Getting my head in the game

<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My Weight Watcher meeting on Saturday was excellent. My leader is the best, and I never fail to learn something from her meetings. Even when I think I know it all.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">She talked about the four stages of weight loss:</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1. The honeymoon phase - we all know and love this phase. Several you reading this are probably in it right now. I was once there myself.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's when it's all new and exciting. You follow the plan to the letter and the weight falls off. This is the phase where you are determined that nothing will lead you astray. You're tracking your food, drinking your water, taking your vitamins, and following the healthy eating guidelines. You are perfect and nothing will keep you from reaching your goal.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2. The honesty phase - this is the loser reality check. Is this worth it? Is all the hard work, the deprivation, the exercise, is it all really worth it? You either decide it is worth it and continue, or you decide it's not worth it and stop. This is the phase where a lot of people walk away. Our leader told us that in the fourth week is when most Weight Watchers never return to the meetings. They made the decision that it's not worth it.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3. The hunker-in phase - this is were you have renewed resolve. You've made it this far and darnit, you're going to do whatever it takes. The weight loss has dramatically slowed down from the honeymoon phase, and you have a gain here and there, but you're not giving up.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4. The "homey" phase - this is when you get cocky, where you think you know it all. This is when you consider leaving Weight Watchers. Maybe you're almost at goal, and you decide who needs to go to meetings. You've got it all figured out, there's no reason to go to the meetings anymore.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In three years I've hit every one of these phases more than once. When I was at 152 pounds a year and a half ago I was in phase #4. I thought I knew it all. Now at 180 pounds I realize I still have a lot to learn. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Arial;">There was a comment on my post yesterday regarding my night time eating, which continues to challenge me. The comment was sweet, and she left some suggestions of things I could try to overcome my night binging. I went to her <a href="http://needtogetmeback.blogspot.com/">blog</a>, and found she's in the honeymoon stage of weight loss. What struck me from her posts is how excited she is about the process of losing weight. She seriously has her "head in the game" as she put it. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Arial;">This is what I've been missing lately. My head has not been in the game. I don't look forward to my weigh-ins. In fact, even though I went to my Weight Watcher meetings for all January I took a no-weighin pass for each meeting until yesterday. I finally realized that by not weighing in, I wasn't doing myself any favors. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Arial;">My goal this month is simple. I need to get my head in the game again.</span>

Getting my head in the game

My Weight Watcher meeting on Saturday was excellent. My leader is the best, and I never fail to learn something from her meetings. Even when I think I know it all.She talked about the four stages of weight loss:1. The honeymoon phase - we all know an…

