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Introduction |
Sir Noël Peirce Coward (1899 –1973) was an Academy Award winning English actor, playwright, composer of popular music and a friend of Garbo.
In 2007, extracts from Noel Coward's letters have been made public for the first time. Several are from actor-friends such Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Tallulah Bankhead...
Garbo, in a letter of 1936, teasingly asked him to marry her ... he wrote back saying he almost accepted – even though he was “completely immune to any female charm”.
Garbo and Noël |
Garbo was introduced to the multihyphenate entertainer at a party hosted by the Wachtmeisters. Later, the pair were seen walking around Djurgården. Although rumors of a “blossoming romance” between England 's gay blade and the solitary diva from Sweden quickly circulated in the international press, a source close to the actress labeled them “pure fabrication.”
What was really happening, Coward's friend and biographer Cole Lesley agreed, was that Noël Coward could not be coerced into meeting a friend at an obscure location wearing dark glasses and a turned-up collar. He wanted to see and be seen.
So he wheedled and coaxed and bullied Garbo until she agreed to more public meetings, including a party given by Gösta Ekman attended by Stockholm 's fashionable elite, and a private New Year's Eve party thrown by Prince Wilhelm.
Regarding the possibility of a romance tryst, however, Lesley was never completely sure whether the rumors were true or whether Greta and Noël simply found it more interesting to continue the charade. “I do know that they exchanged affectionate telegrams and telephone calls for some time after, calling each other ‘My little bridegroom' and ‘My little bride,' and that she had said she ‘wished the newspapers was right.'”
Source: Karen Swenson – A life Apart
Expert taken from a Noel Coward biography: |
....By the time he got to Stockholm, where he went to alot of Christmas parties. Greta Garbo was there yoo, not always escaping being mobbed by the press and public, and when Garbo and Noel were seen together the international press understandably went mad with excitement. According to many papers there was certainly a romance between the two, and the world-shaking announcement of their engagement might be expected daily.
They enjoyed one another's company enormously, but what was really happeningwas Noel's adamant refusal to meet her at some obscure address wearing dark sunglasses and with their faces hidden by turned-up coat collars. Instead, he was wheedling and coaxing her, then, when that failed, bullying her steadily and relentlessly until she would in the end consent to go to a theatre or a restaurant with him - or even go to the party given by the great actor Gösta Eckman when, as they were going up in the lift, Garbo refused to go in the door, saying "Believe me Noel, I really and truly cannot go in, I can not face it."
Noel said he shook her, rang the bell and said "Yes you bloody well are going in" and when the door opened he pushed her in. Coward said "Once inside she soon became charming, easy, gay person she really is and refused to leave until three in the morning. She can often be funny, loving to laugh at other people's jokes."
Thanks to Meri |
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Ramon Navarro
  
Ramon was a Mexican actor who achieved fame as a "Latin lover" in silent films.
During the filming of Mata Hari together it was rumored that they were lovers. Ramon was gay in real life. |
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Eva Le Gallienne
 
Eva a well-known actress, producer, and director, during the first half of the 20th century.
She was well known for her homosexuality and was rumoured to of had an affair with Garbo.
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Carl Brisson
 
Danish performer Carl Brisson was Greta's first teenager idol. One day, the former boxer was in Södermalm (Sweden) with his revue and Greta went to see him live on stage. She had a crush on him. Greta waited backstage and handed him a bunch of violets.
Brisson signed her an autograph and a card that would allow her to see any performance at the theatre. He was rumored to get the lead part in Gösta Berlings saga.
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Fifi D'Orsay
 
A Canadian born actress. While never a superstar, she worked hard at her craft headlining with the likes of Bing Crosby, and Buster Crabbe.
Some say that Greta has been romanticly linked to Fifi.
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Sven Broman
(in Treatment) |
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Louise Brooks
 
Garbo had a close encounter with Louise |
Brooks is an actress of the 20's and 30's. The two beauties were never friends, but Brooks knew John Gilbert and occasionally showed up at his house to find Garbo playing tennis. She was as much in awe of Garbo as everyone else.
In her later years, Brooks claimed they spent a night together, and that Garbo had been both charming and tender.
Brooks about Garbo |
"From the moment 'Torrent' went into production, no contemporary actress was ever again to be quite happy in herself!".
"In 1928 when I met Garbo at Alice Glazer's, we sat facing each other closely across a narrow breakfast table. Her gaze was so intense and so eloquent that I left after an hour although I had intended to spend the afternoon."
They only met a few times, she told film writer John Kobal, adding offhandedly: "She made a pass at me."
Brooks never ceased to admire and analyse Garbo in her irreverent way: "Garbo was a completely masculine dyke, which makes her films ever more wonderful."
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| Leopold Stokowsky
    
