The scent of Marlene Dietrich

The March issue of Vanity Fair has an article ("It happened at the Hotel de Cap") about Marlene Dietrich, focusing on her relationship with Joseph P. Kennedy. It details her role as the prototypical sexually liberated woman of her era, a role which included trysts or affairs with such celebrities as Yul Brynner, Adlai Stevenson, Frank Sinatra, Joseph Kennedy (and later Jack), Erich Remarque, Edward R. Murrow, and Edith Piaf.

Dietrich, on the other hand, was an intrepid and pliant lover. When her daughter asked her later in life why she had had so many sexual partners, Marlene responded with a shrug and said, “They asked.” She clearly thrived on pleasing her partners and didn’t believe in condoms, finding men “so grateful when you tell them they don’t have to wear it.” Once she discovered diaphragms, she called them “the greatest invention since Pan-Cake makeup.” Until then, she had sworn by her secret weapon against pregnancy: douching with ice-cold water and wine vinegar, which she carried with her by the case everywhere she went. (Decades later another of her co-stars and grand amours, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., warmly recalled their “lovely liaison,” adding, “You know, sometimes when I am in a restaurant and a waiter walks by with a salad vinaigrette, I’ll find myself thinking fond thoughts of Marlene.”)

You can read the full article at Vanity Fair online.

Photo credits: Dietrich by Eisenstadt, vinaigrette dressing.