The Liz Smith Column | 08/03/2009 11:00 pm

Liz Smith: Classic Dish on Classic Stars

Also from Our Gossip Girl, Lindsay Lohan’s ‘Machete’ (Relax, it’s a movie!) … Stacy Keach taking ‘King Lear’ to China?

Marlene Dietrich/Image: Alexander/Flickr

"Marlene’s rules were clear. No woman present must be younger than she, but all the men must be younger and attractive. No woman must wear a dress that might threaten to upstage her Chanel. There must be an equal number of men and woman, and the chairs in which she would sit must be lighted by a lamp with a pink bulb and a heavy shade, and not face sunlight or moonlight."

Such were the dinner-party dictates of Marlene Dietrich, according to Charles Higham’s new book, In and Out of Hollywood. You see? "Diva" behavior began years before Jennifer Lopez and Mariah and the rest. A star is a star. They want what they want when they want it, and they want what they want right away.

Mr. Higham is a well-known chronicler of the famous and infamous. Although he is a noted poet and has written a number of reasonably received plays, his biographies are the meat of his career. Kate Hepburn, Bette Davis, Howard Hughes, Cary Grant, Olivia de Havilland and Joan Fontaine, Audrey Hepburn, Orson Welles.

Higham’s greatest notoriety came with his biography of Errol Flynn, in which he claimed the beloved swashbuckler was a bisexual Nazi sympathizer. His book on the Duchess of Windsor also revealed not only hers and the Duke’s admiration of Adolph Hitler, but her own special sexual techniques, which kept the former King of England aroused enough to give up his throne "for the woman I love." Another controversial work came in Trading with the Enemy: The Nazi-American Money Plot. (Mr. Higham has not been without criticism for some of his revelations, considered fanciful, at best.)

Errol Flynn/Image: Wikipedia

His new book tells many dishy tales – shocking on Judy Garland and terrifyingly spot on Lucille Ball – believe me, Lucy was not funny in real life! However, In and Out is intended to be his tale, after years spent writing of others.

So we re-live Higham’s melodramatic childhood, replete with a wicked, sexually abusive stepmother, an early failed marriage, his belief in ghosts and his long-burgeoning homosexuality. We get a lot on that. (Higham refers to his frequent metaphysical experiences as "crossing the Borderline" – caps per Mr. Higham.)

Everybody’s entitled to tell their own story, as they like it. It’s just that Mr. Higham doesn’t come off as, well … likeable. Maybe it’s just his attempt at a healthy ego. But he does seem to feel he has been "done wrong" a lot. Maybe so. Showbiz reporting is a thankless endeavor; one rarely gets credit from those raved about.

So, while I wasn’t swept away reading about Mr. Higham’s lovers and peccadilloes, he includes enough classic down-and-dirty dish on real stars to satisfy those of us who are amused by same. (His section on interviewing Katharine Hepburn is worth the whole book.) And how disheartening to learn that so many of the great lady stars, whose later careers depended on the kindness of homosexual support, were indeed homophobic. Including the queen’s Queen herself, Bette Davis, according to Higham.

Maybe my favorite story is about the unabashedly autocratic director, Cecil B. DeMille. During a pre-production meeting on DeMille’s epic, "The Ten Commandments," Charlton Heston, cast as Moses, asked DeMille who would speak the voice of God, talking to Moses on the Mount. A mighty tall order, after all.

DeMille shouted, "You DARE to ask?!!!" And so of course, DeMille played God. It makes James Cameron’s "I’m king of the world!" seem puny indeed.

23 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment

Your tags are hysterical. Adolph Hitler and Audrey Hepburn.

How can you mention Errol Flynn and not add {s baaa}.

Ms. Dietrich had a lot of tricks in her bag. The rubber band face lift to name one. I always remember hearing she would sanitize her theatre rooms and clean them herself. Sewed her bangles and beads back on her dresses, too.

By Washington Cube on 08/04/2009 1:35 am

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Dear WC, I have heard about the rubber band facelifts before but always thought people were joking. Is that for real? How did she do it? Did she put it on like a head band? Sorry to ask such a dumb question but I really am curious, lol :o)

By Heidi W on 08/10/2009 2:35 pm

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Heidi: If you go and read any biography about her, that story appears. From what I gather, it involved a lot of hair twisting and hidden braids and hidden rubber bands and pins, and pulling. I don’t think it was an easy process, but it tightened up her hairline and forehead and on the sides. If you read the full description somewhere it sounds time consuming and painful.

