Latest / Who Did What Now With Katie Charlwood / 97. Marlene Dietrich - Hollywood's Femme Fatale

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97. Marlene Dietrich - Hollywood's Femme Fatale · Who Did What Now With Katie Charlwood

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