#ninotchka

Greta Garbo, born Greta Gustafsson 119 years ago on September 18th ❤️

When Greta was born, [her father] Karl’s employer offered to adopt her to ease their poverty. Anna [her mother] refused. If God sent us a child, she said, he will provide bread. […]

What can be concluded about Garbo’s childhood? Was it a joyful time, as she played sports, produced plays, and led the neighborhood gang in mischief? Was it gloomy, filled with violence? Cecil Beaton asked her those questions and recorded her answers: “She talked about her youth and how unhappy she was. I interjected: But you’ve always told me you were such a tomboy and had so much fun leading the other children into mischief. She replied: ‘Cecil Beaton, how can you say such things! There are 365 days in the year!’” Garbo’s reply to Beaton’s question sounds like Garbo at her humorous best, using irony to avoid a direct answer. She probably found her childhood both happy and harrowing; both these reactions colored her later life. But its traumas never left her. She couldn’t stand quarreling, and she trained herself to remain calm when disagreements arose. There was also her terrible fear of strangers, not only in crowds but also in intimate settings. As she aged, books with violence in them frightened her. She always felt as though she was running away from someone or something. These aspects of her character sound like holdovers from a violent experience as a child. Yet, she could be playful and jokey, childlike and joyful. And she could take problems in stride. When a group of fans mobbed her after the opening of Camille in 1936, she wrote to her mentor and close friend Salka Viertel, “I guess I can’t complain. After all, I’m just a circus lady.” She included in the letter a picture she had drawn of herself as a tightrope walker, with a parasol in one hand.

Greta Garbo & Melvyn Douglas In