GARBO MYSTERY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 70, 23 March 1935, Page 5 (Supplement)

GARBO MYSTERY.

A GIRL IMPERSONATOR. TOOUEV EVEN STUDIO HANDS. GRETA'S STRANGE SHYNESS. "Recently I met a young woman with the strangest profession in the world, for five years she has been employed to be Garbo," writes Paul Holt in the "Daily Express." "She has been paid a weekly salary to dress like Garbo. to do her hair like Garbo, walk like Garbo, always to be on hand when Garbo was wanted—and could not be found. This extraordinary person has posed as Garbo so long now that she cannot help it; it is no longer a pose, yesterday I talked to Garbo. Her real name is Geraldine Dvorak. She is a CzcchoSlovakian who went to America in search of fame 12 years ago. She found a strange fame, a fame that now she wants to forget. I have appeared in all Garbo's Hollywood films, except the last two.

Nearly always, when they have wanted to take a long shot of Garbo they put me in front of the camera. Often, it was medium shots and sometimes close-ups (as close as ten feet from the camera). In one film you may remember, Garbo wore a thin veil over her face.

I played the whole of one very important scene through without a soul in the studio guessing it was me, and not their great star. It was a mistake, a misunderstanding, but I don t think they ever remade that scene. It was what they wanted.

Too Uncanny. Once I appeared in the same scene with Garbo. I danced behind her. But they had to destroy the negative; the effect was uncanny. They have made me, too, appear in public as Garbo. I remember the first night at the famous Grauman's Chinese theatre in Hollywood of one of Garbo's best films, ''Love" (Anna Karenina). Garbo would not go.

They sent mo in on John Gilbert's arm through the milling crowds of excited people outside the theatre. 'Do not say anything, , they said, 'and do not sign anything.' The evening was a great success. Nobody guessed.

But now . . . and here the mournful voice grew more * mournful, the long black lashes swept so sadly down. But now that is all over. I want to get away; I "want to forget.

When her days working with Garbo were over (you may remember Garbo ran away for a year's holiday to Sweden, and they thought she might never go back) Gcraldine Dvorak found all other doors in Hollywood closed to her. No one dared employ her on the screen. So she ran away to New York to start another career. Tried musical comedy first—then a serious play (but that was a flop), drifted into cabaret — and so to London. Miss Dvorak, the girl who was Garbo, is now " mistress of ceremonies" at a West End midnight supper show. ... She propounded the great Garbo mystery thus: — Sho is not temperamental; she is just afraid. For two years after she went to Hollywood they laughed at her

. . . at her big feet, at her height. They called her gawky. And she was alone, with nobody to turn to, nobody to talk to. Her great friend Mauritz Stiller (whom I believe she loved) was dead. So she shrank from people.