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Slip slidin' away

As soon as I posted last Tuesday that I was good at consistently exercising, I hit a brick wall. Suddenly, I didn't want to exercise anymore. The last five days have been a struggle, and one I didn't want to share with the world. <br />  <br />Not only was I struggling with food, which I've come to accept, but I felt myself slipping when it came to exercising. I woke up Wednesday and thought I really didn't feel like working out, so I didn't. I skipped the gym. Thursday was a huge struggle, but I forced myself to go. Friday I skipped the gym again. I didn't even walk at lunch or do the stairs this past week. This isn't my normal routine. It's almost as if patting myself on the back for doing a good job at something, somehow sabotaged myself. <br />  <br />I still managed to work out five times last week, for a minimum of an hour to an hour and a half each time. I suppose to most people that sounds like success, but because it was such an unusual struggle  for me, I tend to think of it as being a failure. <br />  <br />Yesterday I felt more like myself and got in an intense hour and a half workout. This past week made me realize how easy it would be, at any moment, for me to just stop working out, to simply give up. I'm not sure where these feelings are coming from. Maybe it's my lack of success at losing weight lately is now spilling over into the one thing I've considered a success, my exercise routine. <br />  <br />Whatever is going on in my head, I'm determined to overcome it. I'm back to the "just don't even think about it as an option, just do it" attitude towards exercising. If I think about anything too much, I tend to over anlyze it and ruin it for myself. <br />  <br />Exercise is like brushing my teeth. It's not optional. If I don't want my teeth to fall out, have a lot of pain as my teeth rot, and spend hours in a dentist chair (not to mention a lot of money), I have to floss and brush every day. If I don't want my body to fall in disrepair and become unhealthy, and spend a lot of money on doctors and medicine to only life a life of pain, I must exercise almost every day. There really isn't any other choice. That said, I feel like I'm back on track with the exercise.   <br />  <br />My eating and my weight <br />My eating is a continual battle for me. I'm still not at peace with food, and sadly, I doubt I will ever reach that place that so few seem to enjoy. <br />  <br />I went to my Weight Watchers meeting yesterday and weighed in at 180.4. Ugh! This is NOT where I want to be. <br />  <br />My biggest problem is the night time eating. Every time I think I have beat this problem, it comes back to haunt me. Nothing seems to work. <br />  <br />Things I've tried, that have worked temporarily: <br />  <br />1. Eat dinner super late, at 9 p.m. This helped, but then I don't sleep well with a full tummy. <br />  <br />2. Eat a late night snack of five Points. This helped too, but see #1. <br />  <br />3. White knuckle my way through it. This just makes me angry, and I can't sleep. Usually I cave a few hours of restlessness and binge. <br />  <br />4. Drink tons of water. Temporarily stops the hunger, but then I'm up several times going to the bathroom. Interrupts my sleep, which I already have problems sleeping through the night. <br />  <br />5. Go to bed earlier. Then I can't sleep, see #3. <br />  <br />6. Brush and floss before bed. This has absolutely no affect on me. I can always brush and floss again after eating. <br />  <br />I know this night eating is a mind game I play with myself almost daily. I know it can't be true hunger because I eat a lot during the day (all 29 Points plus some). In order to maintain my 180 pounds, I would have to eat a lot, so it's obvious I'm not starving myself. <br />  <br />Tonight I'm going to try something different. The thing that has worked on occasion is the late night snack of five Points. I'm going to try that again tonight, and if I find I can't sleep, I'm going to post about it in real time. Instead of remaining quiet about my failures, I'm going to share them with you. I don't want to be slip slidin' away.

Slip slidin' away

As soon as I posted last Tuesday that I was good at consistently exercising, I hit a brick wall. Suddenly, I didn't want to exercise anymore. The last five days have been a struggle, and one I didn't want to share with the world.   Not only was I str…

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Marlene Dietrich...another facet of her legend

