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From the Vault - Marlene Dietrich · Who Did What Now With Katie Charlwood

0:12
Speaker 1: Hello, delicious friend, and welcome to Who Did What Now?
0:16
Speaker 1: The history podcast that is not your history class with me,
0:21
Speaker 1: your host Katie Charlewood, history harlot and reader of books.
0:28
Speaker 2: Here is a little old day from the Vault Marlena.
0:32
Speaker 3: Dietrich because I want to be alone now. Just to
0:37
Speaker 3: warn everyone, my voice is gone. I have a very husky,
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Speaker 3: sexy voice in this.
0:45
Speaker 2: Episode, which is nice for some.
0:48
Speaker 3: It was less pleasant for me. I think I had
0:51
Speaker 3: to take so many breaks because.
0:54
Speaker 2: You know what I mean.
0:55
Speaker 3: So yeah, but with it being a Hollywood history a month,
0:59
Speaker 3: I I am so glad to share this with you.
1:04
Speaker 3: I blood you love Marlena Dietrich, and I thought you
1:07
Speaker 3: deserve a little bit of fun. You deserve a really
1:10
Speaker 3: cool women who wanted to poison Hitler with a happen
1:15
Speaker 3: because of course she did anyway, without further ado, I
1:20
Speaker 3: do hope you enjoyed this all Day from the Vault
1:23
Speaker 3: episode of Marlena Dietrich. Have fun.
1:28
Speaker 2: If you are new here, this is not my usual voice.
1:32
Speaker 2: This is much sexier than my usual voice. I am sick,
1:37
Speaker 2: because of course I am, because I can't stay healthy
1:40
Speaker 2: for more than five minutes. But fuck it, it's fine.
1:44
Speaker 2: Here we are. Oh you may have noticed that I
1:48
Speaker 2: speak with language more colorful than a kaleidoscope filled with
1:51
Speaker 2: the word fuck. But here we are welcome. If you
1:56
Speaker 2: don't like it, though, you might want to exit stage left. Good,
2:02
Speaker 2: now that we've separated the week from the chaff, how
2:05
Speaker 2: are you what you're doing? Well? Yeah, this has been
2:09
Speaker 2: it's been a fun week. It's been a busy week,
2:11
Speaker 2: trying to get sort of more of the tour dates
2:14
Speaker 2: locked in. All the events are going to be going
2:16
Speaker 2: up on the website, so they're going to be on there,
2:19
Speaker 2: and yeah, it's going to be good. I'm excited. Are
2:23
Speaker 2: you excited? I'm excited. We should all be excited. But anyway,
2:27
Speaker 2: I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, what your gibber
2:30
Speaker 2: jabber in fact me, in fact you. Well, but first
2:34
Speaker 2: we've got to get our source on. Our sources are
2:38
Speaker 2: Marlina Dietrich Life and Legend by Stephen Buck, Marlena Dietrich
2:44
Speaker 2: by Maria Riva Blue Angel, The Life of Marlina Dietrich
2:49
Speaker 2: by Donald Spoto, Steenberg and Dietrich. The Phenomenology of Spectacle
2:57
Speaker 2: by James Phillips at War, Marlina Dietrich Remembered by David J. Riva,
3:06
Speaker 2: The Sewing Circle, Hollywood's Greatest Secret Female Stars who Loved
3:11
Speaker 2: Other Women by Axel Madden, The Girls When Sappho Goes
3:17
Speaker 2: to Hollywood by Diana McLellan. And of course we have
3:22
Speaker 2: our old favorites he history dot com and biography dot com.
3:27
Speaker 2: I will say it uncomfortably good. Then let's begin. So
3:34
Speaker 2: Marlena Dietrich was born, as most of us are, she
3:39
Speaker 2: was born. Yeah, So she was born Marie Magdalene Dietrich
3:47
Speaker 2: on the twenty seventh of December nineteen oh one in
3:51
Speaker 2: the Lewis Strauss in Berlin. I will do accents, they
3:58
Speaker 2: will not be pleasant. You're just gonna have to accept.
4:00
Speaker 2: So she was born to Wilhelmina Elizabeth Josephine. And I
4:05
Speaker 2: name I'm gonna fuck up, But luckily I don't have
4:07
Speaker 2: to say it more than once. Lewis Rich Otto Dietrich.
4:14
Speaker 2: It's a very short shot, sharp sharp sharp short. Oh
4:18
Speaker 2: my god, I'm getting worse. It's a sharp short name.
4:22
Speaker 2: It's like Louis Rich otto di see. It's it's very
4:28
Speaker 2: difficult for Mawi tongue today, is it? You know? It
4:33
Speaker 2: likes the long names. The elaborate names, but this is
4:35
Speaker 2: this is where we're at. So Louis he was a
4:41
Speaker 2: police lieutenant. And Wilhelmina or Wilhelmina, probably Wilhelmina was rich.
4:49
Speaker 2: She was my rich family, a well to do family.
4:52
Speaker 2: They made their money on jewelery and clocks and Marlina
4:57
Speaker 2: here she is one of two children. She has an
5:00
Speaker 2: older sister who's like a year older than her, so
5:03
Speaker 2: it's nineteen hundred. Her sister, Elizabeth is born and then
5:08
Speaker 2: she's born the year after, so there's like a year
5:12
Speaker 2: and a half between them. But there's the two girls
5:15
Speaker 2: and that's it. That's enough. So starting things off, she
5:20
Speaker 2: comes from a pretty privileged background. Her family's prosperous. Things
5:24
Speaker 2: are going well. She's doing all right for herself. Unfortunately,
5:31
Speaker 2: like most of our stories, at tragedy strikes, because of
5:35
Speaker 2: course they fucking do, right, of course it does, of course.
5:39
Speaker 2: So her beloved father, Lewis louis one of those. He
5:46
Speaker 2: is thrown from a horse and dies of his injuries.
5:51
Speaker 2: And she's only six years old when this happens, leaving
5:55
Speaker 2: her mother a widow who is just not doing great. Unsurprisingly,
6:02
Speaker 2: being the turn of the twentieth century. Her mother goes
6:05
Speaker 2: into full on mourning, so she is in her mourning garb.
6:10
Speaker 2: She doesn't go places, she dresses all in black, like
6:14
Speaker 2: it's very much the done thing of especially the world
6:19
Speaker 2: to do. But she is absolutely done, like she is
6:24
Speaker 2: full on grieving, and you know, her husband has died
6:27
Speaker 2: and she's allowed to do that. You're expected to do that, especially,
6:32
Speaker 2: you know, in this era. And what happens is things
6:36
Speaker 2: are going okay until the outbreak of World War One,
6:42
Speaker 2: the Great War, the First War, however you want to
6:45
Speaker 2: phrase it. The war breaks out and the family business
6:51
Speaker 2: is not doing great because you know, war, although war
6:56
Speaker 2: is good for business, it's not necessarily good for that business.
