Nepo Babies ftw
Marlene did not take drugs nor did she drink. At least not heavily and at least not whilst she was still living in Berlin. The means she drew attention to herself was by fashion, but more of that later. She was a somewhat pretty girl but so were many others. She was not the best singer and most of all she could not act. Actually, It gets worse, Marlene was a bit of a nepo-baby, we all love to hate. You know the Lily Rose-Depps (Johnny Depps and Vanessa Paradis daughter), the Kendall Jenners (last time I checked she was the highest paid model in the world) and my favourite the Brooklyn Beckhams (that is David and Victoria Beckham`s son, whose next level fuckery-nepotism deals included photographing a Burberry campaign at age 16, publishing a photobook aged 17 at a prestigious publisher, being heralded as the next Helmut Newton, getting a 100000$ per episode-cook show that needs 65 people working in the background for him so he can shine while making a sandwich) Basically, I could mention half of a contemporary random movie cast/fashion show ensemble. We could extend this to the worldly sphere of regular jobs, college admissions at least in the US, apartment findings but I am assuming you got what I mean.
Brooklyn Beckham, the Michelangelo of mixologists
Marlene´s uncle was none other than Willybald Felsing the landlord of the business space of Oskar Meßter, who not only opened one of the first movie theaters in Berlin, but also launched the first reliable film projector. He also happened to produce the first silent film starring Henny Porten. Young Marlene was THE Henny Porten stan, carrying a medallion with a picture from her, finding out where she lives so she could bring her flowers, buying Henny Porten postcards whenever she felt she needed to be comforted and most of all dreaming away in the movie theaters. [1]
You only get 100 shots.
Uncle Willy was also married to a movie star and stars like Emil Jannings were invited to his notorious parties. Jannings would later star in The blue angel and become the first actor ever to win an Oscar (and start a long line of average actors who win Oscars for average performances….cough Gwyneth Paltrow cough…anyone remember the snooozefest that was Shakespeare in love…no one no? Why am I not surprised?!). Anyway the real star, who would steal Janning´s show and was made into an overnight star was obviously Marlene and her garter belt. By overnight, I literally mean overnight since on the day that the movie premiered in Berlin, Marlene stepped on a ship to America and the rest is history.
But back to Uncle Willy! Many years before Marlene would do her first movie, Willy had organized for Marlene to have a screen test at the UFA studios. Stefan Ungar the cameraman tells her to climb up a fence, scream, laugh, cry. It is pretty bad. He tells her to imagine her father has died. Still bad. She acts the same in every scene. On top of that she does not film well. As a matter of fact, he tells her she looks pretty in real life, but that does not reflect on film at all. He discusses this with his colleagues and together they state she should get married and have a couple of kids, acting ain´t for her. Note that there were not many girls in Berlin who would ever get a chance like that, but Marlene completely blew it.
You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow
This opportunity comes once in a lifetime
You better lose yourself in the music, the moment
You own it, you better never let it go…
Not only for those of us who came of age in the 90s have these lines tattooed in our brain. You do not have to listen to good ole´ Eminem to know that usually there are not many second chances. For us mere mortals. Marlene obviously not being a mere mortal she can afford to blow a few. Not because she had more connections than her Uncle, but due to her superhuman stamina, self-esteem and perseverance. The dinosaur-age-old story that it is 10% talent and 90% hard work. As previously discussed she was an unstoppable workhorse from our 0 on.
Marlene be gettin on that grind
“She criss-crossed the city to get an odd assortment of theaters in order to recite peculiar lines, the content of which she often didn´t quite grasp herself. “For instance I played a maid in the first act of one play, then took the subway or bus to another theater, where I was a matron in the second act of another play and finished out the evening as a prostitute in the third act of a play.”[2]
But not only was she tireless, Marlene was not only aware of her limiting acting capabilities, but she was also aware of her limited vocal range. And once again, she would go to great length to make up for that. When hearing that the drug Prednisone would have the capacity to widen the vocal range, she got on it. This was before one knew about the side effects of Prednisone, such as osteoporosis and uhm cancer but Marlene thought of herself as immortal anyway. When Marlene actually got cancer, she barely relaxed and had to be forced to be hospitalized only to complain about the weight gain she experienced on the drugs. And when she got diagnosed with advanced arteriosclerosis in her 60s she refused to believe this. “That´s what they told me my mother died of. You see how stupid they are? Of course, she had it because she was old!”( She was younger then Marlene upon diagnosis) [3]When another cardiologist subsequently confirmed the diagnosis and added the warning that if she did not have immediate attention, she faced the possibility of amputation of both legs. She quit contact with the surgeon and commented “Surgeons! All they want to do is cut. That´s why they are Surgeons. Ridiculous!”[4]
Shining hard too hard for a peasant
Honestly, Marlene is one of those girls who might have connections in the industry but I am 100% sure she would have made it without it and that differentiates her from the regular nepo babies. The persevering and the work she put in was in my opinion a big part but not the entire part of her success. The new age people would call it law of attraction and I have no name for it but Marlene knew she was a star before she was a star and that kind of halo she grew was visible for everyone else. Marlene was “constantly pursued by people who found her fascinating and she went around with a group of young actresses who adored her. Usually she wore a monocle and a feather boa sometimes as many as five foxes on a stole. Perhaps inevitably, an increasing number of adoring colleagues and theater fans were therefore responsible for Dietrich´s growing self-confidence in Berlin from 1920 to 1930. [5]
Wherever she went men fell head over heels in love with her. The image of the Vamp, that she settled early on and never really changed throughout her career, that was really her.
