Acting Career
In 1930, Marianne divorced Count von Zarnekau, her third husband, and launched her acting career in Europe under the stage name "Mariana Fiory". In February 1930, she appeared at the Theatre Mathurins in Paris, starring in the role of a German soldier's grieving fiancee in "The Man I Killed," a dramatization of the war novel L'Homme que j'ai tue. Playwright Maurice Rostrand reportedly wrote the play specifically for Marianne. The show was a hit and won glowing reviews. Marianne went on to Rome, to star opposite Emma Gramatica, a popular Italian film actress of the 1930s.
Mariana Fiory, the former Countess von Zarnekau, arrived in the United States in 1936. She first appeared on the New York stage in February 1937 as the lead in Michel Dulud's play "Dans le Noir" at the Barbizon-Plaza theatre. Mariana then appeared in "The Shining Hour" with a stock company in New Hampshire, and apparently decided to settle in the U.S.
Through a friendship with Wally Castlebarco, the daughter of composer Arturo Toscanini, the ex-Countess was signed to appear on NBC. The Schenectady NY Gazette for 7 January 1938 reported "One of Europe's noted actresses, Mariana Fiory, once a member of the Russian royal family, is to make her first appearance in American radio when she plays in the Radio Guild on WJZ-NBC at 2. The production is Ibsen's Rosmersholm' '."
In late 1938 Marianne played "Tessie Konstantin" in the Broadway production of the satire "Waltz in Goose Step" at the Hudson Theatre.
The Brooklyn NY Daily Eagle spotlighted her with a brief interview on 5 November 1938. "The Countess Mariana Zarnekau, daughter of Grand Duke Paul and cousin of the late Russian Czar, scorns titles, knows nothing about dictators, and has no quarrels with Stalinists, but 'adores' the stage and the Brooklyn waterfront."
Marianne told the reporter she was "very, very ready" to discourse at length on the worthlessness of royal connections. "What did the revolution do for me? Why it set me free, and gave me the chance to fulfill a lifelong ambition to enter the old Imperial Dramatic School and study for the stage."
In October 1939, Hollywood columnist May Mann caught up with Mariana Fiory at a smart Russian perfume bar on Fifth Avenue and heard a similar story. "I was too young. I did not know what the revolution was all about. We left our palaces and lived crowded in rooms. We were glad to have our lives. . . . I married Count Zarnekau, and we were terribly poor. All of our properties had been seized and we had nothing. I helped to found the first dramatic school in Communistic Russia. Then I went to Paris and starred many seasons on the stage. . . . This spring I starred in 'Window Panes.' I do not long for the old Russia. America is so much more interesting."
During World War II Marianne moved to California, where she appeared with Robert Taylor and several Russian actors in the MGM movie "Song of Russia" (1944), the story of an American symphonic conductor, trapped in Russia during World War II, who helps with the resistance. Marianne plays "Nina." Produced by Joseph Pasternak and directed by Gregory Ratoff, "Song of Russia" premiered in February 1944.
Read more about this topic: Marianne Pistohlkors
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