Marlene Dietrich and her daughter's book

Great book. Marlene was a lousy mother though.

I never have liked her. She seemed to get off on breaking up relationships, just to prove she could. She comes off as very self centered and shallow, and vain.

I loved that book.. I appreciate the fact that Dietrich was difficult. But, she certainly had discipline for maintaining the brand. Diane Sawyer once asked Maria Riva if she thought her mother ever loved her.

She responded that she got the same level and sense of affection from her mother that Dietrich expressed for a delicious loaf of bread or a pretty scarf. WOW

I mean, she was a vain, self centered closeted lesbian who was competitive, bitchy, shallow, and married solely for companionship and status.

But never mind Diane, let's talk about Marlene.....

R3- How sad! She did old Hollywood glamour and she did it good. Kept it interesting too. I appreciate that about her. I want to read the book, if for no other reason to read about all of her Hollywood lovers. I have always heard there were many, to say the least, lol. She caused a fight between two of leading men on one movie set, but I do not remember the details.

I remember buying the book right after it came out. The old queen next door borrowed and lost it. Would love to find it and read. Fascinating interview. The daughter is just as dramatic. The Kartrashian and current celebrity crowd can’t hold a candle to the Dietrich allure, drama, mystery, excitement.

They were all lousy mothers r1.

La Dietrich was bi, not gay. Just as many male lovers as female. Fucked many men she didn't need to, like Eisenhower in Europe during a USA tour during WWII. In fact she may have fucked half the US troops she encountered during those USO tours.

I always thought Maria Riva's toxic hatred for her mother said more about Riva than of Dietrich.

R9 Actually, it says more about you.

DIetrich let her get raped and treated her as a "friend" plus maid. I"d be pissed too.

Unlike you R10, I understand the concept of irrational hatred.

-R9

If you read the book, Marlene forced Maria to become her lady in waiting. She never really had a formal education. She could barely get through basic mathematics. And Mercedes de Acosta sexually assaulted her when she was a girl. She told Marlene about that and her reaction was not that of a concerned parent. Marlene was a glamorous actress but a ghastly human being.

Mama Liebste

R9 ain't wrapped too tight.

Her list of lovers is endless. She did Hollywood glam and magic all the way into her what? 70's? I wonder if she ever truly loved any of her many lovers.

Was she one of Marlene's FANSSSSSSS!!!!!!!

[quote]"The only one to turn her down was John Wayne.

Becawze he waz ah FEEEEEEG!

Ironically someone just mentioned her recently in the who's still alive thread but....Maria is in fact still alive! A shock.

[quote]Her list of lovers is endless.

But how shitty of Diane to only name the straight ones, like the flings with women were still too shameful.

I don't know why it's 'rare'. She has many interviews on Youtube.

Here's the grandson. Wonder if he's 'family' (diva's male progeny usually are).

She became an American citizen and entertained American and British troops on the front lines in Europe. If she had been captured, God only knows what the Germans would've done to her. She was a very brave woman.

R22 Her career was everything to her. She knew that if she didn't make a huge showing of how much more American she was than German, anti-German sentiment would ruin her brand.

r23 Dietrich had a visceral hatred of Hitler and the Nazis, her support of the Allied effort was genuine.

Dietrich was one of the greatest stars of all time.

I didn't get from her writing that Maria Riva had a toxic hatred for Marlene at all. But she was clear-eyed and realistic about the fact that her mother was personality disordered and as such, incapable of a mother's or grandmother's love. It's a hard thing to have to come to terms with, but she did, and she wrote about Marlene's good points as well as her bad.

R26 nails it exactly.

I read the book as well as other bios of Dietrich. Maria twists a lot of things to fit her narrative of the aggrieved daughter.

Marlene seemed like the hard working bread winner who not only had to support herself and others (like her husband and his mistress including the mistress' expensive mental health care) but also Maria and Maria's family which included buying an expensive townhouse for her to live in and supporting her and her family in her travels Maria felt her family needed. Maria acts like her mother was controlling but she still wanted her money and lots of it.

