or hallow
were obscene beside the concrete names of villages, the numbers of roads, the names of rivers, the numbers of regiments and
the dates ...And that was what
Marlene conveyed; as she said, "Africa, Sicily, Italy, Greenland, Iceland, France, Belgium and Holland" -- here
she paused -- "Germany, and Czechoslovakia", her voice carried with each a different untold story of what she had
seen, what the 500,000 soldiers she sang for had seen.Pauline Kael's review of Blue Angel:Dietrich's Lola Lola is a rather coarse, plump young beauty; as she sings "Falling
in Love Again," her smoldering voice and sadistic indifference suggest sex without romance, love, or sentiment. The pedant
becomes her husband, her slave, her stooge; he travels with the cafe troupe, hawking dirty pictures of his wife. Dietrich
is extraordinary.Dietrich asLola-Lola
in Blue Angel. Bogdonavich writes about that film:The Blue Angel instantly set Dietrich among the immortals. Her chair-straddling portrayal of cabaret singer Lola-Lola
defined her essential image in certain irrevocable ways. She would forever sing the song she is doing (in German) the first
time we see her: "Falling in love again ... never wanted to -- What am I to do? Can't help it ..." She too,
then, was a fool for love, like all the men who fell for her. Talking with Sternberg one time, I said that among the pictures
he made with Dietrich, Blue Angel was actually the only time she really destroyed a man, to which he replied: "She
did not destroy him -- he destroyed himself. It was his mistake -- he should never have taken up with her. That's what
the story is." Was he speaking of himself a bit or only of the prudish boys'-school teacher [Emil] Jannings played,
who fell madly in love with a loose, bawdy, compulsively unfaithful performer? The strain breaks him down to ultimate degradation.
Like that line in Jacques Brel's masochistic love chant, "Ne me quitte pas," Jannings becomes content
to be to Dietrich "the shadow of your dog ..." The moment when Marlene humiliates Jannings by making him crow for
her like a rooster is one of the most chilling in picture history.Ernest Hemingway wrote a piece about Marlene Dietrich for Life magazine.If she has nothing more than her voice she could break your heart with it. But she has that beautiful body and that
timeless loveliness of her face. It makes no difference how she breaks your heart if she is there to mend it.
Marlene Dietrich Quotes
- A king, realizing his incompetence, can either delegate or abdicate
his duties. A father can do neither. If only sons could see the paradox, they would understand the dilemma.
- A man would prefer to come home to an unmade bed and a happy woman
than to a neatly made bed and an angry woman.
- America took me into her bosom when there was no longer a country
worthy of the name, but in my heart I am German - German in my soul.
- Courage and grace are a formidable mixture. The only place to see
it is in the bullring.
- Darling, the legs aren't so beautiful, I just know what to do with
them.
- Glamour is what I sell, it's my stock in trade.
- Grumbling is the death of love.
- How do you know love is gone? If you said that you would be there
at seven and you get there by nine, and he or she has not called the police yet - it's gone.
- I am at heart a gentleman.
- I dress for the image. Not for myself, not for the public, not for
fashion, not for men.
- I had no desire to be an film actress, to always play somebody else,
to be always beautiful with somebody constantly straightening out your every eyelash. It was always a big bother to me.
- I love quotations because it is a joy to find thoughts one might have,
beautifully expressed with much authority by someone recognized wiser than oneself.
- I never enjoyed working in a film.
- I was raised almost entirely on turnips and potatoes, but I think
that the turnips had more to do with the effect than the potatoes.
- I'm worth more dead than alive. Don't cry for me after I'm gone; cry
for me now.
- If there is a supreme being, he's crazy.
- In America, sex is an obsession, in other parts of the world it's
a fact.
- It's the friends you can call up at 4 a.m. that matter.
- Latins are tenderly enthusiastic. In Brazil they throw flowers at
you. In Argentina they throw themselves.
- Most women set out to try to change a man, and when they have changed
him they do not like him.
- Once a woman has forgiven her man, she must not reheat his sins for
breakfast.
- Superstitions are habits rather than beliefs.
- The average man is more interested in a woman who is interested in
him than he is in a woman with beautiful legs.
- The Germans and I no longer speak the same language.
- The tears I have cried over Germany have dried. I have washed my face.
- The weak are more likely to make the strong weak than the strong are
likely to make the weak strong.
- There is a gigantic difference between earning a great deal of money
and being rich.
- There's something about an American soldier you can't explain. They're
so grateful for anything, even a film actress coming to see them.
- They want you to bring out your intestines.
- Think twice before burdening a friend with a secret.
- To be completely woman you need a master, and in him a compass for
your life. You need a man you can look up to and respect. If you dethrone him it's no wonder that you are discontented, and
discontented women are not loved for long.
- We all regret our youth once we have lost it.
- When you're dead, you're dead. That's it.
- Without tenderness, a man is uninteresting.
JvS/MD Quotes

