"Everybody Has Something To Hide" Reprise (Mata Hari)

In the autumn of 1967, Marisa Mell was in full rehearsal mode for the opening of the musical Mata Hari, planned for January 13th 1968 at the Alvin Theatre in New York City. So dress fittings were also on her agenda. This is a very rare photo from one of the dress fittings with famous costume designer Irene Sharaff, who did almost all famous Broadway musical productions of that era like Funny Girl and Hello, Dolly! with Barbra Streisand, and of course movies like Cleopatra with Elisabeth Taylor or the King and I with Yul Brynner. And as always Marisa Mell, being a heavy chain smoker, is smoking a cigarette during the dress fitting. 

From Japan With Love 1971

Marisa Mell was not only big in Europe and Latin America at the end of the '60's and during the '70's, but also quite known in the Land of the Rising Sun, Japan. This picture was taken by Angelo Frontoni, her favoriter Italian jet-set photographer, around 1967-1969, and used to illustrate the month of June 1971. So the picture was not a recent one, but a few years older then the date on the calander. How do we know? After the débâcle the musical "Mata Hari", Marisa Mell took it personally very hard that the show was such a big flop in America and bombed her career in the States, that she physically aged quite quickly afterwards. She was still very beautiful but due to the mishap she had lost the "freshness" in her face that you still can see in this picture.

Marisa Mell by Bert Stern

Marisa Mell

models

David Webb emarald, ruby and diamond belt

Hair by Martin Downey

Photo by Bert Stern

Vogue

1968

Photo shoot for Vogue 1968 as run up to the Mata Hari musical starring Marisa Mell trying to make her a new Broadway star which in the end horribly misfired! 

"Everybody Has Something To Hide!" (Mata Hari)

Marisa Mell rehearsing her dancing steps for Mata Hari

During the autumn of 1967 Marisa Mell was rehearsing in America for her leading part as Mata Hari in the David Merrick musical with the same name. The promotional wagon was in full swing and gearing up for the January 13th premiere in New York City at the Alvin Theatre on Broadway. First the Broadway show should have some pre-Broadway shows in the cities of  Washington DC at the National Theatre from November 13th untill December 3rd, Boston at the Colonial Theatre from December 5th untill December 17th  and Philadelphia at the Shubert Theatre from December 20th untill January 6th. 

Vincenti Minnelli giving instructions to Pernell Roberts and Marisa Mell

Although Vincenti Minnelli had some serious movie flops at the box office in the years prior to his directional stint for Mata Hari his name still had some weight in the movie and theatre business and of course the American audience still linked him to his former wife Judy Garland and daughter Liza Minnelli so the producer David Merrick took him under contract to direct his new musical hoping to gain momentum by attaching his name to the project. Although David Merrick was not sure if Vincenti Minnelli could achieve his task in making the musical a success on Broadway the next step in his plan was to surround Vincentti Minnelli with a group of professionals like Martha Schlamme as co-singer or stage designer Jo Melziner or choreografer Jack Cole or wardrobe designer Irene Sharaff.  Even with the help of those professionals the rehearsals and the end product was a disaster from the beginning. Not only because Vincenti Minnelli saw this project as a movie on stage giving the cast a lot of difficulties to perform but also because the script was boring and uninspired from the first page. But that was no problem for producer David Merrick. He told casting director Hugh Fordin when asked about the bad state of the script: "I don't care! It is not my money! It is RCA/Victor's money!". Record company RCA as the major investor of the musical hoped to make a lot of money on selling records of the original cast when the musical became a hit on Broadway like they did in the past with other musicals. An official record of the musical was never to be produced after the terrible first performance in Washington D.C.