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihR2NbWkzyDhyphenhyphen30ejwi_JbeI22NvdL2Jj-MMYMreSRdtmyy2HoasNdSamvk20HYuK3SnTA2BCfb4ex1Q3mjdqLiuchTWWXgLvSOWdJ7-2CAVzrQTBVQRlPedHsW2c0q6ps-40b5Ocsl_q_/s1600/blue+angel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" h5="true" height="347" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihR2NbWkzyDhyphenhyphen30ejwi_JbeI22NvdL2Jj-MMYMreSRdtmyy2HoasNdSamvk20HYuK3SnTA2BCfb4ex1Q3mjdqLiuchTWWXgLvSOWdJ7-2CAVzrQTBVQRlPedHsW2c0q6ps-40b5Ocsl_q_/s400/blue+angel.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Marlene Dietrich is one of very few film stars whose career not only spanned 60+ years but who also enjoyed icon status for most of those years. Her life in film began in the early 1920s with silent pictures. It came to a close with Maximillian Schell's 1984 Oscar-nominated documentary, <b>Marlene</b>, in which she speaks but does not appear on camera.</span><br /><a name='more'></a></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW0S0JWtdR4zIOA4RiXtMAoO9YmYpFWO8Ptw0ACdisP_RzkPXIYZ2dNGefPpBXu4HCpgdwpRFZJvgtfwIKgTB8bm5QVQAcWnTpP9M8PEXkgIeM9DBgJfRVemkKQHmoNA1yaHJFaF7w5ngh/s1600/marlene+in+living+color.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" h5="true" height="190" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW0S0JWtdR4zIOA4RiXtMAoO9YmYpFWO8Ptw0ACdisP_RzkPXIYZ2dNGefPpBXu4HCpgdwpRFZJvgtfwIKgTB8bm5QVQAcWnTpP9M8PEXkgIeM9DBgJfRVemkKQHmoNA1yaHJFaF7w5ngh/s200/marlene+in+living+color.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Marlene in the '30s</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: Arial;">Dietrich shot to fame as Lola Lola in Josef von Sternberg's <b>The Blue Angel</b> (1930). Shortly after the film premiered, she left Germany for the U.S. where she and von Sternberg collaborated on six more films during the 1930s. The first, <b>Morocco</b> (1930), was nominated for four Oscars, including a Best Actress nod for Dietrich. By the end of the decade her career had cooled but was reignited when she co-starred, at von Sternberg’s urging, with James Stewart in the 1939 hit, <b>Destry Rides Again</b>. Although Dietrich continued making films in the 1940s, most were shot before the U.S. entered the war or made after the war ended. Though she appeared in only nine films from 1950 - 1978, several are classics: Hitchcock's <b>Stage Fright</b> (1950), Fritz Lang's <b>Rancho Notorious</b> (1952), Billy Wilder's <b>Witness for the Prosecution</b> (1957), Orson Welles's <b>Touch of Evil</b> (1958) and Stanley Kramer's <b>Judgment at Nuremberg</b> (1961). Her final film role was in <b>Just a Gigolo </b>(1978) starring David Bowie; while the movie is forgettable, her brief appearance is not.</span><br /> <br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNFSVZuS7zlJIh672UlJMhG_fi6oeFhLCJbAbi2alXnIfVRAnSQ-W1EShz1W8kQkOn1cGj8qXGW3cRZUBlG7UxcuWed-v0Fwbi6j7MUxDh-U4wFoeJkBZeYEDnLOT5GTe5kOI4vCb1HTD6/s1600/o_IO4TsiSperwvHxa%255B1%255D.jpg+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" h5="true" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNFSVZuS7zlJIh672UlJMhG_fi6oeFhLCJbAbi2alXnIfVRAnSQ-W1EShz1W8kQkOn1cGj8qXGW3cRZUBlG7UxcuWed-v0Fwbi6j7MUxDh-U4wFoeJkBZeYEDnLOT5GTe5kOI4vCb1HTD6/s320/o_IO4TsiSperwvHxa%255B1%255D.jpg+2.jpg" width="216" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">chanteuse</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: Arial;">In 1953, the Sahara Hotel in Las Vegas offered Dietrich the unheard of sum of $30,000 a week to perform on stage. Her run was so successful that she was quickly signed for a similar engagement in London. The London show was also a smash and she followed it with a return engagement at the Sahara. This was the beginning of Dietrich's celebrated career (and reinvention) as a high-ticket chanteuse that lasted through the mid-1970s. In 1972 she performed her concert act as a TV special and earned an impressive-for-the-era $250,000 for it.