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"). 

A Suite of Ivory Suits

Spoliansky in Berlin.

Bonhams sold an ivory cloqué Balenciaga evening suit from Marlene's wardrobe earlier this month (it fetched £3 250, premium included). According to the auctioneer's description, Marlene had gifted it to composer Mischa Spoliansky's daughter, whose family offered it for sale.

Spoliansky was one of the people who could have claimed to have "discovered" Marlene: he auditioned and cast her in two of his revues in Berlin. 

She made her first recordings as a cast member of 1928's  Es liegt in der Luft; the following year, Josef von Sternberg spotted her on-stage in Zwei Krawatten, and arranged her screen test for The Blue Angel. While Marlene went on to Hollywood stardom, Spoliansky emigrated to London in 1933, where he became a well-respected film composer. 

For decades, the pair would catch up when Marlene was in London. (Spoliansky later wrote one of Marlene's songs in Stage Fright and she included his lilting Auf Der Mundharmonika in her 1964 album, Die Neue Marlene). 

Here's the evening suit sold by Bonhams, and a photo of Marlene wearing a similar outfit  in 1962:

Spot the differences.

Dietrich wore similar ensembles to the one auctioned: in 1962, when she was received the Edison Award in the Netherlands; and in 1963, when she performed in London at The Royal Variety Performance. Both of those suits had differing detailing to one another, and the suit sold is again slightly different to both of those.

Dietrich in The Netherlands, 1962 (left); and Marlene Meets The Beatles at The Royal Variety Performance, 1963 (right).

[Photos: Bonhams & Crees Collection]

Pretty Souvenirs: A 2014 Marlene Dietrich Auction Overview

Many a Dietrich admirer (and lovers of fine jewellery) would love to be the owner of this tri-colour gold bracelet, with a lapis lazuli clasp, which is being offered by Sotheby's New York as part of their Magnificent Jewels sale next week. Made by Cartier, it was given to Marlene by Erich Maria Remarque. She was photographed wearing it by Harper's Bazaar's Louise Dahl-Wolfe. Sotheby's estimates the 14 karat bracelet will fetch between $ 20 000 - $ 30 000. 

Perhaps you'd prefer to strut your stuff à la Dietrich? That can be arranged!

This pair of custom-made Delman shoes, used by Marlene in her stage shows, will be sold this week by Julien's. Online bidding is already under way (the top bid is currently at $ 700: it should easily reach their estimate of $ 800 - $ 1 200).

Salerooms have been earning nice commissions offering an interesting mix of other Dietrich items for sale this year. Some other highlights:

In January,  Sotheby's also sold this Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot sketch of a landscape with cows, another gift from Remarque.  Previously, the sketch had been offered to the public in November 1997, when the contents of Marlene's New York apartment was sold by her heirs. This time around, it brought  $ 11 250 (buyer's premium included) — well in excess of the the estimate of $ 6 000 - $ 8 000.

The most high-profile Dietrich auction of 2014 was the “Marlene Dietrich Inheritance Sale” which garnered worldwide press coverage. The internet-only sale, held in March by UK-based newcomer Auction My Stuff, featured everyday items gifted by Marlene to of some of her grandchildren (many were from John-David Riva's collection).

Ol' Blue Eyes's Little Black Book

Many Sinatra collectors will no doubt be eager to own his 1960s address book, when it comes under the hammer at Heritage Auctions in December (pre-auction internet bidding on the item is already underway: the current top bid is $1,300).

The address book, compiled by his long-time secretary, is a (circa) 1964 who's who, from Harold Arlen to Richard Zanuck and some people called Kennedy. 

Marlene's in there, too, seemingly with an outdated address (she'd surely moved further up, to 993 Park Avenue, by then: her alphanumeric phone number is correct, though!). Not sure what she would have made of her alphabetical billing below soon-to-be Mrs Bacharach, Angie Dickinson:

Let's ring Marlene ... she might just answer!

El Morocco Memories

With Clifton Webb, c 1937.