Pernell Robert and W.B. Brydon confront Marisa Mell

For the role of Mata Hari's lover Captain Lafarge the role was first offered to French movie super star and singer Yves Montand. After his decline the role was offered to tv's western "Bonanza" star Pernell Roberts. After six years playing the role of son Adam Cartwright he left the show to become part of the Mata Hari cast. Marisa Mell was not cast by director Hugh Fordin but by Denise Minnelli, then wife of Vincenti Minnelli. The story goes that she saw Marisa Mell as a model in photo shoots in Vogue and Harper's Bazaar. They both met in Rome and had lunch together. Denise Minnelli was completely smitten with the European beauty of Marisa Mell, especially her husky sexy voice. She told her husband later via cable: "She is your girl!". Euginia Sheppard, reporter of the Washington Post Times Herald was also present at that lunch and she remarked afterwards that Denise Minnelli spoke only Italian with Marisa Mell  and had completely forgotten to ask her if she could speak English and could sing. Marisa Mell could both not. Oeps! Casting director Hugh Fordin later told when asked why Marisa Mell got the part, that she only got it because she had a love affair with Denise Minnelli.

Pernell Robert and Martha Schlamme try to comfort Marisa Mell

Martha Schlamme was Austrian just like Marisa Mell. She was famous for her folk song repertoire but also sang opera and musicals. During her career she also became a very well known recording artist especially singing work of German composer Kurt Weil and Israeli composer Nachum Nardi. She died in 1985 at age 62 from a stroke while on stage performing in Jamestown, New York. Marisa Mell is wearing in this picture a top by French fashion designer André Courrèges, who was at that time very en vogue with his space like fashion creations, having a big fan in Audrey Hepburn. What is also strange is that Marisa Mell and Pernell Roberts are both wearing an Ankh pendant. The Ankh is regarded as an Egyptian symbol of "Life". Does this mean that they were a couple during the production and rehearsals of Mata Hari?

The Beauty That Broadway Won't See! (Mata Hari)

During the run up to becoming the female lead in the new musical "Mata Hari", directed by Vincente Minelli, Marisa Mell stayed some time in America. The promotion circus was in full swing in the course of 1967 to promote the unkown Austrian actress in the States. She got photo spreads in magazines like "Vogue" and "McCall's" or was invited to high end functions at state houses, embassies or at private homes of the powers that be, especially in Washington D.C. were the musical was having its try-outs before going to Broadway!

In the newspaper "Toledo Blade" from October 15th, 1967 Marisa Mell gave an interview stating: "I have a higher goal than making one stupid picture after another." She believed that her casting of Mata Hari by Vincente Minelli was to be and would push her career into another direction! In the interview she also told that Minelli selected her for the role after seeing her in the movie "Casanova 70" with Marcello Mastroianni. The audition took place in New York! Although her singing range was not very broad it was enough for what the director Vincente Minelli and producer David Merrick had in mind. 

And so Marisa Mell became the talk of the town or the flavor of the week in Washington D.C. being at the centre of  this gala evening event in the autumn of 1967. Personally I love these pictures of Marisa Mell. Pictures of her can always be catigorized in 3 groups: a) the official publicity photos; b) the photos specially made for magazines or papers, official or unofficial and c) pictures taken by private persons at a function like these ones. They are not staged and show a Marisa Mell in a complete different setting or posture than the first two groups of photos. And they are of course the rarest to be found! What I also like about these pictures is the the theme that Marisa Mell chose for the evening. Her apprearence is very Cleopatra-like, only a few years after the famous and notorious movie with Liz Taylor as Cleopatra. The man holding her fur coat is friend of the moment Bernardo Antonio de Pinho Coutinho Soares de Albergaria Teixeira de Silva or in short "Tony", a diplomat working in the capital. As mentioned in other entries of this blog the American adventure with Mata Hari did not end well for Marisa Mell. The production became a fiasco and never got to Broadway! Marisa Mell was devastated by the failure and took it very hard emotionally. I personally think that one way or the other she did not get over it at all and threw her career and the way she looked at her movies into a complete different direction. Not a good one as time will tell in later years. Thankfully for Marisa Mell in her day and age there was no internet so information, although widespread via television, newspapers and magazines, was still very limited to the countries that they were serving so almost nobody in Europe knew that her stay and musical appearance was a failure. When asked she always told everybody that the musical Mata Hara was a big success in the States and that she made it for several months to Broadway.

"Mata Hari"-Dress Rehearsal (World Exclusive!)

