Marlene Dietrich made the tux luxe for all.
Born in Berlin as Marie Magdalene Dietrich, she became a star during Hollywood’s Golden Age. The image she’s best remembered is her turn in a man’s tux with top hat and white tie in Josef von Sternberg’s 1930 film Morocco. Google is remembering Marlene Dietrich’s 116th birthday—and her gender-defying tuxedo—with today’s (Dec. 27) doodle.
Her boundary-pushing performance—Dietrich, playing a cabaret singer, kisses a woman in the audience—stunned and titillated audiences, according to the BBC. Dietrich’s big-screen appropriation of the men’s tuxedo was a long leap at a time when women wearing trousers was still far from accepted.
Google doodle (Google)
The era of her widest fame included the World War II years when women stepped into factories and manufacturing to support the US war effort, events that helped set in motion the ongoing struggle for greater equality between the sexes. As the Costume Society wrote wrote last year of her wardrobe, “at times, Dietrich looked far better in suits than men themselves.”
She was also a bisexual star when homosexuality was a crime in many jurisdictions, and elevated drag to a new level. Today’s doodle was illustrated by Sasha Steinberg, who was a winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race, performing as Sasha Velour. “Despite the pressures of the time, she followed her own course, especially in terms of politics and gender,” Velour said.
Her film career extended into the 1970s, as did her international cabaret appearances. Decades after Dietrich’s pioneered her signature look, Yves Saint Laurent designed “le smoking,” the first tuxedo for women. It came to symbolize “female liberation,” according to a statement for the 2005 exhibition Yves Saint Laurent Smoking Forever.
Dietrich, who died in 1992, is remembered as a symbol of liberation in various forms. After Hitler’s Nazi regime took control of Germany, she became an exile, went to war zones to encourage American troops and traveled widely to promoting the sale of war bonds. She resisted repeated attempts by the Third Reich to lure her back and instead became an emblem of a free Germany.
MARLENE Dietrich is one of the most famous women of the 20th century and is being remembered around the world today with a Google Doodle.
The German actress and singer was one of the biggest stars in the world during the 1920s and 1930s and is seen as a feminist icon for her iconic style.
AP:Associated Press Marlene Dietrich was known for her fearless style
Who was Marlene Dietrich?
Born in Berlin on December 27, 1901, Dietrich's full name was Maria Magdalene Dietrich but at the age of 11 she decided to join her first two names together to form Marlene.
From an early age, she showed a keen interest in music and theatre and began working as a chorus girl, performing both in Berlin and on the road around Germany.
This gave her a way into the entertainment world and in 1923 she made her film debut in Little Napolean - the same year she met her future husband Rudolf Sieber.
In 1924 Marlene gave birth to her only child, Maria Elisabeth.
Her breakthrough role came in 1929 when she landed the part of Lola Lola - a cabaret singer in The Blue Angel.
She later moved to America where she helped Jews and other at-risk people escape Nazi Germany as the Second World War began.
Dietrich performed for Allied troops across Europe and later returned to Germany and reunited with her sister.
She continued to work but her health began to deteriorate and in 1975 she fell off a stage and broke her thigh - ending her performing career.
The next year her husband Rudolf died of cancer. On May 6, 1992, she passed away as a result of renal failure at her Paris flat at the age of 90.
Such was her status, over 1,500 mourners attended her funeral - including ambassadors from the US, UK, Russia and France.
She was buried in Berlin, near her family following a request she made after the Berlin Wall fell and East and West Germany were reunited.
What is a Google Doodle?
In 1998, the search engine founders Larry and Sergey drew a stick figure behind the second 'o' of Google as a message to that they were out of office at the Burning Man festival and with that, Google Doodles were born.
The company decided that they should decorate the logo to mark cultural moments and it soon became clear that users really enjoyed the change to the Google homepage.
In that same year, a turkey was added to Thanksgiving and two pumpkins appeared as the 'o's for Halloween the following year.
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Now, there is a full team of doodlers, illustrators, graphic designers, animators and classically trained artists who help create what you see on those days.
Recently, a Google Doodle celebrated the 2017 Winter solstice.
Google
It could be the picture in the dictionary next to the term "femme fatale."
But today, it's the picture atop Google's search page in roughly two dozen countries, from North America and much of Europe to Japan and New Zealand: the movie star Marlene Dietrich, in top hat and tux, with those famously heavy-lidded eyes.
Marking what would have been her 116th birthday, the Google Doodle for Dec. 27 offers a glimpse of Dietrich's film career. Born in Berlin, she got her start in Germany's young film industry, and her breakout role, in 1930, was that country's first talking picture, "Der Blaue Engel." Then it was on to Hollywood and roles in movies including "Shanghai Express," "Blonde Venus," "The Devil Is a Woman" and, the one that created her tux look, "Morocco." Later in her career, she appeared in "Around the World in 80 Days" and Orson Welles' "Touch of Evil."
The Google Doodle also pays tribute to Dietrich, who died in Paris in 1992, as an inspiration to drag performers, including the doodle's artist, Sasha Steinberg, aka Sasha Velour.
"Dietrich was more than a femme fatale with an unforgettable voice," the doodle write-up says. "Ever the risk-taker, she turned pat notions about femininity upside down."
Or as Steinberg/Velour puts it: "She was a wild original!"
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