Expecting a Donna Reed type mom from Marlene was silly and unrealistic. I don't believe Maria when she insists her mother knew she would be molested - if that is even true. Maria bends the truth too often for me to take her word at much and that means her analysis of her mother is off as well. She comes off to me as bitter and spoiled.

True, r28. Maria and her family were supported by Dietrich for decades (and quite comfortably, as well) but Maria never mentions this. She never worked and her husband didn't seem to work much either. Marlene herself was not a fabulously wealthy woman, she spent so much on Maria and the grandchildren there wasn't a lot left over.

It was exactly the same situation with Bette Davis and her daughter BD Hyman. Davis supported BD and BD's husband and kids for decades, but BD never mentioned it.

Team Marlene!

Something's off with Riva.

R26 is right. Its an interesting book. What I loved is that Marlene was essentially the same off screen as she was on screen.

Nah, she's fine.

I read this when it first came out. I have read hundreds of biographies of all sorts of people but this is the best, most juicy bio I have ever read. Chock full of fascinating details, gossip, and glamour, very evocative of times and locations. I've re-read it many times. Terrific book. MD had a fascinating life, the one person I'd love to trade lives with.

It is a fascinating and extremely well-written book, the best celebrity biography I have ever read. Maria Riva's description of the Hollywood studios of the 1930s was so vivid you could totally picture everything.

Funny enough, DLers, I could legally change my name to Marlene Dietrich's surname 😉.

The Legend certainly scored some extremely choice cock.

Bumping this, so people can see the original thread.

I thought she and John Wayne were a long term item??

Riva understood her mother in a way Christina Crawford, I think, never understood hers.

She is kinder in some ways but also more blunt in some ways.

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

So she was a racist and antisemite.

My dad would always talk about her eating in the mess with the enlisted men during the war. No airs, no diva act. She was comfortable with the guys and talked and joked with them. That night she sang and entertained them. He had this look when he told the story about that.

Your father cleared the cobwebs out of Dietrich's cooter? Awesome!

[quote]She was also anti-Semitic. ‘I gave up my country for them, and now what do I get?’ she said. ‘The stores are closed for Yom Kippur.’

That was a joke, dumbass.

MUTTI!

Riva!!! Bring mir die Axt!!

Keine Drahtbügel....ever!

I don't understand why she used an elaborate system involving wigs, tape, clips and gold chains to make her face continue to look taut as she aged. Wouldn't it have just been easier for her to have had a facelift done? The surgical technique they used back then was supposedly superior to the one they use today.

However you feel about her, she was a magnetic screen presence.

GASP!

Spoiler alert, r51!!!

I guess that she must’ve mellowed out a bit regarding people of color by the fifties.

Dietrich near the end. She'd been a bedridden recluse in Paris for years by this point.

1930s glamour realness

Marlene had several plastic surgeries over the years as well as her use of tapes, strings and wigs. Not to mention the severe girdling that went on under those Jean Louis gowns.

Maria Riva's bio is truly brilliant, the best of show biz bios.

Maria Riva didn't mention anything about plastic surgery in her book. She surely would have if Dietrich had had a facelift.

Saw her in 1972. Fabulous.

My memory of that book is faulty. I don’t remember anything from the book that people are posting here. What I remember is that Dietrich was consumed by her career and everyone in the household understood that. Riva came across as bemused by her mother but not bitter.

I remember here and there some rue, r59.

Unless you're blind, any photos of Dietrich in the 1950s and 1960s show the evidence of extreme plastic surgery, no matter what Maria did or didn't say about it in her great book. Tape and a wig can only do so much.

r59, I agree. There's no bitterness in Riva's writing.

Am I right that Maria's three sons are all American-accented bearded bears? From what little I could gather on Google, it looks like it (and from that video clip interview above). I would have thought she'd have really FABULOUS children, models or something.

[quote] That was a joke, dumbass.

Take it up with her daughter and those who knew her. They said she was a racist and antisemetic. Read next time, fuckface.

