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Greta on Board of the Gripsholm, August 8, New York 1932

Under the cover of darkness on the evening of July 29, Greta was escorted on to the Gripsholm by two Burns detectives. The Swedish-American liner was not scheduled to leave port until midday on July 30. Neither Garbo's name nor any of her well-known aliases was on the passenger list–but news of her presence on board spread quickly. Passengers gathered in the hallways and on deck outside her deluxe stateroom. Two sentries were posted at the door, while the curtains of cabin 26, the royal suite, remained drawn.

"I can't tell you that she is in there," a steward guarding the cabin insisted.  "I can't tell you that she came last night and hasn't been out since. I can't tell you that she had breakfast sent in this morning.  Somebody is with her, too. I can't tell you that I have orders."

Even after the Gripshlom cast aside its moorings, MGM preferred to let the public believe that Greta had left Hollywood without signing a new contract. Their continued effort to make the lack of PR pronouncements speak volumes kept her name alive in the press, but also generated much hostility.

"Who is Garbo----that she could leave the town that has given her glamour, fame and wealth, without even saying 'Goodbye'?" One indignant magazine editor wrote. "Isn't it time now to wonder if her 'mystery' isn't just plain ingratitude?"

When the Gripshom pulled into Goteborg Harbor on the eighth of August , she was met on board by her brother. Greta surprised the reporters who accompanied Sven on the customs launch by agreeing to meet them in the smoking salon for an impromptu press conference. She was unprepared for the barrage of questions. "I am not exactly afraid of the press, but I do not like so much written about me," she explained.  "My work is in the studio." Moreover, Garbo cautioned, she didn't think the public attached such great importance to movie stars. "People don't really want to see me in real life. All the public goes to the cinemas for is to forget its troubles," she insisted. "Surely the world doesn't care what soap I use to wash myself......I am tired of picking up English, French, German and other newspapers sent to me in Hollywood and of reading my alleged views on love, cosmetics and health. I have never written a word in my life."

A crowd estimated to be in the thousands waited patiently in the rain to cheer "Heja, Greta!" Welcome home-as the ship pulled into the quay. "By the way, it is absolutely mad how many police are out," a reporter for Dagens Nyheter offered.  "Even when we landed in Goteborg with King Alfonso and the dead moose a few years ago, there weren't so many people around."

Garbo smiled for the crowd and waved her handkerchief while the newsreel cameras rolled. As she moved toward the gangway, the crowd surged forward and she became alarmed. "How dangerous this looks," she whispered to her brother. Once she got into her car, however, the newshounds lost the scent and Greta headed with Sven toward Stockholm, stopping overnight at a small hotel en route and then disappearing into the countryside.