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Newspapermen heard, and set out to verify. Pity the poor newspapermen.
But the interesting part of it all, of course, is that rumors not infrequently come to stand as truth. Flame and fire again. You never know for sure, even while shoulders are being shrugged in all directions; for if the facts can support a rumor they may be able to support reality.
So put the question on the blackboard and study it carefully:
Did Garbo marry Stiller?
We begin with the present.
Stockholm, where Stiller and Garbo first met, got the rumor in a newspaper dispatch from Vienna, and Stockholm newspapers, in their headlines, immediately branded it as a “rovarhistoria,” or cock-and-bull story.
THE original story was that Garbo had married Stiller in Constantinople under a mutual pledge of secrecy. That Garbo, furthermore, would have kept the marriage a secret forever if she hadn't found it necessary to put forward her claim to a share in Stiller's estate.
Her present visit to Sweden, so the rumor ran was not so much to find peace and quiet as to take part in legal proceedings regarding division of property left by Stiller.
Newspapermen in Stockholm were stopped cold. Lawyers handling the affairs of Stiller, who died in 1928, declared the Story false from start to finish. They remarked with delectable irony that they ought to know whereof they spoke. Other persons who should presumably be in the know in the matter refuse to believe, and say harsh things about people who start rumors.
But the gossip carries on, and here and there one encounters a touch of mystery. There can be no question but what Stiller and Garbo were the best of Friends. They were together much in Stockholm. They were together in Hollywood. It's entirely possible, in the way that many things are possible, that they may have been more than friends, and yet–
LET'S revert to the past.
In 1923, Stiller, who had definitely established himself as one of the founders of the motion picture industry as it now exists in Sweden, heard about a girl, one Greta Gustafsson, who had played small parts in a film production and who had completed her training at the Royal Dramatic School in Stockholm. He gave her a small role in “Gosta Berling's Saga,” trained her himself, got her to change her name, and took her to America. The rest is history. While Garbo stayed on in Hollywood, Stiller came home in 1927, a bit disillusioned, to die on November 8, 1928.
Much has been written, in Sweden at least, of Garbo's near fright when she had her first interview with Stiller. There is reason to believe that she was frightened. In addition to being a large man, more than six feet tall, Stiller had become known for his blustering, shouting methods of directing a film production. He insisted that the people he directed to their very best, be more than manikins, and oftentimes, it seems, he more of less scared them into real, honest-to-goodness acting.
THAT first meeting must have been a remarkable study in contrast. Stiller was then forty, in the full flush of his success in Sweden, and a man of the world in many ways. Garbo was seventeen and a bit uncertain about life, even if she did have positive ideas as to what she wanted to do.
The Stiller that Garbo saw was a man with gray-black hair, black mustache, sharp but heavy eyes under heavy eyelids, pronounced black eyebrows, and a dominant nose, all assembled together in an unusually large head. It was a face that in many ways concealed the real Stiller.
Stiller, in turn, saw a young girl with unusually large and clear eyes and long eyelashes, and a latent spark of determination and fire that in many ways matched his own. He saw a girl who was yet to become most impressively individualistic; who was, all told, no moiré than a typical Stockholm girl. But Stiller, unquestionably an artist, with originality of thought, and good judgment of people, became certain of Garbo's abilities. Being certain he proceeded, with characteristic drive and energy, to bring them to full fruition.
What Garbo came to know about Stiller, moreover, was that the man could be a s charming as he could be blunt and disconcerting. He had no desire to make friends with people who did not interest him.
He carried an intense conviction back of his ideas. |
But if Stiller wanted to make a friend, if he wanted to be pleasant, he could be so amazingly and intelligently delightful that people could not resist him. He was handsome in the very irregularity of his features. There was a charm in the manner in which he could shift his personality. The rough surface concealed but did not always hide.
It is no discredit to Garbo to say she must have been attracted to Stiller. She was young and a dreamer. He was older and knew the world. He had it in his power, in many ways, the symbol of what she wanted to be. On the venture to America he must have been, to an immense degree, a steadying and sympathetic influence.
And keep in mind the marked similarities of personality and attitudes and ambition. Both determined to succeed. Both convinced that they needed a greater scope for their talents. Both independent in thought. With Stiller excited about having found a real actress. With Garbo excited about the future.