Why does her daughter hate Edith Piaf?

She was not antisemitic. Von Sternberg was a Jew, and she helped Jews who had escaped the Nazis.

Dietrich was friends with Pearl Bailey, Nat King Cole and Louis Armstrong. She was also friends with Lena Horne and possibly fucked her.

Who raped her daughter? Do they have a name?

R67 = some of my best friends are black.

When Dionne Warwick first became famous and went to Paris for the first time, Marlene took her under her wing and got her a new wardrobe.

This is some good shit.

Of course she did.

Marlene was from a Prussian background not a nazi background. You confuse the two.

LOL, r44 -- no. I guess he just was blown away by a "star" entertaining the troops and eating among them during the war, thanking them for fighting fascism.

[quote] she used an elaborate system involving wigs, tape, clips and gold chains to make her face continue to look taut

How did the chains fit in to al this?

New York Times review was very unkind...

R13 and R68, I believe the woman who molested Maria was Viola Rubber, who later ended up working for Bette Davis.

Just my opinion, but Marlene was never a true classic beauty, even when young, as compared to say, Loretta Young, Hedy Lamarr, Vivien Leigh, Linda Darnell, Grace Kelly, et.al.

Sultry, glamorous, sexy as hell but never a classic beauty.

Classic LIFE cover...

No Dietrich/Riva, they.

She wasn’t r78. Her allure, which never really appealed to me, was all about lighting illusion.

It surprised Bette what a frau she was, r81.

My fave Dietrich/Riva tale, I've read on some other DL thread:

[quote] Marlene was a hovering mother and had to check in with her daughter several times a day. One summer when the children were young, Maria and her hubby took them to a rented house in rural spain for the summer. Telephones in Spain at the time took months if no years (in rural areas) to get and Maria was happy that Mama wouldn't be able to call her night and day. Wrong. WRONG! The 2nd day at their hideway the Spanish phone company showed up to install Maria's phone. Dietrich had called the president of Spain to get the phone installed. Dietrich then called Maria as often as before.

They should make a movie of her life, but who could ever play her?

"Darling, the legs aren't so beautiful, I just know what to do with them."

Christoph Waltz, r84.

True, r81. Marlene was a regular at the Hollywood Canteen and Bette Davis was surprised that she preferred to spend her time in the kitchen, cooking and washing dishes. She was like a housewife toiling in the kitchen, and not the glamorous creature Bette expected.

Me, r84!

Riva is homophobic r20, she blames her mother's bisexuality for much of what happened to her, and has nothing but rotten things to say about all the lesbians she mentions. She's less unkind but still very rude when discussing gays.

The woman who molested Riva was Violla Rubber, usually spelled with two Ls.

Oops, sorry, I included r77's link at my reply at r89 and didn't mean to.

R75 She wore a fine gold chain necklace under her chin attached to the wig and tape to help hold her face up as she aged.

Who here on DL doesn't, r91?

Some DLers prefer a string of pearls, r92.

The gold chain could only be employed for film and stage appearances in very large theaters, no? Otherwise, it would be detected.

The tapes under wigs could be effective in raising and erasing lines at the forehead and around the eyes but not help the under eye bags, wrinkles around the mouth and the jaw line. Of course, she had a facelift or two. She was performing throughout the 1970s when she was in her 70s.

Marlene's last appearance on camera, in the movie Just A Gigolo. She was 77 at the time and very well-preserved.

"The only murderer here is the orchestra leader."

So much surgery, tapes, chains and Vaseline, it looks NOTHING like her, r95.

[quote] Sultry, glamorous, sexy as hell but never a classic beauty.

Lighting was her best friend. Dietrich would have never been popular in movies with color. I do think she was very striking though. And she was way funnier than any of the women you mentioned (like in Witness for the Prosecution).

r97 it still looks like Dietrich. Yes she was heavily made up but she still looked great for her age.

It looks like Eve Arden, r97.

You left out the veil, r97.