Since the inception of the Marisa Mell Blog several entries have been dedicated to the musical "Mata Hari" from producer David Merrick, directed by Vincente Minnelli, starring Marisa Mell and "Bonaza"-star Pernell Roberts. Fresh from the success in movies like "Le Dolci Signore" or "Danger: Diabolik!" in the second half of the 60's the powers that be found it time to transfer Euro-beauty Marisa Mell from Italy to the USA in the wake of other Italian sirens like Sophia Loren, Gina Lollobrigida, Claudia Cardinale, Virna Lisi.... The fact that she was not Italian but Austrian did not matter. Her appearence was all Italian-like with thick auburn hair, big emerald green eyes and lush voluptious lips. What could you ask for more??? After several appearences in magazines like Vogue and McCall's introducing her to the American audience it was time to throw her into the deep end of the showbizz waters, ready or not! And ready she was not! Being trained as a theatre and movie actress she had no idea what it required to be a musical actress. Although there is a lot in common between the two disciplines its major requirement is that, next to being a stage presence, you need to be trained as a musical singer. Not a common singer of pop songs or classical pieces but in the specific technique of using your singing voice on stage while acting. So you need to master two disciplines. And Marisa Mell was no singer. That was a talent she had not! She could dance, sword fight, ride a horse,... but singing she could not! Compare the 1995 re-recording of the musical sung by professional musical singers with the 1967 bootleg recording then you know what I mean. So the whole adventure in the USA turned into a disaster for her. After a try-out in Washington, D.C., the whole show was canceled and never got to Broadway much to dispair of Marisa Mell. She had high hopes that this production of "Mata Hari" would be her ticket to the USA and showbizz. It did not! She came back one year later very disappointed and desperate. People close to her mention that in fact she never recovered from it and was scarred for life! Others clame that this gave her carreer a whole other direction and was the beginning of her downfall as an A-list actress, once starring opposite Marcello Mastroianni in "Casanova 70".
"Mata Hara" is only a footnote in the musical dictionaries mentioning the musical flop that it was. So there is not much material available on the memorabelia market. Luckily there is the bootleg recording of the production with the voices of the entire cast, including Marisa Mell, speaking her role as Mata Hari with a singing pitch! We are still waiting for original film footage of the production to appear. And now there are these pictures. In my knowledge they have never been published before in any magazine in the world since the days of the production. They show Marisa Mell during a dress rehearsel of the musical on stage. From today's point of view and even from the 60's point of view they are horrible. Marisa Mell had a very sexy slime figure in those days but by the looks of it the producers did everything to cover and distract from it. They are big, dark, depressive and formless cloths. Maybe they should have reflected the poverty of the character or the dispair from World War I. Even Audrey Hepburn in "My Fair Lady", starting out as Eliza Doolittle, the poor flower girl in Victorian London, had more beaufitul cloths than this. If these pictures give some kind of impression of the production quality than it is no wonder that, with everything else we know at the moment, this production was a faillure from the beginning. What is even more a mystery is that these cloths were drawn and made by Irene Sharaff, a 5-time Academy Award winner for productions like West Side Story, The King and I and... Cleopatra with Elisabeth Taylor. Maybe she had a headache the morning when she drew these cloths after a long night of partying and boozing in town? Who knows!

/

The pictures come from the personal archieve of Marisa Mell thanks to Guido from Italy!

Glamour Puss!

In the March 1st 1968 issue of the American edition of fashion magazine "Vogue", Marisa Mell had a fashion photo spread as lead up to her American adventure as one of the stars in the musical version of the life of spy "Mata Hari". The picture was taken by then very famous photographer Bert Stern. Bert Stern gained notority at the beginning of the 60's when he was able to photograph Marilyn Monroe during a three day shoot six weeks before her tragic death. He became one of the most celebrated photographers in the States untill recently having had almost every star and starlet before his camera's. This photo shows clearly that Marisa Mell, when she had not been a movie star, had all the qualities of becoming a top fashion model during the 60's like the then glamour pussies Verushka, Wilhelmina, Jean Shrimpton, Lauren Hutton, Ingrid Boulton or Karen Graham. I love this picture because it shows Marisa Mell's personality in a complete different styling than usual. Bellissima!