7:01
Speaker 2: Not really a lot of clocks needed it this time,
7:04
Speaker 2: and so desperation, their mother gets a job as a housekeeper,
7:11
Speaker 2: but she manages to work for one of Lewis's old friends,
7:15
Speaker 2: Edward von lush So. Edward was a colonel in the grenadiers,
7:23
Speaker 2: and she was, you know, relatively well to do as well,
7:27
Speaker 2: so things were okay. She kind of landed on her
7:30
Speaker 2: feet there. But when they get married in nineteen fourteen,
7:36
Speaker 2: sort of the war has broken out and then a
7:38
Speaker 2: lot of wi lately get married Wilhelmina. The mum is
7:46
Speaker 2: wearing her mourning clothes for her first husband. Like that
7:51
Speaker 2: is her wedding dress, is her mourning garb? Like, I'm
7:55
Speaker 2: not saying that was a bad sign. I'm just saying,
8:01
Speaker 2: does that flag look vaguely maroon to you? Just just
8:08
Speaker 2: a question, just a thought perhaps. So they get married
8:16
Speaker 2: nineteen fourteen, and he's in the army, he's not around
8:22
Speaker 2: too much, and then two years later, nineteen sixteen, he dies.
8:28
Speaker 2: He dies in combat, as one does when one is
8:31
Speaker 2: in the army during a full on world war. There
8:36
Speaker 2: is a wee bit of a silver lining though, because
8:38
Speaker 2: they were married, they had his pension, so they had
8:42
Speaker 2: Vonlosh's pension to kind of tide them over and keep
8:45
Speaker 2: them going. I should probably mention where the name Marlena
8:49
Speaker 2: came from. So basically, the second half of her second
8:55
Speaker 2: name and the first part of her first name smooshed together,
8:58
Speaker 2: so when she was younger, people would call her Lena
9:02
Speaker 2: sort of for reasons, I guess, And so she decided
9:07
Speaker 2: to mix those together and make Marlena. So Marie Magdalene, Yeah, yeah, yeah, Marlena.
9:14
Speaker 2: There you go. She's gonna name good for her. She
9:16
Speaker 2: chose her name, and we have to respect that. So
9:19
Speaker 2: why she's grown up as well, is she's playing the
9:22
Speaker 2: violin and she dreams of being a concert violinist. But
9:28
Speaker 2: then she starts getting these pains in her hand and
9:31
Speaker 2: she goes to the doctors and turns out she has
9:34
Speaker 2: this bone injury that didn't heal. So she's got this
9:39
Speaker 2: injured wrist and she just can't play to the level
9:44
Speaker 2: of like a concert pianist anymore. And here's the thing,
9:48
Speaker 2: like she was doing like theater and poetry and all
9:52
Speaker 2: this other stuff as a backup, Like it was a
9:56
Speaker 2: backup plan for her. Like imagine imagine your massive, amazing,
10:02
Speaker 2: wonderful career being a backup because you stumbled upon it,
10:07
Speaker 2: like you fell into it, like by happenstance.
10:12
Speaker 4: You know.
10:13
Speaker 2: Well, when I fall into things, I end up covered
10:16
Speaker 2: in mud, you know, I end up drenched and ruined
10:20
Speaker 2: and broken. She ends up with a career like, oh no,
10:25
Speaker 2: I just fell into it. Oh no, Like I end
10:29
Speaker 2: up in the bend next to Oscar the Grouch, and
10:32
Speaker 2: she ends up at the oscars, you know what I mean. Like,
10:35
Speaker 2: that's that's fun for everybody. Involved. But yeah, she was
10:40
Speaker 2: doing this as a backup. But I'm getting ahead of
10:44
Speaker 2: myself a wee bit. So when she's when she's like
10:50
Speaker 2: seventeen eighteen, she gets a job as like a violinist
10:56
Speaker 2: and an orchestra pet in a theater. Inline So like
11:01
Speaker 2: back in the day, what would happen is silent films
11:04
Speaker 2: would play and the orchestra would play along. You know,
11:08
Speaker 2: they would do the little dangerous music when the train
11:11
Speaker 2: would be getting towards the train tracks and the damsel
11:14
Speaker 2: will be tied to it by the devious villain. You know,
11:17
Speaker 2: they would play the appropriate like soundtrack for the movie.
11:23
Speaker 2: And that's what she did. She lasted four weeks before
11:27
Speaker 2: she was fired. But of course a girl needs a job,
11:32
Speaker 2: and so she gets one as a chorus girl. And
11:36
Speaker 2: so she's on tour with the Guido Daisher's girl Cowboret.
11:41
Speaker 2: Fuck me, my throat is so sore. I can't pronounce
11:44
Speaker 2: words properly, like I'm usually pretty good, but you know
11:49
Speaker 2: European words places, Nope, not today. Everything. I'm buggering it
11:56
Speaker 2: all up. But it's fine. I'm sure you'll I'm sure
11:58
Speaker 2: you'll forgive me. And so yeah, she's on tour during
12:02
Speaker 2: these like vaudeville shows, and she tries to get into
12:09
Speaker 2: a drama academy. She auditions when she's twenty one, and she's,
12:15
Speaker 2: guess what, you're trying to get into this drama academy.
12:18
Speaker 2: What is it? The Max Reinheart's Drama Academy. And they
12:24
Speaker 2: were like, no, she didn't get in, not even a wee.
12:29
Speaker 2: But and so she ends up doing chorus girl stuff
12:32
Speaker 2: small here the parts, you know, bits and pieces, and
12:35
Speaker 2: she's doing this around Berlin. But what she also does
12:41
Speaker 2: in Berlin is she starts going to the underground Berlin
12:47
Speaker 2: gay bars and drag balls. So she was very much
12:52
Speaker 2: part of this scene. And throughout her early twenties she
12:57
Speaker 2: is going out partying, she is shagging men, she's shagging women,
13:02
Speaker 2: she's probably shagging people who are gender nonconformist. She's doing
13:07
Speaker 2: everything everyone, some might say, and she's having the best time.
13:12
Speaker 2: And we love this journey for her. When she's twenty two,
13:17
Speaker 2: she gets a genuiney role in a film called The
13:21
Speaker 2: Little Napoleon. So that's her debut to the moving pictures.
13:29
Speaker 2: That is not her accent. That was bad. That was
13:32
Speaker 2: really bad. So she's on the set of tragedy of love,
13:40
Speaker 2: very optimistic one there where she meets Rudolph Cyber now
13:48
Speaker 2: as someone who's just constantly this big party girl, and
13:52
Speaker 2: she's out shagging this person that person, whoever right, And
13:56
Speaker 2: she suddenly flips on this. She tells everyone that she's
13:59
Speaker 2: fallen badly in love. But all the evidence suggests that
14:03
Speaker 2: this in fact was a shotgun wedding. So effectively, Marlena
14:12
Speaker 2: Dietrich was pregnant and being you know, the good man
14:20
Speaker 2: that he was. I guess I suppose maybe Rudolph Cyber
14:24
Speaker 2: decides he's going to make an honest woman out of her,
14:26
Speaker 2: and they get married and it's in like like a
14:30
Speaker 2: civil service, and they get married in May, and then
14:40
Speaker 2: Marlena's only child, their daughter, is born in Zember. Maria
14:48
Speaker 2: Elizabeth Cyber just just you know, made to Dezember's. Uh,
14:59
Speaker 2: I mean, that's that's that's eight months. I'm just I'm
15:03
Speaker 2: just saying that it's not a long time. I'm just
15:06
Speaker 2: just putting it out there. It's a good day or
15:10
Speaker 2: shotgun wedding. Yeah, I know, I know, I squeezed it
15:14
Speaker 2: in there. I did it. I don't care I did it.
