I remember - Marlene Dietrich

I noticed the other day a CD for sale: Marlene Dietrich with the Burt Bacharach Orchestra, recorded at the Sydney Opera House in 2007. Unbelievable really as she's been dead since 1992.

I remember they recorded together sometime during the early seventies, and she toured Britain with the Burt Bacharach Orchestra and sang songs to promote the album.

Burt Bacharach didn't come over to the UK and I doubt very much, knowing the Musicians' Union at the time, that any of the personnel of the great man's ensemble toured either.

One of the theatres she played was The Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham, where she played for a week, which included two matinée performances in the afternoons, from May 14^th - 19^th 1973.

In those days, my mother worked at the 'Alec' so I was privy to the backstage area and saw the screen legend in the flesh many times; well not exactly 'in the flesh' but you know what I mean!

She would arrive at the theatre, via the stage door, a few hours before her show was due to start and each day a devoted crowd of fans, paparazzi (before they were named that) and a few passers by, would welcome her as she arrived.

When she left, after the show, a huge hue of glittering glamour would fill the tiny street that ran alongside the Alec. The glitter would be the flashes from her jewellery made by the flashlights from the many cameras.

It didn't make any difference how many people were there, Marlene greeted the crowd as if there were a multitude.

I couldn't get a ticket to see any of the evening shows, but was fortunate enough to see a midweek matinée, which was an experience, but which played to a half full house; notwithstanding this, Miss Dietrich played as if to an audience of thousands.

She sang all the well known songs – See What the Boys In the Back Room Will Have and Lili Marlane, of course.

Unbeknown to the outside throng, was a young woman in her forties, who came to the Alec each evening by bus; she would leave Marlene at their hotel to go alone to the theatre in a chauffeur driven limo, so that she, Marlene, could arrive at the theatre alone without any distractions – who's that? Could she be? - and when she went back to the hotel in the evenings my father gave the young woman a lift in his mini.

My mother said it was Marlene's daughter even though she would refer to her mother as Marlene, and I think she spoke with the same kind of German accent as her mother did; if indeed it was her mother.

The request for my dad to give her a lift came from Miss Dietrich's dressing room, so it was from the great screen legend, herself. He was recommended as a 'reliable bloke' who could be trusted with someone so precious but not so precious as to qualify for a ride in the limo.

The rides in the mini took my dad out of his way fairly late each evening and he got to know how devoted the woman was to Marlene. He didn't say much but would listen intently as she would relay how grateful she and Marlene were for this service; I mean he must have saved them all of about £10 - £15 in taxi fare and at the end of the engagement my dad was rewarded with a signed copy of the Marlene Dietrich/Burt Bacharach LP.

I saw the great film star quite a few times coming out of her dressing room; it was on the first floor, right next to the stage, so she had to climb the stairs each evening to get to it. She always looked a million dollars and the short trip from her dressing room door to the stage could have been on a Paris or New York cat walk at the height of fashion week as she swept passed everyone; stage hands, and electricians alike, on full performance and charisma.

I would see her come out of the room sometimes; the mysterious woman would open the door for her and Marlene would 'put her face on' – her movie star performing face; I could see this as the door would open sometimes before she had fully prepared.

She never met my eyes either there or when she was exiting the theatre later on, so I never knew that look she must have given to the scores of lovers of both sexes she was reputed to have known: Gary Cooper, John Wayne, James Stewart - rumours were she had affairs with Frank Sinatra, John Kennedy and Edith Piaf. She was quite open about her bisexuality but not about her age.

Nobody knew how old she was but we now know she was around 73. In the matinée that I attended I remember her singing one of her really famous songs and looking into a part of the theatre where there were empty seats. Of course it's impossible to see passed the lights when you are up there, but she was acting as if she had caught somebody's eye in a particular part of the audience.

She died in Paris in 1992 aged 90; dependent on alcohol and only seeing very few people.