Marlene Dietrich spent decades crossing oceans, yet the most documented residences of her life were the Beverly Hills mansions she rented from acquaintances during the 1930s. The actress, renowned for her performance in Morocco, treated these homes as temporary retreats—each tied to the films she shot, the relationships she pursued, and the daughter she cherished. “A home without a child is not a home,” she wrote in her 1979 memoir, Marlene, a principle that guided how she occupied and decorated these spaces.
Art Deco Retreat Shaped by Sternberg
The first property was an Art Deco estate in Beverly Hills, chosen for her by director Josef von Sternberg, who cast her in films like Shanghai Express. A 1931 photograph shows Dietrich standing beside her daughter, Maria Riva, in front of the home’s pool, its mosaic tiles shimmering like “a million diamonds.” The design emphasized detachment—”elegant, cold, like an Erté illustration,” Riva later described. Banana trees and cypresses lined the grounds, but the defining feature was the child’s private pool, a detail von Sternberg insisted upon. Riva would later link each home to the movies her mother filmed there, as well as the romantic involvements that accompanied stardom.
By the mid-1930s, Dietrich had relocated to another Beverly Hills mansion, owned by Countess Dorothy di Frasso, a socialite who leased her eight-bedroom home along with its staff, butler, and even her dog. The estate functioned as a private retreat: gardenia bushes framed a winding path to an aquamarine pool, while a red-clay tennis court lay concealed behind conifers.
Inside, interior designer Elsie de Wolfe had transformed the space into a reflective wonderland. Walls featured murals, one depicting zebras and black panthers, while every surface, from tables to door frames, mirrored light. The dining room accommodated 20 guests, its furniture upholstered in shag carpet and black lacquered flooring. A game room included backgammon sets with jade and agate pieces. “The whole place oozed decoration, exaggeration, and ‘money is no object,’” Riva wrote.
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The countess’s home came with a detailed inventory listing every possession, from eight dinner services for 50 guests to enough linen to supply Buckingham Palace. Dietrich dismissed such records. “She figured living in a house made it hers, everything in it her personal property,” Riva noted. Gold cutlery, sterling silver, and crystal goblets were standard, but the star viewed them as superficial.
Still, she played the role of an American housewife for her daughter’s benefit. “Maria loved America from the very start, above all California,” Dietrich wrote in her memoir Marlene. “She practically lived outdoors, and she was happy. During the day I worked on my film, then I came home, cooked, and read her bedtime stories like every mother. It was a pleasant life for all of us. I took care of the cooking and everything was as it should be.”
Lavish Parties and Hollywood’s Fan Fantasy
Di Frasso’s mansion became the setting for Hollywood’s most lavish gatherings. Dietrich hosted events with engraved invitations, place cards, and even finger bowls. Attendees included Clara Bow, Dolores del Río, and Ronald Colman. The home’s over-the-top decor, mirrored surfaces, tropical bird murals, sparked rumors that Dietrich owned it outright. “Because of its ‘fan fantasy’ interiors, she also permitted the first at-home photo sessions for the fan magazines, who all believed it was her own decor,” Riva wrote. “That house was probably ‘overdone ghastly,’ but my mother and I thought it very glamorous.”
Beyond the parties, the estate’s lawn hosted croquet matches and English high tea under scalloped umbrellas. “Circular wrought-iron tables, shaded by that symbol of success, the large, scalloped-edged, cotton-fringed garden umbrella, stood waiting, always ready,” Riva wrote. The tea offerings were, of course, listed on the lengthy inventory. “Our two-hundred-page inventory listed so many tea services and ‘covered crumpet dishes,’ we could have lent some to the Queen of England for her annual Garden Party and never missed them,” Riva joked.
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Later Years: Hemingway’s Shadow and Paris
A 1951 photograph captures Dietrich in her later years, standing in a living room where a signed portrait of Ernest Hemingway hangs above the fireplace. Hemingway died in 1961; Dietrich outlived him by three decades, passing in 1992 at her Paris residence.
Dietrich’s American homes extended beyond Beverly Hills. In her later years, she occasionally stayed in smaller residences, though details about these properties are not well-documented in the available sources.
In Paris, Dietrich settled into a more permanent residence at 12 Avenue Montaigne, a building that had previously housed other expatriate stars. The apartment was modest compared to her Beverly Hills rentals, but it was hers, no inventory lists, no countess’s staff, just the quiet life she preferred. The final photograph in Riva’s biography shows Dietrich in the late 1980s, standing in the doorway of the apartment, her hand resting on the frame.
Behind her, the walls display black-and-white film stills, a few personal photographs, and a single piece of furniture: a narrow desk where she wrote letters. The space was unadorned, yet it contained everything she needed. When she died in 1992, the apartment held no grand collections, only the essentials, as if she had finally found the home she had always sought.
