Happy Birthday: Stars and Cake!

Dietrich was born 113 years ago, on this day in 1901.  

A Capricorn, she was one of the first stars to use the services of astrologer Carroll Righter, who had come to Hollywood in 1938. ("The stars impel, they don't compel. What you make of your life depends on you," he said).

"Anyone with troubles can unload them safely onto Capricorn's shoulders," Marlene said of her own zodiac sign, ruled by Saturn — "the celestial taskmaster. He won't let you get away with anything."

Righter either looked at his charts of the screenplay of The Lady Is Willing in 1941 and advised Marlene not to go to the studio one day. She disregarded his advice: while filming a scene with 'Baby X' in her arms, she tripped over a toy on the set and broke her ankle as she shielded the baby. Columbia's publicity men had a field day supplying photos of Marlene recuperating to the press. (She completed filming of the movie with her ankle in a cast, deftly hid out of view).

"Don't mess around with old Carroll — 'cause he must know something." Marlene concluded.

As late as 1978, according the New York Daily News, Marlene still rarely made "a move without consulting the zodiac ... with Righter". (The paper was reporting about a lunch date between Maria Riva and the astrologer. Riva had just become a "very happy" grandmother; great-grandmother was in Paris working on her autobiography).

oOo

Today being Marlene's birthday, here's a "birthday" cake: her recipe for Dutch Apple Cake, shared with readers of New Movie magazine in 1932. 

1 cake yeast
¼ cup lukewarm milk
¾ cup scalding hot milk
¼ cup sugar
2 ½ cups flour
¼ cup shortening
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg yolk, beaten

Soak the yeast in lukewarm milk. Add to scalded milk. Add half the sugar and flour. Let rise until doubled in bulk. Then eat in the rest of the sugar, flour and other ingredients. Spread thinly in greased baking pan. Let rise in warm place until doubled again. Press thinly sliced apples into dough in even rows. Sprinkle with ½ teaspoon cinnamon mixed with a half cup brown sugar and dot with currants. Bake in hot oven.

(Let us know what it tastes like!)

Happy Birthday Marlene!

Photorama: Marlene and Tamara Matul in Berlin

Marlene Dietrich and Tamara Matul model for Berlin’s illustrated magazines (1928 and 1929):

What Marlene Dietrich's Handwriting Reveals!

(This article was originally published in the May 1932 edition of Movie Classic magazine as 

Marlene Dietrich will have only one great love, her handwriting shows)

Who knows what Marlene is really like? Louise Rice, who is world famous for her studies of character from handwriting —and tells you here what she finds in Marlene s signature. The German star, herself, could hardly tell you more!

MARLENE DIETRICH’s signature — reproduced herewith — gives  the graphologist an enormous surprise. For what have all the publicity men featured in their blurbs about the German sensation? You all know as well as I do — LEGS, and not much of anything else. But ask her director and her business manager, and I am sure that they will tell you that they have found her to have a head for business and a good understanding as well.

No, I didn't mean that last characteristic as a joke, although you may think that I was guilty of a pun, which is a serious crime in this country. I mean that she has the ability to think quickly and to the point on any subject that seems to her worthwhile. Also, that she has a sudden feeling or intuition that is often of great assistance to her in outguessing the “other fellow,”  when trying to carry out her plans. See if your handwriting shows the little breaks in the connecting strokes of the small letters that Marlene has in her words. If so, you also have  intuition and should use it to the best advantage.

Marlene Dietrich's "Confidential" File

 Hot off the scanner, I present to you what is--to the best of my knowledge--the first English-language exposé on Marlene Dietrich's lesbian affairs, "The Untold Story of Marlene Dietrich" by Kenneth G. McLain, from the July 1955 issue of Confidential magazine.

Within that Mondrian abortion of a cover, McLain name-drops Claire Waldoff, Mercedes de Acosta, Frederique "Frede" Baule, and Jo Carstairs. Long before The National Enquirer and Perez Hilton, Confidential's Lavender Scare-era gossip threatened to tarnish the careers of "closeted" celebs, but not Marlene's! Those silly McCarthyists must not have known that Dietrich looked good in any color and that men's clothes were especially becoming on her. Nevertheless, it is dreadfully discomforting to recognize that the homophobic sport of outing is something of an American pastime.

If you were to tell me that another Mc--Diana McLellan--listed this article in the references of The Girls: Sappho Goes to Hollywood with ten pages of "Ibid." after it, I would have believed you. I have to give McLellan some credit, though. It appears that she only cited this rag a few times.

