As the embodiment of Mitteleuropäische glamour, Marlene Dietrich seemed an ideal addition to the Kaiserball in Vienna's Hofburg, the winter palace of the Habsburgs. Would she care to come and sing? "Would be thrilled and delighted to accept your invitation," Marlene wrote in reply to her invitation, "but unless you agree to my fee of $35,000, all further correspondence will be meaningless." There was no further correspondence. Had Marlene been a little too, well, worldly? Her pressagent had a fast answer: "When you get Dietrich you get the magic, which costs a lot of money."
During last summer's Munich...
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