'Nothing has ever been invented that is more cumbersome to make than the motion picture.'-JvS
'Shadow is mystery and light is clarity. Shadow conceals - light reveals. To know what to reveal and what to
conceal and in what degrees to do this is all there is to art.'-JvS
[on the director's role] '... the determining influence, and the only influence, despotically exercised or not,
which accounts for the worth of what is seen on the screen.'-JvS
'I then put her into the crucible of my conception, blended her image to correspond with mine, pouring lights
on her until the alchemy was complete.'-JvS
''The 'Leonardo da Vinci of the camera' scrutinized the programme with his eagle eye, found my name, stood up
and left the theatre.''-MD
''Von Sternberg was creator, Lord of Light, an incomparable technician, the commander-in-chief of the film world.''-MD
''I didn't discover Dietrich,' Von Sternberg would often remark. 'I am a teacher,' he elaborated, 'and this
beautiful woman came to that teacher's attention. He shaped her appearance, highlighted her charm, minimized the defects,
and moulded her into an aphrodisiac phenomenon.''-MD/MR
''Von Sternberg had achieved the desired effect despite the cutbacks the studio had imposed on him. I was very
young and inexperienced, but I admired his flair for magic, that faculty I
was to see at work for so many years. In the course of the shooting period, with an ever growing admiration, I learned everything
from Josef Von Sternberg, that conjuror of the thousand -headed serpent called 'film''! '-MD
''I want immediate sound. Swamp the audience immediately. Envelop them with raw sound.... early morning sounds...hard heels on cobblestone streets, the slap of water
thrown on a storefront from a metal bucket... dogs barking... rattle of thick breakfast dishes. A canary sings. The professor
has a canary ? Yes ! The professor has a canary ! Yes ! Sound ! Sound ! It's so correct, the German word for sound, klang ! That says it so much better than our word - a klang
film ! 'KLANG,' ' he bellowed the word. 'You feel how it vibrates ? That's what we
must do ! From the first moment the audience must be deluged with sound, conditioned
instantly, it must learn to concentrate on hearing, to listen to dialogue above the
klang.''-JvS
MD (Hollaender) Quotes

''Papi-no one, not even Spoli could have written these songs. Everyday, another double entendre thing for me to sing!
The words! how he does it! Amazing!''-MD
''Papi-you know what is meant by 'pi-a-no-la,' '' my mother chortled.
''So vulgar - and so right. Papi, he is a genius, that Hollander. For The Blue Angel, he is a genius! Listen to this one - today, he doodle-doodled on the piano,
tried this, then that - it's my favourite in the film!''-MD
''But the song, the one that everybody loves, something about 'moths
and flames' and 'I can't help it that all men want me' - that one is terrible! Thank God, once The
Blue Angel is finally finished, I will never have to sing that awful song again!''-MD
Did You Ever Look Like Marlene Dietrich ?
(extract from an article by İ Evan G.)