Below I have transcribed the article (not the photo captions, though--sorry!) for you as well as uploaded image files of the article. As you'll see, there are no photos of Marlene with any of these alleged lovers, but the Confidential staff more than made up for it with shots of the most burly babes in Marlene's harem and of lovers Gabin and Remarque making perplexed faces. Also, notice that only Frede squawked. Who are the unnamed others who sold out Marlene? Any guesses?
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Rudi Polt's The Ultimate Marlene Dietrich Souvenir & Memorabilia Book: A Review

Several months ago, I discovered The Ultimate Marlene Dietrich Souvenir & Memorabilia Blog, run by Rudolf "Rudi" Polt, which astounded me because a) I was certain that I knew every blog about Marlene Dietrich and b) I was sure that I had already seen Polt's name somewhere. Although I proved myself wrong about my omniscience, I was right about my observant eye. Indeed, Polt is cited and acknowledged by Steven Bach in Marlene Dietrich: Life and Legend. Also, I've seen his generous contributions on YouTube.

After browsing Polt's blog, I learned that he had published a book through Lulu.com, The Ultimate Marlene Dietrich Souvenir & Memorabilia Book. To be frank, when I first visited the link, I balked at the price (currently US$118.75) of a self-published book with a typo on its cover, but we all know the adage, "Don't judge a book by its cover." After corresponding a bit with Polt, I realized that this man is a tireless wealth of information about Marlene as well as a keen Dietrich researcher, and I decided that I would buy his book.

Well, now it's in my hands, where I wish it had been sooner because it's a helpful pictorial bibliography of Dietrichiana (or Marlenebilia, if you will). Not only do I consider the scans (often in color) more impressive than the plates of photograph reproductions in most trade publications (ahem, Donald Spoto!), I also contend that the succinct captions are more informative than most Dietrich biographies (*cough* Charlotte Chandler! cough*). If you know about the Major Arcana in a Tarot deck, you may be aware that it tells the story of a Fool's journey toward knowledge. Let me cast myself as that fool and reveal what I've learned from Polt's book:

In a captioned photo below the table of contents, I learned that the ubiquitous German photographer credited as "v. Gudenberg" on postcards (see Fabrice's collection at Marlene Dietrich Collection), "W. von Gudenberg" in Marlene Dietrich: Portraits 1926-1960, and "Baron Wolff von Gudenberg" on auction sites had a given name--Walter! On IMDB, a Walter von Gudenberg is credited as a cinematographer for one of Dietrich's first films--The Little Napoleon. Is that accurate? I don't know, but it does lead me to wonder how much influence von Gudenberg had on Marlene's image during the '20s. Like others, he saw the glory of her gams, even though I've never seen them in such a greased-up and girlish pose. If anyone knows where I can read a substantial biography on von Gudenberg, please direct me to it.

We've seen images of Marlene playing singing saws, violins, and pianos, but what about ukuleles? There are many magazine images that I never saw before communicating with Polt, such as the Das Magazin ones featured prominently in his book. Speaking of images new to me and Hawaiian accoutrements, Polt presents a photo of Marlene and Maria Riva in hula skirts, which is one of the most charming photos of the two from the early '30s--far more than the ones circulating online. Also available are scans of entire film programs! Polt isn't merely showing off his extensive collection--he's sharing it! With an emphasis on sheet music illustrated with Dietrich's image, featuring songs from Dietrich's movies, or containing compositions inspired by Marlene, Polt's book covers a "genre" of Marlenebilia that others have yet to explore thoroughly.

If I have any concerns about Polt's book, it's this: were any of these photos retrieved online? A Manpower publicity shot looks identical to one I saw at Profiles in History, right down to its crooked scanned edges. Then, it occurred to me that perhaps these auction items were consigned by Polt himself. As for criticisms, I must admit that some scans look too heavily pixelated, especially the ones from the January 30, 1951 issue of the miniature People Today, which shouldn't have been enlarged. In these digitized magazine and newspaper photos, the halftone Marlene instead looks like she was caught in a fishing net. Quibble as I may, I can't but praise the many clear color photos of Dietrich during the 1960s, and the breadth of Dietrich-related images in this book will help guide me--a relative neophyte--in collecting Dietrichiana.

Marlene Dietrich as Blanche Ferrand in Filmjournalen

Johannakatt has shared a few pages from the now-defunct Swedish publication, Filmjournalen, which included a spread on Martin Roumagnac (English title: The Room Upstairs), Marlene Dietrich's 1946 film with Jean Gabin. Johannakatt has also indicated that the title is incorrectly called Passion, but IMDB does indeed list Passion as the film's Swedish title.

If you compare the image to the right with the images at johannakatt's blog, note that illustrators rarely did the stars justice. Dietrich would have never allowed her face to be lit looking greasy and sweaty, as this poster depicts. Perspiration requires pores, and Dietrich obviously lacked such unphotogenic human organs.