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On this day, 9 June 1973, German actress/singer and Hollywood icon Marlene Dietrich played the last concert of a week-long visit to Cardiff’s New Theatre.
A big fan of Welsh miners, she was presented with a special Davy lamp necklace by Dai Francis of the NUM. He was a lifelong Communist.
She would wear it on stage that night.
In her personal life, Dietrich was a strong opponent of the Nazi government in Germany. She had been asked to return to Germany by people associated with Adolf Hitler in the late 1930s to make films there, but she turned them down. As a result, her films were banned in her native land.
She made her new country her official home by becoming a U.S. citizen in 1939. During World War II, Dietrich traveled extensively to entertain the allied troops, singing such songs as "Lili Marlene" and others that would later become staples in her cabaret act.
She also worked on war-bond drives and recorded anti-Nazi messages in German for broadcast.
