Marlene Dietrich's rented Beverly Hills mansions of the 1930s, in photographs

Marlene Dietrich lived all over the world, but her best-photographed homes were the Beverly Hills mansions she rented from friends in the 1930s. This Architectural Digest gallery pairs ten period photographs with lines from her 1979 memoir and from her daughter Maria Riva's 1992 biography, and Riva's sharp eye for rooms is the real pleasure here.

The first house, chosen for Dietrich by the director Josef von Sternberg, was strict Art Deco: cypress and banana trees, a mosaic-tiled pool, interiors Riva remembered as elegant and cold, more for existing in than living in. The second, rented from the socialite Countess Dorothy di Frasso, came complete with butler, cook, maids and dog. Elsie de Wolfe had decorated its eight bedrooms with mirrored walls, tables and door frames, painted tropical birds, lacquered black floors, shaggy white carpet and a Charles Baskerville mural in the sunroom. A 200-page inventory listed gold cutlery and enough china to serve fifty.

Riva called the house probably "overdone ghastly" yet thought it glamorous. Fan magazines photographed it believing the decor was Dietrich's own, while she threw formal parties and cooked pot-au-feu. These are private homes and the piece gives no addresses, so treat it as an armchair visit to old Hollywood interiors.

Our summary of a story from Architectural Digest, published 16 October 2026. Read the original

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