NEIGHBOUR GARBO.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 147, 23 June 1934, Page 5 (Supplement)

NEIGHBOUR GARBO.

ZASU PITTS' WARM HEART. STORY OF AN ADOPTED BOY. Greta Garbo isn't the cold, unfriendly woman she is supposed to be. The authority for this forthright statement is Zasu Pitts, film comedienne, who is recognised in Hollywood as being no less in a class by herself than is the Great Garbo. Their screen personalities are as far apart as the poles, but they have much in common. "For a long time," said Miss Pitts recently, "Garbo used to live in the house next to mine in Beverly Hills, and I found her to be one of the most friendly women in the world. Often 6he would slip in to see me, and we would chat together for hours. A warm friendship sprang up between Miss Garbo and my two children, Ann and Don, and 1 think they had much to do with her coming over so often. She knew that she could talk to these two children with complete ease and freedom.

"As a matter of fact, my great love for children has had an important bearing on the friendships I have formed throughout my life. That was what drew Barbara La Marr and me together years ago and resulted in my adoption or? her boy when she died.

"We met each other for the first time when we were both working in 'Poor Men's Wives,' a picture of the silent days, and I found that Miss La Marr was as passionately fond of her Don ari I was of my Ann. Barbara's child was not her own, but no mother could have been more devoted to him. The actress had adopted the youngster from a Texas orphanage wheh he was a tiny baby.

"When Miss La Marr became so desperately ill that she felt she would not recover, she worried continually over what might become of 'Sonny,' as she called Don. Don't worry about that,' I advised her one day at the hospital. 'I will always look out for him.' So it came about tliat when she died, I adopted Don os my own son, and lie became a wonderful companion for my daughter Ann."