Below are some of the phone Conversations by Garbo and her friend, the art dealer Sam Green. They are taken from the Barry Paris book "Garbo". Those conversations, from the early 1970s to mid 1980s were tape-recorded and transcripted. In the early 1990s writer Barry Paris started working on his book "Garbo".
It was the first time that the tape-recorded conversations were published in a book. The rights belong to Sam Green and the Greta Garbo Estate. It is said that there are 100 hours of taped phone conversations between Garbo and Green and some other interesting persons. All of all of those conversations were transcribed and are in possession of Barry Paris. The high points and the important conversations are included in his book.
Sam Green and Garbo
Not included in the book are rather "boring" conversations like conversations about food. Green informed Garbo that, as an art dealer working out of his home, he routinely recorded all phone calls. Garbo made no protest. The original tapes are placed at the Cinema Archives of Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut/USA.
Foreword
The woman (Maria) who transcripted the conversations for Paris wrote us a foreword:
"While working with Barry Paris, the author of Garbo, I was given hundreds of cassette tapes (over 100 hours) to transcribe which were conversations between Greta Garbo and her friend, art dealer Sam Green. These were very interesting tapes as some contained not just Garbo but Andy Warhol, Yoko Ono, Diana Vreeland and sometimes Garbo's friend Cecile Rothschild. Garbo lived a very quiet life but traveled several times a year. She was very frightened of being photographed. She also loved to walk, which she did with Sam and with Ray Daum, who wrote the book 'Walking with Garbo'."
"She enjoyed watching television, especially 'Hollywood Squares', and she had a very good sense of humor about herself. Unfortunately for her, she was a nervous woman and a woman without her art. It was a strange life – 60 years with nothing to do. In the end, I thought it was worse because her dear friends in Sweden published photographs of her and were no longer her friends. Garbo never returned to Sweden after that. It is hard for famous people. They never know when someone is using them. She eventually thought Sam Green had betrayed her and they were no longer friends."
The Phone Conversations
One day in 1975, Green asked her for a walk in the park:
SG: Do you want to go for a walk in the park?
GG: Well ... How can I decide on anything when I'm lying here and haven't even shaved? I have to shave first ... get rid of the stubs.
SG: The stubble?
GG: Yes, stubble.... If I have to be ready at one, I have to start shaving now. You know it takes me forever. A lot of stubs. You call it
that?
SG: Stubble.
GG: Stubble? Like bubble? If I say stub, that wouldn't do?
SG: That wouldn't do.
GG: What did I say?
SG: You said stubs.
GG: Well, why did you have to change it? (laughs) I'll have to put muck on my face, too, before you come. I don't go out without
muck and I couldn't have you sitting here with me put-ting mascara on and stuff....
SG: I hope it's not a big job.
GG: Oh, it always is. It's horrible.
Greta spoke English quite well but often had difficulty coming up with the exact English word:
GG: You may-tain.
SG: Maintain?
GG: Maintain? It's an n? I can't spell anything....You pronounce the "n"?
SG: Main.
GG: Main. May-tenance. How do you say it?
SG: Maintenance.
GG: I thought that's what I said, but I guess I didn't.
SG: It sounded more like may-tenance.
GG: Well, I have a slight accent and I tried to get rid of it, but it creeps up once in a while.
In October 1975 she agonized over how to sign a Thank-you note:
GG: Shall I sign it GG?... I loathe my first name. I'm so sorry I didn't change it while I was at it. When anyone calls me that I cringe.
SG: We'll just say 'GG'.
GG: Well, will he know who that is? He may not. If he doesn't, we're out of luck.
SG: Since he called you 'Miss G' all the time, it could be 'Miss G'.
GG: A funny way to sign it, I suppose........I could say 'Mr Green's friend Miss G'. He's probably in a state, too, and can't figure out who
the hell Miss G is. I could also sign the full name. I never want to sign the full name but it's more sure he'll get who is.
SG: No mistake with 'Miss G'.
GG: But it would sound terribly funny to other people.
SG: It's not for other people.
GG: Okay, if you think so. If he takes it as fun, that's one thing. If he takes it as that I am always 'Miss', then it sounds sort of funny......
SG: You have to consider so many things in this business.
GG: You certainly do.
Unpublished and Short Conversations
The woman who transcripted the taped conversations for Paris told me that there are many more conversations unpublished. Like: One day Greta called Green and asked him if she could mail an 8x10 envelope in a regular mailbox......