The zebra print on the banquettes was really dark blue, but that pattern (which reproduced so well in newsprint photos) served as background for the rich, the famous and the climbers of a generation and clearly identified their location at Manhattan's El Morocco nightclub.

The club, originally opened as a speakeasy, on 54th Street in in 1931, claimed to have invented not only the velvet rope at the entrance, but Sibera, too (on the wrong side of its tiny dance floor, to which the socially undesirable were banished). Nanette Fabray remembered: “One entered, and there was a hierarchy of where one sat. The first table on the right was the best; the second was reserved for the owner, John Perona. You didn't dare go unless you were perfectly turned out.”

Another Season, Another Reason For Making . . . Auctions?

***See photos of the auction exhibition here or here***

For some, spring cleaning means tossing that can of tuna six months past its "best by" date. For the heirs of Marlene Dietrich, it means holding an auction! Helping the "new online auction service for Art, Antiques and Collectables Auctions," Auction My Stuff, launch its site, "Marlene Dietrich: The World's Most Glamorous Grandmother" is billed as including property from J. David Riva, J. Michael Riva, and J. Paul Riva. That leaves out one of Dietrich's grandsons, which I leave for you to cogitate. In fact, I'm still pondering the matter, especially after great-grandson J. Matthew Riva surmised that "Massy would not approve" on the Last Goddess Facebook page.

Marlene Dietrich Shows Her Hand

We've previously reported a grapholgist's interpretation of Marlene's scrawl, but what would a palm reader have predicted?

This palm print of Marlene was made in Berlin in 1930:

A German, Marianne Raschig, collected over thousand such hand prints of the famous (and less so) between the 1870s to the 1930s. She must have spent some time at UFA: other prints include those of  Josef von Sternberg, Fritz Lang, Peter Lorre, Lilian Harvey, Brigitte Helm, Louise Brooks and Leni Riefenstahl.

They are all being auctioned by Sotheby's in June.

Banton. Dietrich. Angel.

The MDCB reported in their latest newsletter about the sale (by Christie's) of a collection of Travis Banton costume designs for Marlene.

The sketch for Marlene's famous "million grains of golden caviar" dress from Angel fetched $ 10 000. The other sketches offered in the auction included Banton's design for the "Hot Voodoo" number from Blonde Venus.


In 2011 we reported about an earlier sale, which included Banton's designs for The Scarlet Empress. One of these is now housed in the AMPAS' Margaret Herrick Library Production Art collection.


At their website, they have an interesting interview with Adele Balkan, from their Oral History Program. Balkan worked as sketch artist for Paramount in the 30s; it was she who designed the beading pattern for Marlene's Angel gown.


The Academy is currently presenting an exhibition (which will run until 5 February) celebrating Paramount Pictures' centenary . Further information is available at their website.

Standing in the Corner

Last year, a relatively unknown December 1948 portrait (below), of Marlene by Irving Penn, surfaced -- probably taken in Vogue's New York studios, it is one of his "corner studies".





Other subjects photographed in this fashion included the Duchess of Windsor, Noel Coward, Truman Capote and Spencer Tracy (the Tracy shot is used on the cover of James Curtis' new biography on the actor).


To Penn, this set-up was "a means of closing people in. Some people felt secure in this spot, some felt trapped. Their reaction made them quickly available to the camera," according to photo-seminars.com.


Whatever Penn's motivations may have been, Dietrich was not pleased with the result and refused the release of photos from this session -- although "Mutti" privately gave a print to her husband as a Christmas gift that year.


Christie's also auctioned some alternate shots from this shoot in April 2011 (right).

Shots from an previous shoot by Penn (also in 1948), have been widely published:

Tsk, tsk, Daily Mail

Several months ago, I blogged about Dietrich's Rolls Royce featured in Morocco. Daily News has reported more on that car, which Bonhams expects to sell for around $0.5 million next month, and the article has used what appears to be the screen captures that I made. I don't care that people take content from this blog, but how tasteless of them to pass those images off as their own copyrighted material. I hate to sound so "kumbaya," but we should be sharing our sources when we spread information instead of presenting ourselves as the harbingers of facts for the sake of profit.