"Everybody Has Something To Hide" (Mata Hari)

In December of 1967, Marisa Mell starred in the musical Mata Hari. The try-out in Washington D.C. was a disaster. For example, Marisa Mell as Mata Hari was executed at the end of the play and "died" but before closing curtains she rised again making the audience laugh out loud! And there were other goofs so that the producer David Merrick decided to cancel the whole production even before it went to Broadway, NY, leaving behind a devistated Marisa Mell. In hinsight she never got over this faillure in her career. To my knowledge there are no film tapes available of this production but only bootleg audio tapes. Here is an example of Marisa Mell as Mata Hari singing the song "Everybody Has Something To Hide" referring to her spy activities during World War I in Europe. You will notice that Marisa Mell is not really singing but more or less talking her lyrics with a melodious voice. She could definitely not sing! Note: because this is a bootleg audiotape of the try-out with audience the quality is not that good but it is at the moment the only 43 year old recording of that production.

So you think you can dance!

Entry made in collaboration with Naldo.

A lot has been written about the faillure of the musical "Mata Hari" during the course of the years since it's inception, often targetting the perfomance of Marisa Mell as the main raison for this faillure. What people forget or mostly do not know is that Marisa Mell was a classical trained stage actress at the famous Austrian Max Reinhardt Seminar in Vienna, a fact that not many other Eurocult actresses could present on their CV's. She had followed the whole repertoire to get her degree like courses in singing, dancing, fencing, horse-riding, drama, comedy,.... This musical was directed by Vincente Minnelli. What does he remember from this production as written in his autobiography "I remember it well":

(Vincente Minnelli in Beverly Hills, Hollywood, US, 1984)

"David Merrick asked me to join him in London to talk about the project of a musical centering around Mata Hari. He had already proposed to me other subjects, but I had found none of them interesting enough. The second half had still to be written, but the first part was so exciting that I accepted right away... even if I hadn't been working in Broadway for almost thirty years! Theater world had changed a lot. Back in the old days, preparing a show was always a pleasure; nowadays, it was sort of slave's work. It was out of the question to have people not syndicated, let alone demanding them to supply efforts if it was not written on their contracts... I was used to the more flexible rhythm of working in the cinema world, and I had already forgotten how difficult it was to organise rehearsals and put together a show. I tried to write down the second half of the show, along with Merrick, keeping on mind a clear conception of the main character. Mata Hari was always described as a spy, even as a femme fatale, while in fact she remains a mystery. Many historians have said that she was falsely accused and executed. I wanted audiences to leave the theater wondering about this woman's real personality. Even if it was a very demanding work, I thought it was essential to develop this aspect of the character. At the beginning of the second part of the show, Mata Hari is having an affair with the private of the National Bureau who was supposed to arrest her, but in the end he falls in love with her. I had in mind the scenery of a Swiss mountain house, with a background of birds singing, kind of an impossible dream. The forest where Mata Hari was to be executed had to be occupied with a group of soldiers, who were supposed to remind us of the terrible fate that was to come. While I was on rehearsal, Irene Sharaff worked on the wardrobe. I had showed to her some pictures taken from old newspapers, and we settled that every scene of the show should have a predominant colour. This would range from soft yellow and grey to orange and brown. I had already worked with Irene in movies, but this was the first time we worked together in the theater, which was her main territory. I have to say that she did a wonderful job on the wardrobe, being as good as what she did in « The king and I », both for cinema and theater. On the other hand, I was having some difficulties working with the main stars of the show: Marisa Mell who was Mata Hari, and Pernell Roberts who was playing the private. On top of that, Jack Cole the choreographer got sick and the scenery was not working as well as I had expected! Marisa Mell was very beautiful and she sang really well. She was playing some of the sequences with particular charm, but some of the musical parts demanded her a lot of work. I think that she was not well suited for the part. She loved the theater, no doubt about that, but she was much more interested in her private life! Pernell Roberts had just left the successful tv show « Bonanza », where he was not allowed to show his capacities as a baryton singer. He had played that part with a piece of hair that he refused to wear on our show, and prefered to present himself with his bald head and a long beard. He explained that he wanted to show some authenticity and destroy his public image as a tv young romantic lead. When we arrived at Washington D.C., we had to rush rehearsals as we couldn't postpose the première of the show. David Merrick announced to the audience that they will see the « avant-première »… and then everything went from bad to worse. Scenery and wardrobe changing took much more time than expected, resulting on uncomprehensible delays. Nevertheless, I have to say that after two weeks all these problems were more or less arranged and some people even come to say that they enjoyed the show! Anyway, David Merrick being a very realistic person, took the decision to cancel the show – which had costed almost a million dollars- and so we never reached New York. We remained good friends!" (French version of his autobiography)

Pernell Roberts "Mata Hari" star dies!