15:16
Speaker 2: So they have this cookie cutter like family, husband, wife, baby,
15:22
Speaker 2: and they're married. Yeah, and they stay married, like, they
15:27
Speaker 2: don't get divorced because I don't know, maybe they couldn't
15:30
Speaker 2: be arsed. Maybe they stayed friends because you know, they
15:34
Speaker 2: both got around and they seem to be pretty chill,
15:38
Speaker 2: Like he's living with like another woman for like twenty years,
15:41
Speaker 2: and Marlina is just kind of doing whoever she wants
15:47
Speaker 2: and they live separate lives. But they just can't be
15:50
Speaker 2: arsed getting divorced. I couldn't read anything about them not
15:53
Speaker 2: getting on. So yeah, maybe they were fine, you know,
15:58
Speaker 2: but yes, nuclear family. You might think, ah, you know,
16:02
Speaker 2: she might settle down. Absolutely not. So she continues working
16:07
Speaker 2: on stage and on screen all through sort of the
16:10
Speaker 2: nineteen twenties, but then in nineteen twenty nine she meets
16:14
Speaker 2: Joseph von Sternberg. And what's interesting about these two is,
16:19
Speaker 2: as far as I remember, they currently hold like the
16:22
Speaker 2: most collaborations between an actor and a director. So these
16:27
Speaker 2: two worked have worked together more than any other, been
16:33
Speaker 2: in more productions than any other actor slash director. So go,
16:39
Speaker 2: then that's actually fucking cool. So she gets her break
16:43
Speaker 2: as Lola on his film The Blue Angel and this
16:48
Speaker 2: is her big break, and he's out there telling everybody
16:54
Speaker 2: that he discovered her, and for years afterwards, really no
17:00
Speaker 2: would say that, you know, this was her first film,
17:03
Speaker 2: and you know, and pretend like the old ones in
17:05
Speaker 2: Germany didn't exist, didn't happen. But no, no, no, this
17:10
Speaker 2: was just her being discovered. So she ends up being
17:15
Speaker 2: signed to Paramount Pictures just because this film does so
17:18
Speaker 2: fucking well. And she gets signed because they're trying to
17:21
Speaker 2: find like another Greta Garbel who's Swedish and so they
17:27
Speaker 2: wanted somebody else and she's German, so you know, she's
17:30
Speaker 2: she's foreign, she's out there and she's doing well, and
17:37
Speaker 2: that's what they want. They want someone who has the
17:39
Speaker 2: same kind of appeal, that same I don't want to
17:43
Speaker 2: say exoticness, but like imagine like oh they're so exotic,
17:48
Speaker 2: they're German like. But Metro Golden Mayor they had Garble,
17:56
Speaker 2: and Paramit wanted their own Garble, but they couldn't have
17:59
Speaker 2: another because that would be a turn up for the books.
18:04
Speaker 2: I regret nothing and so and so they wanted their
18:09
Speaker 2: own and so enter Marlena. So she leaves Berlin for Hollywood.
18:14
Speaker 2: She you know, kisses her husband and her daughter goodbye,
18:17
Speaker 2: and she's like, I'll be back soon, but she's not.
18:22
Speaker 2: And it doesn't really matter because at that point has mistress.
18:24
Speaker 2: It's like a dancer. I think she's you know, and there,
18:29
Speaker 2: you know, involved in that situation. When Marlena is headed
18:33
Speaker 2: over to Hollywood and she's there and she arrives and
18:39
Speaker 2: Joseph and Stenberg, he just starts showing her with gifts,
18:42
Speaker 2: one of which is a green Roles voice. Now, I
18:46
Speaker 2: don't care much for green cars nor for rolls rices,
18:49
Speaker 2: but I would not say no to one, even though
18:52
Speaker 2: I do not drive. That is not the point. If
18:55
Speaker 2: I had one of those, If I could afford a
18:57
Speaker 2: Rose Royce, I feel like I could afford a driver,
18:59
Speaker 2: you know, except I would call Mi chauffeur because i'mbougie
19:03
Speaker 2: like that. So Marlena is just cruising towards the US,
19:07
Speaker 2: preparing for her next film role, maybe flirting with some
19:11
Speaker 2: people on the boat, and you know, because she has
19:15
Speaker 2: to travel by boat because that's how one got around
19:18
Speaker 2: in the past. And she gets to the States and
19:23
Speaker 2: the moment she steps off the boat, she is served
19:27
Speaker 2: with peoples because Joseph von Sternberg's wife. She was suing
19:35
Speaker 2: Marlena Dietrich for six hundred thousand dollars for a label
19:42
Speaker 2: and for stealing her husband's affection. So basically, this was
19:46
Speaker 2: accusing her of seeing in an interview with some magazine
19:51
Speaker 2: in Germany that von Stenberg was in love with her
19:55
Speaker 2: and that he was going to leave his wife for her,
19:58
Speaker 2: and the the studio is like, oh no, we can't
20:02
Speaker 2: have this, this is not something we can do right now,
20:06
Speaker 2: and Marlena is just like wanting to fight it because
20:10
Speaker 2: she's like, fuck this for a game of soldiers. And
20:14
Speaker 2: what happens is the studio basically pair off and they
20:17
Speaker 2: make it settle and to not go public. Like they're
20:20
Speaker 2: just like no, no, no, no, no, keep it stump, keep
20:22
Speaker 2: it stumb. We're not We're not having this. We have
20:24
Speaker 2: a reputation to think about. And like the Hayes Code
20:28
Speaker 2: was starting to come into effect at this point too,
20:30
Speaker 2: So if you don't know what the Hayes Code is,
20:33
Speaker 2: it was this level of censorship that was adopted by
20:38
Speaker 2: sort of the motion picture scene, by all of the
20:41
Speaker 2: major studios, and they all just kind of agreed to it,
20:45
Speaker 2: and it's so fucking ridiculous. It had a list of
20:48
Speaker 2: actors and actresses who were blacklisted, effectively for being like
20:55
Speaker 2: openly you know, sexy, gay, who were using a lot
21:03
Speaker 2: of curse words in real life, who had behavior that
21:06
Speaker 2: was seen as a moral or unethical or or you know,
21:12
Speaker 2: not upstanding traditional values. Like it just said this so stupid.
21:18
Speaker 2: It's so stupid. So it had a list of all
21:21
Speaker 2: these actors and actresses on it, And then it also
21:24
Speaker 2: had sort of rules that you had to follow, like
21:28
Speaker 2: you couldn't have relationships quote unquote relations outside of marriage.
21:33
Speaker 2: You couldn't have like a couple sharing a bed together.
21:36
Speaker 2: You couldn't have anything that suggested sex. You couldn't have
21:42
Speaker 2: like a bunch of weird, weird shit, Like my personal
21:46
Speaker 2: favorite was if a couple are in a bedroom, they
21:51
Speaker 2: have to have one foot on the floor all times,
21:56
Speaker 2: like like you couldn't have really sexy, sexy stuff going on,
22:02
Speaker 2: which in a way was really good because it meant
22:04
Speaker 2: that at the time women would get decent roles because
22:08
Speaker 2: they couldn't just be like a sex symbol, Like you
22:13
Speaker 2: couldn't just be that, like you couldn't be pigeonholed into
22:17
Speaker 2: this specific sort of But and at the time, as well.