THEY had much in common, these two, and from the time of that first meeting they were much together. It was Stiller who took Garbo to Berlin and to Constantinople; who, through his own ambitions and desire to develop, encouraged the same thoughts in Garbo. It is easy to understand Garbo's respect and admiration for Stiller.
At the time Stiller had a reputation for being a rather thorough-going bachelor. People who knew him say that he moiré or less avoided women. But there is no reason to believe, on the other hand, that he was immune to feminine charms, and Garbo was attractive. Stiller, in developing and bringing out that attractiveness and charm, as an artist bringing out the colors in a painting, could hardly have been unaware of the result.
That they might have married in Constantinople is possible. Marriage in Sweden requires formal announcement in church and newspapers. A secret trip to the altar in Stockholm would have been difficult. But Constantinople is quite a distance from Sweden. And Stiller might well have reasoned that a public marriage would be a drawback to the career of his professional ward.
On the other hand, the reasons for branding the marriage rumor as false are numerous. Men who knew Stiller are convinced his interesting Garbo was not that deep. And no adequate reason has been advanced as yet why they should have married secretly, or how they could have kept their marriage a secret. On the face of it, it seems absurd that the tempestuous Garbo, in love with a man, and married to him, could avoid any indirect acknowledgment of the fact. Against this, of course, can be matched the very secrecy of her life in Hollywood.
THE theory that Garbo desires to share in Stiller's estate also is ridiculed, and perhaps rightfully so. Stiller has a brother in California and a sister in Sweden. There are other claims against his estate which was not large. Even if Garbo needed money, which is doubtful, it would be difficult for her to press any claims without coming partly into the open about them. And the lawyers deny.
A friend of Stiller's? Unquestionably.
“I have everything in the world to thank Stiller for,” Garbo has said repeatedly.
An admirer of Stiller's? unquestionably again. It was Stiller who guided her upwards, fought many of her battles for her. There is no reason to believe Garbo will ever forget that. Whether she has put aside all thoughts of marriage because of her memory of Stiller, or because she was at one time married to him, is another matter entirely.
HOW profound Garbo's impression of Stiller must have been, as the groundwork of her attitude toward him, is indicated nicely in a Swedish writer's account of her first meeting with the director. The quotes which the Swedish writer gives as those of Garbo may not be exact. I merely present them as they stand.
“I went up to find him after school,” is the way the writer quotes Garbo. “I had never seen Stiller. I had only heard and read of him, but I had much respect for him and he was to me a great man.
“He wasn't in when I arrived and I sat down to wait. He came in finally with his big dog. He struck me as so different from other men, so original. Without saying a word he looked at me a long time, surveying me from head to foot. A long time afterwards he told me exactly what I wore that day, even what kind of shoes and stockings. Black, low-heeled shoes and black stockings. Then he said something about the weather and other small topics. At times I thought he wasn't even looking at me.
“Then he said, suddenly, ‘Can you take off your hat and coat?' I took them off, feeling that he was watching my every movement. Then he asked for my telephone number, and that was the end of the interview.”
This, then, is the story of Stiller and Garbo, out of which has come the rumor of marriage. The facts are worthy of speculation, for it is possible that Garbo spent more time in the company of Stiller than with any one man before or since. And there are rumors that certain papers have been signed in Stockholm regarding Garbo's status as a Swedish subject and regarding her sojourn in America. The papers may have something to do with Stiller and they may not. For the time being there is no way of telling. The burden of proof seems very much against it.
As I write this in Stockholm, a new rumor is afloat here. This time the story is that Prince Lennart, who married outside of royalty last spring and who is now known as Lennart Bernadotte, has written a special play in which Garbo will act at a small theater in Stockholm in which she is supposed to have a financial interest.
THE director of the theater, a woman, a friend of Garbo's, has denied knowledge of any such plans; has denied that Garbo has an interest in the theater.
It'smuch the same thing over again. Someone putting six and seven together and trying to make twelve. It may get to be twelve, but it isn't for the time being.
Did Garbo marry Stiller?
The several enterprising journalists may thing so, but they can't prove it.
from: PHOTOPLAY January 1933
© Copyright by PHOTOPLAY
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