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Arial;">Marlene Dietrich is remembered for her several classic films, her concert career, her breathtaking glamour and her many amorous adventures. But there was another side to the actress that is less well known today... </span><br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVx9Xh-0DjPbwgtyAwrs3wjQpvf-vixTTIL6sBObX-ap6ZV3HS9ggPIZPEMra4IAoZETbT7wEiQ8o_xDrMR668vsWmGdB8tZ0xFrVGhNzy-X2AMM8XDXMMEQGdnKoyjcN6JQm55ATTpR0F/s1600/Marlene_Dietrich_sit%255B1%255D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" h5="true" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVx9Xh-0DjPbwgtyAwrs3wjQpvf-vixTTIL6sBObX-ap6ZV3HS9ggPIZPEMra4IAoZETbT7wEiQ8o_xDrMR668vsWmGdB8tZ0xFrVGhNzy-X2AMM8XDXMMEQGdnKoyjcN6JQm55ATTpR0F/s200/Marlene_Dietrich_sit%255B1%255D.jpg" width="153" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">World War II on the ground</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: Arial;">While she was in England in 1937 working on a film, von Ribbentrop, Hitler's ambassador to Great Britain at the time, approached and pressured her to return to Germany. She refused and became a U.S. citizen in 1939. When America entered World War II, Dietrich was one of the first stars to sell war bonds. She entertained troops on front lines all over Europe and in North Africa, appeared at sevicemen's canteens and made anti-Nazi broadcasts in Germany. In addition, Dietrich and other successful Eastern European <span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">émigrés in Hollywood provided both financial assistance and moral support to refugees from the European film community who fled the Nazi onslaught.</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br /> <br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggIyFR5pao-PL8zM42la7zKyy7fDxLRiQOYt2bqTU__N4x0QtiwweLgNOgWre_U8ODbOuoC4bKpAhe2W8N8mjB_oxYZ45m0ZMXpzR_CEUHdNmdz7wYkv1ks_nWzSLlaQeq1l6YZEU-sWiU/s1600/marlene+wwii.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" h5="true" height="128" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggIyFR5pao-PL8zM42la7zKyy7fDxLRiQOYt2bqTU__N4x0QtiwweLgNOgWre_U8ODbOuoC4bKpAhe2W8N8mjB_oxYZ45m0ZMXpzR_CEUHdNmdz7wYkv1ks_nWzSLlaQeq1l6YZEU-sWiU/s200/marlene+wwii.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">World War II with Allied troops</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-family: Arial;">The OSS (the CIA of the time) had a Morale Operations (MO) branch that began producing 'black' (propaganda) radio programs in 1943. These programs reached listeners throughout Europe and the Mediterranean and were intended to create discord in the Axis countries. In 1944, the MO began to recruit Hollywood talent to boost the quality of programming on its stations. The MO’s most popular station was <i>Soldatensender</i> (Soldiers' Radio), and one of the most popular songs it played was Dietrich's "Lili Marlene" with 'black' lyrics created especially for the German version. The Nazi government banned the broadcast of the song, but the ban was lifted in the face of a backlash among Axis soldiers. "Lili Marlene" soon became the song played at the end of every <i>Soldantensender </i>broadcast.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial;">In 1945, the U.S. government awarded Marlene Dietrich the Presidential Medal of Freedom, one of the first presented. Similarly, France made her a chevalier of the Legion of Honor.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Arial;">But Dietrich's largesse did not begin with World War II…</span> <br /> <br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCI38sWzbJHd0BjyXquxZYWdqd1ikk3v11luxZSm5dAcFP33TTiprqRQDR4LJK9GMYk9sot_i2eseFnU8iLG0Dhb_HU19aw0FXR_axIanMxgZaD9Y3FcDsiMY40hy6hTt3_cxG5lomIdGq/s1600/LGF+-+Marlene+and+JG+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" h5="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCI38sWzbJHd0BjyXquxZYWdqd1ikk3v11luxZSm5dAcFP33TTiprqRQDR4LJK9GMYk9sot_i2eseFnU8iLG0Dhb_HU19aw0FXR_axIanMxgZaD9Y3FcDsiMY40hy6hTt3_cxG5lomIdGq/s1600/LGF+-+Marlene+and+JG+2.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">John Gilbert and Marlene Dietrich</td></tr></tbody></table> <span style="font-family: Arial;">In 1934 Dietrich became romantically involved with one of the great stars of the silent era, John Gilbert. Gilbert's young daughter Leatrice came to know Dietrich through her father. In her 1985 biography of him, <b>Dark Star</b>, <a href="http://classic-film-tv.blogspot.com/2010/08/about-john-gilbertan-interview-with.html"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Leatrice Gilbert Fountain</span></a><span style="color: #ffd966;"> </span>wrote of Dietrich's kindness to her, particularly after John Gilbert's death in early 1936.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Arial;">According to Leatrice, during Dietrich's romance with John Gilbert the actress tried to help revitalize his career as well as his health. She arranged for Gilbert to test for the role of her jewel-thief partner in <b>Desire </b>(1936). Gilbert got the part but unfortunately, shortly after filming began, he suffered a heart attack and was replaced in the role.