The Backstory: The American fashion model in Hitler's bathtub

Lee miller, the subject of a fascinating new Kate Winslet film, lived a glamorous but troubled life. Abused as a child, she went on to become a star fashion model in the 1920s. Then, as a wartime photographer, found herself taking a bath in Adolf Hitler’s tub the day he committed suicide. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Some people live a life that seems, I don't know,
just beyond imagination. You know. Well, this chick, now mostly forgotten,
was a star fashion model in the nineteen twenties and
acclaimed surrealist artist and a renowned war photographer. And that's
not even half her story. I'm Patty Steele. Lee Miller
posing for a photo in Hitler's bathtub the day he

(00:22):
committed suicide. That's next on the backstory. The backstory is back. Okay,
she's dropped dead. Gorgeous, ambitious, brilliant, and kind of quirky.
Lee Miller is born in nineteen o seven into a
wealthy family in upstate New York. She becomes a fashion model,

(00:44):
an artist, and a war photographer. She also has a
string of famous lovers. So from the outside, her life
seems pretty golden. But it was anything but. When Lee
was a little girl, she was raped while staying with
a family friend in Brooklyn. That attack infected her with
gonorrhea she was just seven years old. On top of that,

(01:05):
her father, an amateur photographer, used his daughter as his
model and took tons of photos of Lee in the
nude when she was a little girl, and again as
a young teen no surprise that she had troubles in school.
In fact, despite her talent and brains, Lee was expelled
from almost every school she was sent to. In nineteen

(01:26):
twenty five, she turns eighteen and decides to move to
Paris to study theater, lighting, costume and design. Back in
New York just a year later, she goes to Vassar College,
and then after just another year, moves to New York
City to study painting at the Art Students League, but
nothing really satisfies her. Then her big break It happened

(01:49):
when she apparently tricked the very famous Vogue publisher Conde
Nast into noticing her. Lee saw him on the sidewalk
outside his office and promptly stepped in front of an
oncoming car. He grabbed her, pulled her back, and noticed
her beauty and style, and the rest is history. That story,

(02:10):
by the way, is legendary in the fashion world, because
very soon Lee became an in demand fashion model and
was on the cover of Vogue within a year. Now,
the problem is it didn't last long. When she first
arrived in New York City, the famous photographer and artist
Edward Steichen had taken some pics of her and wound

(02:31):
up selling them to the feminine hygiene company Cotex after
she became well known in the modeling world. It was
the first time a recognized woman was featured in that
kind of an ad, and it was wildly scandalous in
those days. Even Lee was a little bit uncomfortable at first,
but then kind of started to like the notoriety. It

(02:53):
cost her a lot of modeling gigs, but she didn't care. Next,
she moved to Paris again and became the lover and
muse of the famous surrealist photographer and artist Manray. After
a turbulent couple of years, she left him and headed
back to New York City, where she opened her own
photography studio. Her clients included the ad agency Giant BBDO,

(03:16):
which of course inspired the AMC show Madmen, cosmetic companies
like Elizabeth Arden and Helena Rubinstein, luxury department stores including
Sasmith Avenue and I Magnin, and a number of Broadway
and film stars. But in nineteen thirty four she abandoned
the studio to marry an Egyptian businessman and moved to

(03:37):
Cairo with him, where she continued to create amazing photographs.
Think That's the fairytale ending she was looking for, not
even close. Within three years, she was bored with Egypt
and most likely with her husband, so she headed back
to Paris, where she reconciled with Manray. In the years
leading up to World War Two, her photographs were displayed

(03:59):
in several exhibits, including one at the Museum of Modern Art.
Lee was living just outside of London when World War
II broke out. Friends, family, and co workers told her
to go back to the US to be safe, but
her ambition and curiosity went out and she signed on
as a war correspondent for Vogue, who knew a fashion

(04:21):
magazine would need a war correspondent. Following the D Day
invasion in France, she was on the front line and
her photographs included the first recorded use of napalm. A
problem is, as a woman, she wasn't supposed to be
in a battle zone, but she stayed on until military
authorities realized where she was and put her under temporary

(04:43):
house arrest, strictly limiting where she could go. Eventually, Lee
was allowed to continue documenting the war. She teamed up
with a Life magazine correspondent photographing the liberation of Paris.
The battle of Alsace and the Nazi concentration camps at Buchenvo, Docow.
The evening after they visited Dacau, they got into Hitler's

(05:05):
private quarters. While there, Lee took off her muddy combat
uniform in boots and climbed into Hitler's bathtub. She had
set up her camera so her partner could take the
iconic photograph of Lee bathing in Hitler's tub. It was
taken on the evening of April thirtieth, nineteen forty five,

(05:25):
the very same day Hitler committed suicide. She slept in
his bed that night. At the same time, she was
photographing the end and then the aftermath of the war
and how it had impacted families, soldiers, and cities across Europe. Eventually,
she continued working for Vogue, covering fashion and celebrities. Imagine that,

(05:47):
but the atrocities that she had witnessed really took a toll.
She was now dealing with clinical depression, likely due to PTSD,
and she became an alcoholic. When she recovered, she got
ignant by another well known artist, Roland Penrose, and moved
to a farm in the English countryside, where the entertained.
Other surrealist artists like Picasso and Miro, but those images

(06:12):
from the war, especially the concentration camps, were implanted in
her mind and continued to haunt her. Her depression came back,
especially while she was being investigated as a Soviet spy
by the British government and after her husband began an
affair with a trapeze artist. Can't make this stuff up right,

(06:32):
Lee Miller died of cancer at her home in the
English countryside in nineteen seventy seven, at the age of seventy.
Her house is now a museum and her life has
become a fascinating new movie called Lee, starring Kate Winslet
as Lee. It's hard to imagine how one life can
be so packed with accomplishment as well as heartbreak, but

(06:53):
her legacy is all about curiosity and the ambition to
reach for more. I hope you're enjoying the Backstory with
Patty Steele. Follow or subscribe for free to get new
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(07:15):
you have a story you'd like me to cover. On Facebook,
It's Patty Steele and on Instagram Real Patty Steele. I'm
Patty Steele. The Backstories a production of iHeartMedia, Premiere Networks,
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is Doug Fraser. Our writer Jake Kushner. We have new

(07:35):
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Thanks for listening to the Backstory with Patty Steele, the
pieces of history you didn't know you needed to know.