#george schlee

[gatabella]

Greta Garbo talks to violinist at the Sporting Club in Monte Carlo, Sept. 13, 1958

Despite the fact that the film star has lived for years in rigorously preserved obscurity, she is, perhaps, one of the most photographed women in the world. This year, during a long holiday on the French Riviera, she has forsaken the dark glasses which so much of the time had hidden her face, and she has often been seen in public dining at the famous restaurants of the French Riviera. Although nowadays only a name to the younger generation, Greta Garbo remains unforgettable to those who saw her in Camille, which has successfully been shown again in cinemas in London and elsewhere in recent weeks. Perhaps the re-release of this film may be followed by showings of such films as The Kiss and Mata Hari, in which she gave two of her most memorable performances. Miss Garbo was invited by Sir Winston Churchill to join him and Lady Churchill at the celebration of their golden wedding yesterday (Sept. 12)

[allgarbo]

Left without her special friend and protector (George Schlee), Garbo has taken up with some of her companions of earlier years, including Gayelord Hauser. Thanks, apparently, to his continued intake of blackstrap molasses, yoghurt and other “living” foods, Hauser, at 75, still a bachelor, remains full of bounce, and is noticeably pleased to resume the role of occasional escort. Garbo spent part of the summer following Schlee's death cruising among the Greek islands with two other old friends, Cecil Beaton, the fashionable British photographer and man about the arts, and Baroness Cecile de Rothschild, on the latter's yacht.

The Baroness, a daughter of a French banker is a white-haired, self-assured, cosmopolitan woman, who has made a reputation as connoisseur of objets d'art and people. Being the kind of person who is accustomed to taking command, she was the one to whom Garbo turned when Schlee was stricken, and it was to her Paris residence that Garbo repaired.

The Baroness is among the select few who visit Garbo in her apartment and are entrusted with her private telephone number. Possession of the number does not, however, guarantee getting through to its owner. As often as not, Garbo will answer the phone, and even if the caller's voice is as instantly recognizable as, for example, Cecil Beaton's, she will reply in the impersonal tone of a maid, “Miss Garbo isn't in. Is there a message?” Not all of her friends find this little conceit amusing.

Greta Garbo in Grand Hotel (1932) directed by Edmund Goulding.

[the-cricket-chirps]

René Gruau

The designer Valentina, Mrs. George M. Schlee

Vogue, October 15, 1949

[thebrikbox]

The Great Greta Garbo

Glamorous, compelling, and ever so famous was the iconic movie star, Greta Garbo. She graced Hollywood in the 1920s and 1930s with films like “Wild Orchids” and “The Kiss.” Altogether, she starred in thirty-three films and captivated men and women alike.

Greta was born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson on September 18, 1905 in Stockholm, Sweden and died April 15, 1990 in New York City at the age of 84 to pneumonia. Her childhood was that of poverty where her family lived in the slums. Her father was an itinerant laborer and didn’t earn much money to give his family the life he wanted for them to have. When Greta was old enough to work, she took various positions to help ease the strain of supporting the family.

One fateful day, film director Erik Petschler saw Greta and was mesmerized with her beauty after seeing her in a commercial advertising women’s clothing and he offered her a small role in his 1922 film “Peter the Tramp.” She was bitten by the acting bug and she started school at the Royal Dramatic Theater in Stockholm. She landed a major role in a 1925 Swedish movie “Gösta Berlings Saga” (The Saga of Gösta Berling). The director, Mauritz Stiller changed her birth name to Garbo as he felt it was fitting and becoming for her unique beauty. Seeing her potential, he negotiated with MGM (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) Studios in Hollywood and secured her a contract. Louis B. Mayer had doubts about Greta’s screen performance until the release of her first American 1926 film “The Torrent.” Her lustrous glow and the fluidity of how she moved impressed Mayer so much so that he gave her an exclusive contract.

