Dietrich at the Café de Paris: Perfume from Spain

Marlene's 1954 debut at London's Café de Paris  has become as legendary, and was — judging by the recording made of the evening — as lovely as the star herself, who was  introduced to the nightclub's chic clientèle by Noël Coward. 

Less remembered are her return visits to the club, in 1955 and 1958 — making the article republished below (shared thanks to the generosity of the Crees Collection!) a delightful read. The clippping, while not dated and sourced, is likely a later recounting by journalist and wit Nancy Spain of her introduction to, and for, Dietrich in 1955.

MY evening out with Marlene Dietrich began when the Café de Paris — London's glittery night-spot — came on the telephone and said, ‘We’d like you to introduce Miss Dietrich on Wednesday. Douglas Fairbanks does it on Monday . . . Helen Hayes, the first lady of the American theatre, on the Tuesday . . .' And I began to babble incoherently.

How would you feel if you were suddenly to come face to face with The Legend, the Top Girl of the movies for the last twenty years, the woman to whom author Ernest Hemingway always takes his manuscripts for literary approval, the most glamorous woman in the world? And now, let alone coming face to face with her, I was to introduce her to a crowd of the celebrated and near celebrated, the distinguished and near distinguished who go to make up the clientele at the Café de Paris. ‘You may bring two friends,’ they told me.