In 1946, Marlene returned to France to shoot Martin Roumagnac with Jean Gabin. The picture was unsuccessful, and their relationship ended on a bitter note. A heavily censored release of the film in the United States also seemed to confirm her end as a Hollywood star.
Undeterred, she went on to make fourteen more pictures, including Hitchcock’s Stage Fright (1950), Billy Wilder’s Witness for the Prosecution (1957), a cameo in Orson Welles’s A Touch of Evil (1958), and Stanley Kramer’s Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), in which she took on the challenging role of a German widow, whose husband, a Nazi officer, was executed for war crimes. She proved in these roles that she had more in her arsenal than legs and glamour, but she was never again nominated for an Academy Award.
In 1950, France awarded her the Légion d’honneur for her valor during the war; she was later promoted to the title of officer. Belgium, Israel, and the United States also honored her with Medals of Freedom. Soon after, Marlene embarked on a bold new chapter in her career, returning to her cabaret roots as a solo performer at the Hotel Sahara in Las Vegas. Her engagement was so successful that she took her show on the road, selling out venues in Paris, London, Moscow, and other cities throughout the world. Her songs “Falling in Love Again,” “Allein,” and “Lili Marleen” were staples of her shows.
Marlene returned to perform in Berlin in 1960. Her appearance was embroiled in acrimony, with protesters picketing outside the theater against her wartime exploits, but she won over her audience and the critics. Throughout her life, she remained defiant in her contempt for Nazism and Germany’s role in the war, though she admitted that in her heart, she would always be German. She also refused to publicly admit her sister’s existence, though Liesel, working as a schoolteacher, resided in Berlin with her husband. Despite the damage between them, the Dietrich sisters maintained sporadic contact until Liesel’s death in 1973.
Marlene later acknowledged that she was at her best on the stage. “In every single bar of my music, every single light that hits me,” she said, “I know and can control it. In films, there are too many intangibles.” And as a stage performer, she proved immensely popular, entrancing her public with her nude-spangled gowns, sumptuous white furs, and husky voice. Recordings attest to her consummate showmanship, yet with Marlene, the voice is only half the appeal.
In 1963, she appeared with the Beatles at the London Palladium. Her stage career was waning but the quartet who revolutionized music declared her “the most elegant woman in the world.” She finally performed on Broadway from 1967 to 1968, for which she won a special Tony Award.
Josef von Sternberg continued to work in Hollywood until 1953, often as an unbilled assistant director. In his later years, he taught film aesthetics at UCLA, citing in his classes much of his oeuvre with Marlene. He also wrote an autobiography. He died in 1969, at the age of seventy-five. Marlene was devastated by his passing, although in a classic example of their oft-contentious relationship, when once asked by a student if he ever heard from her, von Sternberg retorted, “Only when she needs something.”
In between the engagements in her hectic schedule—a notorious perfectionist, she oversaw every aspect of her performances—Marlene engaged in a robust personal life while also devoting time to her family, a doting grandmother to her daughter’s two sons. She stayed married to Rudi Sieber until his death from cancer in 1976. His mistress, Tamara Matul, had died years before in a California residential facility after a debilitating battle with mental illness. As she’d done throughout their marriage, Marlene assumed the costs for Tamara’s and Rudi’s care. After her daughter, he was the constant in her life, the husband she could always turn to in times of tribulation. Friends who knew her well remarked that she never fully recovered from his loss.
She did not marry again.
Marlene retired in 1975. A fall during a show in Wiesbaden that resulted in a broken collarbone was followed by a more severe thigh fracture in Sydney, Australia, revealing a legacy of brittle bones from her war-deprived childhood that would eventually confine her to a wheelchair. Following successful radiotherapy for cervical cancer, her remarkable stamina had begun to ebb and she sought a private existence, out of the public eye.
Leaving her apartment in New York, she took up residence on the exclusive Avenue Montaigne in Paris. A 1984 documentary about her life by actor/director Maximilian Schell was nominated for an Academy Award; Marlene collaborated but refused to be filmed for it. Her last on-camera appearance was a small, highly billed role in 1978’s Just a Gigolo with David Bowie, which she agreed to do for the salary and the film’s decadent prewar-Berlin theme.
Reclusive and dependent on painkillers in her final years, Marlene maintained contact with the outside world through prolific letters and telephone calls, still politically active and allegedly on friendly terms with such world leaders as Reagan and Gorbachev. Though she avoided any public engagements, in 1989 she spoke via telephone on French television about the fall of the Berlin Wall. She sounded elated.
Marlene Dietrich died of renal failure on May 7, 1992. She was ninety years old. Her funeral was held at La Madeleine in Paris and attended by over a thousand mourners, including ambassadors from Germany, the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, and Israel. Her closed casket was draped in the tricolor French flag and adorned with white wildflowers and roses from President Mitterrand. Her three medals were displayed, military-style, at the foot of the casket. During the eulogy, the priest said, “She lived like a soldier and would like to be buried as a soldier.”
Though a report in the New York Times stated that Marlene had instructed in her will that she wished to be buried near her family, her actual testament held no such provision. Nevertheless, on May 16, her body was flown to Germany and interred in the Städtischer Friedhof III, Berlin-Schöneberg cemetery, next to her mother’s grave. In 1992, a plaque was unveiled at her birth site, Leberstrasse 65. Despite the controversy in her homeland over her stance during World War II, the Marlene Dietrich–Platz in Berlin was inaugurated in 1997, along with a commemorative postage stamp. She was made an honorary citizen in 2002. A significant portion of her estate became part of the exhibition at the Filmmuseum Berlin, including her film and stage costumes, over a thousand items from her personal wardrobe, photographs, posters, and portions of her voluminous correspondence, which she’d requested should not be published.
