Who is Marlene?
Marlene of the song Marlene on the Wall is the glamorous German actress Marlene Dietrich, of whom Suzanne used to have a framed picture on her wall. She got this picture from a friend, who knew that Suzanne had been watching every movie she could find with Marlene Dietrich. Marlene Dietrich, original name Marie Magdalene von Losch, was born in Berlin on 27 December 1901 as the daughter of a German police officer. She first studied the violin and later acting under Max Reinhardt, the innovative theatrical director. She eventually joined Reinhardt’s theatre company. Seven years after her first appearance in German film as an extra, her stardom was established by her role as Lola-Lola, a sultry and world-weary nightclub performer in Joseph von Sternberg’s Der blaue Engel (1930; The Blue Angel). Adapted from Heinrich Mann’s novel Professor Unrat, the film was an international success. After its premiere, von Sternberg brought her to the United States, where they collaborated on pictures su
