Thursday, May 06, 2010

"Where Have All The Flowers Gone" by Marlene Dietrich



Marlene Dietrich - who died on this day in 1992 - was so fond of Pete Seeger and Joe Hickerson's song Where Have All the Flowers Gone? she sang and recorded it in French, German, and English; whereas she could have larded her cabaret act with those classics from the 1930s and 40s for which she'd become a legend, she liked to keep current...

Dietrich is seen here performing the song during the Royal Variety Performance in November 1963* at the height of her cabaret career, a dozen years before her retirement from the stage**, which saw her sink into reclusion at her Paris apartement in the Avenue Montaigne.  Her privacy was most famously invaded by Maximilian Schell, whose 1984 documentary Marlene features her voice only and provides a fascinating perspective on a cantankerous star in her declining years.

*In the presence of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother.
**She broke her leg onstage at a concert in Sydney in September 1975, following which she never performed live again; Dietrich's last film appearance was in the bizarre 1979 David Bowie vehicle Just a Gigolo.
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