UPDATE: Read more about the sale of the car here!

On Hollywood Memorabilia And Museums

Unrelated photo of M.D. and Billy Wilder from here

Recently, I read a blog entry about the Debbie Reynolds auction that prompted me to write a lengthy comment. The comment is pending the blog owner's approval, but I want to post it here to initiate a dialogue with all of you regarding the role and responsibility of museums to manage Hollywood memorabilia. I'll edit it to give you all a better understanding because I make a lot of local Los Angeles references and--as you have perhaps already observed--often correct typos and undesirable diction.

Thanks for posting what may be the most comprehensive overview of Debbie Reynolds' collection efforts. I have been seeking such an article since I read about the big auction and failed to find one until I stumbled upon your blog. This situation reminded me of Maria Riva's claim that that she offered her mother Marlene Dietrich's estate as a donation to American film museums (see this video), and when no one showed interest, Riva reportedly sold it to the city of Berlin for $5 million, which subsequently made the Filmmuseum Berlin [note: then known as Deutsche Kinemathek, no?] its caretaker. The contradiction between donation and sale makes me wonder whether Riva acted solely as an altruist, and I harbor similar suspicions about Debbie. Certainly, I wouldn't blame either woman for making money (or, in Debbie's case, attempting to recuperate money) from a Hollywood collection. If it's their property, they have every right to sell it.


On another note related to this blog entry, the contradiction between donation and sale also reminds me that the distinction between culture and commodity can be blurred, which is why I wouldn't consider Debbie's auction items national treasures. Debbie's former possessions have made a cultural impact in films, but they are also the products of profit-driven movie studios, which do not uphold all the criteria of non-profit institutions such as museums. For the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) or another local museum to accept Hollywood memorabilia, the following criteria would have to be met: first, the memorabilia would have to promote the museum's mission; second, the memorabilia would have to be affordable; third, the museum would require the staff and space to properly preserve the memorabilia; fourth, these staff and this space would have to be affordable. 

When movie studios such as MGM housed old costumes, they had to deal with the second, third, and fourth criteria, but because they are businesses, they had no obligation to accept the most important criterion, the first one. If a business needs money to stay afloat, it will sell its assets; museums could never ethically follow such a model (although some have, e.g. the Hermitage Museum when its hometown was called Leningrad). Certainly, the memorabilia from Debbie's collection would meet the mission of LACMA and even the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), but I don't know whether any museums in the United States let alone in L.A. have the money, staff, and space to properly preserve items such as costumes—and such an extensive collection as Debbie's was. Only the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM) Museum comes to mind as a local option, but I can only say with certainty that they have the staff to care for what Debbie sold. As for financial means and space—I don't know. They thrive on donations—dress and textile as well as financial—which suggests that unless someone donates a multimillion-dollar Monroe gown or donates millions so they can purchase a Monroe gown, they can't afford to play with the big spenders at auctions.


Personally, I would love to see every museum, library, and archive object (Hollywood memorabilia, fine art, cuneiform, what have you) digitized in a high-quality three-dimensional form to maximize their accessibility so that people who might never even have a chance to visit an institution could view and research its holdings, but I know the costs of my dreams are currently nowhere near the reality of any institution's budget.

Marlene Dietrich Costume Sells for $ 8 000

Marlene Dietrich's Destry Rides Again costume, offered at the Profiles of History auction of items from the collection of Debbie Reynolds, sold for $ 8 000 (buyer's premium excluded), the low end of their estimate. There was only one bid for the item.

When the costume was previously offered at auction a decade ago (probably when it was bought by Debbie Reynolds), it sold for $ 19 000.

