Hollywood (Jan - Mar 1943)

frt NV set®1 etv' •ei>' Yva6 \aic Ao»» vo pitt* bwT( \ | Marlene Dietrich has shelved mystery and glamour for the duration. She no longer is the gay, glamorous figure of pre-war days, surrounded nightly by half a dozen adoring swains. Her nightclub appearances are a thing of the past. Yes, Dietrich has buckled down to do her share of war work. Her name appears high on the lists of volunteers in every phase of war work in Hollywood. She is constantly in attendance for camp shows, benefits and canteen duty. "I've never really been a mystery woman," she explains. "The whole idea is silly. Hollywood press agents built up that angle to sell pictures. I've spent a good deal of my time debunking it. "Little 'eccentricities' confound Hollywood. Maybe they got off on that track about me because I never was in sight Thursday evenings. The first thing that astonished me about Hollywood was the Thursday night eating out fad. On cook's night out, a movie actress not only expected to be taken to dinner, she had to be. She couldn't cook! Where I came from if a girl couldn't cook she wasn't ready for marriage. A cook book can fill in any gaps in home training. I've always regarded cooking as a great pleasure, never a tiresome task. "No," laughed Marlene, "I'm not fantastic, I assure you. I am a woman, quite like any other woman, only my chosen profession happens to be acting. I didn't chance upon my career, either. I picked it and prepared for it. As my daughter is doing. I studied the rudiments of acting at Max Reinhardt's dramatic school abroad, as Maria has been doing in Hollywood. Then I started from the bottom. I did stage work before I was qualified to attempt film leads. There have been many moments when I have been severely discouraged." Marlene still has her languorous movements, low voice, and unshakeable poise. But she disclaims an infallible knowledge of men. "I do not consider myself an expert on the male sex. My first studio built me up fthat way. A hangover from the wine, women, and song Tf'' By REX EDWARDS conception of the theater. They hushed my realistic side. "If my true opinions about men, and not what press agents thought I thought, interest you, okay here goes! First of all, I don't agree at all with a song I sang in one of my pictures that love is merely a game. I think love is a most serious matter, and that it is bad to play at it as at a game. I don't think a girl should mature too fast, or ape her elders. The first long dress, the first big dancing party, all those steps in growing up ought to be great events in a girl's life. They were in mine. I was not allowed to cram thrills and excitement all at once, at sixteen." Marlene's daughter, who is acting at the Reinhardt school under the assumed name of Maria Manton so she will progress on her own, does not mix with the young Hollywood set. She has no dates. Her concentration on mastering the fundamentals of acting is the direct result of her home life. Such old-fashioned mothering by such a sophisticate may seem amazing. But then the real life Dietrich does not even remotely resemble the screen Dietrich. "I don't think it is smart for a girl to experience too much too young and too fast," she continued. "I believe in good oldfashioned upbringing. I had it myself. Nor do I favor hasty marriages. Marrying too quickly, on fleeting attraction, is a major cause of divorce. The fact that you can rush into marriage doesn't mean you prove you have a man of your own; but a year's engagement may demonstrate you can hold him against all competition! "On the screen I am the kind of woman who is imperious with her whims, and easily swept by emotions. But I am wise enough to realize that this is no way for a woman to be in real life. I have never met a 'siren' who was successful. Men don't like 'vamps'! I enact that type in my pictures because that brand of woman is not just like the woman next door and is, therefore, a diversion for an hour or so. Escape from the familiar. But be sure that making some man happy is what counts for every woman, including me!" Marlene has little sympathy for the getyour-man rules ladled out. "They're such poor psychology! The popular saying that a girl shouldn't show her love for a man is ridiculous. It is instinctive to be responsive. But that applies only after the man has made the advances. "It is always a mistake to run after any man. Men are the hunters by nature. If a girl is healthy and natural the men will notice her. She shouldn't sit and wait for a man; she should go to work at something that interests her. And if she doesn't find a man [Continued on page 61]