22:21
Speaker 2: You had a lot of women working behind the scenes
22:24
Speaker 2: in Hollywood, Like a lot of the major players initially
22:28
Speaker 2: were women, and then men realized you could make money
22:31
Speaker 2: off it, and then they came. But yeah, it was
22:33
Speaker 2: it was a very interesting time. So, yeah, the Hayes
22:36
Speaker 2: code comes in. So women get pretty decent parts because
22:39
Speaker 2: they can't just be a sex symbol, you know, a
22:42
Speaker 2: bout of fluff, and so they get decent roles. And
22:47
Speaker 2: then comes Marlena who causes scandal on the set of
22:52
Speaker 2: Morocco because she's playing a cabaret star. As always, I say,
22:56
Speaker 2: as always, but she is. She's playing a cabaret star
22:59
Speaker 2: and she's wearing a suit and she kisses another woman.
23:04
Speaker 2: Now again, this is something that shouldn't be allowed according
23:07
Speaker 2: to the Hayes quote, but she argues and argues and
23:12
Speaker 2: says that it's essential to the plot and that it's necessary,
23:16
Speaker 2: and she kind of bullies slash convinces the sensors to
23:22
Speaker 2: allow it and to keep it in and they do.
23:26
Speaker 2: And this is where she also starts having an affair
23:30
Speaker 2: with Gary Cooper, who's also having an affair with another
23:35
Speaker 2: actress who wants to quote Teir Marlina's eyeballs out like okay, cool,
23:42
Speaker 2: that's that's fun. So naturally, this is a perfect time
23:46
Speaker 2: to go visit your husband. And she heads back to Germany,
23:50
Speaker 2: back to Berlin, and she gets there and turns out
23:55
Speaker 2: her daughter doesn't fucking recognize her, and she's like, oh no,
23:58
Speaker 2: this ain't good, and she decides, you know what, you
24:01
Speaker 2: all are coming back to America with me. Come on,
24:04
Speaker 2: let's go, and off they pop. They head over to
24:08
Speaker 2: the States. Now, as her daughter grows up, instead of
24:12
Speaker 2: you know, sending her to school like you know, one should,
24:16
Speaker 2: she ends up having her become like a mini assistant
24:20
Speaker 2: and just drags her from set to set. So the
24:22
Speaker 2: more she's acting, the more she's getting around, she's bringing
24:24
Speaker 2: her with her. Now, part of this is probably a
24:30
Speaker 2: bit selfish, because she's upset that her daughter didn't recognize her,
24:34
Speaker 2: but another part was she gets this letter threatening to
24:38
Speaker 2: kidnap Maria and they're gonna come get her and whatever,
24:43
Speaker 2: and so she always keeps her close, Like she tells,
24:46
Speaker 2: you know, Steiberg, the husband, and he's like, yeah, I'm
24:49
Speaker 2: gonna call the cops, and so he's like, people have
24:53
Speaker 2: threatened to kidnap her. Eventually no one does, but you know, yeah, now, Maria,
24:59
Speaker 2: she basically ends up writing this book which is kind
25:02
Speaker 2: of the equivalent of Mummy Dearest, and it is not favorable.
25:07
Speaker 2: It basically says that Marlina Dietrich was, you know, a
25:10
Speaker 2: bit of a bit, which we kind of expected to
25:12
Speaker 2: the best of our abilities, but it also said that
25:16
Speaker 2: she was a wee bit racist. She was also a
25:19
Speaker 2: little bit sexist, which you know, weird for a queer
25:24
Speaker 2: woman to hate other women, but she did. She really
25:27
Speaker 2: hated Josephine Baker. And I don't know if that's just
25:30
Speaker 2: because Josephine Baker was amazing and she was jealous, or
25:34
Speaker 2: because Josephine Baker was not white. So we have to
25:40
Speaker 2: take it to consideration that no, no, no, not the
25:44
Speaker 2: best of people in the world is Marlina Dietrich. That
25:49
Speaker 2: being said, when one Sternberg goes back to Germany, she's like,
25:55
Speaker 2: maybe you shouldn't do that because things don't seem great
25:58
Speaker 2: over there, because one Sternberg is Jewish and he's her
26:02
Speaker 2: friend and collaborator, possibly lovers to say, and she's like,
26:07
Speaker 2: let's not do that. So she is doing okay film
26:14
Speaker 2: wise in the nineteen thirties. She's in well received movies,
26:20
Speaker 2: but she's gone away from Paramount and she's making movies
26:23
Speaker 2: and sort of other countries and she's making them in
26:25
Speaker 2: London and they're expensive and she's doing well all right,
26:33
Speaker 2: but she ends up like number one, two six in
26:35
Speaker 2: the box office rankings, and so she gets labeled poison,
26:41
Speaker 2: box office poison, which apparently is a big deal. And
26:46
Speaker 2: just like everybody else, it's just kind of she fell
26:49
Speaker 2: out of fashion a wee bit. It's not really that
26:51
Speaker 2: big of deal, you know. She just wasn't any thing
26:54
Speaker 2: like fred A Staire at one point was labeled box
26:56
Speaker 2: office poison. Fred fucking a Stare, you know, Catherine Hepburn,
27:03
Speaker 2: Greta Garble, like all of the interesting ones. They're like ooh,
27:08
Speaker 2: And so she gets labeled as that, and that's fine.
27:13
Speaker 2: But speaking of Catherine Hepburn and Greta Garble and such
27:17
Speaker 2: and allegedly, I've got to say allegedly because there's a
27:24
Speaker 2: men of eminence, but not a huge amount of evidence,
27:27
Speaker 2: but there's enough of it. So here's the thing. This
27:33
Speaker 2: sewing circle, the sewing circle was like this. It isn't
27:38
Speaker 2: like a club, you know, it's not like a member's
27:41
Speaker 2: only jacket. No, although we should have sewing circle jackets
27:47
Speaker 2: if you want, like, let's do that sewing circle, a
27:50
Speaker 2: little slowing circle. Oh IMG, will that be amazing, wouldn't it? Yes,
27:56
Speaker 2: So basically, the sewing circle was more of a concept.
27:59
Speaker 2: And I'm not saying it's like a ring, you know,
28:02
Speaker 2: it's not like like a drug ring. But it's a
28:04
Speaker 2: lesbian ring. Yeah. Effectively, So lesbians in Hollywood, whether they
28:11
Speaker 2: were actors, actresses, I see actress, whether they were actresses
28:15
Speaker 2: or behind the scenes or writers or you know, the
28:19
Speaker 2: wife of Jack Warner of Warner Brothers. Just saying, so
28:26
Speaker 2: they were lesbians and Hollywood effectively, and that was the
28:29
Speaker 2: sewing circle. So I think Tulula Bankhead, Claudine Colbert, so
28:36
Speaker 2: on and so forth, Marlene and Dietrich and Marlena is
28:41
Speaker 2: having affairs men women. Howmever, having the best life because
28:48
Speaker 2: of this, because of this sort of known secret of
28:51
Speaker 2: who she was and who she was doing. That's kind
28:56
Speaker 2: of where Hollywood sort of loses its phizz with her
29:01
Speaker 2: and she gets an interesting offer. So it's the mid thirties.