Marlene Dietrich News Bytes

• As missladiva already wrote, one of Marlene Dietrich's Destry Rides Again costumes is up for auction. See it here. According to that page "Public previews [are] at the Paley Center for Media, 465 N. Beverly Drive, Beverly Hills, CA 90210 [...] June 4-5, 8-12 and 15-17 [...] 12pm to 5pm," which I gather means you can take a gander at it for free if you can't afford the the $8,000 minimum bid. To those of you who admire Dietrich's collaborators, you may also enjoy gazing at the Travis Banton creations made for Rudolph Valentino, Carole Lombard, and Claudette Colbert (no Banton-Dietrich confections at this time, though).
• Speaking of fashion, the Cristóbal Balenciaga Museoa in Getaria, Spain, which was inaugurated on June 7, will open to the public on June 10. Visit the museum's website in the language of your choice (English | español | Euskara | français) and see its YouTube channel. According to some articles, a Dietrich gown will be on display. If so, perhaps Marlene Dietrich Collection Berlin (MDCB) loaned it out? Maybe it's in one of the YouTube videos? I didn't see anything Dietrich-related when I searched the museum's site.
• EDIT: See where Marlene Dietrich apparently lived when she arrived to [now West] Hollywood here.
• Comments? Questions? More news?

Slightly Used, Second-Hand

A lot of Dietrich-related memorabilia has come on the auction market recently. We reported about the Juliens auction of a cache of Dietrich letters earlier this month.

On June 18th, Profiles in History will auction off the dress Marlene wore while singing "The Boys in the Back Room" in Destry Rides Again.

It is offered as part of the Debbie Reynolds collection; the over 500 lots span film history from the teens up to the recent past. Highlights of the auction include a pair of test "Arabian" ruby slippers made for (but not used in) The Wizard of Oz, Marilyn Monroe's subway dress from The Seven Year Itch and the Cecil Beaton-designed Ascot dress worn by Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady. This auction is the first of several that Profiles in History are planning of items from the Reynolds collection.

The Dietrich costume on offer was previously sold by Sotheby's in 2002 when it sold for $ 19 120 (buyer's premium included).

Destry Rides Again, Dietrich's 1939 comeback vehicle after having been declared "box-office poison", was included in the National Film Registry in 1996. On its original release, Frank S Nugent remarked in his New York Times review that "[i]t's difficult to reconcile Miss Dietrich's Frenchy, the cabaret girl of the Bloody Gulch Saloon, with the posed and posturing Dietrich we last saw in Mr. Lubitsch's Angel."

A Fan's Fan

On 20 April, Bloomsbury Auctions offered the fan above, said to have been used during the production of The Devil Is A Woman, for sale with an estimate of between 700 and 1000 pounds. The lot did not sell. According to their description, it was originally won by

a reader of Film Pictorial magazine in a fashion competition. Included with the sale is a typed letter of congratulations from Marlene and a clipped image from the magazine.

Julien's Auction Results

Yesterday's auction by Julien's in Beverly Hills of Dietrich-related items from the estate of her husband, Rudolf Sieber, was a success. The items were offered as part of their Hollywood Legends auction. All of the 36 lots on offer sold above their minimum reserves. Approximately two-thirds of the lots went to four individual buyers. A highlight of the sale was a full-length portrait of Dietrich taken by Irving Penn in 1948, which sold for $ 6500 (excluding buyer's premium).

Below is a full list of prices achieved (buyers commission excluded). Full lot descriptions with photos are available in the Julien's auction catalogue.

144. Photographs. $450.

145. Telegrams to Tamara Matul. $375.

146. Contract memo. $200.

147. Photograph. $375.

148. Letters to Rudolf Sieber. $1300.

149. Cables -- Rudolf Sieber, Jean Gabin, Maurice Chevalier. $50.

150. Letters and Photographs. $1300.

151. Snapshots. $400.

152. Letters. $1900.

153. Snapshots. #350.

154. Handwritten letter. $2700.

155. Warner Bros promotional photo. $175.

156. Handwritten letter. $800.

157. Letter on flyer. $1300.

158. Signed portrait. $650.

159. Christmas cards to Rudolf Sieber. $1600.

160. Luxury item receipts. $1000.

161. Handwritten letter. $750.

162. Promotional photographs. $150.

163. Maria Riva photographs. $200.

164. Letter to Maria Riva. $900.

165. Ephemera. $100.

166. Literature. $175.

167. 1969 tour notes. $300.