Whenever I think about Marlene Dietrich, I'm always reminded of this skit by Lily Savage, from 1996. Still makes me giggle.

From Marlene Dietrich's ABC:

*

𝙂𝙧𝙚𝙚𝙣𝙡𝙖𝙣𝙙 ("Should be called Iceland. See 𝗜𝗖𝗘𝗟𝗔𝗡𝗗.")

𝙄𝙘𝙚𝙡𝙖𝙣𝙙 ("Should be called Greenland. See 𝗚𝗥𝗘𝗘𝗡𝗟𝗔𝗡𝗗 .")

She still looked great in the 70s.

Anyone who likes Maria Riva's book would also enjoy "Detour" by Cheryl Crane (daughter of Lana Turner). Her book is really good and written while her mother was still alive. She just tells it like it is, warts and all without blaming anyone but herself for mistakes she's made in her life.

Okay, I admit that Miss Dietrich made me work for her mentorship. And I didn't appreciate her insisting I exhale from my "amazing" nostrils with my face close to her droopy nipples. Well, droopy at first.

But I can still get a pimiento out of an olive with my tongue without hurting the little olive.

Maria Riva is not homophobic. She was critical of the bad behavior of some gays and lesbians in Marlene's orbit. Some of them were users and backstabbers. She could spot phony people. She spoke very well of Noel Coward and they were friends.

Maria Riva's MEMORY is amazing. She can remember every single thing her mother ever wore in vivid detail, every detail of every room she was in.....I can't remember anything, except that I liked her book.

Well, so much of what Maria remembered Marlene wearing was captured on film. And her descriptions of the intricate costume fittings, especially with genius designer Travis Banton at Paramount that would go on for hours into the late night, were truly fascinating.

I can't remember if Maria mentions this in her book but Banton was so extravagant with his spending (and sadly his drunken binges) that Paramount eventually dumped him and promoted "company man" Edith Head to Resident Costume Designer because the execs knew Head would favor them over their divas and always bring the films in under budget. I think by that time Marlene had been declared "box office poison" with Kate Hepburn and Joan Crawford and had left Paramount.

Travis Banton – Taste Arbiter

[quote]I can't remember if Maria mentions this in her book but Banton was so extravagant with his spending (and sadly his drunken binges) that Paramount eventually dumped him and promoted "company man" Edith Head to Resident Costume Designer because the execs knew Head would favor them over their divas

Maria mentions it all - Banton's alcoholism (he frequently had a red nose), Edith Head (Marlene warned him about her deviousness), and the exorbitant cost of the clothes.

Edith Head was known to filch costume designs and take credit for them.

She was a thieving cunt, r112.

She does come across as homophobic but perhaps she might not be had she not been sexually abused by a woman.

But didn’t Edith get turned down when she offered to design Grace Kelly’s wedding gown? That would be a nice form of comeuppance for someone like her.

I don't think she was turned down, r115. Grace just went with Helen Rose when Edith thought Grace would come to her.

She did design Grace's going-away suit, though....

interesting

Madeline Kahn as Lili von Shtupp is probably one of if not the best send ups of Marlene Dietrich

As with many other actresses and female performers of the period Marlene Dietrich's gowns were built upon a foundation.

We're not talking about a mere lining with some boning and padding. But according to most sources a serious combination between a girdle and iron maiden.

Ms. Dietrich was often so plastered before going on stage for performances like in clip conductor would warn his orchestra to watch him very carefully.

Yes, Dietrich's drinking was off the chain in her later years.

For my money Greta Keller put Marlene Dietrich in the shade far as vocal performance and some other things.

Marlene's turn at "Johnny"

She sings it alright I suppose, but Greta put a bit of spin on her versions so you got the message, and how.

Marlene Dietrich told story all through war her sister and BIL were being held at notorious Bergen-Belsen horror camp.

Well when allies liberated the place she pulled strings to get there, only to find her sister and BIL were not in the camp, but living quite comfortably in area of Bergen-Belsen. More than that they were Nazi sympathizers which explained their comparatively luxurious accommodations.