There always seemed to be a running joke about Dietrich as "hausfrau," and yet I admired her for it. I mentioned how she would repair her expensive beaded gowns, by restoring missing or smashed beads and hand sewing new ones on. Again, a tedious, methodical chore, but it shows her eye for detail and maintenance. She was also known to scrub down her dressing rooms very thoroughly and have her cans of Comet or whatnot…the rubber gloves. Again, very thorough. I remember reading one story several times, and I should be able to quote more accurately but I can’t. A friend (and I can’t remember who,) got terribly sick, and Marlene went out and bought up a ton of beef, and set it in this big pot on low flame to cook down and reduce. The meat proteins broke down, the fluids reduced, and she had this intensely flavored, small portion of beef stock, but it was something she thought was a very good remedy "for what ails ya," and she took it to her friend. I forget how long it took her to cook it…ten hours? A while. But I always thought, "What a good friend to do something like that."

When people dish on her wanting good lighting (Gee..who doesn’t…I’m a big fan of pink lightbulbs myself,) to me it just established further her knowledge of how she looked in real life, and on camera. She knew her makeup and how to adjust the width of her nose, angle her cheekbones. To me, that’s just good work craft and being professional. So no, she didn’t do the lift with a headband. She actually wove her hair with rubber bands and pins and pulled it all taut. Too bad she’s not around now so we could have it on You Tube.

By Washington Cube on 08/10/2009 3:12 pm

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Hi WC,

Wow, it does sound painful and time consuming but you have to give her credit for doing.. with what she had to work with. Now people can just run to a Plastic Surgeon. I agree with you on the "What a good friend to do that." The smell of the beef reducing was probably enough to make anyone feel better before they even had any broth. I cook my beef on low heat for stew about 5 hours, makes the whole house smell like Grandma’s used to on roast beef day, lol The fact she was concerned about her appearance doesn’t make her any more Diva like than anyone else, she just had the knowledge to do it, and did. Being a Star like she was, she had to keep up appearances. Pretty cool. I’m going to have to try the pink lightbulb thing one of these days, lol. I will look for her biography, I have read a few others from Stars of that time and I find them fascinating. Thanks for responding. :o)

By Heidi W on 08/11/2009 6:27 am

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When I read about Marlene’s "requirements" for appropriate seating, lighting and guest mix, I howled! What great chutzpah that woman had - but she was a STAR, folks, and she was amazing. I saw her toward the end of her life when she was doing concerts. For her final medley, she came out in a flesh-colored bugle-beaded sheath that had to be sewn onto her body. Her hair was a perfect halo (proper backlighting, of course) and her makeup was perfect. She stood stock still, and although that husky voice was a little shaky, she mesmerized, enchanted and amazed the audience. The word "iconic" is overused nowadays, but if it applies to anyone, La Dietrich is the icon of icons when it comes to stardom.

Wish I had gotten to see Keach in "King Lear" - he is such a fine actor! I hope to see him soon on screen. (With or without CGI abs, he’s a pretty fine man.)

By Susan Crawford on 08/04/2009 7:29 am

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Why would anyone want to go to her dinner parties if they had to look worse than the hostess? Sounds neither fun or professionally productive for any actress who would have attended.

By DeBúrca obj on 08/04/2009 9:25 am

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And then there’s the story of Dietrich’s lack of underpinings told by Francine du Plessix Gray in her book, "Them: Memoir of My Parents." Seems Marlene , on many occasions, bending over or crossing legs, would reveal her "Betty-down-there"––A Sharon Stone kind of thing that resulted in distain from women, but brought out the beast in men.

By phyllis Doyle Pepe on 08/04/2009 10:00 am

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And people actually attended Dietrich’s parties?? These Diva types are so shallow. And boring.

