Recollections of Garbo

Barondess was more than just an actress. She was a refugee and a film star; she was also Greta Garbo's stylist and Marilyn Monroe's adopted big sister.

When Rouben Mamoulian offered her a role as a maid in Queen Christina (1933) with Greta Garbo, she refused, thinking the part insignificant. The director intervened. He told her that although a small part it was a significant one, the only laugh in the picture. Barondess accepted and was paid $9,000 for less than four days' work.

She and Garbo became friends, an acquaintance that lasted a lifetime. Barondess talked about Garbo in her biography.

She was the dullest woman I ever met

“As an interior designer later on, I did her house. She used to come into my shop on Wilshire Boulevard and talk. I think she was the dullest woman I ever met. I bought her first Renoirs. She begged me to take her to the auction sale where they were selling the paintings. She sat next to me and, when I bid over $300,000 for the two paintings, she almost had a heart attack.”

She was a tightwad

“She was the tightest, most miserly figure who ever lived. She paid for the paintings that day, but never paid me my commission. I never asked for it. I knew she was a tightwad. She used people and rarely gave anything back”

Thanks to Kata