Donald Spoto - Blue Angel: The Life of Marlene Dietrich

Praise for Blue Angel

A sterling biographythis authors take rings true. Liz Smith

Balanced, discerning and sophisticated. Youll never look at Dietrich or her films in quite the same way again. The Boston Sunday Globe

This is a fabulous book that tells it all. Disentangling a dazzling and complicated life with understanding, wit and insight, Spotos book towers far above petty Hollywood tomes. His is not only a great biography but a provocative appraisal of sex and culture as well. Cosmopolitan

A strong read, one of Donald Spotos best biographies. The Hollywood Reporter

After a dozen books on Dietrich, Spotos fascinating biography is the fullest portrait of the actress and singer. The San Francisco Chronicle

Blue Angel evidences extensive research.... Spoto goes further than previous biographers in naming sexual partners.... Spoto also seems to have penetrated farther behind Dietrichs public persona than have other writers. Library Journal

A singularly perceptive and well-written biography, skillfully interweaving Dietrichs personal and professional lives. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Spoto is a biographer extraordinaire. The Guardian (London)

Few people can imagine the effect Dietrich had on public taste. Spotos book will do much to remedy this ignorance. The Houston Post

Real pleasure may be found in Blue Angel; it is a map through several layers of complexity and reveals more and more on each reading. Los Angeles Weekly

Blue Angel exhibits [Spotos] greatest strength... as a keen analyst of movies. His explications, often scene by scene, of Dietrichs work with her mentor, Josef von Sternberg, and with Alfred Hitchcock are incisive and exciting. The New York Times Book Review

Spoto knows how to tell a lively story, and this one reflects the research and work that went into it. Associated Press / Special Features

More intelligently than most movie-star biographers, Spoto extends our knowledge of the fun-house-nightmare world of show business. New York Magazine

Spoto is no slapdash celebrity biographer out for a quick buck. He carries out detailed research and first-class detective work. Nearly all the material in Spotos book is new. The Daily Mail (London)

Spoto intersperses Dietrichs life with sober analyses of her film performances. This book offers affectionate, measured praise for a unique career and a heroic if self-centered life. The Observer (UK)

Spotos book is a fascinating analysis of Dietrich as her own self-generated producta triumph of persistence, image-manipulation and self-promotion over dumpiness and limited talent.... He makes a shrewd chronicler of her polymorphously prodigious sex life. Sight and Sound

Spoto tells a moving tale. Daily Telegraph (UK)

ALSO BY DONALD SPOTO

Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis: A Life

The Hidden Jesus: A Life

The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock

The Art of Alfred Hitchcock: Fifty Years of His Motion Pictures

Rebel: The Life and Legend of James Dean

Falling in Love Again: Marlene Dietrich (A Photo-Essay)

The Kindness of Strangers: The Life of Tennessee Williams

Stanley Kramer, Film Maker

Marilyn Monroe: The Biography

Camerado: Hollywood and the American Man

Diana: The Last Year

The Decline and Fall of the House of Windsor

Notorious: The Life of Ingrid Bergman

Madcap: The Life of Preston Sturges

A Passion for Life: The Biography of Elizabeth Taylor

Laurence Olivier: A Biography

Lenya: A Life

DONALD SPOTO

What Am I Bid for My Apple?, 1930, Famous Music Corporation.

I Couldnt Be Annoyed, 1932, Famous Music Corporation, renewed 1959, Famous Music Corporation.

Johnny, 1933, Famous Music Corporation, copyright renewed and reassigned to Famous Music Corporation.

Illusions, 1948, Famous Music Corporation, renewed 1975, Famous Music Corporation.

Laziest Gal in Town, 1920, Harms, Inc., USA.

First Cooper Square Press edition 2000

This Cooper Square Press paperback edition of Blue Angel is an unabridged republication of the edition first published in New York in 1992. It is reprinted by arrangement with the author. Copyright 1992 by Donald Spoto

Book design: Marysarah Quinn

Insert design by Anne Ling

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.

Published by Cooper Square Press,

An Imprint of Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group

150 Fifth Avenue, Suite 911

New York, New York 10011

Distributed by National Book Network

The Doubleday edition of this book was catalogued as follows by the Library of Congress:

Spoto, Donald, 1941

Blue angel : the life of Marlene Dietrich / Donald Spoto.1st ed.
p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Dietrich, Marlene. 2. EntertainersGermanyBiography. I. Title.

PN2658.D5S59 1992

791.43'028'092dc20

[B] 92-11031

ISBN: 978-0-8154-1061-4

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.481992.
Manufactured in the United States of America.

for Kirtley Thiesmeyer,
with gratitude deep and true

Iron shapes iron, and friend shapes friend.

PROVERBS 27:17

IN 1984, NOT LONG AFTER I COMPLETED THE FINAL draft of a biography of Tennessee Williams, I decided to prepare a short book on the career of Marlene Dietrich. Published the following year under the title Falling in Love Again, it was never intended to be a complete life story but rather a reflective essay with photos on her various film roles. But during the research I was fascinated by the life behind the work, and so I began to dig deeper. Thus Blue Angel: The Life of Marlene Dietrich has taken shape over eight years, even as other books were begun and published.

Biographers (perhaps preeminently among practitioners of the writers craft) owe much to the practical assistance of others. En route to publication, throughout Europe and America, I was the fortunate recipient of kind and generous help from friends and from strangers who quickly became friends.

Crucial interviews relative to the life of Marlene Dietrich were granted by the late Rupert Allan, Robert Anderson, Pierre Barillet, Leonard Blair, Vivien Byerley, Barrie Chase, Alexander H. Cohen, Robert Colbaugh, Frederick Combs, the late Cheryl Crawford, Laurence Evans, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Dean Goodman, Ethel Grand, the late Alfred Hitchcock, Harry Horner, Jean Howard, Hilary Knight, Stanley Kramer, Stefan Lorant, Jean Louis, Col. Barney Oldfield, USAF (Ret.), the late Lotta Palfi-Andor, Eileen Palmer, Hildy Parks, Cesar Romero, Maximilian Schell, Nicholas von Sternberg, Peter White and Billy Wilder.