29:09
Speaker 2: Her films are doing okay, but they're not quite and
29:13
Speaker 2: she starts dating John Gilbert. John Gilbert had gone from
29:17
Speaker 2: like silent movies to talkies, and he had a very
29:21
Speaker 2: light speaking voice, but the studios tried to like alter
29:25
Speaker 2: his voice and like post to kind of go make
29:29
Speaker 2: it sound a bit more manly and as such, like
29:32
Speaker 2: this rumor mill start going out. They had a high pitched,
29:35
Speaker 2: squeaky voice, and it kind of tanked his career. Didn't
29:38
Speaker 2: tank his love life though, because he was married four
29:40
Speaker 2: times and like in the middle of like think between
29:44
Speaker 2: marriage two and three, he's dating Guerta Garbo who ends
29:48
Speaker 2: up leaving him at the altar like drama drama central, right,
29:55
Speaker 2: So allegedly his last marriage ended because his affair with Marlena,
30:02
Speaker 2: but they like officially start dating between like nineteen thirty
30:05
Speaker 2: five and nineteen thirty six, and she tries to get
30:07
Speaker 2: him a comeback and one of his films because you know,
30:10
Speaker 2: things are not going great for him, but it doesn't work,
30:14
Speaker 2: and he basically drinks himself to death, like that's what happens,
30:20
Speaker 2: you know, And Marlena is very upset over this, like
30:25
Speaker 2: she actually breaks down crying in a church, like sobbing.
30:30
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm hoping it's real and it wasn't just
30:35
Speaker 2: for show, Like it'd be nice to know that she
30:38
Speaker 2: had that level of empathy. Well, you know what they say,
30:41
Speaker 2: nothing gets you over the last one like the next one.
30:45
Speaker 2: And she starts getting down with Douglas Fairbanks Junior, who
30:51
Speaker 2: was very much married to Joan Crawford. Now there are whispers,
30:58
Speaker 2: there are rumors that it probably happened. So basically there's
31:03
Speaker 2: there's everywhere that Joan Crawford was also part of the
31:07
Speaker 2: social social circle, No, the sewing circle. She was also
31:11
Speaker 2: part of the sewing circle, so that's right, and they
31:16
Speaker 2: end up like going on holiday together like Marlena Dietrich,
31:22
Speaker 2: Douglas Fairbanks Junior, like her husband Rudolph and Rudolph's mistress,
31:26
Speaker 2: like just everybody all at once. But yeah, there's the
31:33
Speaker 2: thing as well. In Hollywood at the time and across
31:37
Speaker 2: America actually is there was a thing called a lavender marriage.
31:40
Speaker 2: And a lavender marriage was that usually put together by studios,
31:45
Speaker 2: you know, where if one person was like a lesbian
31:50
Speaker 2: or a gay man, and they would marry them to
31:53
Speaker 2: make them look like a heteronormative couple, even if even
31:58
Speaker 2: if say, for example, both of them were by settual, right,
32:02
Speaker 2: it would be like that because have you ever noticed
32:06
Speaker 2: that if bisexual people like if a woman is bisexual,
32:14
Speaker 2: you know, men often think that women are like pretending
32:18
Speaker 2: to like other women, you know, for performative reasons for men,
32:23
Speaker 2: or that they can be easily quote unquote turned, you know,
32:28
Speaker 2: and that gay men are going to be obsessed with them.
32:32
Speaker 2: Like it's funny how the very concept of sexuality revolves
32:37
Speaker 2: around men. And but I digress. So these lavender marriages
32:42
Speaker 2: would happen. I'm not saying this was one. I'm just
32:44
Speaker 2: saying that, you know, they assume that both of these
32:48
Speaker 2: people are going to be promiscuous and they're both gonna,
32:51
Speaker 2: you know, fuck men. But the point is that they
32:55
Speaker 2: wanted it to look like this was a marriage, a
33:00
Speaker 2: real march Jeniu marrige. But it's Hollywood, so how much
33:03
Speaker 2: is real? So yeah, these uh, there's rumors that she
33:07
Speaker 2: was having a wee thing. We don't Catford those rumors
33:10
Speaker 2: she was having a thing with May West. You know,
33:13
Speaker 2: just Hollywood's weird, That's all I'm saying. So, like the
33:17
Speaker 2: whole thing with her Banks Junior is if she was
33:20
Speaker 2: chatting to somebody that she was you know, interested in
33:24
Speaker 2: always interested in her is she would let him listening
33:27
Speaker 2: on the phone call and then let him go like
33:30
Speaker 2: absolutely ape shit ranting about her suitors, which is I mean,
33:36
Speaker 2: it's a level of like petty that I don't want
33:39
Speaker 2: to aspire to. But also I appreciate her tenacity. But yes,
33:45
Speaker 2: this is the point where she is box office poison
33:48
Speaker 2: quote unquote are you know?
33:51
Speaker 4: And she has some fans, right nineteen thirty nine, good
34:01
Speaker 4: bunch of fans, and.
34:04
Speaker 2: One of which is you know, the leader of the
34:06
Speaker 2: third right, So not the kind of fans you want,
34:10
Speaker 2: you know, I get it, I get it. I wouldn't
34:12
Speaker 2: want anyone following me or being interested in me. I
34:16
Speaker 2: don't want Nazis like in any capacity to be supportive
34:21
Speaker 2: of me, like I don't. I don't want you, just
34:24
Speaker 2: like I don't want conservatives or Republicans. I want decent
34:27
Speaker 2: human beings who actually, you know, don't need explain to
34:31
Speaker 2: them that you should care about other people. That basic
34:36
Speaker 2: empathy is not virtue signaling, you know, not keen on
34:42
Speaker 2: that in any capacity, not my thing, No, thank you byeye.
34:50
Speaker 2: So yeah, she's not doing me on the box office.
34:54
Speaker 2: But you know that's right. The Nazi government, you know,
35:03
Speaker 2: Nazi Germany. They contact her and they request that she
35:09
Speaker 2: stars in a range of propaganda films, you know, to
35:13
Speaker 2: show how amazing Germany is and the third rich and
35:16
Speaker 2: everything that goes along with that. But like two years previously,
35:20
Speaker 2: she had already applied for American citizenship and she was
35:25
Speaker 2: like ready to renounce. And she says what she was doing,
35:27
Speaker 2: she was renouncing her German citizenship because she was like,
35:30
Speaker 2: I'm not fucking involved with this bullshit. I'm not my circus,
35:34
Speaker 2: not my monkeys. No, thank you, adios Aidolf, like fuck off, no,
35:42
Speaker 2: and very much a fuck this for a game of socials.
35:45
Speaker 2: But when they request, when they contact her, when they
35:50
Speaker 2: ask her to be in these propaganda movies, she simply
35:55
Speaker 2: responds nine, just nine, like oh, we love you, You're
36:05
Speaker 2: amazing when you to be in this movie? Want you
36:07
Speaker 2: to promote her horrific fascist agenda? No, like I love it.
