Marlene: A Novel of Marlene Dietrich by C.W. Gortner; William Morrow, $26.99
When Marlene Dietrich died at age 90 in 1992, her New York Times front-page obituary heralded her death with the headline "International Symbol of Glamour and Sex." In his new book Marlene: A Novel of Marlene Dietrich, Gortner has produced a shadow biography disguised as historical fiction, told in Marlene's voice, and upholding the Times' description. With her singing and acting talents, Dietrich reinvented herself throughout her life, setting the template for Madonna and Lady Gaga. While not totally successful, Gortner does remind us why this charismatic, indomitable legend still fascinates us almost a quarter-century after her passing.
Born in 1901 to an aristocratic but money-poor Berlin family, Marlene (Lena) was dominated by her mother, who instilled in her daughter a strong work ethic, even willing to clean houses so Marlene could attend private school. Sent to Weimar Academy to study to become a virtuoso violinist, Marlene seduces her instructor, but realizes she doesn't have the talent to succeed. Instead, Marlene studies voice and theater, graduating from small chorus parts to headlining cabaret acts in seedy, sexually fluid Weimar nightclubs, becoming a sensation at drag balls with her sultry voice, and dressing androgynously in mannish tuxedos. These years will help Marlene define her style. She moves in with a female lover, though still attracted to men. She meets an assistant casting director, Rudi Sieber, who gets her a screen test, leading to a small film role. She will wed Sieber in 1923, their daughter Maria born the following year. But marriage and motherhood aren't Marlene's destiny. With her sexual charisma, she has affairs with both men and women.
She auditions for the tyrannical German director Joseph von Sternberg, who gives her the breakthrough role of the temptress Lola Lola in The Blue Angel. Her success leads to a Hollywood career guided by Sternberg, who discovers how to photograph her most seductively. She perfects the femme fatale, but also plays spies, vamps, prostitutes. She proves adept at romantic comedy in Desire, and as a saloon singer in Destry Rides Again. She becomes one of Paramount Pictures' greatest stars, having romances with such (often married) luminaries as Cary Grant, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., John Wayne, Anna May Wong, Jean Gabin, and author Erich Maria Remarque. Her husband will take a mistress, Tamara, who will befriend Marlene, and they'll all live together for awhile.
The world seems in love with Marlene, including Adolph Hitler, whose promise to give her whatever she wants if she will return to Germany is publicly spurned. Instead she becomes an American citizen, then takes up Bette Davis' offer to join the USO, feeding soldiers at the Hollywood Canteen, entertaining the troops, raising war bonds, and visiting hospitals in Europe at great personal risk to herself and her family in Germany, conducting more tours than any other celebrity and given the rank of Colonel. Her affair with General George Patton will enable her return to a destroyed Germany as she witnesses Nazism's evil firsthand in ruined cities and liberated concentration camps.
Gortner wisely concludes his novel when the war ends with a four-page afterword outlining the remainder of her life. Her solo cabaret act in Las Vegas is such a hit she travels the world with it for the next 20 years. Still, one wonders whether historical fiction is the right genre for Marlene, who with her bisexuality seems more contemporary than archival. Gortner excels in the gender-bending Weimar period, but whether he gets the essence of Marlene is debatable. Gritty, ambitious, self-absorbed, and chilly, Marlene focuses on getting what she wants, not caring about the consequences. But like most great stars she is a kind of Rorschach test onto whom audiences can project their fantasies. So we never get to know the private Dietrich, only her public persona. She remains alluring but elusive, yet so innovative that she seems as in vogue today as she was at her peak.