Marlene Dietrich

Marlene Dietrich never threw anything away, from her good-luck black rag doll to the letters she received from her lovers. She kept every article of clothing made for her by the great French couturiers and Hollywood costume designers. After Dietrich's death, the articles were gathered together: 25,000 objects and 18,000 images. The major pieces of Dietrich's vast collection were assembled in an archive and given to the Film Museum Berlin, and are now on permanent exhibition there. This book brings together 370 photographs from her own collection as ell as photographs taken of her fabulous dresses, accessories, Vuitton trunks, along with letters from lovers and friends (among them Ernest Hemingway, Jean Cocteau, William Randolph Hearst and Douglas Fairbanks Jr).