36:14
Speaker 2: It's like the same, uh, the same feeling I get
36:18
Speaker 2: about Princess Alice of Battenberg where she's just like letting
36:23
Speaker 2: a cigarette and just being like no, like I love it,
36:27
Speaker 2: like no, like I love it, Just putting the ash
36:32
Speaker 2: out on the fucking soldiers like shoes, Like no, like
36:38
Speaker 2: that's also terrifying. You've got gobbles and debt. Lar Be
36:42
Speaker 2: being like come be in her movies, get to fuck me.
36:48
Speaker 2: No oh, actually no, I'm correction correction already. No, it
36:54
Speaker 2: wasn't nineteen thirty nine. It was nineteen thirty seven, so
36:57
Speaker 2: it was like pre war. So like she was watching
37:01
Speaker 2: what was happening in Germany and they're like, come and
37:04
Speaker 2: support her homeland and she's like, no, no, she doesn't
37:10
Speaker 2: want to be involved in that, and like straight away
37:12
Speaker 2: it's actually after this straight away she's like, nope, citizenship,
37:15
Speaker 2: thanks bye bye, and that's what she does. She doesn't
37:18
Speaker 2: renounce her German citizenship citizenship until nineteen thirty nine, when
37:24
Speaker 2: you know, the war technically starts and she's like definitely gone,
37:28
Speaker 2: thanks by, but yeah, bold move and we love it.
37:33
Speaker 2: So Marlena Dietrich she actually starts fundraising to get Jews
37:41
Speaker 2: out of Germany. So she starts like raising money for
37:44
Speaker 2: Jewish refugees and she ends up donating what was it
37:50
Speaker 2: her entire salary from one of her films in nineteen
37:53
Speaker 2: thirty seven, you know, like half a million dollars. I
37:57
Speaker 2: think it is like towards this like fundraising, and when
38:03
Speaker 2: World War two breaks out, like she like doubles down
38:07
Speaker 2: on it, so like she'd gone back to Paramount, tried
38:10
Speaker 2: a romantic comedy. Things did not go down well, Yes,
38:14
Speaker 2: the movie was a Knight without Armor. So then when
38:17
Speaker 2: obviously the war breaks out, World War two, is she
38:19
Speaker 2: becomes one of the first like celebrities, you know, public
38:23
Speaker 2: figures to start selling war bonds. And the biggest part
38:27
Speaker 2: is is like she actually sells more war bonds than
38:32
Speaker 2: any other like person, any other celebrity, any other She
38:38
Speaker 2: sells the fucking most, because of course she does. Like
38:42
Speaker 2: she even then starts doing like the USO sort of thing,
38:46
Speaker 2: like the tours where she visits the troops, and so
38:49
Speaker 2: she even goes like pretty close to the German front and.
38:57
Speaker 5: She gets she gets contacted by the OSSes, so the
39:02
Speaker 5: big of the British sort of secret service, and they
39:05
Speaker 5: ask her to make a series of recordings in German,
39:10
Speaker 5: the whole purpose of which is to demoralize German soldiers,
39:15
Speaker 5: which I mean, I don't know how you can bring
39:17
Speaker 5: down the.
39:18
Speaker 2: Morale of Nazis, because you know, they're Nazis and pretty
39:23
Speaker 2: shite human beings. And lack again empathy and consideration. But yes,
39:29
Speaker 2: she's so she ends up doing these recordings, which is
39:32
Speaker 2: fucking brilliant, like and and so like you'd think, you know,
39:40
Speaker 2: she's doing the bonds, she's raising money for Jewish refugees.
39:44
Speaker 2: She's ah, she's got these weird messages going on. She's
39:50
Speaker 2: visiting trips near the front like, yeah, but j Ed
39:56
Speaker 2: Groover is convinced that's right. President of America is kin evinced. No,
40:01
Speaker 2: he wasn't the President of America. That's a lie. He
40:03
Speaker 2: was ahead of the FBI. Fuck me, I'm tired. I'm
40:07
Speaker 2: so sorry. So he's the head of the FBI, and
40:10
Speaker 2: he's like that bitch is a German spy, and he
40:15
Speaker 2: ends up having her tracked and followed, which I feel
40:17
Speaker 2: was not the best use of you know, those money
40:22
Speaker 2: and manpower just feels like a waste really. So they
40:27
Speaker 2: end up like tracking her and like stogging her and
40:31
Speaker 2: like going through her mail and whatnot. And they don't find,
40:35
Speaker 2: you know, any like conspiracy in any spying. What they
40:38
Speaker 2: do find is delicious details and so many, so many lovers,
40:47
Speaker 2: just an abundance of lovers, some might say. And so
40:55
Speaker 2: during World War Two, as well, which is like so
40:58
Speaker 2: fucking funny is that people assumed that she was easy,
41:03
Speaker 2: you know, because she was known to have all these lovers,
41:06
Speaker 2: and they thought, you know, they think if you're bisexual,
41:08
Speaker 2: you're clearly as slut, right, That's just how they do things.
41:13
Speaker 2: And so ma'am would come up to her and they'd
41:16
Speaker 2: be like trying to get it all, and she was like,
41:17
Speaker 2: I'll sleep with you over Hitler's dead body. So i
41:22
Speaker 2: will sleep with you over Hitler's dead body, Like yeah, yeah,
41:27
Speaker 2: when he's dead, then i'll consider you. You absolute call kwombo.
41:31
Speaker 2: But yeah, yeah, she wasn't really into the whole fascist
41:36
Speaker 2: Germany situation, unlike her sister, who was like running a cinema,
41:42
Speaker 2: hosting things for Nazi trips and just generally supporting them.
41:47
Speaker 2: And so when she tries to get to the States,
41:50
Speaker 2: she expects Malena to like help her get there, and
41:53
Speaker 2: she's like, no, I'm disowning you and her husband and
41:56
Speaker 2: your son because you know, nazis not happening. I mean, well,
42:02
Speaker 2: she kept them safe at first, and she vouched them
42:05
Speaker 2: and she was like, they didn't do it, they were
42:07
Speaker 2: just in a bad situation. And then over time she
42:09
Speaker 2: was like, no, actually, their fucking assholes. I'm done with them,
42:12
Speaker 2: which you know, I respect, I respect being like doing
42:16
Speaker 2: it alive with people who allied with Nazis feels like
42:19
Speaker 2: a good letmus test, you know, shitty family aside, Molina
42:25
Speaker 2: gets awarded the Jons d'arneus from France and the US
42:30
Speaker 2: Medal of Freedom for extraordinary record entertaining trips overseas during
42:36
Speaker 2: the war. But like, she gets his award and that's
42:41
Speaker 2: going great, but uh yeah, yeah, still not creating the
42:47
Speaker 2: box office, so her professional life is not it's not
42:52
Speaker 2: going well, but again, person not so bad. So at
43:03
Speaker 2: this point, Marie's in boarding school. So she she gets
43:05
Speaker 2: to school, which is nice. So her daughter's in school,
43:08
Speaker 2: and she'll go vis her husband and she'll go visit well,
43:10
Speaker 2: her husband and as mistress and Tamara, that's her name, Tamara,
43:17
Speaker 2: and so she would go there and go to parties,
43:19
Speaker 2: and she would just take these long trips and use
43:22
Speaker 2: it as excuses to go sort of connect with, you know,
43:27
Speaker 2: other celebrities and other well known people like honest fucking
43:30
Speaker 2: came Away and things things are, you know, they're warming
43:37
Speaker 2: up for her and she ends up having these long
43:42
Speaker 2: love affairs. She's got free, she's got Mercedes de a Costa,
43:50
Speaker 2: she's got Dolores Deriu and so on and so forth.