Faced with that bit of reality La Dietrich turned around and left, never speaking to or about her sister and BIL again for long time if ever. Cannot recall which it was....

and Janie Sell...

R4 She wasn't a closeted lesbian. Wtf?

Edith Head *thought* she would be chosen to do the wedding gown as close friend of Grace Kelly, but it didn't happen.

Helen Rose had worked on Grace Kelly's wardrobe for several of her films. The gown was a gift from MGM, and was hugely extravagant and expensive.

Siân

I read Riva's book years ago and was astonished at how honest and open she was, compared to so many other star biographies.The book was where I learned that Dietrich was in the sack with John Gilbert the night he died of a heart attack.

"The book was where I learned that Dietrich was in the sack with John Gilbert the night he died of a heart attack."

That's news to me....

Yes, Marlene Dietrich and John Gilbert had an affair, but can find nothing that says he was with her (much less fucking) when his second (and fatal) heart attack struck.

One of John Gilbert's sign off initials for love note he wrote to MD was "G.D.F.S.O.B" which stood for "God Damn Fucking Son Of A Bitch"

While we're at it, Marlene Dietrich's pursuit of and affair with John Gilbert was complicated by fact the man as the great love of Greta Garbo's life. Well one of them who was male anyway. Dietrich had her own dealing with Garbo so it was a queer sort of ménage à trois.

john gilberts house, scroll down for more pictures

elton john lived there too

What R45 and R66 don’t understand is the extent and depth of Jew hatred in European cultures and mentalities. Dietrich could be superficially kind to a Jew. But that did not in any way prevent her from culturally-inculcated scapegoating of Jews, spewing anti-Jewish vitriol that was and remains culturally and socially acceptable in Europe.

Given this, Dietrich’s "I gave up my country for them, and now what do I get?’ she said. ‘The stores are closed for Yom Kippur" can be seen as anti-Jewish scree spewed by an anti-Jewish cunt, as has been confirmed by her daughter.

Dietrich fits the bill for every German person I've ever met; arrogant, entitled, vain, rude, extremely narcissistic.

There's usually a used copy of this book for sale in one of the Revivals stores in Palm Springs. I picked it up a few years ago in there and skimmed thru it. One of the stories I stopped on had to do with Marlene's leg trouble as she got older. Can anyone elaborate on that? Now I'm curious and probably just need to check out the book from the library.

[quote]Maria Riva is not homophobic. She was critical of the bad behavior of some gays and lesbians in Marlene's orbit. Some of them were users and backstabbers.

Riva complains bitterly about a lot of people in Marlene's life, so much so that her book becomes exhausting after a point, but it's very noticeable that she is more bitter about gays and lesbians than she is about straights. Her book is very much of its time, and like Lee Israel's book on Tallulah, I get why no one really thought much about it back when it was published, but decades later, it really stands out.

You'd think on a gay board in the year 2021 we wouldn't get someone saying "Maria Riva is friends with a homosexual, she can't be homophobic" with a straight face, but yet here you are.

^^Lets ask corn dog Republican Jimmy Stewart .

R132 There's no actual proof that they ever met, let alone had anything with each other.

I love her singing.

As for Marlene's leg trouble, IIRC it started with a serious drunken fall (into the orchestra pit?) during one of her last concerts and the wound in the leg that occurred. She wouldn't let doctors deal with it properly out of vanity, and it never healed properly, eventually becoming horribly infected.

My biggest shock in reading the bio was Maria's revelation that French film star Jean Gabin was the greatest love of her mother's life. All the gorgeous men (and women) she slept with and that little toad was who she most pined for? He apparently broke her heart when he ended their affair.

Ribbit.

I fell in love with an ugly man once. I cannot explain it, it pains me to this day. I've had much, much better since but it's him I long for. Love is weird.

R142, thanks for clearing up the leg story. I just remembered the bit that I read, her daughter was talking about Marlene being too vain to have it looked at.