LOS ANGELES — Pernell Roberts, the ruggedly handsome actor who shocked Hollywood by leaving TV's "Bonanza" at the height of its popularity, then found fame again years later on "Trapper John, M.D.," has died. He was 81. Roberts, the last surviving member of the classic Western's cast, died of cancer on Sunday January 24th 2010 at his Malibu home, his wife Eleanor Criswell told the Los Angeles Times. Although he rocketed to fame in 1959 as Adam Cartwright, eldest son of a Nevada ranching family led by Lorne Greene's patriarchal Ben Cartwright, Roberts chafed at the limitations he felt his "Bonanza" character was given. "They told me the four characters (Greene, himself and Dan Blocker and Michael Landon as his brothers) would be carefully defined and the scripts carefully prepared," he complained to The Associated Press in 1964. "None of it ever happened." It particularly distressed him that his character, a man in his 30s, had to continually defer to the wishes of his widowed father. "Doesn't it seem a bit silly for three adult males to get Father's permission for everything they do?" he once asked a reporter. Roberts agreed to fulfill his six-year contract but refused to extend it, and when he left the series in 1965, his character was eliminated with the explanation that he had simply moved away." Bonanza," with its three remaining stars, continued until 1973, making it second to "Gunsmoke" as the longest-running Western on TV. Blocker died in 1972, Greene in 1987, and Landon in 1991.When Roberts left the show the general feeling in Hollywood was that he had foolishly doomed his career and turned his back on a fortune in "Bonanza" earnings.

Indeed, for the next 14 years he mainly made appearances on TV shows and in miniseries, or toured with such theatrical productions as "The King and I, "Camelot" and "The Music Man." Pernell Roberts was also the leading man in the short lived ill fated musical "Mata Hari" with Austrian beauty Marisa Mell. The play never got to Broadway! His TV credits during that time included "The Virginian," "Hawaii Five-O," "Mission Impossible," "Marcus Welby, M.D.," "Banacek," "Ironside" and "Mannix."Then, in 1979, he landed another series, "Trapper John, M.D.," in which he played the title role. The character, but little else, was spun off from the brilliant Korean War comedy-drama "M-A-S-H," in which Wayne Rogers had played the offbeat Dr. "Trapper" John McIntire opposite Alan Alda's Dr. Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce.Rogers had left that series after just three seasons. In "Trapper John, M.D.," the Korean War was nearly 30 years past and Roberts' character was now a balding, middle-aged chief of surgery at San Francisco Memorial Hospital. He no longer fought the establishment, having learned how to deal with it with patience and wry humor. The series, praised for its serious treatment of the surgical world, aired until 1986.Roberts' other venture into series TV was "FBI: The Untold Stories" (1991-1993), in which he acted as host and narrator. Pernell Roberts Jr. was born in 1928 in Waycross, Ga. As a young man, he once commented, "I distinguished myself by flunking out of college three times." After pursuing occupations that ranged from tombstone maker to railroad riveter, he decided to become an actor.Roberts worked extensively in regional theaters, then gained notice in New York, where he won a Drama Desk award in 1956 for his performance in an off-Broadway production of "Macbeth." He eventually moved to Hollywood, where he appeared in several TV shows and landed character roles in such features as "Desire Under the Elms," "The Sheepman" and "Ride Lonesome" until "Bonanza" made him a star.Three of Roberts' marriages ended in divorce. His first, to Vera Mowry, produced a son, Jonathan, who died in 1989 at age 37.

The covers that never were!

