Amanda LePore – The WOW Report

In “Dishonored” (1931), Eugene Robert Richee, National Portrait Gallery, NPR via YouTube

December 27, 1901– Marlene Dietrich:

“I am at heart a gentleman.”

Do you continue to find her to be fabulous? I do. She had quite the gay life. Marie Magdalene Dietrich, the smoky voiced Gay Icon, always ended her cabaret show in the very dangerously conservative 1950s with this toast:

“Please try to be gay tonight as I know it is so difficult to be gay in the morning.”

She had her own brand of dangerous glamour and she carried a smoky air of decadence to her work and persona. Blonde, Teutonic, with high cheekbones and a heavy lower lip, displaying the artifice of languor, Dietrich seduced audiences by innuendo.

Dietrich is an Ultra-Icon and she had a personal relationship with Gayness. She picked her men for eye-candy and her women for love, lust and laughs. She was a movie star when movie stars were movie stars.

Dietrich’s thing was to be idolized, indomitable and indifferent. She didn’t like mistakes. She was a perfectionist. When her mentor, Joseph vonSternberg, the director of early films: The Blue Angel (1930), Morocco (1930), and The Devil Is A Woman (1935), would not relinquish control to her, she gave him up. Like Mae West, Dietrich didn’t let a little thing like a film business run by men tell her what she could and couldn’t do.

Dietrich possessed a profoundly complex personality, including her attitude about sexuality. She had a major magnetism for gay people from the very beginnings of her career: the campiness of her films, her casual approach toward convention, the trouser-wearing that nearly got her arrested, her expression of world-weary disillusion, and, of course, her marvelous voice.

German born Dietrich was bravely Anti-Nazi during WW II. She turned her back on her native country and for four years she actively worked against Adolf Hitler and his brutal band of bad baddies. For her courage and her commitment to the Allied cause, she was awarded the Legion d’Honneur in France and the Congressional Medal Of Honor in the USA, both nations’ highest honors that can be bestowed on a civilian.

Dietrich was an atheist, abandoning the Lutheran faith:

“If God exists, he needs to review his plan.”

But, she had honor, humor, and humanity. At a time when it could not have been easily accepted, she gave the world her own eye-popping style of sexual liberation. Fred Astaire stated that no one wore a tuxedo as well as Dietrich. She was a woman ahead of her time.

via YouTube

Dietrich remained popular throughout her long career by continually re-inventing herself, professionally and personally. In 1920s Berlin, she acted on the stage and in silent films. Her performance as the ultimate temptress Lola-Lola in The Blue Angel, directed by von Sternberg, introduced her signature song, Falling in Love Again (Can’t Help It), brought her international fame, and provided her with a contract with Paramount Pictures.

Hollywood films such as Shanghai Express (1932) and Desire (1936) capitalized on her glamour and exotic beauty, cementing her stardom, and made her one of the highest paid actors of the Hollywood Golden Era.

When she got rid of her mentor and frequent collaborator, Sternberg, after their highly stylized The Scarlet Empress (1934) and The Devil Is AWoman (1935) flopped, Dietrich, along with Joan Crawford and Greta Garbo, was labeled “box office poison” by the press. Yet, she bounced back big when she played a Wild West saloon girl in the fun Destry RidesAgain (1939) opposite James Stewart, singing See What The Boys In The Back Room Will Have.

Dietrich became a citizen of the USA in 1939, at the very apex of the troubles in Europe. Throughout WW II, she was a high profile entertainer on the frontlines. She still made the occasional film after the war, but Dietrich spent most of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s touring the world as a phenomenally successful cabaret performer.

Dietrich never fully regained her box-office clout, but she did give some of her most interesting performances, working with the very best Hollywood directors: Billy Wilder, Alfred Hitchcock, and Orson Welles, in popular films: A Foreign Affair (1948), Stage Fright (1950) where she sang my own theme song, Cole Porter’s The Laziest Gal In Town; Witness For The Prosecution (1957); Touch Of Evil (1958) and Judgment At Nuremberg (1961). Her first film was The Little Napoleon in 1923 and her final role was in Schöner Gigolo, Armer Gigolo in 1979, opposite David Bowie. That’s 56 years of great performances!

1952, Milton Greene, Courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery

Dietrich’s love affairs included many women, including: Mercedes deAcosta, Garbo, Eva Le Gallienne, Isadora Duncan, the great French writer Colette, and Edith Piaf. Throughout her career, Dietrich had a long string of sexual and romantic relationships, some lasting for decades. They often overlapped and were almost all known to her husband. She had a novel quirk of passing him the love letters from her lovers, along with her biting commentary about them

She had liaisons with many men. During the filming of Destry Rides Again, Dietrich had an affair with Jimmy Stewart, which ended when the filming stopped. In 1938, Dietrich met and began a relationship with the writer Erich Maria Remarque. In the 1940s, she had an affair with the French film star and military hero Jean Gabin. Her last greatest passion, when she was in her 50s, was for hot actor Yul Brynner. Her very active sex life continued well into her 70s. Her many diverse male conquests included: John Wayne, George Bernard Shaw, Gary Cooper, and John F. Kennedy. Dietrich’s household included her husband and his mistress, first in Europe and eventually on a ranch in the San Fernando Valley. Now that is what I would dub “Modern Living”.