1930’s “Anna Christie” was Greta’s first sound film. The movie was marketed with “Garbo talks!” She would earn three Oscar nominations for best actress for her performances in “Anna Christie,” “Camille,” and for “Ninotchka.” She never did win, but she did receive an Honorary Academy Award in 1955. She won the New York Film Critics Circle Award for best actress for her performance in 1935’s Anna Karenina. Her last film was “Two-Faced Woman” in 1941 and it received bad reviews that greatly humiliated her. Her acting life halted despite offers for other films after the movie flop.

Greta never married nor did she have children. Her first romance was with her often co-Star John Gilbert. In her latter years, she had a relationship with Leopold Stokowski, conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra. It’s rumored that she had an affair with Russian-born millionaire George Schlee, stealing him from his wife. It’s specualted that Greta was bisexual, some would claim she was predominantly lesbian, but no one could confirm that. Though she appeared in events, she disliked the feeling uncomfortable acting like a socialite because it wasn’t who she was.

Greta would live the remainder of her life in a New York City apartment. She was an honored guest in the White House and She received treatment for breast cancer and would have dialysis treatment at a local hospital where she would later die from pneumonia. She will always be regarded as one of the most beautiful and graceful women that gifted us with her talent.

Until next time, Aloha oe.

Photos: *Getty Images, Posterlounge

[kerloaz]

Greta Garbo & boyfriend George Schlee.

[musicoviniciusrodrigues]

A história do brasileiro que ‘namorou’ a atriz sueca Greta Garbo

“Walther Moreira Salles — O Banqueiro-Embaixador e a Construção do Brasil” (Companhia Editora Nacional, 448 páginas), do jornalista Luis Nassif, concentra-se na atuação financeira e política do notável empreendedor. Mas o biógrafo conta, com certa discrição, as histórias amorosas do, por assim dizer, latin lover. Rico, famoso e bonito, o empresário e banqueiro manteve vários relacionamentos. Namorou a cantora Aurora Miranda, irmã da cantora Carmen Miranda. Com esta aconteceu alguma coisa? “Flerte ligeiro, mas houve.” Manteve relacionamento íntimo com Lily Monique Lemb, durante dez anos, antes de ela se casar com o amigo Horácio de Carvalho. Mais tarde, ela se casou com Roberto Marinho e se tornou Lily Monique de Carvalho Marinho.

Uma de suas primeiras grandes paixões foi a cantora Alzirinha Camargo. “De 1938 a 1940, foi uma paixão louca, entremeada de brigas e reconciliações. Muito moço ainda, o jovem banqueiro passara a ter sua primeira amante oficial.”

Alzira Vargas, a filha predileta do presidente Getúlio Vargas, namorou Walther Moreira Salles. Em 1938, quando os integralistas (fascistas tropicais) atacaram o Palácio Guanabara, Alzira Vargas defendeu o pai, “de revólver em punho”. “O acontecimento nublou um pouco o flerte com Walther.” O banqueiro ligou para a jovem e ouviu: “Os seus correligionários tentaram nos matar”. Ele era integralista.

Em 1941, Walther Moreira Salles casa-se com Hélène Tourtois, filha do presidente da Coty americana. “Hélène era uma das mais belas mulheres de Nova York. A paixão foi instantânea — e em francês, língua na qual os dois se expressavam.” O empresário e escritor Fernando Moreira Salles, que foi sócio da Editora Companhia das Letras, é filho do casal.

O amigo Homero Souza e Silva alertou Walther Moreira Salles: Hélène acabaria se separando, dada a quantidade de amantes do marido. O banqueiro replicou que as estrangeiras não se importavam com infidelidade, mas Hélène acabou trocando-o por Ermelino Matarazzo.

Embaixador nos Estados Unidos, Walther Moreira Salles recebeu uma homenagem, um jantar, de Mike Cowles, editor da revista “Look” (Stanley Kubrick era fotógrafo da publicação). Entre os convidados estavam Alfred Vanderbilt Jr., milionário, Gloria Vanderbilt, socialite e desenhista de moda, e as atrizes Rosalind Russel, Marlene Dietrich e Greta Garbo.