During the height of her career Marisa Mell has graced hundredth of covers around the world, not only in the Anglo-Saxon world but also on magazine covers in the Arabic, East, Far East and Latin world! To my knowledge, she has never appeared on the covers of Glamour, Esquire and Vogue. Although she did appear during her Mata Hari musical rehearsal period several times in Vogue and McCalls with a fashion spread but never on the cover! So here are the covers that never were but could have been!

GLAMOUR
ESQUIRE

VOGUE

Mata Hari-Time Magazine, December 8th 1967

Merrick Shoots Mata
Friday, Dec. 08, 1967
In a world where the popular image of a spy alternates between gadget-crammed fantasy and faceless seediness, can Mata Hari, the cooch-dancing agent of World War I, carry a lavish musical on her bare shoulders?
Producer David Merrick thought so — to the tune of an $800,000 investment, plus Hollywood's Vincente Minnelli to direct, plus a buildup for curvaceous star Marisa Mell that included coverage in Vogue and McCall's. But Merrick was wrong. After a ludicrous Washington preview at which everything from the scenery to the sound system came apart at the seams, Mata Hari opened to lethal reviews.
Last week Producer Merrick, who modestly describes himself as "the most vital force in the theater today," decided once again that mortality is sometimes the better part of vitality. He decreed that Mata Hari would have to be shot before opening on Broadway. Last year he similarly closed Breakfast at Tiffany's, losing a mere $400,000.

Spotted!!!

Spotted!!! Austrian actress Marisa Mell and her friend Italian actress Claudia Cardinale on their way together to the United States at the Aerporti di Roma (Italy) in the week of June 23rd, 1967. Miss Mell will go to New York to start her negotiations with Broadway producer David Merrick to star in his new musical Mata Hari, about the World War I-spy, while Miss Cardinale will start filming her next movie project called "All Heroes Die" in Hollywood with co-star Rod Taylor. Both productions will have their premieres hopefully in the course of next year. We'll keep you posted! xoxo Gossip Boy

Jellabiya

During her filming of "Danger: Diabolik!" in 1967, Marisa Mell was invited to New York to audition for the role of Mata Hari in the musical with the same name which was going to open in New York, Broadway in the following year. When she got the part, as mentioned in another blog entry, the producers found it a good idea that Marisa Mell should appear in several magazines in the States to make her name a house hold name. So she appeared in McCall's Magazine but also as a fashion model in the November 1967 issue of Vogue, the number one fashion magazine in the world. What is so special about this picture is the fact that this photo brings together the middle-east and the west in one person. Marisa Mell has done her hair in a typical 60's hair-style like almost all the fashion models of that time but her dress is not at all western, it is a classical middle-eastern dress called "Jellabiya". The Jellabiya or in Arabic: الجلابية , pronounced Gellabiya in Egypt, is a traditional arab garment native to the Gulf region worn by women as a casual dress or as evening wear depending on the amount of work, complication of design beadwork as in this dress worn by Marisa Mell. The Jellabiya dates back to early days of civilization in the Arabic countries of the Gulf. Jellabiyas are also created for men; however, these include a minimal amount of design and are usually just striped or plain in a variety of colors. You have three kinds of Jellabiya: a) the casual Jellabiya: This is often a casual garment using a minimal amount of textiles and design; b) the evening Jellabiya: several different mediums are used to create these Jellabiyas. They include, beadwork, embroidery, different stich patterns as well as various textiles such as silk, lace and even wool and c) the wedding Jellabiya: Jellabiyas worn by the bride at weddings are much like evening Jellabiyas; however, they usually are quite excessive. Unfortunately her role in Mata Hara was a short one and she never got to Broadway, just some try outs in Washington DC. This faillure was very hard for her to swallow and took some time to get over with.

An Egyptian peasant women sitting on the banks of the river Nile in the 1890's looking at the Temple of Philae during sun set wearing a traditional black Jellabiya.

