Product Description

Marlene Dietrich never threw away anything.

She kept her good-luck black rag doll (it appeared with her in The Blue Angel and followed her to dressing tables on every movie set). She kept the letters (every last one) she received from her lovers and her husband of fifty-three years. She kept every article of clothing made for her by the great French couturiers and the legendary Hollywood costume designers. She kept everything.

And she believed in storage. Six storage companies, from New York to California, London, and Paris, held pieces of Miss Dietrich’s life, locked away for decades like the pieces of the life of Charles Foster Kane. Over the years, hundreds of thousands of dollars were paid in rental fees. After Dietrich’s death, the articles were gathered together—twenty-five thousand objects and eighteen thousand images. Some were auctioned at Sotheby’s in Los Angeles. The major pieces of Dietrich’s vast collection were assembled in an archive and given to the FilmMuseum Berlin.

Now, her treasures are brought together in 289 photographs from her own collection, with extended captions by her daughter, Maria Riva.

We see Dietrich as a child, in velvet dress and golden ringlets...Dietrich as a young actress in Berlin...as the newly married Mrs. Rudolf Sieber, standing proudly with her husband. We see love letters and letters marking the ends of affairs. We see Dietrich in Hollywood...with Chaplin...with Fritz Lang...at the Paramount commissary...Dietrich captured in snapshots by her movie-creator, Josef von Sternberg...Dietrich as a mother.

We see her at war...in never-before-published photographs of a USO tour...in uniform (tailor-made for her, of course) disembarking from a transport plane...Dietrich with the 82nd Airborne...Dietrich rolling into Germany in
a U.S. tank.

Here she is with her directors and fellow actors: Katharine Hepburn, Claudette Colbert, Judy Garland, John Wayne, Ernst Lubitsch, Clark Gable, Cary Grant, Tyrone Power. Here are portraits of her by Cecil Beaton, Horst P. Horst, Milton Greene, John Engstead. And here is Marlene, shimmering, in Las Vegas, the consummate performer, and at the Palladium in London, triumphant!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #245872 in Books
• Published on: 2001-11-20
• Released on: 2001-11-20
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 304 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Dietrich fans, sit up and take notice. Marlene Dietrich: Photographs and Memories, compiled by Jean-Jacques Naud and captioned by Maria Riva, offers hundreds of photographs of the pack rat's possessions (her dog tags, her cigarette case, her clothing and letters to and from lovers), and, of course, snapshots and publicity stills of the incomparable Dietrich herself (in her "Eisenhower battle jacket" and in her gowns and jewels). Touching reminiscences from Josef von Sternberg and Jean Cocteau, among others, round out this valuable addition to the wealth of books dedicated to the German actress who became one of America's greatest icons.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Legendary actress Marlene Dietrich is honored in this beautiful coffee-table book, which is introduced by brief recollections from director Josef von Sternberg, Orson Welles (who worked with her in Touch of Evil), Ernest Hemingway, and others. The Film Museum of Berlin contains 25,000 objects and 18,000 images related to Dietrich, and this book is like a museum exhibition held expressly for Dietrich lovers. It is divided into sections such as "Portraits," "Beads, Furs, and Feathers," and "Possessions" and displays her dresses and accessories in pristine condition, alongside excerpts from letters and diaries. Daughter Maria Riva (author of a 1994 biography, Marlene Dietrich) provides extended captions to the many photographs of the actress and her belongings. Also included are a filmography, theatography, concertography, discography, and collection inventory with exhibitions. Recommended for film collections. Barbara Kundanis, Batavia P.L., IL
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Inside Flap Copy
Marlene Dietrich never threw away anything.

She kept her good-luck black rag doll (it appeared with her in The Blue Angel and followed her to dressing tables on every movie set). She kept the letters (every last one) she received from her lovers and her husband of fifty-three years. She kept every article of clothing made for her by the great French couturiers and the legendary Hollywood costume designers. She kept everything.

And she believed in storage. Six storage companies, from New York to California, London, and Paris, held pieces of Miss Dietrich?s life, locked away for decades like the pieces of the life of Charles Foster Kane. Over the years, hundreds of thousands of dollars were paid in rental fees. After Dietrich?s death, the articles were gathered together?twenty-five thousand objects and eighteen thousand images. Some were auctioned at Sotheby?s in Los Angeles. The major pieces of Dietrich?s vast collection were assembled in an archive and given to the FilmMuseum Berlin.

Now, her treasures are brought together in 289 photographs from her own collection, with extended captions by her daughter, Maria Riva.

We see Dietrich as a child, in velvet dress and golden ringlets...Dietrich as a young actress in Berlin...as the newly married Mrs. Rudolf Sieber, standing proudly with her husband. We see love letters and letters marking the ends of affairs. We see Dietrich in Hollywood...with Chaplin...with Fritz Lang...at the Paramount commissary...Dietrich captured in snapshots by her movie-creator, Josef von Sternberg...Dietrich as a mother.

We see her at war...in never-before-published photographs of a USO tour...in uniform (tailor-made for her, of course) disembarking from a transport plane...Dietrich with the 82nd Airborne...Dietrich rolling into Germany in
a U.S. tank.

Here she is with her directors and fellow actors: Katharine Hepburn, Claudette Colbert, Judy Garland, John Wayne, Ernst Lubitsch, Clark Gable, Cary Grant, Tyrone Power. Here are portraits of her by Cecil Beaton, Horst P. Horst, Milton Greene, John Engstead. And here is Marlene, shimmering, in Las Vegas, the consummate performer, and at the Palladium in London, triumphant!

Customer Reviews

Marlene Dietrich's picture appears in the dictionary next to the term "pack rat" :D
Seriously. This lady apparently never threw away ANYTHING. She didn't even throw away the "Glorious Aryan Motherhood" medal she got from the Nazis in 1938 in an effort to entice her back to the Third Reich, though she was much offended by the "award" and described her displeasure in pithy terms. Conversely, she proudly told her daughter, Maria Riva, that whereas most daughters inherit medals from their fathers, Maria would inherit medals from her mother, and these decorations (including the U.S. Medal of Freedom and two degrees of the French Legion of Honor) are displayed in one of the book's many color photographs.



This splendid book is a Marlene Dietrich museum all by its lonesome. Gorgeous photographs from every stage of her career (including some very sexy and risque ones displaying her famous legs to best advantage!) are coupled with a visual catalogue of the most interesting of her clothing and possessions, including her famous good-luck rag doll, which appeared in several of her movies, and a pair of matched pistols she received from General George Patton (with whom she is rumored to have had an affair) during World War II.



Speaking of which, Marlene's WWII service, one of the great defining experiences of her life, gets full attention in this book, with many very striking photos of herself at the front. My favorite pictures from this period show her watching a training drop by the 82nd Airborne Division, the unit closest to her heart, in Holland in early 1945.



Marlene, of course, is famed as one of the great style-setters of the 20th century, and we see many, many photos of her outfits and accessories, both as display items and when she was wearing them.



Can I use the word "splendid" twice in one review? :) Because that is exactly what this book is. It's a bargain at any price you care to name, and one of the best retrospectives on any great film star I've ever seen.

La Dietrich
If you were a fan of Dietrich and were allowed to own only ONE book about this woman, then this should be the book to own. To reiterate another reviewer's thought -- it is EXQUISITE.

Am amazing book!
This is a dream of a book. Full of glorious photos and facts. I highly reccommend this to all Dietrich and film fans. All public figures should be the subject of a book like this.