R&R

During two extended tours for the USO in 1944 and 1945,^[24] Marlene Dietrich performed for Allied troops on the front lines in Algeria, Italy, England and France and went into Germany with Generals James M. Gavin and George S. Patton.

Her revue, with future TV pioneer Danny Thomas as her opening act, included songs from her films, performances on her musical saw (a skill she had originally acquired for stage appearances in Berlin in the 1920s), and a pretend “mindreading” act. Dietrich would inform the audience that she could read minds, and ask them to concentrate hard on thinking about whatever came into their minds. Then she would walk over to a soldier and earnestly tell him, “Oh, think of something else. I can’t possibly talk about that!” American church papers reportedly published stories complaining about this part of Dietrich’s act.^[24]

In 1944, the Morale Operations Branch of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) initiated the Musak project,^[25] musical propaganda broadcasts designed to demoralize enemy soldiers. Dietrich, the only performer who was made aware that her recordings would be for OSS use, recorded a number of songs in German for the project, including Lili Marleen, a favourite of soldiers on both sides of the conflict.^[26]