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br />Leatrice recalled visiting her father's house on December 24,1935 and being dazzled by the beautiful Christmas tree, decorated in the German tradition by Dietrich herself. She noted that Dietrich had thoughtfully slipped away that day so she could spend time alone with her father. Just over two weeks later John Gilbert was dead of a heart attack.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Arial;">Following his funeral, Dietrich contacted Leatrice's mother with information and advice about Gilbert's will that could benefit his daughter. Though her mother was unable to successfully pursue the information Dietrich provided, more important to young Leatrice was the relationship she developed with the actress.</span><br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhSclSu8T59N4nDdrzVqSN9GGkIwdD9xOkIuRKe9d6ZfOSHdcCySqnXjdQP4zL6hOW-NtSZlT7OuRwpfR12KbJxC2J2-F1YR6JUXARCvSngG6mCfpTe9uZFHo7GT6gbQAE5frCPsdqmG5_/s1600/1_Blonde_Venus_photo-prv%255B1%255D+cropped.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" h5="true" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhSclSu8T59N4nDdrzVqSN9GGkIwdD9xOkIuRKe9d6ZfOSHdcCySqnXjdQP4zL6hOW-NtSZlT7OuRwpfR12KbJxC2J2-F1YR6JUXARCvSngG6mCfpTe9uZFHo7GT6gbQAE5frCPsdqmG5_/s200/1_Blonde_Venus_photo-prv%255B1%255D+cropped.jpg" width="174" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">with Cary Grant in Blonde Venus</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: Arial;">Days after John Gilbert's funeral, Leatrice received an enormous bouquet from Dietrich with a card in her handwriting, "I adored your father. Let me adore you."</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Arial;">Leatrice Gilbert Fountain wrote in<b> Dark Star</b> that for many years thereafter Dietrich made a point of spending time with her. She remembered Dietrich as a "fairy godmother" and told how the star took her to theater openings, on long walks and talks, baked cookies and cakes for her and generally made her feel like "a princess." All this was at a time when Dietrich was very busy with her film career.</span><br /><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br /></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Fountain reflected, "I wonder if Marlene Dietrich realized what a difference her presence made to me." She also recounted stories of Dietrich's early days in Hollywood when word began to circulate that she paid the overdue rent of a studio secretary who'd lost her job, that she picked up the hospital bill for the child of a studio electrician and other such acts of generosity. Fountain emphasized that Dietrich did not take credit for these deeds nor would she talk to Fountain about her efforts to help John Gilbert; Leatrice had to go to other sources to learn the details.</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br /></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Marlene Dietrich died at age 90 in Paris on May 6, 1992. Her celebrity remains legendary, but her goodwill deserves a place in the Dietrich legend as well.</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br /></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgToty3Pxu1iH4TVpZkjx3Ep-97EF6gXIDIs7Zewg933E95XJ8j0kCTP0CtJousdyrcwdcdsVhlh394EGFZWvLJta97kecReMdvUu1u9ouEUAseftttyMEDm_U6v6ZqHCi0gLHTNF3O-FJM/s1600/marlene+gigolo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" h5="true" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgToty3Pxu1iH4TVpZkjx3Ep-97EF6gXIDIs7Zewg933E95XJ8j0kCTP0CtJousdyrcwdcdsVhlh394EGFZWvLJta97kecReMdvUu1u9ouEUAseftttyMEDm_U6v6ZqHCi0gLHTNF3O-FJM/s320/marlene+gigolo.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Marlene Dietrich in Just a Gigolo, 1978</td></tr></tbody></table><div align="center" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"></div>

Destry Rides Again John Gilbert Josef von Sternberg Just a Gigolo Leatrice Gilbert Fountain Lili Marlene Marlene Dietrich Morocco The Blue Angel Marlene Dietrich...another facet of her legend

Marlene Dietrich is one of very few film stars whose career not only spanned 60+ years but who also enjoyed icon status for most of those years. Her life in film began in the early 1920s with silent pictures. It came to a close with Maximillian Sch…

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