Unexpectedly, a long black limousine arrived at Buckingham Palace’s gates, catching the guardsmen off-guard as they spotted one of the day’s most renowned and stunning women gracefully lounging in the rear seat.
At that time, Marlene Dietrich was celebrated as the highest-paid film star worldwide, embodying a captivating husky-voiced sensuality.
During the peak of her career, she charmed many of Hollywood’s leading men, including the likes of John Wayne and James Stewart. However, that summer evening in 1936, she had a completely different target in mind.
Dietrich had traveled to England to film Knight Without Armour at Denham Studios in Buckinghamshire.
Through her boyfriend, Douglas Fairbanks Jr, who had connections with the Royal Family, she became aware of King Edward VIII’s intentions to abdicate in order to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson.
Disconcerted by the notion that he might forsake everything for ‘that homely, flat-chested woman,’ the 35-year-old screen star resolved to take action.
According to Fairbanks, ‘She was ready to seduce him and demonstrate that Wallis wasn’t the only woman available.’
According to him, Dietrich’s bold strategy was devised in her suite at Claridge’s. ‘She asserted, “I’ll make him forget her. I need a bath and the right perfume.”
‘As she spoke, she started to undress.’
Given that they were involved romantically, Fairbanks understandably voiced his concerns regarding the plan.
‘Oh darling, don’t be so old-fashioned,’ was her playful retort.
‘We’re undertaking this for England, a country we both cherish. Some sacrifices are necessary.’
Born in Berlin in 1901, Dietrich was the offspring of Louis Dietrich, a lieutenant with the Royal Prussian Police, and his wife Josephine, whose family operated one of the most esteemed department stores in the city.
Among the first individuals to be captivated by her was…For Dietrich, the attraction was an older girl at her school.
She recalled, ‘I was permitted to spend the night with her, and she took the lead.’
‘Although she appeared to be inexperienced, her enjoyment of our clumsiness was evident.’
As a stage and film actress in the decadent Berlin of the Twenties, she went on to have relationships with both men and women. However, her most unusual and lasting bond was with a handsome assistant director named Rudi Sieber.
Later, she would characterize him as ‘the love of my life, my soul mate.’
Nevertheless, after their marriage in May 1923 and the birth of their daughter Maria the following year, they chose to maintain an open relationship, with Dietrich endorsing Sieber’s affair with Russian actress Tamara Matul.
This arrangement was partly practical. In 1930, following her successful role in The Blue Angel, the new international sex symbol relocated to
Hollywood, leaving her daughter in the care of her husband and Tamara — a setup that continued throughout her career.
Even though they lived apart in the ensuing years, Dietrich made it a point to write to Rudi each time she had a relationship, sharing the details.
‘No one else captured my heart like Rudi did, so there was no need for him to feel jealous,’ she clarified.
She must have penned many such letters. Among her Hollywood romances were encounters with two former lovers of Greta Garbo.
One was a brief affair with Mercedes de Acosta, a well-known society lesbian famous for her penchant for wearing manly trousers, alongside a naval-style tricorn hat and cape. The other involved actor John Gilbert, famously dubbed ‘the great lover’ of the silent screen.
Her two-year romance with Gilbert came to an end when he passed away from a heart attack in January 1936, but she quickly moved on, meeting Douglas Fairbanks Jr at a party in London not long before her ill-fated role in the abdication crisis.
That evening, she asked him for a ride back to Claridge’s and extended an invitation for a nightcap.
‘It’s very kind of you to invite me for a drink,’ he remarked as he settled onto the sofa in her suite.
‘That wasn’t what I was thinking,’ she retorted.
Dietrich was eight years Fairbanks’ senior, yet he recalled: ‘She was as unconventional in her love life as she was in every other aspect.’
‘She was completely unreserved about her nudity, which was quite understandable upon seeing that body.’
Their affair coincided with Dietrich’s increasing worries about the rise of Nazism in her homeland. She was branded a traitor for her refusal to return to Germany and create films for the state-run UFA studios, which would have served as excellent propaganda for the Third Reich.
According to Fairbanks, one day she approached him with an extraordinary plan. She would consent to make one film in Germany on the condition that she could have a private meeting with the Fuhrer.
This would give her the chance to kill him.
She confided in Fairbanks, ‘I would profess my feelings for him, insinuating that I am hopelessly in love. I’ve heard that Hitler has some admiration for me, and I’m confident he would be agreeable.’
Realizing she would likely be searched, she even considered entering Hitler’s bedroom unclothed if it came to that, but she struggled to figure out how to smuggle in a weapon for the act.
While she contemplated a poisoned hairpin, she also asked Fairbanks for his ideas.
‘I never came up with anything,’ he admitted.