A atriz sueca, “já afastada do cinema”, era uma bela mulher. “Na mesa, Walther ficou entre a anfitriã [Fleur] e Greta Garbo. Em frente, Marlene Dietrich, carregada de joias, tendo ao lado João Neves da Fontoura [ministro das Relações Exteriores], feliz da vida.”

Greta Garbo bebia vinho branco e o banqueiro, vinho tinto. “Foi o mote para engatarem uma boa conversa. Walther propôs que ambos enchessem os copos de vinho branco e tinto e depois trocassem entre si.”

O embaixador ficou impressionado com a “exuberância de Garbo. Ao rir, a deusa jogava a cabeça para trás, permitindo que se apreciasse uma dentição perfeita e seios brancos e pequenos, como os de uma adolescente, néctar dos deuses que o decote generoso permitia vislumbrar”.

Os dois foram namorados ou amantes? Luis Nassif não é explícito, mas sugere: “Durante um ano e meio continuaram trocando taças de vinho. A contrário das lendas, Garbo revelou-se uma mulher espontânea e alegre, que havia se retirado das telas por cansaço com Hollywood. Tinha bastante insegurança com sua pronúncia, que o cinema falado acentuava. E curtia uma imensa dor de cotovelo, que os gossips da época atribuíam a uma paixão por George Schlee, marido da modista Valentina Schlee”.

Mas e a mulher-geladeira, glacial? “Não havia nada de sombrio em Garbo. Era apenas extraordinariamente bonita, caraterística que administrava com naturalidade”, escreve Luis Nassif, que entrevistou Walther Moreira Salles. Nos Estados Unidos, os dois se encontravam no Le Bistrot da Terceira Avenida. “Garbo repetia frequentemente que admirava muito os Estados Unidos, mas não se referia a Hollywood com prazer. E mais não se sabe desse relacionamento, a não ser por uma coleção de fotos autografadas de La Garbo, conservadas com carinho nos arquivos do embaixador. E, também, duas viagens a Estocolmo, a convite da diva”, registra o biógrafo.

Depois de uma temporada de paqueras, Walther Moreira Salles casou-se com Elisa Margarida Gonçalves, a Elisinha, mãe de Walther, Pedro e João Moreira Salles. Os dois compuseram um casal glamuroso, e não apenas nacionalmente. Mais tarde, separada do banqueiro, ela se matou.

Uma falha do livro é a ausência de um índice de nomes.

A história do brasileiro que ‘namorou’ a atriz sueca Greta Garbo publicado primeiro em https://www.revistabula.com

[legrandcirque]

Greta Garbo having lunch with George Schlee. Stockholm, Sweden, 1949.

[gatabella]

Greta Garbo and George Schlee, Portofino, Italy, June 1953

[allgarbo]

(...) Despite our camaraderie, I understood that she tended to hide behind her conversation. The following enigmatic comment—which I always took to refer to George Schlee—may be as close as she ever came to revealing the deep secrets of her life. “I’ll tell you something—and I don’t know why I said it in French, but I did:

“Dans quelque jours, il sera l’anniversaire de la douleur que ne me quitte pas, que ne me quitte pas pour la reste de ma vie.” [In a few days it will be the anniversary of the sadness that never leaves me, will never leave me for the rest of my life.]

[allgarbo]

yes she did want garbo a lot. but maybe garbo was in love with someone else like mimi pollak or george schlee?

to be sincere, i don’t think that has anything to do with garbo being in love with anyone. she and mercedes had broken up and gotten back together again multiple times, before garbo met george schlee, and garbo’s relationship with mimi pollak at the time wasn’t so intimate (i guess) as to imply that garbo would have negated mercedes because of it. in my opinion, garbo didn’t like to commit to any one person.

[gatabella]

Greta Garbo and George Schlee, c.1940s