Dietrich made her film debut with a minor role in The Little Napoleon (1923). It was around this time that she met her husband, Rudolf Sieber, with whom she would have her only child, Maria Elisabeth Sieber, who was born in 1924. Reeling from the success of her film, Dietrich moved to the United States and signed a contract with Paramount Pictures, the United States’ film distributor for The Blue Angel. Paramount Pictures saw Dietrich as a worthy competitor to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s Swedish actress, Greta Garbo, and marketed her as such. She starred in six films directed by von Sternberg at Paramount, carefully cultivating her image of a desirable femme fatale. Dietrich followed von Sternberg’s direction closely—from acting lessons to weight loss—as she made a name for herself in Hollywood.