She survived cancer in her 60s and 70s, but she became dependent on painkillers, and for the last decade of her life, Dietrich withdrew to her apartment in Paris. She spent her last decade mostly bedridden, allowing only a few family and staff to see her. During this time, she was a prolific letter writer and spent a lot of time on the telephone (which she answered in the character of a maid), talking with friends and world figures, and surviving on a diet of champagne and autographs. She published a well written memoir Take Just My Life (1979).

In “Dishonored” (1931), Eugene Robert Richee, National Portrait Gallery via YouTube

Even though she gave up on her native Germany, Germany did not give up on Dietrich. She was made an honorary citizen of Berlin in 2002. Her memorial plaque reads:

“Where have all the flowers gone?”

MARLENE DIETRICH

December 27, 1901 – May 6, 1992

“I am, thank God, a Berliner.”

Marlene Dietrich: Anti-Fascist, Bisexual, Movie Star, Vegas Headliner, Fashion Icon, Recording Artist, and Ultimate Gay Icon. She was friendly with Ronnie and Nancy Reagan, but I like to consider what members of today’s American White Nationalist Party might make of Dietrich. Do you think any of them would even know who she was? Just one of the greatest entertainers of the 20th century and one of those damn immigrants.

Photo by Anya Garrett via Wikimedia Commons

December 28, 1973– Seth Meyers:

“I’d really like Rihanna to come on the show, and I know that’s a real 180 from what we’re talking about with politics, but I’ve talked to a lot of politicians this year, and the reality is, politics are more interesting than politicians. So, I guess, give me a Rihanna; give me a Beyoncé. I think they would be a lot more interesting to talk to.”

It hasn’t been easy, I know. 2017, what a year. The year of anxiety. It has been like one long ride in a clown car full of racists, homophobes and fascists driven by POTUS.

Meyers was the Emmy-nominated head writer for Saturday Night Live before taking over Late Night in 2014. Besides the usual roster of actors touting their latest projects, Meyer’s guests often includes politicians and best of all, writers. Not since the days of Dick Cavett have I watched a talk show with so many authors.

Meyers grew up loving to read and spent a lot of time in his hometown library in Bedford, New Hampshire.

“Both of my parents were huge readers. When we went on vacation, everyone was responsible for having enough books to make it through without bothering the others. That was a big jumping-off point. I’ve never wanted to go anywhere without a book.”

His mother is a French teacher and his father worked in finance, and Josh Meyers, his cutie pie younger brother, is an actor.

Somehow, he manages to read the current book written by the writers appearing on his show, for which he is also a writer and executive producer. Since the show began, Meyers has hosted more than 75 writers on Late Night With Seth Meyers.

Books are such a big deal for Meyers and his wife, attorney Alexi Ashe, that when the couple married in 2013, guests were given paper cones to throw, filled with lavendar made from pages from their favorite books, Catch-22 and Great Expectations.

”Many authors on our show have never been on a talk show before, but the reality is that whatever fears they have about being on TV are trumped by their natural abilities as storytellers. I think authors are the people you want to end up next to at a dinner party. I feel less so about politicians, especially when they’re running for office and have eight or nine things they say over and over again. That’s an effective way to run for office but it’s a completely lousy way to be a dinner companion.”

But Meyers certainly doesn’t shy away from politics, especially during the show’s essential Closer Look segments, six-to-eight-minute explorations of an issue, usually what POTUS has said or tweeted. Among his guests have been: John McCain, Bill Clinton, Ted Cruz, Hillary Clinton, Kellyanne Conway and Bernie Sanders.

Meyers starts his workday checking the news sources and reporters he follows on Twitter. Meyers:

”The night before, we usually recognize the story we want to work on. In the morning we can drill down on that.”

Meyers studied film at Northwestern University, intending to be a director. But, he discovered Mee-Ow, the university’s long-running sketch comedy troupe. After graduation, he moved to Amsterdam, where he worked at Boom Chicago, a comedy club that is a training ground for many writers and performers.

SNL, with Bill Hader, via YouTube

In 2001 he joined the cast of SNL, where he did imitations of Anderson Cooper, Peyton Manning, Ryan Seacrest, John Kerry and Nicollette Sheridan, before becoming the show’s head writer, replacing Tina Fey and serving as the iconic anchor for Weekend Update.