‘Luckily, her plan never proceeded further because she didn’tshe was a very brave girl, determined to figure out how to complete the assassination; I know she would have risked her life if she believed success was attainable.’
When Dietrich ended her romance with Fairbanks in 1938, he assumed she simply grew bored with him.
The next year, she began a relationship with James Stewart, her co-star from the Western film Destry Rides Again. She showcased a very different side of ‘Gentleman Jimmy’, as fans called him.
‘He never uttered “I love you” or anything similar,’ she remembered.
‘One tends to expect those kinds of words, even if they are delivered entirely insincerely.
‘Then I found out I was pregnant. It was his baby too, which I disclosed to him. He appeared taken aback.
‘He remarked: “Jeez, what are you gonna do about it?” I noticed he used “you” instead of “we”.’
Some reports indicate that Dietrich had an abortion with Stewart’s consent, while others claim she said it was a false pregnancy.
Regardless of the truth, their relationship did not endure past filming, and soon Dietrich was pursuing Joseph Kennedy, the father of the well-known siblings John, Robert, and Edward.
At the time, Kennedy served as the U.S. ambassador to Britain, and he first met Dietrich in the summer of 1939 while both were vacationing at Cap d’Antibes in the South of France.
Dietrich was accompanied by Rudi, Tamara, and Maria, whereas Kennedy had his wife and children with him; yet, this did not prevent their brief affair, which turned out to be disappointing in multiple ways.
‘He was a very wealthy man, yet he never gave me even the simplest gesture, like a scarf,’ Dietrich recalled.
‘I believe he wanted to ensure that I truly liked him, just for himself alone. He was not very at ease when it came to women.’
Though their affair concluded that summer, it seemed to have left a lasting impression on the young John F. Kennedy, who was just 21 at the time.
As her fame as a film star began to decline in the following years, she shifted towards a career as a cabaret artist.
While touring the nation with memorable songs like Falling In Love Again and Lili Marleen, she arrived in Washington in the early Sixties and extended an invitation to President John F. Kennedy to attend her show.
A response came back stating that the president couldn’t attend but would like her to visit him at the White House.
Upon arrival, she was taken to his private quarters, where they were left alone.
‘He clearly remembered those times in the South of France,’ she remarked.
‘Most of him appeared relaxed, yet not entirely, and he made his intentions quite clear.
‘I can’t say I was entirely caught off guard. After all, he was his father’s son, and I wanted to see if he mirrored his father’s romantic style.
‘Most of what transpired is a blur, as it happened so quickly. Afterwards, I recall saying: “Please don’t muss my hair.” I remained focused on my profession, knowing I had a show to perform later that evening.
‘I think he was even quicker than his father. I suppose he had a busier schedule. Both kept an eye on their watches.’
Before her departure, Kennedy inquired whether she had truly spent the night with his father. She replied: ‘I paused for a moment, contemplating what he wanted to believe. “No, your father attempted it, but I didn’t consent,” I told him.
‘The president smiled, so I assumed my response was satisfactory. “The old fox,” he said. “I knew he was lying.”‘
Dietrich, then in her early 60s, confessed to feeling relieved that Kennedy, who was about 16 years her junior, found her attractive.
‘I felt‘She remarked that she was too old for the young president.’
‘I wished to have been younger and more beautiful for that occasion.’
For a woman whose allure had once allowed her to decide which leading men she would invite to her bed, coping with aging was a struggle, and she had always been selective.
Her attraction to John Wayne, her co-star in The Spoilers, filmed in 1942, was significant. She was initially captivated by his ‘broad shoulders and flat behind’, yet what truly drew her was his lack of vanity and arrogance.
‘He was far from it; as an actor, he was quite insecure,’ she remarked.
‘While it may not be what a man of his stature would want said, he awakened my maternal instincts.’
Conscious that she could not rely on her looks indefinitely, she had long established an agreement with her husband Rudi to spend their old age together.
In this matter, Dietrich never doubted that he would ultimately prefer her over his long-term mistress, Tamara.
‘Tamara could never occupy the position of the love of his life because I had already taken that place,’ she asserted.
Dietrich felt that this awareness might have contributed to Tamara’s declining mental health.
In 1965, she was institutionalized in a mental asylum, where she was eventually murdered by another inmate.
The way was clear for her and Rudi to enjoy their later years together — but the deep sadness in her life was that he passed away in 1976, leaving her to spend her final years alone in a Parisian apartment.
By the time of her death in May 1992, she had become something of a recluse.
The reason for her reluctance to leave her flat was simple. The woman who had once mesmerized millions lived in fear that photographers might capture images of her, exposing a beauty that could have altered the course of history now faded into the past.
by Professor P.T. Brown
