Garbo, of course, had undergone a major transition of her own. It was an ‘unretouched Swedish dumpling' who first arrived in Hollywood, with the shadow of a double chin, frizzy hair and slightly bucked teeth. Was she as much a product of the beauty factor as all the rest? Yes and no. The chubbiness was ‘puppy fat'; she was still a very young woman in the process of gaining control over her body and her make-up.

At MGM, the weight was taken off, the eye sockets (and possibly nostrils) were darkened for depth, and the pulling back of her hair would beautifully ‘lift' her face. If she was just an average pretty girl to start with, her perfect bone structure made perfect beauty possible.

Then Came Garbo

A wonderful illustration of her impact appeared in the November 1932 Vanity Fair photo feature, "Then Came Garbo" , depicting Dietrich, Bankhead, Stern, Crawford, Hepburn, and other actresses in early and recent photos. In the pre-Garbo shots, they all look coquettish and much "done up" Post-Garbo, they wear minimal make-up, their hair is straight, thin eyebrows and long lashes.

When anthropologists of the future will enjoy archives of cinema, they will discover a surprising phenomenon. They will see that Hollywood women in the beginning of XX century had different types, since 1931-32 they began again to look similar. Main airs of this similarity are lightened hair, more or less discoloured, medium length brushed inside, thin eyebrows straight to the sky and long lashes. They add to this lipstick, which gave them a sulky look and a gauntness, which let think in this period they suffered digestives problems. Of course this analysis is wrong. All this is showed on pictures in the bottom. In the top these pictures represent us golden age of pre-Nordic innocence. Before Garbo and they can see in the bottom metamorphosis they did consequently ....