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Marlene Dietrich

Name: Marlene Dietrich
Author: Maria Riva
ISBN: 9780345386458

by Maria Riva

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Overview

"Gossipy...Elabroately detailed...Greatly entertaining...Riva leaves no sequin unturned."
THE NEW YORK TIMES Marlene Deitrich was considered one of the most glamorous stars of her day. A determined perfectionist with an incredible ego, her beauty, her style, her sense of the outrageous, made her a star. In this candid, illuminating, and detailed biography full of photographs, her only daughter Maria Riva, tells the incredible, fascinating, story of the star's life and career, loves and hates, hits and misses, as only a daughter can.

Riva, Marlene Dietrich's daughter, offers a biography of her famous mother as only she can do. From Dietrich's tortured early days to her Hollywoood heyday (and relationships with John Gilbert, Edith Piaf, Erich Maria Remarque, and others) to her brave work against the Nazis and her sad end as a Paris recluse, there was no drama more exotic that that of Dietrich's own life.

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Library Journal

As Marlene, the German-born Maria Magdalena Dietrich (1901-92) was a charismatic movie actress of the 1930s and 1940s. Like Greta Garbo, Dietrich symbolizes glamour and mystery. There are numerous books about the legend, including the star's own Marlene ( LJ 4/1/89). Riva, Dietrich's daughter, here adds her account. As anticipated, Riva's perspective is unique and affecting. Using her mother's diary, radiograms, and letters, she gives proper weight to Dietrich's youth, her experience on the Berlin stage, her collaboration with director Josef Von Sternberg (e.g., The Blue Angel , 1930; Morocco , 1930), and her latter-day triumphs on stage and as a chanteuse. There are arresting tales here (father and stepfather killed in World War I; a stint entertaining U.S. troops during the Battle of the Bulge; affairs with legends of the screen and other arts) that give the reader a true grasp of both biographer and subject. Recommended for public libraries and film collections.Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 9/15/92. --Kim Holston, American Inst . for Chartered Property Casualty Underwriters, Malvern, Pa.