When Garbo was only sixteen years old, Mauritz Stiller, the director, discovered her. It was through him that Garbo was persuaded to take up acting. He made one picture with her in Sweden.
     When Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer wanted this talented director to come all the way to America to make pictures for them, he consented only if they permitted Greta Garbo to accompany him. If Stiller accepted a contract, Garbo must have one. Anxious to procure Stiller at any cost, the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer officials accepted his proposition. And so it was that these two foreigners sailed for America.
     Garbo was shy and frightened. She clung to her beloved Sweden. Perhaps because of the terrific wrench of leaving her mother and little brother and sister, Garbo clung more tenaciously than ever to the man who was bringing her to a strange country. From the very beginning Stiller comforted and guarded her faltering footsteps. It is all part of the history of Hollywood–the romance of Stiller and Garbo.

THE strange way that Garbo was ignored upon her arrival in the little cinematic city of Hollywood is also history. She was given flowers at the station and photographed, but it was upon, Mauritz Stiller, the great director, that the real attentions were showered. Garbo was not smartly dressed. She was awkward and timid. She shrank then, as she does now. from the crowds.     
      America was bedlam. It was a vast, crowded place of loneliness and misery to the homesick Swedish girl. A test was made of Garbo a few weeks later which caused the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer officials to shake their heads. The timid young Swede was “out,” as far as they were concerned. They began to wonder if Stiller was in his right mind.     
     And don't ever believe for a minute that Garbo didn't resent their criticism, their superiority and indifference. Id all cut deeply. When she told Mauritz what had occurred he was thrown into a black rage. He whipped into the head office and announced, in no uncertain manner, that Garbo was the greates actress in the world and that none other than he, Stiller, would direct her in a test. This he did.     
     Garbo glowed under his careful direction. Here was the great man who not only worshipped her, but who spoke her language.     
     It was only a few weeks when lo! Grabo's name was on everyone's tongue. She became the rage of the American public. Today she is the most popular actress throughout the entire world. Utter one adverse criticism of Garbo and international complications are imminent.     
     As the months passed, Garbo's salary jumped from two hundred and fifty dollars a week to six thousand dollars. Later this was even increased. She was a great success. Stiller was forced into the background. He was in no way the success that Garbo was. It was this same success which finally separated Garbo and Stiller. It was John Gilbert who widened the breach between the two.     
     It was inevitable that Stiller should bow to the obvious. With true Continental grace he took his departure for Sweden. He died a short while afterwards. His friends say death was due to a broken heart. At the time of his demise Garbo was involved in a seething grand passion for John Gilbert. For Gilbert, the handsome, dashing young man, had figuratively swept Garbo off her feet.

Their pictures exploded on the public like a tumultuous volcano. Their love scenes were the most torrid ever shot in Hollywood. People gasped but wanted more. Even the censors were numbed into delightful acceptance of these sexiest pictures.
     The Garbo era came in, as did the Gilbert era. These two stars became household words. Young, old and in-between fell captive to their romantic spell.

THE next bombshell which exploded brought more synthetic enjoyment to their fans. The story leaked out that these hot, fierce love scenes were not turned on merely at the given word of a director. Nor, sir! Garbo and Gilbert had fallen in love with each other.
     Their romance thrilled the whole world. When John kissed Greta the audience felt like tip-toeing out as the lights came on in the theatre. They felt like “peeping Toms.”
     Nothing more perfect could have happened for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Garbo and Gilbert were the biggest box-office attractions in the country. Gold poured into the producers' coffers.
     Then this romances came to an end. Gilbert promised Garbo everything he owned of she would only marry him. He pleaded with her time after time. Rumors were that Garbo finally went to some little Mexican town quite prepared to marry Gilbert. At the last moment, very much frightened, she ran away and hid until the train arrived to carry her back to Hollywood. However, that is only one story.
     Another is that Garbo succumbed to John's pleading and got as far as the Santa Ana marriage bureau but turned and fled, leaving John a heartbroken bachelor. Whatever the real truth is no one will ever know, unless Garbo chooses to tell the story herself. But to cherish an idea that this might ever happen, would be as ridiculous as imagining that historical bit of stone in the Egyptian desert becoming garrulous.
     The one thing we do know is Garbo did not marry Gilbert, although the world felt positive that she had been deeply in love with him. Subsequently, John married Ina Claire and Garbo withdrew into herself a little more, if that were possible. The marriage of Jack and Ina didn't last long and Hollywood has always felt that the Swedish siren retained her place in his heart.
     With the exception of Gilbert, all the men for whom Garbo ever cared have been foreigners. Gilbert was the only American in her ,life. Nils Asther figured prominently in her private life but only in a Platonic way. Their friendship lasted longer than most, due to the fact that Nils never attempted to make love.
     With William Sorensen comes another picture. She met him several years ago when she visited her native Sweden right after the death of Stiller. He hollowed her to Hollywood, where the romance that had its inception abroad, was renewed. Disillusionment followed, only to see Garbo retire even further into her shell of solitude.
     Stiller was the great kindly soul in her life. Sorensen was an episode, an interlude that may have seen her heart conquered, but terminated in aggravation. Gilbert was gay, gregarious, completely bowling over the enigmatic Circe.
     In every way possible Gilbert sought to make Garbo into his social world. It was for him that she bought evening clothes. It was for him alone that Garbo made a valiant attempt to got to parties. It was one of the most difficult things she ever undertook. With Mauritz Stiller, Garbo had the love and companionship of a man who desired solitude as much as she did.
     The two used to go into the mountains far away from any town or city after a picture was finished. They would stay there for two or three weeks, completely happy in the stillness. They rarely talked, but the beauty of the mountains held them more closely than anything else in the world. Stiller not only spoke Garbo's language of the tongue, but of the heart.
     The answer to the riddle of why Garbo never married is to be found in that faraway grave in Sweden. It is to be found in the disillusionment of her episodic romance with a fellow-country-man who followed her to Hollywood. It is to be found in her determination to forego the love of a great screen lover rather than to heed the dictates of her heart.
     It is to be found in a statement once made by Garbo, herself–one of the few times that the Sphinx of the Screen has spoken:
     “I shall never marry anyone! I am completely absorbed in my work. I have time for nothing else.
     “My friendship with Mr. Gilbert? It was only a friendship; nothing more. O was very happy in pictures with Mr. Gilbert. He inspires me. With him I do not act. I live! But that is not love.”
     But the real reason, the most potent reason, why Garbo has never taken a mate, is that she is to honest!
     Her innate honesty will not permit her to marry without love. She must give as well as receive, according to her code of life. She cannot love any man as she feels a wife should love. For that reason marriage would soon prove a disillusionment to her.
     Perhaps Garbo knows that it is not for her to last in anyone's life!

from:  Screenbook
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