Stokowski was the conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the NBC Symphony Orchestra, Hollywood Bowl Orchestra and the Symphony of the Air.
He had a well publicized affair with Miss Garbo.True or not. We will never know.
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| Gayelord Hauser
 
Nutritionist and self-help author, promoter of "the natural way of eating", his books were generally oriented towards the popular market and of dubious scientific value.
He was a big fan of Vitamin B but the enemy of sugar and white flour. Hauser was popular on the lecture and social circuits, his name largely forgotten today. Hauser was one of Greta´s very best friends. In the begining it's true that he tried to marry Garbo, just to get some publicity.
But he was rumored to be gay, he had this long life time male friend until the ends of his days and often invited Garbo in his houses in California and Taormina, Italy. Garbo was deeply deeply upset by the death of this man, in the '80's.
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| Erich Maria Remarque
 
Erich Maria Remarque was the author of 1929's All Quiet on the Western Front, a novel based on his experiences as a soldier in World War I. The book -- and its strong anti-war message -- made Remarque an international celebrity (the 1930 film version is a classic of early cinema). He emigrated from Germany in 1931 to Switzerland, then moved to the United States in 1939.
He wrote novels and worked briefly in Hollywood, making friends with movie stars such as Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo and Paulette Goddard. They met in the early 1940s and Remarque calimed that they had an affair. He died in 1970.
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| Cecile de Rothschild
   
Baroness De Rothschild was a friend of Greta. They were close friends, sometimes they could be seen walking on the streets of New York together. Sam Green says that they were not lovers. But we'll never know. There was just this deep true frienship.
Garbo was fascinated and spoiled by her riches - Cecile was obsessed by Garbo as she was the greatest screen-legends of all. They were close friends like sisters but many think they even had an affair.
Cecile died January 17th, 1995.
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George Tabori (Hungarian theatre director and novelist)
 
George Tabori was a playwright, theatre director, novelist and translator. From 1947 until 1969, Tabori worked as a scriptwriter in Hollywood and New York, where he mingled with the rich and famous. Tabori wrote in his autobiography that he met Garbo and even had an affair ("She never forgave me") with her.
He wrote a screen-play |
In 1948, Tabori wrote a screen play of Thomas Mann's Der Zauberberg. English producer Alexander Korda bought the film rights to the novel and Tabori worked on a screenplay for six month.
Tabori and Zoltán Korda (Alexander Korda's brother) considered Garbo as Madame Chauchat, Montgomery Clift as Hans Castorp and Charles Laughton was interrested to play. It is possible that Garbo was interested but the project never wnet into production.
Tabori reveals his affair with Garbo in a German magazine: |
At Garbo's 100th Birthday the director remembers Garbo. In 1943, Tabori was a war correspondent in Bulgaria. He worked in Hollywood with Hitchcock, with Bert Brecht in Berlin and he said he loved Greta.
Was Greta Garbo a diva? |
Perhaps, but she also liked hefty meals like Koenigsberger Klopse (a German dish consisting of meatballs in a white sauce with capers) and she dressed very simple: White blouse, black trousers, hat, sun glasses.
Only once - at my 34. Birthday - she was dressed as well as she was in her films. She was wearing a black and tight long velvet dress and a great elegant hairstyle. I was speechless. She placed herself next to me in my car.
Due of all my excitement i forgot to tell her that this was the place were my dog always lies. When we arrived at the restaurant, her black dress was covered with white hair from my dog. I thought, that she will never forgive me! But she twirled herself three times and the hair flew in all directions and we went on and celebrated.
What is your first memory about her? |
She was already celebrated, when I was a little boy in Budapest. For me she is the best actress who ever existed.
How did you meet her? |
1948 in Hollywood, when i was at the dentist. I had terrible pain, a tooth had to be pulled out. There she came in the waiting room and asked me: "Aren't you well? I will bring you a coffee." She took care of me and held my hand while i was waiting.
What was so extraordinary about her? |
She was very proud, she gave up her career because her last film Two-Faced Woman was a flop. She even gave her fee back. And she was beautiful. Breath-taking. When i visited her in her mansion, she often made gymnastic at the pool - half naked! Garbo had beautiful shoulders.
How did she live? |
Seclusive and she collected works by Dalí and Giacometti. I will never forget herbed: Two golden angels graced over it over it and guarded her sleep. Like a crazy person, she loved to race with her Chevrolet. This scared me.
Do you miss your friend? |
We spend some months together. But when I left it for two weeks, in order to travel to New York, I lost her love. I still regret this. For me the time i spend with her was a gift. I still don't know, why i deserved this.
© Copyright by BZ
Thanks to RubyRed and Bea |
