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MODERN MARLENE

48 pages, ages 8-12
1,023 words
genevievebormes@gmail.com

This is the true story of Marlene Dietrich, a boundary-smashing actress who changed the world with her daring style.

 

As a young girl in Berlin, Marlene was supposed to be prim and proper. Instead, she talked A LOT, skated too fast, and loved to dance. She dreamt about how to make a name for herself, and once she found her place on the stage, she never looked back. 

 

Marlene catapulted to fame in the 1930’s and she shocked audiences when she wore a suit and hat and kissed a woman on screen. She became an activist when she turned her back on her home in Germany in order to protest the Nazis and help Jewish people during World War II. She went against society’s strict rules about how she should express her gender and who she should love, and in doing so, she revolutionized the way women were seen in culture. And, crucially, she managed to have a swell time doing it all.  

CLICK THROUGH TO SEE THE FULL DUMMY 
(and click on any image for a larger view)

MODERN MARLENE FINISHES 

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In Marlene's world, there were actors, and singers, and dancers. And writers, and painters, and directors. And of course, her little girl, Maria.  

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Author Note 

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I was fascinated by Marlene Dietrich growing up. As a kid in the 90’s, it seems unlikely that I would have been exposed to her; I think I first saw her in a book of 20th century photographs my parents had, and I must have looked her up in our Encyclopedia Britannica after that (the joys of being a child, pre-Google).

I had almost completed this dummy when I happened upon a long-forgotten Halloween photo. I was a movie star most years, but this year, 2001, I added a top hat as a nod to Dietrich, a reference that I doubt my trick-or-treating companions (also pictured) recognized.

Finding that photo synthesized many of the themes of this book for me: the tenderness of being a kid and figuring out who you might want to be, of looking around the world for role models, like Marlene, who lived with as little fear as possible, the quiet hope that you might someday be a brave and confident enough to exist in the world on your own terms.

Thank you for taking the time to review Modern Marlene,
Genevieve 
genevievebormes@gmail.com

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