43:55
Speaker 2: You know, I mean, she's she's getting around, she's getting around. Basically,
44:02
Speaker 2: there's you know, a rotating door. It's rotating, revolving. It's
44:10
Speaker 2: a revolving door of lovers and they're just going through.
44:14
Speaker 2: And one of our lovers, Jean Charpin, he is so
44:19
Speaker 2: mad that she's like sleeping with other people. And she's like,
44:25
Speaker 2: you knew this when you got in this with me,
44:27
Speaker 2: Like I'm married and you were here staying with me
44:31
Speaker 2: in my house, and you're mad, I'm sleeping with someone else,
44:34
Speaker 2: Like what feels like a double standard. And he would
44:38
Speaker 2: respond to her actions with his fucking fists. He would
44:43
Speaker 2: beat the shit out of her, and clearly not wanting
44:46
Speaker 2: to take things lying down, she decided to just nope
44:50
Speaker 2: out of that situation. No, not dealing with that, which
44:54
Speaker 2: again fair, but she did get like a wee bit
44:57
Speaker 2: of revenge, which I am proud of as like, so
45:00
Speaker 2: he'd gone back to France for reasons, and he left
45:03
Speaker 2: like a bunch of really expensive paintings behind, and that
45:06
Speaker 2: he was planning to come back and deal with and
45:08
Speaker 2: she just fucking sells them all because of course she does,
45:13
Speaker 2: which is, you know, the least she could do, considering
45:16
Speaker 2: he beat the crab out of our absolute shit bag.
45:18
Speaker 4: Oh.
45:19
Speaker 2: Actually, here's one of my favorite stories about my Windy Trick.
45:21
Speaker 2: Is like she'd gone out to like a bar, and
45:24
Speaker 2: she was flirting with a serviceman at a bar, as
45:27
Speaker 2: one does girls like a man in uniform. What can
45:30
Speaker 2: I say? Girls like a girl in uniform with like
45:33
Speaker 2: women in uniform, not girls. I don't want a girls,
45:35
Speaker 2: get that's creepy. I want a woman in a will
45:39
Speaker 2: cut suit sing or a man and a will cut suit,
45:45
Speaker 2: or a man or a woman her gender non conforming
45:49
Speaker 2: person and a cozy cardigan. Everyone that's keetting a cozy
45:53
Speaker 2: cardigan anyway, like an owl. Oh okay, the medicine's kicking in.
46:04
Speaker 2: So yeah, Marlina is flirting with a serviceman and a bar,
46:10
Speaker 2: and he is so taken with her that his wife
46:13
Speaker 2: actually cites her as the reason for their divorce, even
46:16
Speaker 2: though they didn't no more than like flirting a fucking bar.
46:20
Speaker 2: But anyway, her film career is not doing great, and
46:23
Speaker 2: so she ends up going back to the stage. So
46:26
Speaker 2: from like the nineteen fifties all the way up to
46:29
Speaker 2: the nineteen seventies, she's in you know, she's on the stage.
46:34
Speaker 2: She's doing cabaret like performances, like she's in Paris, London,
46:40
Speaker 2: Las Vegas, Berlin, like she's she goes on the stage
46:46
Speaker 2: tour in Europe like in like the sixties, early sixties,
46:51
Speaker 2: and she ends up in Berlin, which is well, it's
46:57
Speaker 2: still split, it's separated at this point. So she goes
47:00
Speaker 2: to West Berlin and she gets booed to, like Marlena
47:04
Speaker 2: go home and they're like totally pissed at her. And
47:09
Speaker 2: there I think there's like two bomb threats for the
47:12
Speaker 2: stage that she's on, and it's like she's like shaken
47:16
Speaker 2: up by this obviously. But then when she goes to
47:19
Speaker 2: East Berlin and she performs there, everyone's like yay Marlena.
47:23
Speaker 2: So you know, swings and roundabouts. But yeah, she's out touring,
47:26
Speaker 2: she's performing, she's singing, she's doing her stuff, and even
47:30
Speaker 2: though she's doing all this, she's still doing a bunch
47:32
Speaker 2: of other people. So at one point she's she's in
47:37
Speaker 2: a relationship with You'll Brunner, you know from the King
47:40
Speaker 2: and I You'll Brenner, who's yeah, the man who like
47:48
Speaker 2: was involved in the Vietnam Baby situation like with the
47:54
Speaker 2: Playboy and it's madness. It's wild anyway. So she's with
48:00
Speaker 2: Todd and George Bernard Shaw and John Wayne and Kirk
48:03
Speaker 2: Douglas and Frank Sinnatra like she is just getting into
48:12
Speaker 2: everybody and like her and Riddolph are still buried at
48:17
Speaker 2: this point, and like she is supporting them, like financially,
48:24
Speaker 2: she buys them a ranch in California and it gets
48:32
Speaker 2: It doesn't go well for Rudolf's mistress though, because she's
48:37
Speaker 2: ill and she starts like declining like mentally, and she
48:42
Speaker 2: gets agrophobia and she's like stops eating and speaking, and
48:47
Speaker 2: she ends up getting committed to a mental institute, you know,
48:51
Speaker 2: because they're like she needs to go here, and she
48:53
Speaker 2: goes there and another inmate attacks her and kills her.
49:00
Speaker 2: And like she had been with you know, we're all
49:03
Speaker 2: super for like thirty five years. Like Maria saw her
49:07
Speaker 2: as like another mother, and yeah, she passed away. It's
49:12
Speaker 2: passed away. She was fucking killed. So like in the
49:16
Speaker 2: sixties and the seventies, so like throughout that period, like
49:20
Speaker 2: she starts using various techniques to mold her body. So
49:27
Speaker 2: she does like spanks. Before spanks, she has quote unquote
49:31
Speaker 2: body sculpting undergarments, you know, shapewear, and so she's like
49:37
Speaker 2: making the shape where and like wearing it. And she's
49:40
Speaker 2: also doing non surgical facelips. It's tape. It's all taped,
49:44
Speaker 2: so she like tapes her face back and then puts
49:46
Speaker 2: a wig on and she like disguises it, and she
49:50
Speaker 2: has this fucking brilliant quote. So she says, cattle grooming
49:55
Speaker 2: may take twenty years off a woman's age, but you
49:59
Speaker 2: can't a flight of stairs. So yeah, you might be
50:04
Speaker 2: like conjuring and taping her face back and stable in
50:08
Speaker 2: bits and the wig on, but yeah, yeah that those stairs,
50:12
Speaker 2: they're still gonna be tough to climb, you know what
50:14
Speaker 2: I mean. So yeah, she does that, and then in
50:17
Speaker 2: nineteen sixty five she gets diagnosed with cervical cancer and
50:22
Speaker 2: this is just not not great for her, and so
50:26
Speaker 2: she ends up taking like like she's set off medicating
50:30
Speaker 2: with like boots and pain killers, and it gets to
50:34
Speaker 2: the point where like this is just like really starts
50:39
Speaker 2: taking a toll on her and then like things start
50:43
Speaker 2: going wrong with her legs, like the circulation starts going
50:46
Speaker 2: and she's having a lot of trouble with it. And
50:49
Speaker 2: in nineteen seventy three she ends up fracturing like her
50:54
Speaker 2: left her left thigh and she has to get like
50:58
Speaker 2: skin grafts and a bunch of other stuff so leg
51:00
Speaker 2: will hume because it just wasn't And then in nineteen
51:04
Speaker 2: seventy four she falls and breaks her leg, right leg,
51:09
Speaker 2: so it's like left eye, right leg, and she ends
51:12
Speaker 2: up like just not being able to like perform properly.
