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 14th
- 19th 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.