Relax and roll up some looks, Massy*!
Reading so much about Marlene I have the feeling that she really bordered on Kanye West´s levels of mania. Or the often-asked question whether fame in itself is an expression of mental disease. What we have to admit though, being in denial about her health issues sort of worked pretty well for her. This powerhouse of a woman was the ultimate Show must go on- type. And the show always went on. But then again, one has to ask: Was she really happy like this? Maybe I will change my opinion about this, but I feel like the natural rhythm of celebrity is to disappear once in a while (which is mostly used to get some work done and let some crazy fillers settle in, in order to look less uncanny) and at then at some point slowly wane off the limelight and find fulfillment somewhere else. Whether that is grandchildren, basketweaving, gardening or garden gnome collecting is up to everyone´s gusto. And obviously my suggestion for Marlene would be fashion. It`s true that her obsession about fashion seemed to evolve around the fact that Marie Magdalene´s(her original name) life work was creating Marlene but she also for instance designed Edith Piaf´s wedding gown. And hey until today women all over world feel like this is the most important outfit of their life, probably the one time they hire a professional photographer, make-up artist so Edith Piaf must have trusted in Marlene´s taste and capabilities.
Wild Women of the Weimar republic
In her early days fashion was Marlene´s strategy to catch attention. And honestly that was not an easy task because in the demimonde of Berlin nights, things could get pretty crazy and there were some pretty wild women in the Weimar republic. But there was a lot to learn and to get inspired at. Lesbian clubs looked like lesbian clubs and the girls there would wear what would later become the Marlene look. Suits, uniforms, monocles, short hair, neckties, sailorsuits. I initially named Claire Waldorff as the Marlene before Marlene but to specify there were a few women who had probably influenced her such as Anita Berber. Two years older than Marlene the dancer was probably the first who wore suits in public. She also starred in Dr. Mabuse Fritz Lang´s epic master piece that immortalized Fritz Lang as one of the leading figures of German expressionist film. Epic are also Anita Berber´s public appearances such as the day she arrives in golden high heels, mink coat and fishnet stockings at Hotel Adlon, orders three bottles of champagne opens her coat lets it slide down, unconditionally giving light to her utterly naked body. Anita Berber also openly lived with her girlfriend, peed on tables went to jail in Zagreb and walked around with a pet monkey around her neck. In her performance piece Absinth she could have served as a trailblazer to Marina Abramovic´s rhythm 2 and consumed the hallucinogenic liquid on stage. Unfortunately Anita, like many of the hedonistic Partygirls -and boys Anita did not live to see her 30. Birthday. Why? Cocaine and the excessive lifestyle that came with it. That would not happen to Marlene (nor will it happen to Marina) who only took note that sex sells, and fashion will get you attention. Soon Marlene stopped wearing underwear in her shows which caused not only the male audience to come again and again. But Marlene´s goal was the movies.
Tragedy of love
Early in 1922 Joe May, one of the pioneers of German film produced the silent-movie Tragedy of love starring (once again) Emil Jannings and his wife Mia May. Rudi Sieber, May´s assistant director/ floor manager was also in charge for the cast. He remembers a ridiculously tacky dressed Marlene in a heavily cleavaged dress, Pumps, Monocle and most of all gloves in an aggressively garish green that went up to her elbows. She looked like a little girl playing dress up, lightyears away from the icy fashion queen that oozed both sophisticated erotica AND class and would influence not only an entire generation but generations to come. But it was those gloves that caught his attention, got her the role and Rudi to dump his wife and marry green gloves. To make things worse, Rudi was actually married to his boss´ daughter Eva May and with this got the whole package of a secure job, comfortable wage that permitted him to rock a fashionable Dandy look and hang out in fashionable Dandy restaurants. Eva May subsequently tried to kill herself so you can imagine things did not go too well with Daddy Joe May afterwards but well damn those green gloves! As for Eva May she finally successfully shot herself dead a year later when her cousin Fritz Mandl one of the top 4 munition dealers in Europe and refused to marry her. He would later marry Jewish actress and inventor Hedy Lamarr and drag her to dinner parties with lovely party people such as Mussolini or Göring. And yep, he was Jewish himself, but business is business. So phew, Eva apparently really knew how to pick´em. The only last thing I have can add here is that she could have founded a self-help group together with Joseph von Sternberg´s wife who named Marlene Dietrich as the culprit of the demise of her marriage (in those days you had to name a reason for the divorce) and countless other spouses and girlfriends.
*Massy was the name that Marlene´s grandchildren called her
Sources:
Baur, Eva Gesine (2017) Einsame Klasse: Das Leben der Marlene Dietrich, C.H. Beck, München. Kindle edition [1: p.42]
Riva, Maria (2017) Marlene Dietrich: The life, Pegasus Books , New York, London Kindle edition [3 p.651] [4: p.651]
Spoto, Donald (1992) The life of Marlene Dietrich, Cooper Square press, New York, NewYork [5: p.57]
Wieland, Karin (2015) Hollywood, Berlin: A century in two lives. Liveright. New York, New York. kindle edition. [2: p.50]