Marlene Dietrich – Beyond Top Hat and Tails

With the LGBT History Month in full swing and the Southbank Centre celebrating Weimar Berlin on the weekend of 1st March, here is another chance to listen to the programme about Marlene Dietrich that was originally broadcast on 25th December 2012. It will be available until for seven days.

Marlene Dietrich dazzled audiences – whether in a glittering dresses or in elegant tails. She crossed gender like no other star and became a gay icon. What was her appeal to a gay audience? Her glamour? Her strength? Her liberty? What could be read between the lines?

Author Clayton Littlewood talks to art historian Simon Watney and Terry Sanderson, organiser of a Marlene Dietrich Tribute, as key contributors. Together they take at closer look at this unusual woman, who was very much ahead of her time and often described as the ‘last goddess’. A feature by Sabine Schereck.

We would like to thank the Marlene Dietrich Collection Berlin at the Stiftung Deutsche Kinemathek for their support and Alan Brodie Representation Ltd for their kind permission to use an extract from a letter by Noel Coward to Marlene Dietrich published in THE LETTERS OF NOËL COWARD copyright © NC Aventales AG and Barry Day 2007; www.alanbrodie.com.

We would also like to thank the University of Minnesota Press for their kind permission to use an extract from Steven Bach’s book “Marlene Dietrich – Life and Legend”.

Due to rights reasons this programme is not available anymore as a podcast.

One thought on “Marlene Dietrich – Beyond Top Hat and Tails

  1. Pippa Ritchie

    This programme is crammed with fascinating facts like between the wars Germany being full of women with so many men killed in WW1, leading to a thriving and relatively open lesbian counter culture. Listen to it if you can.

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