Orbituary - Der Spiegel - Germany (22/1992)

"MARISA MELL, 53. Her real name was Marlies Moitzi and she lived like any other women: she cooked, knitted, played piano and painted pictures. Before this beauty with cat’s eyes became part of the international jet set as a “Femme Fatale”, she went to school in a nunnery, a school of commerce in Graz and the Max-Reinhardt-Seminar in Vienna. With English, Italian and French movies, she started a rocket career in the sixties: “What’s New, Pussycat!” with Peter O’Toole and Woody Allen on her side or “Casanova ‘70” with Marcello Mastroianni. Her wages were during a while higher than these of Claudia Cardinale. On Broadway meanwhile, she failed with the musical “Mata Hari”. With her love affaires and memories from the good life she kept up the appearence of being wanted by the rich and powerful. Her serious attemps to work again in theatre (1990 in Franz Innerhofers “Orvieto” and in Oktober 1991 in the play “Love Letters”) had to be aborted due to her illness. Marisa Mell died saterday before last in Vienna due to thyroids cancer." (Free translation)

NOTE: Yeah, Marisa Mell was a real housewife in the '60's? Forget it! Marisa Mell never played in the movie "What's New, Pussycat" nor did she acted with Peter O'Toole or Woody Allen. It is not clear where the journalist got his information from but obviously he is mixing up some facts and has some other actress in mind while writing this orbituary which is kind of strange because "Der Spiegel" is always known as a very trustworthy magazine!

McCall's Magazine

In 1968 Marisa Mell’s career was getting more and more noticed in the public eye on an international level outside of Europe which resulted in a lot of offers. One of these offers was to star in a leading role in an American musical version of the life of the famous WWI-spy “Mata Hari”. The musical was based on a book by Jerome Coopersmith and music by Edward Thomas with lyrics by Martin Charnin. The musical was to open on Broadway in New York after an initial run off-broadway. The name “Marisa Mell” was not yet a household name in America, so the producers found it a good idea that she would appear in a magazine with a high print run that was read by a lot of American women, especially housewifes. The choice of the producers fell on a magazine called “McCall’s Magazine”. McCall's was a monthly women's magazine that enjoyed great popularity through much of the 20th century, peaking at a readership of six million in 1960. The origin of the magazine goes back to 1880. Sadly the magazine disappeared at the beginning of this 21st century due to mergers between publishing companies after some legal battles over it's ownership. But in 1968 the magazine was in good health. What makes this photo shoot so special is that Marisa Mell got the cover of the magazine which is rather exceptional because most of the time the cover model was a well known American women like an actress, model… and she was not but what was even more exceptional was the fact that the photo shoot was a production of 'the' art director of that moment (that moment in time would later become known as the Golden Age of magazine design) the late great Otto Storch. Otto Storch (°Brooklyn-New York, February 15th 1913) was a magazine art director and advertising photographer who introduced an expressive typographic style to women's magazines as part of a revolution in editorial design. He was one of a handful of graphic designers who helped transform and modernize the visual content of American magazines. He belonged to what the graphic design historian Philip Meggs calls the "New York School", a group of editorial and advertising designers who based layouts on unified visual ideas rather than merely embellishing the page with ornamentation. Typical of this approach was a 1961 layout in McCall's for ''The Forty-Winks Reducing Plan,'' in which a picture of a sleeping woman lying on top of the text distorts the text to simulate a sagging mattress. Mr. Storch used a variety of photographic processes to make type twist, turn and vibrate in the days before computers made such special effects commonplace in magazine layout. He also helped revive late 19th-century Victorian wood typefaces, which had been passe for decades, to add graphic impact and contrast to the printed page. Although he later rejected this approach because it had become a cliche, the style is in use to this day. After leaving McCall's in 1969 he opened his own photography studio where he worked on assignments for many commercial clients, including American Express, Celanese, Golden Books, Sunbeam and Volkswagen. Otto Storch died at the age of 86 years on September 29th 1999. The article introduces the American audience to a new European star and what her part will be in the new musical "Mata Hari" on Broadway. Looking back, the article had not much impact on Marisa Mell's career and the musical never got to open on Broadway but that's an entire other story. Finding a mint copy of the McCall's-issue is not an easy task because almost all the issues got a adress label of the subscribers on the left hand side at the bottom of the cover page. Some magazine's have their label removed but they are not mint anymore due to the damage from removing the label or the old glue from the label.