Greta Garbo Remembered
Posted: Saturday, March 06, 2010
by Jack H. Schick
The greatest phenomenon in the history of the film industry is, mostly by her own design, one of the least remembered today. Greta Garbo was the top Hollywood box office star for an unprecedented ten-plus years. She absolutely ruled the silent film era and was the unchallenged superstar of Hollywood 's Golden Age. After continuing to dominate the industry for nearly fifteen years she abruptly retired in 1941, at age 36, and lived a mysterious, reclusive life until her death on Easter Sunday in 1990.
Greta Gustafson at 17 in "The Saga of Gosta Berling"
Greta Lovisa Gustafson was born in Stockholm, Sweden on September 18, 1905. At aged nineteen and already an international movie star, she said of her childhood, to the paparazzi who refused to 'let her alone': "Some people were born in red brick houses, some in white board ones. We were all born in houses. I do not want it printed that I was born in this house or that, or that my mother is this and my father was that. They were my mother and father. That is enough. Why should the world talk about them?" And so, the enigma and myth were born.
By aged twelve Greta, a large for her age, husky girl, had begun loitering outside actors' entrances to theatres to collect autographs. She told her friends that someday she was going to be a famous actress. Her first roles came as a model in ads for a Stockholm department store. At age sixteen she appeared in her first film, Peter the Tramp, to little acclaim. The following year she was cast in The Saga of Gosta Berling by her soon to be mentor, renowned Swedish director Mauritz Stiller. Stiller, who had an eye for raw talent, recognized something special in the chubby girl with crooked teeth and took her 'under his wing.' The film was a blockbuster success throughout Europe. Greta Gustafson received accolades for her performance in a supporting role, and in November of that year, changed her stage name to Garbo.
Garbo at 20 in Hollywood
Louis B. Mayer came to Europe to try to lure Stiller to Hollywood. A condition of Stiller's agreement was that his young starlet, Garbo, be contracted too. Mayer agreed--if she lost weight and learned English. There is some indication, though, that Mayer actualy wanted 'the girl' more than he wanted Stiller. At the time Garbo was working as the lead in a German film under legendary director George Pabst, The Joyless Street. It became an instant hit in both Europe and America. After only two major films, Garbo was considered an international movie star by the time she and Stiller arrived in the United States in July of 1925. She was not yet twenty.
Her first American made film, The Torrent, was released in November 1925. It was a 'smashing success'. Mayer was amazed that an ordinary actress who seemed in no way special during filming transformed on screen into something he had never seen before. She could say more with her eyes and facial expressions than most actresses could with their entire bodies. He immediately raised her salary from $350 per week to $750 and began teaming her with his top male stars. Her first films with John Gilbert, America's biggest leading man of the day, The Temptress and Flesh and the Devil were equally successful in 1926. Garbo's pay was soon increased to $5000 per week, and later to $7000. Before her 21st birthday she was lauded as the world's greatest actress and was Hollywood's 'biggest' movie star.
Garbo's films produced successive box office records. She was consequently besieged by the media yet, from the beginning, resisted publicity. She did no interviews. She answered no fan mail. She gave no autographs. She attended only her first premier. Due to this elusiveness she became the most sought after and publicized woman in the world. There are thousands of photographs of her covering her face or hiding beneath a hat as she rushes to a train or into a waiting car.
Stardom did not spoil her. Louis Mayer said that her work ethic was impeccable and her integrity supreme. She arrived to the set on time and knew her part. However, when it was quitting time, she quit; even in the middle of a scene shooting. Mayer said that a verbal agreement with Garbo was worth more than any contract he had ever signed. Her simple, mundane personal life dramatically contrasted with her exotic, inscrutable screen image.
Garbo did most of her scenes, and all of her romantic scenes with only essential personnel present. The stage was cleared of all spectators. Black curtains were set up around the area. Garbo explained: "When people are watching I am just a woman making faces for the camera. It destroys the illusion. If I am by myself my face will do things I cannot do with it otherwise." An actress who sneaked into one filming said that she saw nothing special. She couldn't understand what all the excitment was about, until she saw it on the screen. She allegedly wept, realizing that she could never approach the genius Garbo had before the camera. She cast an insurmountable shadow over all other Hollywood actresses.
In the Silent Era
In the late 1920's, Talkies swept into Hollywood. MGM was hesitant to allow Garbo to speak in her deep, husky Swedish dialect, and had never signed her to a Talkie contract. Many careers, like John Gilbert's, faded when the silent film image did not match the voice. She made several more silent films. In, A Woman of Affairs, she played her first 'modern woman' and the audiences loved it. Though viewers clamored for sound pictures The Single Standard also did 'killer business'. Finally MGM, with much trepidation, relented and announced that in Anna Christie, "Garbo Talks!"
During production reporters were allowed a brief preview. Variety magazine reassured the public that "Garbo Talks, OK". The anticipation was fantastic. Nearly every man was in love with her and few women disliked her. The silent era had produced no star as bright as Garbo's. Anna Christie opened in March of 1930, to a record breaking box office. Not until almost sixteen minutes into the film did Garbo appear. She sat down at a table in a dingy New York waterfront pub and said to the bartender: "Gif me a viskey, chin-cher ale on da side. An' don't be stingy, baby." The audience swooned.
Garbo as Anna Christie in 1929 - "The Whiskey Scene"
Anna Christie was an unprecedented blockbuster hit. If possible, Garbo became even more popular. She was nominated for an Academy Award for the performance. The following year, Mata Hari became her most successful film. In 1932, Grand Hotel, in which Garbo uttered the famous line "I vunt to be alone", won the Oscar for best director. By then, in the depths of the depression, she commanded $250,000 per film. In 1935, in the era of some of the greatest actors and actresses of all time, she was paid $500,000 per film, nearly twice as much as her closest competitor, man or woman. Greta Garbo had achieved a level of stardom that was unwitnessed, before or since.
The queen of Hollywood for over 15 years
Greta Garbo was nominated for Oscars in 1930 for both Anna Christie and Romance. She won the NY Film Critics Award in 1935 for Anna Karenina, and again in 1937 for Camille, for which she was also nominated as Best Actress. She was nominated a fourth time in 1939 for Ninotchka. The studio advertised the comedy with the banner headlines "Garbo Laughs!" The film was a 'triumphant success' fourteen years after her first American film was released. Her star refused to fade.
After mediocre reviews of The Two Faced Woman, in 1941, Garbo retired from the silver screen. Her life as a recluse in New York City is well documented. She was awarded a special Oscar in 1954 for "a series of luminous and unforgettable performances." She did not attend the ceremony. She was offered $4 million to do a short scene as an aging film star in the movie Airport in 1975. She declined saying, "What could be worse than playing a movie star?" She died in a New York City hospital at 11:30am, Easter Sunday, April 15, 1990. She was 84.
Greta Garbo is not totally forgotten, though. Recently, she ranked #5 on a list of top female actresses, and #51 in a Playboy list of sexy film stars. No actress has dominated Hollywood for such a long run. Major film critics continue to agree that, on the screen, there has never been anyone better, and there never will be.
Greta Garbo
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