Memories of and by Marlene Dietrich
Marlene—an icon of film history, a vamp, and a diva: It’s always the same legends that have been associated with the name Marlene Dietrich ever since she set out from Berlin in the early 1930s—after her triumph as the dashing Lola in the film *The Blue Angel*—to conquer the world as a blonde Venus, shooting across the sky like a comet. This actress was more contradictory, more modern, and more uncompromising than any other Hollywood star. But what made this woman so extraordinary only becomes clear when she is viewed in the context of her time.
Marlene Dietrich wore pants at a time when women were beaten in the streets for doing so. She brought her child to Hollywood at a time when motherhood meant the end of a career for an erotic film star. She resisted Hitler’s enticements when many of her colleagues succumbed. And at an age when others were retiring from the stage for good, she began a second career as a storyteller.
In her reading, Claudia Michelsen presents the life of a woman who systematically eluded definition her entire life and still remains an enigma: How could she—whose lovers included Erich Maria Remarque, Gary Cooper, Jean Gabin, John F. Kennedy, and Yul Brynner—describe herself as not beautiful? After all, she had achieved world fame with her overwhelming erotic aura. Why did she doubt her acting abilities? And how was it that this adored diva spent her entire life lamenting her loneliness? In her memoirs, Marlene Dietrich answered these and other questions, offering a candid account of her eventful life.