By Deena B. on 08/04/2009 10:41 am

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The current crop of celebrity biographers - especially those of stars from the classic era of movies - is disheartening to say the least. Sources are inflated or, worse, invisible, careers take a back seat to who slept with whom, private lives are misrepresented as secretive, etc. Higham’s no spring chicken in this area, but in my view he’s no exception. He knows how to take advantage - some would say exploit - the times. If he’s writing his own story, why include Dietrich or Hepburn at all, except peripherally as people he covered? Well, for starters, who’d buy the book if he didn’t? These books aren’t fashioned to be anything more than exercises in the "gotcha!" game. They don’t feed our curiosity; the feed our prurience. And they masquerade as objective accounts, when in truth they are mostly anything but. If that sounds like I’m pre-judging this book, I guess I am. And I guess that’s wrong. But his history and that of his compatriates does not inspire my confidence.

By Judy S on 08/04/2009 11:30 am

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Dearest Liz,

Of course we love you, but, really, where does Higham get such nonsense? As one who met her, surely you smell self-agrandisement when you read it? As her grandson, you know Maria and I laugh hysterically when people like Higham and Spotto come up with their tripe. As Marlene would say, "They sharpen their little pencils."

By Peter Riva on 08/04/2009 2:24 pm

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I don’t agree with Deena B. about shallow and boring. Dietrich was a diva in the true sense of the word. A master of her persona and a true talent. Not so today’s self proclaimed ‘Divas’ which seems to me to be a definition of self-indulgent bitch. Today’s divas, in most cases, don’t have a thimbleful of the talent that true divas had. They’re amped, botoxed, coddled, photo-shopped and indulged by ‘gift-bag’ people ad nauseum. I’d indulge the likes of Marlene et. al. and get pink bulbs and whatever else to sit around and chat, even if the chat was self centered.

By John Dillon on 08/04/2009 2:45 pm

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John, I will grant you that today’s Divas cannot hold a pink lightbulb to the stars of yesteryear. And maybe self-centered is a better term. But I cannot imagine allowing someone to dictate to me what I can wear so as to not outshine the host. And how old I must be to make the cut. I’d have to pass on the invite.

Of course, this is all assuming that Mr. Higham isn’t just blowing hot air. Mr. Riva begs to differ and I suppose he is in a better position to know.

By Deena B. on 08/04/2009 4:19 pm

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and I just like your cat.

By Carol Palinkas on 08/07/2009 12:54 am

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A bit late (I was not aware of the "reply" feature ‘til now)……Thx for the compliment. I wish it were my cat, it’s actually from the Internet, though I did own a Siamese once, and love them and all cats actually. Yours does look like it’s from the same litter. Be well. :-)

By John Dillon on 08/14/2009 10:08 pm

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I had to come back and add a few more pennies to this. I agree with Mr. Dillon. The "divas" of today lack the talent of the queens of the past.

While Ms. Dietrich may have been weak in nurturing skills, she was a disciplined worker and you can’t take that away from her. I’ll add another one. Did any of you see the Elaine Stritch special? (…and this is very Dietrich, I might add.) She was in her dressing room and on the mirror she had taped a piece of paper: a list. And on the list was the most mundane things you wouldn’t even think of, and certainly not "the stage diva" but a working professional: hair brushed, stockings no runs, eyelashes glued, no lipstick on teeth, skirt hem straight….on and on…and even before she set foot on stage. And she verbally ran through her list, checkpoint after checkpoint. This is called "discipline" folks. A novel concept for this age, I know.

I get quite defensive about Marlene Dietrich. I have loved her movies since I was a little girl. Some of the most quotable films around. Look at her in the final scene in Dishonored when she puts on fresh lipstick and adjusts her stocking in front of a firing squad. How can you top that? Oh…by then watching Morocco and watch her toss her high heels in the sand to go follow Gary Cooper into the desert.

YouTube - Marlene Dietrich - DISHONORED (Final Scene)

I used to go to the American Film Institute and watch these things over and over again with an audience so packed that people were sitting on the aisle floors. Now that is honoring a diva: a queen of her craft.

I want to postscript on Stacy Keach. I live in Washington, D.C. and he played at the Folger Shakespeare Library. Inside the building, beyond books, is a room much like The Globe Theatre in Shakespeare’s time…a real period piece of a room and totally inspiring. The critics were bravoing Keach’s King Lear, before he even went on stage, having seen an advanced performance. He got nothing but raves in the positive press and it would seem well earned. Who knew, right? I wish him continued great success and hope if he is performing in your area, you’ll go see him.

By Washington Cube on 08/04/2009 4:12 pm