Butch in Progress

“Das Lied ist aus/The Song is Over” - 20 Years Ago Marlene Dietrich died

The song might be over, but the melody is still lingering.

[K] Marlene Dietrich, 1901-1992, film star, fashion icon, sex symbol, singer, soldier and so much more…

When you’re dead, you’re dead. That’s it. (Marlene Dietrich)

… unless your legacy is as long-lasting as Marlene Dietrich’s, whose image and allure seems to be as enthralling as ever.

I suggest you brighten your Sunday night by watching a Dietrich movie (I sure did).

Marlene Dietrich re-invented as Street Art

For more amazing street art photography by Ulrich Blanchet go to his flickr photostream.

Hats! Vests! Uniforms!

[K] Random pictures of vintage actresses in drag.

Why? Because I can, because they look damn fine, and because I think today’s movie landscape could use some more gender-bending/cross-dressing/girls in suits, and because I am sure I would have collected those postcards with avid devotion. Consider it a pre-holiday-gift for your eyes.

Sources: Flicker - Truus, Bob and Jan, too!

Marlene Dietrich, photographed at the home of Dorothy Arzner and her partner Marion Morgan

[K] This just made my day: a rare picture of Marlene Dietrich sitting on Dorothy Arzner’s porch (the two once planned to shoot a movie together), which was discovered by Directed by Dorothy Arzner-author and film scholar Judith Mayne during her research at the Arzner-Collection at UCLA.

Hollywood (or rather its infamous ‘sewing circle’) was a small world indeed…

Mayne writes about her discovery:

There were a number of snapshots of various individuals in one of the boxes at UCLA. […] One snapshot promised truly exciting possibilities: Marlene Dietrich, sitting (I assumed) in Arzner and Morgan’s yard […]

I have yet to find a single acknowledgement of a friendship, an acquaintanceship or an attachment between the two [in the several detailed biographies that have appeared since Dietrich’s death]. I freely admit my disappointment, but at the same time I think it is a good thing to have this photograph of Dietrich so situate next to the one of the entrance to Dorothy and Marion’s home;

it reminds me that no indivicual life is completely knowable by anyone else.

For more info on the home director Dorothy Arzner and choreographer Marion Morgan had shared for several decades, go to HollywoodLand.

ps.: further evidence of the above stated “small world of Hollywood’s ‘sewing circle’”… the UCLA retrospective of Arzner’s work in 2003 was partially funded by *drumroll* Jodie Foster.

Treasures from Mercedes de Acosta’s Bequest - Marlene Dietrich

In today’s digital journey through the Treasures from Mercedes de Acosta’s bequest at the Rosenbach Museum and Library, instead of digging for more of the rather rare portraits of Mercedes de Acosta herself, we’ll focus on pictures taken by Mercedes of … Marlene Dietrich, captured in Mercedes’ snaphsots in a way neither paparazzi nor Hollywood’s glamor photographers ever could.

(Source: rosenbach.pastperfect-online.com)

Marlene Dietrich’s “verging from the norm” affair with fellow screen siren Kay Francis

[K] Almost-too-good-too-be-true excerpt from the FBI-files on Marlene Dietrich (whom J. Edgar Hoover suspected to be a German/European spy.)

With reference to her personal history, Source [blackened] continued that “despite her marriage to SIEBER, with whom she has not lived for many years, at least as long as has been to the United States, DIETRICH has been promiscuous in a bland, glamorous way. … During her Paramount days, she verged from the norm for an affair with KAY FRANCIS (known lesbian), and since that time has been involved in similar experiences, although less known. [blackened]’s wife, also known lesbian) reportedly once was given a large sapphire ring  by DIETRICH in a night club in the Strip.

Lesbian gossip from Hollywood’s Golden age (with government-approval.)… still good (and better/hotter than today’s) after more than 60-years.

Best of: Women in Suits (Black and White Edition)

[K] There just were just too many attractive women in suits, so I had to split:

stay here for the classics, go there for color (and more overt gayness).

In order of appearance:

• Louise Brooks in Beggars of Life
• Marlene Dietrich in Morocco
• Renate Müller in Viktor und Viktoria
• Katharine Hepburn in Sylvia Scarlett

Marlene Dietrich… or more precisely, Marlene Dietrich’s legs

Photographed by Milton H. Greene

[K] You’re welcome.

Marlene Dietrich hugging Claudette Colbert with her legs in friendship*

[K] I feel like starting a bidding war à la “What would you give to be that women between Marlene Dietrich’s legs?”.

My starting offer: A lot.

*If you wanna revisit Ellen Page’s by-now-classic (coming out) Saturday Night Live skit, go here.