Talk:Greta Garbo

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September 22, 2006 Featured article candidate Not promoted
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[edit] To be added

I've just listened France Inter, in French (2000 ans d'histoire), about Greta Garbo : (please excuse my approximate quotes and English translations)

- The miracle with Grabo was obvious in the lab when developping the film. She was very photogenic....

- According to partners and directors Grabo did "nothing" on the set or was "acting badly". However in the movie you will only see her...

- She went in conflict with directors than asked her to "act more"....

- She didn't appear in a lot of great movies, but whenever she appeared in a movie she was unforgetabble...

I don't know how to incorporate it in the the article. But I think it would useful to insist on her photogeny and her "minimalism"...

Ericd 13:07, 20 September 2005 (UTC)


[edit] Louise Brooks

Hello, I worked on the Barry Paris biography of Louise Brooks, and I don't recall that Brooks had an affair with Garbo. I also worked on one of the Garbo books and don't recall it either. Brooks was a lot of talk; she wanted people to think she was bi. According to her letters, she tried it once and didn't enjoy it.

As far as Garbo's lovers, the list on her page is not correct - for instance, she only met Marlene Dietrich once and she was never involved with Claudette Colbert. Peter Viertel says that without question, his mother was never sexually involved with Greta Garbo. However, I understand if it has been published that Wikipedia says it can be left in, but whoever wrote that was not reliable, sorry. And the page has omitted her main lover for many years, Cecile Rothschild. Truthfully, Garbo was gay and not bisexual. She was very fond of Gilbert and he had a beautiful house she could live in. I've always doubted the Beaton story, but Mr. Paris seemed to buy it, so who am I to question it. A fascinating woman, a great screen presence.Chandler75 02:27, 2 March 2006 (UTC)
As usual, we have the attempt by homosexuals to attribute their immature behavior to a famous person. This is done without proof or factual evidence of any kind.Lestrade (talk) 18:36, 5 December 2007 (UTC)Lestrade

[edit] Georges Schlee

There is no mention of Garbo's lengthy relationship with Georges Schlee. Anyone want to take a crack at this? Patrick925 02:01, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

I will happily take a crack at the George Schlee relationship with Garbo. My source is the book Garbo by Barry Paris, for which he did extensive interviewing and research (I was his assistant) for many years. Schlee was gay, and Garbo relied on him mainly for business dealings. She hated to buy things in her own name or put her name on anything, so Schlee traveled with her and purchased property, etc., and put it in his own name. (Her estate was $38 million.)
However, this all went awry when Schlee died because Garbo's mortal enemy, Schlee's wife, Valentina, who was resentful of the time Schlee spent with Garbo, got everything he had recently purchased for Garbo, because he died before he could transfer it over to her. So Valentina really had the last laugh.Chandler75 18:34, 1 August 2006 (UTC)
Well....Valentina did die before Garbo so perhaps Garbo had the last laugh??
You are assuming that Valentina's property passed to Garbo upon her (V's) death. 66.108.144.49 00:39, 28 September 2006 (UTC)
Garbo is the last person V would have wanted her property to go to.
Indeed, Garbo was still alive to "have the last laugh".... but I doubt she would have taken any pleasure in that. It was not her fault that V became jealous and resentful of George's devotion which I suspect was more protective than physical. There are other examples in Garbo's life, (Stiller, Gilbert, Schlee etc.)I think they made her feel safe and reminded her of her dad. These are the more intense relationships she had.....with men.


[edit] Rewrite needed - wording too POV

This reads like a gushing fangirl summary of her life. Could you make the wording more neutral?

Agreed. Take this for example:
[...] "His last appearance with Garbo, in Queen Christina, was not as bad as some critics have suggested: he suffered from the problem all of Garbo's leading men suffered, which was that she was inevitably stronger and more powerful than they were. [...]
[...] Gilbert, John Barrymore, Fredric March, Robert Taylor, and others ended up like feeble drones worshipping before the queen bee. :[...]
Major POV warning! MatteusH 00:24, 17 February 2007 (UTC)
I have removed these lines, but there is still a lot of POV language to be changed throughout the rest of the article. --DearPrudence 04:01, 6 April 2007 (UTC)

Agreed with all above, especially regarding the "Life in hollywood" section. 69.234.109.247 07:02, 27 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] The Name?

In the article there is a dispute as to whether her surname is spelled Gustafsson or Gustafson. I found some clarification from this URL: http://www.beepworld.de/members12/garbofan2/garbo_facts.htm

"When Greta signed a standard player’s contract with Svensk Filmindustri on July, 1923, she changed her last name to Gustafson ( one 's' ).This was the more contemporary spelling of her last name. Like her children, Anna Lovisa would follow Greta’s lead and use the new spelling of her last name too."

Can anyone else verify this? La Bicyclette 03:16, 11 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Further references - music

There is a reference to Greta Garbo in the song "Circus" by Uriah Heep from their album "Sweet Freedom" released in 1973.

" Dressed up, messed up, walking around - thinking that you're Greta Garbos - I'm sorry, my dear but we only sat down and laughed and laughed in sorrows".

The song is a quiet, acoustic less "heavy" song than many of their usual material —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Jeremy livitt (talk • contribs) 14:18, 11 May 2007 (UTC).

To include such a trivial mention of the actress's name indicates the low, base level of contemporary popular culture. It also demeans Wikpedia to refer to it in an article. "Dressed up, messed up, walking around - thinking that you're Greta Garbos - I'm sorry, my dear but we only sat down and laughed and laughed in sorrows" has no apparent value whatsoever. It doesn't even rhyme.Lestrade (talk) 01:15, 11 February 2008 (UTC)Lestrade

[edit] Last straw

Her role in Ninotchka required that she mimic a prolonged scene of forced, extreme laughter. This loud expression of amusement was so opposite to her true character that she decided to retire from the business. She had a serene and dignified beauty which didn't accord with a wide open, laughing mouth. To satisfy her contract, she made one more film and then retired at the pinnacle of a successful career. After so doing, she was able to live the remainder of her life unmolested and not required to feign laughter that was unnatural to her.Lestrade (talk) 20:19, 9 February 2008 (UTC)Lestrade

[edit] WP:WikiProject Actors and Filmmakers priority assessment

Per debate and discussion re: assessment of the approximate 100 top priority articles of the project, this article has been included as a top priority article. Wildhartlivie (talk) 11:39, 29 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Possible typo?

Her first job is recorded as being a "lather coy". Wikipedia has no other entry for this phrase. In fact, the only use that Google can find is in biographies of Greta Garbo... Should this be used without explanation?

The OED has an entry under 'lather' as follows: "lather-boy, a boy employed in a barber's shop to lather the chins of customers."

How could she be a lather boy? She is female. I know that Hollywood has an unending fascination with gender-switching, but this is ridiculous.Lestrade (talk) 03:03, 20 March 2008 (UTC)Lestrade