Photoplay (Jan-Jun 1938)

,'/•• V Because the author had once been on her studio crew, it was to him alone that Garbo revealed the facts I WON'T MARRY STOKOWSKI SAYS GARBO A story from the man who scooped every newspaper reporter in the coun try— by talking to Garbo herself BY JIM SIMMONS THE great, the glamorous Garbo. Around this Swedish "Madonna of the Screen" there has been wrapped a chimerical veil of mystery and silence until she has become an almost legendary figure. Many times she has been rumored about to wed. Currently, up to fevered pitch, has come the cry that the beautiful Norsewoman will at last plunge into matrimony — with whitehaired Leopold Stokowski, he of the expressive hands in "100 Men and a Girl," the world-famous leader of the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra. Hollywood has buzzed, news has zinged along wires to the nation and the world, gossip columnists have speculated in print, radio chatterers have flung their opinions over the air waves. Mrs. Evelyn Stokowski is in Nevada to get a divorce, it went. Garbo has been seen everywhere with Stokowski, they said, and is madly in love with him. Mrs. Stokowski will spill plenty . . . Watch . . . Wait . . . Buzz . . . Buzz . . . But— Garbo will not marry Stokowski! I know — I talked with her! I NO," she told me, "no, I will not marry Mr. Stokowski." It was one of the rare interviews ever obtained by anyone from the glamorous star herself. The only one in which she openly discussed current romance rumors concerning herself. This unprecedented happening took place outside George Cukor's mansion in the hills above Hollywood, after a mad and merry automobile chase with me in hot pursuit of the phantom star's black limousine. It had come about after I had, by careful sleuthing, spotted the current home of Garbo, waited patiently for her appearance, and been rewarded when I saw her start off in her car bound for somewhere. I followed. I was determined to talk to at least one of the principals in this reported romance. I am a reporter. I wanted to know. Closely I followed the speeding car as it swung onto Sunset Boulevard, down through Bel-Air and Beverly Hills. As I strained to keep always in sight that black car ahead, there ran through my mind the names of those other men with whom Garbo's name has been linked in romance in the twelve years in which she has become the screen's greatest actress and its epitome of glamour. Maurice Stiller — the man who brought a gawky, awkward Swedish girl to New York and then Hollywood where she was to fulfill a destiny. Stiller, a great director who saw the potentialities in this attenuated, mysticeyed beauty. A man with whom she was genuinely in love. John Gilbert — the silent films' great lover with whom she played in passionate love scenes before grinding cameras and with whom she was wildly infatuated. Rouben Mamoulian — gossips had him married to the "Swedish Sphinx" when they traveled to Arizona on their now famous trip. Her director in "Queen Christina." Distinctly "arty." Hailed a genius on one side, with disagreement on the other. But a man who held Garbo's romantic interest vividly for a time. George Brent — she met Brent, virile, goodlooking, strictly a man's man, known in Hollywood as a perennial bachelor (until his recent stormy marital adventure with Constance Worth) when he became her leading man in "The Painted Veil," was intrigued by him, became a frequent visitor to his Toluca Lake home for tennis and tete-a-tete dinners. (Brent once told me that he considered Garbo the most fascinating woman he had ever known — or known of.) George Cukor — also her director. He guided her in "Camille." More than anyone else, Cukor was responsible for bringing (Continued on page 86) 16