Because of the election of November 2016, I discovered NBC’s Late Night With Seth Meyers. I sort of knew who Meyers was. I knew that he had been on SNL, but I hadn’t seen anything from that show, except for occasional clips, since 1977. Now, I am a regular viewer again.

I was impressed by Meyers take on the American Political scene, finding him smooth, smart, sly, insightful, and very, very funny. A Closer Look, is better than any news outlet for a quick rundown of current events. He takes jabs at all the players, but he really sticks it to You-Know-Who. It has become Meyers’ signature segment. A Closer Look remains a meticulous, searing dissection of the day’s top stories.

I’m not certain if he is really cute, because I tend to find people I like to be attractive. I love his comic timing and his smile. On the Thanksgiving episode, he featured his funny family, including Josh, a cast member of the once great sketch comedy series Mad TV, and the two of them together made me nearly faint with desire.

Late Night With Seth Meyers is not so much like Full Frontal With Samantha Bee or Real Time With Bill Maher, both of which I also admire and find very funny and informative; Meyers’ show still has a traditional talk show format; he has guests that sit in a chair beside his desk, and he is good at interviewing, generous and rather sweet with his guests, without gushing like Jimmy Fallon. This show always has just the right dash of cynicism while remaining bright and humorous, as if the Jon Stewart era The Daily Show had married 1970s The Dick Cavett Show and had a baby. It is sophisticated and smart, while unafraid to get silly.

I go to bed early, so I watch it first thing in the morning instead of The Today Show, which lost me when sexual harasser Matt Lauer gave Trump a hand job on air in the summer of 2016, and Kathie Lee Gifford was revealed to be a fascist sympathizer.

When Meyers signed-off for his winter hiatus last year, he jokingly addressed the camera with:

”We will be back on January 9, and we will be canceled on January 20.”

Meyers was joking, but he wasn’t kidding. This entire mess we find ourselves in now probably began when Meyers hosted the 2011 White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, where Trump was the butt of jokes by Barack Obama and Meyers.

Trump was so humiliated by the experience that it seemed to have triggered a deep, dark previously hidden hunger for revenge. That evening of public degradation, instead of sending the Orange Blob away for good, only accelerated his ferocious desire to take over the world.

On the night of November 9, 2016, just 12 hours after the world was shocked by the realization of who had become the next POTUS, Meyers delivered a poignant monologue to his audience, sharing an anecdote about informing his then 8-month-old son that:

”For the first time in our history, our president would be a failed steak salesman…”

But then, he took a more somber tone, and in tears said:

”As a white man, I also know that any emotions I’m feeling are likely a fraction of those being felt by the LGBTQ community, African-Americans, Hispanic Americans, Muslim Americans, and any number of the immigrant communities so vital to our country, so hopefully the Trump administration and Trump supporters will be compassionate to them, because they need your compassion. And in general, I am hopeful for Trump because hope is always the best possible path to take, and one thing that makes me hopeful is we know from interviews he’s given over the years that he has, at any given point, held every position on every issue: He’s been pro-choice, pro-life, for the Iraq War, against the Iraq War. Pretty much his only consistent position has been: Anti-Rosie O’Donnell. So, I’m hopeful that he’s not actually a racist, and that he just used racist rhetoric to court voters, because when you’re courting someone, you’re always willing to pretend you’re something you’re not.”

That hope didn’t last long, but Meyers’ candid, considerate, and slyly sharp approach to dissecting the news did. He has zeroed in on how best to make jokes about the increasingly disturbing political events, and focused on the true injustices coming out of the administration with biting accuracy, and a determinedly level head. That combination sharpens Meyers’ jokes, and when a horrific occasion like Charlottesville calls for it, he brings real gravity to his quips.

Meyers:

”Looking back, it was not even a full day before you realized what kind of a president he was going to be.”

His show has also added a new segment, The Check In, to keep tabs on more ongoing stories and issues that may not be dominating the headlines, but that Meyers finds no less important. Meyers shows attention to detail in both his comedy and political commentary, now that the line between the two is blurred more than ever. Meyers highlights how the news of the day affects people who are different from him, a straight white guy late-night host.

The show features a segment that offers a look at diversity in a pointed, but bitingly humorous way: Jokes Seth Can’t Tell, in which Meyers sits between writers Amber Ruffin and Jenny Hagel while all three parties introduce themselves as follows:

Ruffin: ”I’m black!”

Hagel: ”I’m gay!”

Hagel and Ruffin: ”And we’re both women.”

Meyers: ”And I’m not.”

Meyers sets up jokes for Ruffin and Hagel’s punchlines that, had they come from him, might come across more like they were written with derision rather than affection.

Via YouTube

It was not even a full day after the election before I realized what kind of a show Late Night With Seth Meyers would be under a Trump Administration. I could not have survived 2017 without him.

I am excited to find out how Meyers will take on Trump and sexual harassment in Hollywood when he hosts the Golden Globes ceremony on January 7.

Latest Images