CABARET VILLE MAGAZINE. P316. CONT'D FROM P315

MISUNDERSTANDING CABARET

 

Mistakenly, Marlene Dietrich is sometimes described in the American Cabaret circle as a “Cabaret Singer”. This is totally inaccurate. Dietrich never performed in a Cabaret. Her performance in the “Blue Angel” in which she depicted a Cabaret melodramatic Cabaret artiste/singer was purely a cinematographic performance. Of course, Dietrich loved her role. It did fit perfectly her looks but not her personality, contrary to the common belief. She hated Cabarets.

Marlene Dietrich as a cabaret femme fatale.

I know this for a fact, because she was a friend of the family, my parents. Once, my mother Alexandra asked Marlene: “Why do you keep all those photos of yours as a Cabaret Queen?” Do you like them so much? It is not you, Marlene!” And Marlene answered :”Give the public what the public wants.” Marlene Dietrich kept dozens and dozens of her Cabaret’s photos but she never used them as a press kit. Her agents and the American studios did to her dismay, sort of! The real personality of Marlene Dietrich is revealed in this photo. A very classy, intellectual, refined and high class lady. The female Cabaret Singers, artistes and performers of the early Parisian Cabarets were “Filles du Trottoire” (Street Girl). And quite often, they lacked class and refined looks.

Edith Piaf (who was born in the streets of Paris) was different from early French “Boites de Nuit”. Piaf never showed skin. Piaf performed in Cabarets for a short time because she had to eat. She was extremely poor. Very short after, she moved to non-cabarets places. She categorically refused to sing in Cabarets. The whole world became her stage. In America, Cabaret singers still consider Edith Piaf as a Cabaret singer. What a big mistake! By American standards, Andrea Marcovicci, Barbara Cook, Anna Bergman, Amanda McBroom, Raquel Bitton and Anne Kerry Ford are “Cabaret Singers”. By French standards, they are “Concert Singers”.  

 Marlene Dietrich, the classy star.