Theodora Dove

"I'll never forget the hushed atmosphere on the stage during her presence. We spoke in whispers, and moved about on tiptoe. Not by order, but because, almost subconsciously, every one of us was affected by a strange reverence for this unearthly woman, so close to us, and yet so remote and untouchable. She never spoke to anyone on the set except Mamoulian— not even to Gilbert. Gilbert, it was said, had wept from joy when the studio gave him the part after an all-night huddle, thus reuniting him with Garbo for the first time in five years. He was very nervous on the set during the first few days, so much so, in fact, that he was unfit for work. He missed his cues, forgot his lines, and we had to do the same scene over and over again, sometimes as often as 20 times, before Mamoulian was satisfied. Garbo, on the other hand, always knew her lines perfectly and never interrupted a scene and required a re-take. She spoke her lines without any foreign accent, in that wonderfully modulated and penetrating voice of hers, and so faultless was her stage diction that it seemed impossible she hadn’t spoken English all her life."

Cat on Stripes - Felicity House

British , b. 1950 -

Point Reyes, CA