168. Signed portrait. $275.

169. Snapshots. $1100.

170. Prescriptions and medical report. $150.

171. Prescription bottle. $700.

172. Irving Penn portrait. $6500.

173. Autobiography materials. $250.

174. 1961 tax returns and bank statements. $200.

175. Telegrams and postcards. $225.

176. Signed portrait. $425.

177. Signed portrait. $1250.

178. Signed portrait. $375.

179. Political-themed letters. $500.

180. Roddy McDowall portrait. $1100.

Mutti Phones Heidede

Marlene Dietrich / by Erich Salomon. Hollywood, 1930.

Marlene Dietrich memorabilia can't compete with a Picasso in drawing top spenders, but Dietrich's name sells. I have found yet another item on the auction block, this time at a starting bid of 400 euros! WestLicht Photographica Auction is peddling an Erich Salomon photo of the then-Hollywood neophyte calling her daughter Maria, who had initially remained in Berlin. Search for Lot 1036 because linking to the page eludes me.

Why Erich Salomon was in Dietrich's bedroom at 4AM to capture this moment--I cannot say. Although I question the photo's veracity as I notice the lampshade conspicuously nodding at Maria's kisser, Dietrich--without Sternberg's photo-sculpting--appears sufficiently haggard yet elated to have risen at the crack of dawn and hear her beloved daughter's voice. You can see another photo from this shoot here.

Salomon's life reflected Dietrich's in that both traveled from Germany to America in the 1930s to share their international talent. Unlike Dietrich, however, Salomon stood behind the camera as a photojournalist and eventually returned to Germany. Salomon, a Jew, sadly became a Holocaust victim, reportedly dying at Auschwitz in July 1944. Read more about Salomon here.

Want To Buy Some Illusions?

Some interesting Dietrich-related auctions are currently on ebay. One seller has many old wirephotos, including the the photo above, taken at the Blue Angel nightclub in 1961.

If you're feeling flush, there are two letters (with optimistic price tags) written to Charles Graves: the first, written in the mid 1950s on Dorchester stationary is a defense of Kenneth Tynan:

“Dear Charles, Isn’t it too sad that almost every time I come here
something happens that makes things uncomfortable between you and me....The idea of quoting London reviews came because of the rare event that critics wrote
about a cabaret act at all - and that the reviews contained so many unusual
comments....Do you think your last remark would smear him in my eyes? He is an
interesting and intelligent critic. That’s all I know and all I care to
know.”

In 1959 she writes about stories for a possible TV series,

“Dearest,...First I cannot use stories with a central character of the
Maigret type. The hero must not be Mr. Fix-It. The hero must be in trouble and
the suspense of the story must be: Is he going to get out of it or not. Instead
of: We know he is going to get out of it but how. We are snowed under here with
Perry Mason - type of series....Second, I have a radio show called: M.D. Talks
on Love and Life. It is a lovelorn kind of program but I also do songs they ask
for and talk about my war experiences, read poems...”

The seller also has a copy of the 1962 edition of Marlene Dietrich's ABC, (signed by Marlene in the 80s); another seller has a copy of the limited edition signed reprint.

Vera West "Seven Sinners" Costume Sketch

Profiles in History is auctioning a costume design sketch for an ensemble by Vera West, for Marlene to wear in Seven Sinners (1940), at their upcoming Hollywood Auction #44 on 14 and 15 May. Further info at their website.

Stage Fright Storyboards Up For Auction

Marlene Dietrich as Charlotte Inwood in Stage Fright

Marlene Dietrich modeled Dior and crooned the Cole Porter tune, "The Laziest Gal in Town," in Alfred Hitchcock's 1950 film, Stage Fright, proving again her talent for upstaging the top billing star. Like Emil Jannings, plain Jane Wyman didn't stand a chance against Dietrich's screen presence, even with an Oscar under her belt.

On June 7 2011, Bonhams in London will put up for auction Hitchcock's self-drawn Stage Fright storyboards, which exemplify his meticulous directions for actors and cameramen. Bonhams estimates the storyboards' worth between £20,000-30,000 (€23,000-34,000), but I guess if you had to ask, you probably couldn't afford it.