The American Film Institute has named Marlene Dietrich the ninth-greatest female star of all time.
As with every book I’ve written, my passion for my subject inevitably collided with a finite word count. Having been a fan of Marlene since my teens (the first film I saw of hers was Morocco), I knew it would be impossible to portray her entire life in a single novel. I chose to focus on her youth and career in Hollywood, selecting events that I thought best encapsulate her, but I’m well aware that I’ve had to leave out as much as I included. I can only hope my admiration for her shines through, and that in my small way, I’ve done her spirit justice.
To those unaware of every detail about her, I wish to say that while the time line has been altered on occasion to facilitate the plot, everyone in this book actually lived and I strove to be as faithful to their documented personalities as possible. Likewise, every major event occurred, albeit reinterpreted here through invented dialogue and my protagonist’s impressions. Marlene wrote her memoirs but wasn’t often forthcoming—and in some instances, she wasn’t forthcoming at all. Fictionalizing her required a touch of deduction, a dash of gut instinct, a strong dose of courage, and meticulous consultation of other sources.
My fascination with celebrity and the struggle to obtain and maintain it are personified by Marlene Dietrich, whose seemingly meteoric rise was actually the result of years of perseverance, often at the cost of her personal fulfillment. In the years since her death, Dietrich’s enduring myth proves she became an expert at cultivating her image, even if in some respects she became famous in spite of herself, her unconventional choices at odds with
the system she worked under and the morality of her times. That said, I’m honored to have had the privilege of living through her eyes. Of all the characters I’ve written, Marlene has been one of my most joyous experiences.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I owe this experience to many people, starting with my editor Rachel Kahan, whose citing of Marlene’s cameo appearance in my novel Mademoiselle Chanel (she ended up on the editing-room floor) lit the spark. My publishing team at William Morrow supports me with enthusiasm; I’m grateful for all their efforts. The ladies of the Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency, Inc., in particular, my agent Jennifer Weltz, are my champions. Not every writer is as fortunate to have such fearless advocates at their side.
My husband supports all my endeavors, sustaining me through the long hours at my desk and the ups and downs of being a writer. He reminds me to eat and rest. He takes me away to warm oceans and keeps our life in order, as I can become distracted when possessed by a character. My cats, Boy and Mommy, give me comfort and love; their presence is one of companionship interspersed with daily belly rubs. My friends Sarah Johnson, Linda Dolan, Michelle Moran, Robin Maxwell, Margaret George, M. J. Rose, Kris Waldherr, Tasha Alexander, Heather Webb, and Donna Russo-Morin are always there for laughter and kvetching. I also appreciate my Facebook community for their wit and support. Social media is my watercooler, where I can join in conversations about more than my current work in progress.
Most important, I thank you, my reader.
As a storyteller, I cannot do this without you.
SOURCES
I consulted too many sources to list here. From film archives to newspaper clippings, newsreels, blogs, Web sites, and piles of books, Marlene has such a devoted fan base that I think wherever she is, she must be singing “Falling in Love Again.” I relied most consistently on the following volumes. Please note, this list does not represent a full bibliography:
Bach, Steven. Marlene Dietrich: Life and Legend. New York: William Morrow, 1992.
Bruno, Michael. Venus in Hollywood. New York: Lyle Stuart, 1970.
Chandler, Charlotte. Marlene: A Personal Biography. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2011.
Dickens, Homer. The Films of Marlene Dietrich. New Jersey: Citadel Press, 1973.
Dietrich, Marlene. Marlene. New York: Grove Press, 1989.
Frewin, Leslie. Dietrich. New York: Stein and Day, 1967.
Friedric, Otto. Before the Deluge: A Portrait of Berlin in the 1920s. New York: Harper & Row, 1972.
Higham, Charles. Marlene. New York: Norton, 1977.
Sarris, Andrew. The Films of Josef von Sternberg. New York: Museum of Modern Art/Doubleday, 1966.
Spoto, Donald. Blue Angel: The Life of Marlene Dietrich. New York: Doubleday, 1992.
Swindell, Larry. The Last Hero: A Biography of Gary Cooper. New York: Doubleday, 1980.
Walker, Alexander. Marlene Dietrich. New York: Applause Books, 1999.
Wood, Ean. Dietrich: A Biography. London: Sanctuary Publishing, 2002.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
C. W. GORTNER is the author of many bestselling historical novels—including Mademoiselle Chanel—which have been published in more than twenty countries. He lives in San Francisco.
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ALSO BY C. W. GORTNER
The Vatican Princess
Mademoiselle Chanel
The Tudor Vendetta
The Tudor Conspiracy
The Tudor Secret
The Queen’s Vow
The Confessions of Catherine de Medici
The Last Queen
CREDITS
Cover design by Mumtaz Mustafa
Cover photograph courtesy Everett Collection
COPYRIGHT
This book is a work of fiction. References to real people, events, establishments, organizations, or locales are intended only to provide a sense of authenticity, and are used fictitiously. All other characters, and all incidents and dialogue, are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real.
MARLENE. Copyright © 2016 by C. W. Gortner. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
FIRST EDITION
ISBN 978-0-06-240606-4 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-0-06-246587-0 (international edition)
EPub Edition MAY 2016 ISBN 9780062406088
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