My memory is that there were leg issues before the fall. When they contacted Maria right after the fall she told them *not* to remove her hose, but they already had.

R142, maybe because HE dumped HER. Her massive ego made her incapable of accepting that anyone would do that to her.

does anyone really believe jfk fucked her when she was in her 60s? she sounds like the type of narcissist to make these things up to feed her ego in the eyes of others.

Marlene had circulatory problems in her legs that started in the 50s. Her alcoholism was in part due to the fact that drinking eased the pain in her legs.

Did Lloyd's of London insure Marlene's legs for a million dollars? Or was that Betty Grable?

I don't think MD would have passed the physical for that, R150.

R142, Gabin was not a toad. he was considered a real man. They were obviously separated during the war when he returned from America to join up with the French resistance - he was in a tank brigade - amazing cause he was very claustrophobic.

After the war some model in her mid 20s with a young son got her claws in him and within a month she was pregnant with his child. Smart cookie. At the time she was facing charges of collaboration with the enemy (Nazis) and after a bit the fact she was now the wife of a French war hero and beloved actor got those charges eventually dismissed.

There is a report (can't remember if Marlene tells it or it was overheard) that Jean called her ahead to tell her the woman was pregnant and she wanted him to marry her. Marlene supposedly suggested he reconsider marrying her for that reason and just offer to take care of the child. But they got married quickly. Maybe Jean thought a no-drama marriage with a young woman was what he needed after the trauma of war. They stayed married until his death.

And, yes, Jean Gabin, was more than likely the love of her life. Though Yul Brynner must have been a close second.

I always assumed Yul was just pure sex, no strings attached.

Supposedly, they'd fuck in his dressing room between matinee and evening performances of The King and I and Marlene would emerge covered in his body makeup.

[quote]Supposedly, they'd fuck in his dressing room between matinee and evening performances of The King and I and Marlene would emerge covered in his body makeup.

Stealth scat post?

[quote] Riva is homophobic [R20], she blames her mother's bisexuality for much of what happened to her, and has nothing but rotten things to say about all the lesbians she mentions. She's less unkind but still very rude when discussing gays.

Post the quotes. Let’s see it.

Why does Maria hate Edith Piaf calling her trash and a guttersnipe?

hhhhh

Dear Miss Jordan, R130, you were part of the studio coverup. I can't believe you are still trying to pass off this bogus story 85 years later! Note the comment at the end of that article that he was only friends with Dietrich. She couldn't afford to be identified as being there since she was a married woman. If it was known, her career would have been over.

I'm not at home, so I can't look at my copy of the book, but it goes into great detail about who was called, who came, etc. IIRC, Cedric Gibbons lived very close by and rushed up there to help.

“Dietrich fits the bill for every German person I've ever met; arrogant, entitled, vain, rude, extremely narcissistic.”

Sounds just like most Americans.

Yeah, it's just that the Germans who DO fit that description tend to be memorable people.

Echt scheissleute

English Wiki page for Jean Gabin is rather skimpy on details, but happily French version more than compensates.

Jean Gabin rolled around with at least two other women after he and MD fell out before marrying Christiane Fournier on 28 mars 1949 just two months after the two met. Their daughter Florence Moncorgé-Gabin was born 28 novembre 1949. Do the sums...... At least one Gabin family website puts birth year of Florence Gabin down as 1950.... Christiane Fournier already had one child when she married Jean Gabin.

As for that suggestion allegedly made by MD that Gabin should merely support the child and not marry its mother, Napoleon long fixed that issue. Under French law all children sired by a Frenchman regardless of which side of blanket they are born are entitled to inherit part of his estate. Indeed under French law a certain percentage of estate is reserved for children (byblows and legitimate) which cannot be changed, disinheriting your children in France just isn't possible.

From another source, do with this bit of information what you will...

quote:

The end of the Second World War also marked the decline of the love affair between Marlene Dietrich and Jean Gabin. Together they made a film, “Martin Roumagnac“, but it was not a success. The two grew apart. When Marlene decided to go back to America, where she continued her post-war career, Gabin wanted to start a family in France. Due to this, the relationship seems to have reached its end point. Eventually, Gabin started a family, with another woman.

