GARBO RUMOURS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 January 1940, Page 7

GARBO RUMOURS

"Every time a new Garbo picture is previewed, they also preview a new marriage for Garbo." So ran a Hollywood wisecrack apropos of "Garbo rumours" that swept the film colony. After “Flesh and the Devil" she was rumoured about to marry John Gilbert; after "Queen Christina" it was supposed to be Rouben Mamoulian; after "The Painted Veil" it was supposed to be George Brent; after "Conquest" is was Leopold Stokowsky. Now Hollywood is wondering what the rumour will be after her first romantic comedy. "Ninotchka’j—her name has already been linked witn Dr. Hauser. But Garbo pays no attention to such sly statements. Confronted by a questioner who wanted to know, she countered by remarking that "there are so many other possibilities in life." She is much more interested in her work than in the Garbo rumours. Making "Ninotchka" she arrived at work half an hour earlier than usual because there was much more dialogue to be learned in it than in her former pictures. She went home at five, as is her wont. She broke the rule once. When Ernst Lubitsch wanted to use the afternaoon to see his wife and baby off for Europe, but worried about the production schedule, she volunteered to work at night to make up the time so that, he could say his farewell. She is Always “Miss Garbo.” To everybody on the set she is "Miss Garbo." Lubitsch is the first director since Monta Bell, first man to direct her in America, to call her "Greta.” They are old friends. She calls him "Erns.” The only other director to cal: her anything but ''Miss Garbo” wqs W. S. Van Dyke. He called her "kid." She has a plain portable dressingroom. on the set, a sun-room made oi black flats without a roof, outside the stage door, and a permanent dressing100m, furnished in plain red leather, in the star dressing-room suite at MetroGold wyn-May er. She walks on to the set at nine o’clock, made-up, her lines learned, ready to go at once before the camera. She makes herself up, but Beth Langston, who has been her hairdresser for years, attends to her coiffures — in Ninotchka” the famous Garbo “long bob.” Even Temperature on Sound Stage. The sound stage is carefully maintained at a temperature of 70 degrees, and she wears heavy woollen stockings in scenes where her feet don't show. On the stage she always has lunch in her dressing-room. On location she has it with the company, whenever they lunch in the sun. She usually has a salad, muffins, or bread and butter. She avoids meat. She has no photographs in her dressing-room, as stars usually have, but on her dressing table at home is one she prizes, that of Mauritz Stiller, her discoverer. She is bashful when strangers watch her, hence no visitors are ever allowed on her sets, and sets are usually surrounded by black flats, which helps her concentrate. Ina Claire says it gives the same effect as on the stage, where players look out into a black auditorium, never seeing the audience. But she does like human associations, and has warm friends among those she knows well. In private life she discards exotic gowns for sports clothes. She usually Comes to work in blue slacks and a shapeless felt hat. She enjoys motion pictures, and often goes to theatres unrecognised in a sports tweed suit, felt hat. and dark glasses. She is devoted to the theatre and the opera. Her theory of acting is that "you don't have to look the part; you have to feel it.” She says she isn’t an actress; that if she can’t feel a line she can’t act it. Ina Claire says that, trained in the Stockholm Royal Dramatic School, she has learned every detail that can be taught, and her "1 don't know anything about it" is a pose. She is polite and willing on the set, rehearsing and going over scenes as often as the director requests. She always greets the members of the crew with an individual "good morning, and before the first scene of a picture she shakes hands with her cameraman, William Daniels, who has been on all her pictures but two. Karl Freund photographed her in "Conquest" when Daniels was ill; Oliver Marsh in "The Torrent.” If she makes a mistake in a scene, which is rare, she apologises, remarking, “I'm so sorry.’ She is an omnivorous reader, and keeps close track of world affairs through American and Scandinavian newspapers. She wears no jewellei > except in scenes. Her favourite colout is red. She is athletic; a great tennis player, can throw a ball like a man. and sometimes goes skating. She has a weakness for spaghetti, caviar, and corned beef. Vegetables with anchovies make her favourite salad.