If you’re a heterosexual male who’s dreaming that you’re looking into a mirror and this image above
is more or less what you see reflected back into your eyes—except it’s in color, highlighted by a hint of medium
reddish lipstick—and you really like what you’re seeing, and feeling good about looking like this and feeling
this way, then what the hell does it all mean? Yes, I dreamt that I looked sort of like Marlene Dietrich and had
on a top hat, and pasty white face with perhaps the nose a tad more splayed out and the face maybe a little rounder, and some
of the aforementioned lipstick, which I particularly fixated on, since, for some reason, it seemed like the most natural part
of the ensemble and everything else seemed new and strange and surprisingly agreeable. Am I getting in touch with my feminine
side, my side that is tired of being average, unglamorous and unnoticed? Or does it just have something to do with the fact
that I recently watched that cherished scene of Dietrich in the 1930 film, Morocco, where she, in this very get-up,
plants a hot kiss on a diminutive brunette cabaret patron, partly to tease legionnaire Gary Cooper but also because she just
likes doing erotic things like that? Or does it feed into my frustrations at not being able to have women that I’d like
to have, romantically, sexually? In my waking state, I have no drag-queen desires, no urge to don stockings and sing “Quand
L’Amour Meurt” or “Ich Bin Die Fesche Lola.” It was an isolated thing, and it only lasted a few seconds,
just a blip on a rich full night of dreaming. But it was way too much fun, and that’s why I ponder it. And lest any
of you boys want me to “see what the boys in the back room will have,” forget about it. EG- (extract from an article
by ©Evan G.).
The photograph below was taken by İMichael Zargarov and appears with
kind permission. Click on image to enlarge.
'Here is the elusive Shalimar perfume bottle. It was on Marlene's
dressing room make-up table at Paramount, in the late 1940's, when my Father's last wife, Ruth Hancock was a Costumer
there. She was doing something for Marlene during the filming of Golden Earrings, and made some mention of loving the smell
of Shalimar.
Marlene picked up the bottle and gave it to Ruth. Ruth used almost ALL
the perfume...there is only a thick jelly at the bottom now, but the intoxicating smell lingers.
Ruth remembered that Marlene gave perfume and other gifts to everyone
involved with a film after it was finished. She once got a gold medallion of St. Genesius (Patron of Actors) for her
charm bracelet. I wish I knew where that was now'. -Michael Zargarov

The photograph below of the Beach House in Santa Monica where Marlene
used to reside was taken by İMichael Zargarov and appears with kind permission. Click on image to enlarge.

The photograph below is of British dollmaker Paul Crees (Paul Crees/Peter
Coe) with one of his Marlene Dietrich dolls.
Click on image to enlarge.

Marlene Dietrich Exhibit - Madagascar 2008
The
inauguration of the Marlene Dietrich Exhibit was held at the “Toit de Tana”, Hotel Carlton on Monday the
08th of December 2008. More than 200 persons were present, such as The Malagasy Minister of Culture Dr. Jean Louis
Robinson; his Excellency the German Ambassador and his wife, M. Moser; Mrs. Neils Marquardt, wife of the American Ambassador;
M. Vladimir Goncharenko, Russian Ambassador and his wife; M. Samuel Mokgethi and his wife, South African’s
Ambassador.
Also
were present those from the National and private TV channels, press and more important personalities.
Those
who were present at the opening were stunned by the exhibit, “a real success and an international standard”.
After
three years of preparation and two months of intense work and set up, I’m satisfied to pay such homage as I ever wanted
for MD.
Thanks
for your help, the Goethe Institute of Antananarivo and Johannesburg, the German Embassy, the Hotel Carton’s General
Manager, M. François Van Rens who gracefully grant the 300 Sq meter space, friends and sponsors who gave hands to make this
exhibit happen and made it a real success by the quality and things in general.
The
Malagasy Ministry of the Culture would wish to have the exhibit at the renewed area of their building for another month (January).
We
have a lot of people everyday leaving great comments on MD and what they have learned from.
Again
all my gratitude for your help and assistance, I made my dream come true, paying homage worth of the Diva which I was a real
admirer since many years.
Fabrice BOUSSAINGAULT


The piece below appears with kind permission from the Allen Ginsberg Estate.THE BLUE ANGELMarlene Dietrich is singing a lament for mechanical love. She leans against a
mortarboard tree on a plateau by the seashore.She’s a life-sized toy, the doll of eternity; her hair is shaped
like an abstract hat made out of white steel.Her face is powdered, whitewashed and immobile like a robot. Jutting out of her temple, by an
eye, is a little white key.She gazes through dull blue pupils set in the whites of her eyes. She closes them, and the key turns by itself.She opens her eyes, and they’re blank like a statue’s in a museum. Her machine begins
to move, the key turns again, her eyes change, she sings.—you’d
think I would have thought a plan to end the inner grind, but not till I have found a man to occupy my mind. © Allen Ginsberg Estate. Collected
Poems: 1947-1997 Pengin Publishers/Harper Collins.
The piece below entitled 'Mechanical Love' is by artist Sam Aguirre
and appears with kind permission. © Sam Aguirre.

The magazine cutting below appears with kind permission from
Linda Wulfestieg. © Linda Wulfestieg.
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