The hard separation Gabin undertook was especially hard for Marlene: In November 1946, Jean wrote in a letter to Marlene that he never wanted to see her again and that he didn’t even want to watch the films they made together. Until the end of her days, Marlene’s relationship with Gabin remained special amongst the many love affairs she had had in her life: when Jean Gabin died in 1976 a few months after her husband Rudi Sieber, she announced that she was now widowed for the second time.

/quote

Who is Willis Goldbeck? Looks as if he smells cookies. Or at least might offer to help if there was a sudden rush.

Edith Piaf and Marlene Dietrich were great friends and some had always said a bit more.

In interviews Maria Riva flat out states Edith Piaf and her mother had a sexual relationship. The "guttersnipe" thing is nasty bit of snobbery from the (very German) Frau Riva.

Edith Piaf famously was known as someone who was born impoverished and basically was a street urchin (or one step up).

Edith Piaf's Wiki page puts things into perspective.

Answer to query above, yes by all accounts Marlene Dietrich has both Kennedy pere et fils....

The son....

Or...

Marlene Dietrich's FBI file.

More dirt....

R89 What homophobic and rotten things did she say about lesbians?

[R140 ] You might be wrong. Read ‘The Girls. Sappho goes to Hollywood.’ Diana McLellan makes a convincing argument that Garbo and Dietrich appeared in a silent film together before they were famous. ‘The joyless street by G.W. Pabst. A lot of their scene was cut from the finished film but still exists in rough cuts. Marlene’s hair is dark. As a performer in pre war Berlin cabaret clubs Marlene changed her hair colour quite often as many young women do. Even in early Hollywood days her hair photographed darker. She wasn’t the golden blonde we associate her with until later in her Hollywood career. Dietrich also told her actor pall Clifton Webb that she did know Garbo, and had know her intimately in Berlin. She told him Garbo was ‘very large down there’. Seems Garbo had one hefty pair of beef curtains despite the goddess face.

[quote]Those medical problems that helped put an end to her show career were very real. The famous Dietrich legs were the problem. Circulation in them had grown so poor from smoking, drinking and lack of exercise that it was finally necessary to solve her problems with surgery. Dr. Michael De Bakey told her she would lose one of her legs if she did not submit to it. He won. She went to her grave with both of them.

[quote]But because of her drunkenness, she had frequent falls and once badly broke her hip. Another fall in 1979 gave her a hairline fracture on the same hip. A bit of bed rest and it would have mended. However, she took to her bed and refused to leave it until her death at age 90 in 1992.

Dietrich had atherosclerosis in her legs that she refused to have properly treated for years. She drank and popped pills to ease the pain. By the time she actually saw legitimate doctors, the damage was pretty bad.

She quit smoking in the 1960s, grudgingly, but that didn't do much, the damage was already irreversible. People said that Dietrich was never the same without her cigarettes, she became even more cranky and impossible. After she quit smoking was when she really increased her alcohol intake. She'd had a problem for years by then, but after she gave up cigs her alcohol problem really spun out of control.

R173 There's no proof for any of that.

Did Maria marry well or was she left a lot of money by her mother. She sent both her kids to the most prestigious Swiss school.

R84, Uma Thurman had a Dietrich biopic in development back in the ne 90s or 00s.

Nothing came of it.

I thought Kristin Scott Thomas might play her at one time too.

Either Maria was (then) broke or just not good with keeping on top of finances. She had a storage locker somewhere in CA that after payments weren't kept up contents were auctioned off. Tons of Marlene Dietrich related and other things Maria had in said locker was scattered to the four corners of earth.

Much of MD things you see on eBay, flea markets or other such places came from whoever got their mitts on that storage locker.

[quote]Blinging and #frockingfabulous, in one shoetiful package. Once the property of Marlene Dietrich, these embroidered heels feature rather fab crystal detail. Via FIDM.