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27 August 2016

25 April 2016

Marlene Dietrich, University Lecturer?

Marlene Dietrich, Hotel Carlton, Biarritz, 1945?
If a Welsh warrior can metamorphose into a demigod king with a Round Table and an Excalibur, what could a Prussian girl from a good military family one day become? Much of Marlene Dietrich's life isn't yet a century old, yet research and memories about even the briefest of its interludes can muddle what must have once been solid facts into a slurry of legends. One of these moments in Dietrich's life includes her time at Biarritz during the tail end of 1945, where she was--perhaps--a university lecturer?

During 1945 and 1946, the Biarritz American University (BAU) educated G.I.s not in traditional classrooms but in the seaside resort town's hotels and villas, a much deserved respite to help these troops reintegrate into civilian life after having survived World War II. As if the luxurious locale wasn't enough, stars such as Dietrich reportedly made appearances at BAU to lecture and perform, leaving indelible impressions on the war hero students that sometimes veered toward the outrageous.

26 January 2016

Joe Carstairs' Private Marlene Dietrich Photos Up For Grabs

Marlene Dietrich on Joe Carstairs' yacht: Dietrich's home movies of this day can be seen in the documentary, Her Own Song.


DOYLE NEW YORK is selling some souvenirs of those golden summers Marlene Dietrich spent on the Riviera in the late 1930s. These are from the collection of Joe Carstairs, the heiress and adventuress known as the "The Queen of  Big Whale Cay" (after her island in the Bahamas, where she had hoped to install Dietrich , whom she pursued during this time, in its "Doll House").