51:18
Speaker 2: But like at some point during this as well, she
51:21
Speaker 2: ends up in a movie with David Bowie. David Bowie
51:25
Speaker 2: Bowie BOI, I don't care she ends up in a movie.
51:30
Speaker 2: I mean, of all the queer icons to smooth together
51:32
Speaker 2: in a film, I mean it's not a great film,
51:35
Speaker 2: but you should still watch it because I mean, i'd
51:39
Speaker 2: like to say they sing. She kind of sings. She
51:42
Speaker 2: does what she believes is singing again respect the trip,
51:47
Speaker 2: Like God, the women had such good style. And yeah,
51:53
Speaker 2: so she's she's breaking bets all over the place. I've
51:57
Speaker 2: fucked it up again. She fractures like one leg, she
52:00
Speaker 2: fractures the other leg, and then in seventy five she
52:04
Speaker 2: breaks her thighbone and she's like, Okay, no more stage
52:07
Speaker 2: for me. I'm done now, and she has to basically
52:11
Speaker 2: like stop doing the whole stage performance because she's too
52:14
Speaker 2: old to do it now. In seventy six, her husband
52:18
Speaker 2: Rudolph dies, he passes away, and seventy eight that's when
52:25
Speaker 2: she's in the justa Jiggalow movie with David Barrye and
52:29
Speaker 2: like they're in the movie, like she's like the madam
52:32
Speaker 2: of the brothel and he works for her. It's it's
52:36
Speaker 2: a movie that exists. So after this, she basically becomes
52:41
Speaker 2: like a real close herama and she just like goes
52:43
Speaker 2: back to her little apartment in Paris where she only
52:46
Speaker 2: has like family or servants, and she doesn't like go anywhere,
52:51
Speaker 2: but she does spend a lot of time on the phone.
52:54
Speaker 2: She has a monthly phone bill of like three thousand
52:56
Speaker 2: quid because she's phoning everybody. So she's phoning world leaders
53:02
Speaker 2: like Margaret Thatcher and ron o'reagan and this is the
53:06
Speaker 2: eighties and she's just like calling all these people like
53:10
Speaker 2: she's trying to save like a Babel's back theater and
53:13
Speaker 2: so like she's happy to speak, but she doesn't want
53:17
Speaker 2: to be filmed, which is fair enough. So she's like
53:20
Speaker 2: chatting to the people and she's trying to like save
53:23
Speaker 2: like this thing, or she's talking about the fall of
53:25
Speaker 2: the Berlin Wall and you know it's it's being like
53:29
Speaker 2: shared across like the BBC and like French radio and
53:34
Speaker 2: all that jazz and like, allegedly, according to her grandson,
53:37
Speaker 2: like the reason she had phone up these politicians was
53:40
Speaker 2: to give out shit to them for being dis I
53:43
Speaker 2: just love the idea of Malina Ddrich just being on
53:45
Speaker 2: the phone to Margaret Thatcher being like listen here, beach.
53:51
Speaker 2: Have you tried, you know, not being a cunt like perhaps,
53:56
Speaker 2: but yeah, I love the idea of it. So at
53:58
Speaker 2: one point she gets these calls from a doctor who
54:03
Speaker 2: offers to like fly out and see her, and she's like,
54:08
Speaker 2: don't speak to me, and she cuts them off. And
54:10
Speaker 2: then a few weeks later she allows him to phone
54:12
Speaker 2: her again and he's like, I'm spending ninety dollars an
54:15
Speaker 2: hour on this therapist and she's like, why give money
54:19
Speaker 2: to the therapist when you can give money to me,
54:22
Speaker 2: And so like he sends her a check and she
54:24
Speaker 2: like sings to him on the phone every night, like
54:28
Speaker 2: that's commitment. So Marlena she becomes bedridden and just can't
54:33
Speaker 2: go anywhere, and eventually her kidneys give up, and on
54:40
Speaker 2: the sixth of May nineteen ninety, to the age of ninety,
54:45
Speaker 2: she passes away from kidney failure in her home in Paris.
54:51
Speaker 2: Her funeral was a requiem mass held in Paris, which
54:54
Speaker 2: had like fifteen hundred like mourners with like like dignitaries
55:01
Speaker 2: and whatnot from Germany, France, England, Spain. The French president
55:08
Speaker 2: is there and he's got like the Legion of Honor
55:10
Speaker 2: and everything for her. And yeah, she has her funeral
55:14
Speaker 2: in France, and she is buried in Berlin, fairly close
55:19
Speaker 2: to her mother actually, and then like the majority of
55:24
Speaker 2: hesity is sold to the Steve Tungue Deutsche Kinematic so
55:32
Speaker 2: becomes like the main part of the exhibition of the
55:35
Speaker 2: film Filmdhouse in Berlin. And so the family then also
55:40
Speaker 2: sell like a bunch of goodness, just papers and correspondents
55:49
Speaker 2: and letters and you know, costumes and props and all
55:55
Speaker 2: the stuff that she'd taken from like the stage and
55:57
Speaker 2: movies and all personal effects get sold to like auction,
56:02
Speaker 2: so you know they're out there. You could buy them
56:06
Speaker 2: if you had enough money, if you wanted to. So yeah,
56:11
Speaker 2: thus ends the story of Malina Dietrich, who is yeah,
56:19
Speaker 2: very polarizing figure in many scenarios. And if you liked
56:25
Speaker 2: my retailing of the story, even with my gravelly sexe voice,
56:29
Speaker 2: please feel free to rate in review five stars and
56:31
Speaker 2: appreciate it. But of course it is recommendation time, so
56:37
Speaker 2: I'm I'm gonna recommend for watching just to jeg A Lottle,
56:43
Speaker 2: go watch the movie. You should love your best life.
56:46
Speaker 2: Treat yourself. For reading. I'm gonna suggest it's not a
56:53
Speaker 2: bloody trend. Just book about adult ADHD. If you run
56:58
Speaker 2: out it with ADHD, which you may be because you're
57:00
Speaker 2: listening to me, might want to go read it. And
57:04
Speaker 2: for listening. For listening David Bowie, go listen to some
57:11
Speaker 2: David boy Stan maam Ra single the Sky You deserve it.
57:17
Speaker 2: Go to it and with that I shall bite you.
57:21
Speaker 2: Good night, adieus allvo of them, my friends, Bye bye,