Customer Reviews (2)

Poetic
I've read many books on Garbo, and this one was my favorite.I found it poetic.

Garbo:Her Story
While this book was entertaining, it is basically a revolting piece of garbage.I assumed correctly that this book was unauthorized as Garbo would never have authorized a book about herself but this was truley obscene.It is a blend of fact and fiction-mostly fiction.What an imagination this guy has-his mind is in the gutter.How does he sleep at night?I had been hoping for a fair and insightful look into Garbo's life and personality.The author says he knew her but I doubt it very much.Don't bother with this one!Read "Walking With Garbo" by Raymond Daum & Vance Muse if you want a good book on Garbo. ... Read more

Product Description
Drawing on interviews with Ingmar Bergman and Max von Sydow amongst others, Barry Paris examines the "brooding northern soul" that defined Garbo's work and personality and which was rooted in an unhappy childhood. Her later relationships with G.W. Pabst, Louis B. Mayer, John Gilbert, George Cukov and Ernst Lubitsch are explored as are some of her lesser-known friendships with women, notably Pola Negri, Lillian Gish and Ava Gardner. He also considers the question of whether Garbo actually intended to retire from the cinema - and brings to light the secret final years of her life. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Best Garbo Bio
Paris truly has an affection for Garbo, which sprung from researching his subject matter.The most entertaining bio of Garbo, honest, but not trashy.

Excellent Biography
Paris has done a great job in shedding light on the reclusive Garbo. It probes into her life, but is not needlessly intrusive. Endlessly fascinating.

Truly extraordinary biography.
Barry Paris' life of Greta Garbo is an extraordinary biography in many ways.First, it tells the story of one of Hollywood's most enigmatic and legendary icons without resorting to hyperbole or the sort of highblown psychobabble so many other, lesser writers would have stooped to.Second, it is meticulously researched and tells Garbo's story honestly, responsibly and thoroughly, including her mysterious days as New York's Most Famous Recluse.Finally, it delves deep into the heart of what made, and continues to make, Garbo one of the enduring figures in 20th century popular culture.Paris reveals the woman behind the dark sunglasses--and she turns out to be much more interesting than one might think.Garbo, it seems, was a woman of vast contradictions, who ultimately became the victim of both her own compulsive need for privacy and her vast emotional ambivalence.This is the biographical art at its finest, and highly recommended. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Gorgeous.
I love this book. I just got it down from the top shelf of one of my many bookcases and blew the dust off. I bought it used when I was in my early teens. I loved looking at those old pictures, and drinking in the dramatic, black and white, bygone beauty.

Oh, what a difference an eyebrow makes!
Like the first reviewer, I've loved this book for years.You can faithfully read fashion magazine for years and not learn what is in this book.Study it carefully and see what a subtle change here and there makes.It's really fun. ... Read more

Product Description
Garbo and Crawford. Ava, Hedy, Judy, Liz epitomized Hollywood's golden era. With a trembling lip or sultry eye, with a tear or song or husky whisper, these women held moviegoers across America in their sway from the hard times of the 1930s through the booming postwar years to the early sixties. They were royalty and box office, and led pampered public lives-furs, jewels, designer gowns; limousines, flash bulbs, handsome escorts-that captured the national imagination. They also signed seven-year contracts with a morals clause, and the more they slipped, the more the secret abortions, efficient cover-ups, legal legerdemain, and dropped charges bound them to the wizard in their Oz, Louis B. Mayer. The slips are here along with the successes. Here, too, are the Blonde Bombshell Jean Harlow, Million-Dollar Mermaid Esther Williams, Sweater Girl Lana Turner, and bad girl Ava Gardner ("She can't act. She can't talk. She's terrific," declared Mayer after her screen test). From Jeanette MacDonald and Norma Shearer to Princess Grace and Dame Elizabeth Taylor, the sixteen portraits in this lively, photograph-filled volume, each accompanied by the star's filmography, tell the tales that have long lay hidden behind the gossip and the glories of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's glamorous golden girls. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (34)

Terrible
Not worth the time it takes to read.She misquotes lines from movies, and as it's entirely possible to watch these and quote them accurately, you have to assume she spent as much time with these lines as she did with the rest of the material here.It's really laughably bad.

Do yourself a favor and skip this one.

don't waste your $$
I can't make head nor tail of this book as it does not include footnotes...are we meant to think that she could read the minds of all of these long-dead stars and knew exactly how much or how little one enjoyed sex with one man vs. another, etc...also it is written poorly, with many rather damning claims simply stated in a sentence and then no more about it. I am not sure who this woman is or was, but this is not among the sort of books one should use for any sort of research...i wonder if she has been sued by any of the estates of these stars...i did not know you could simply write things that he or she allegedly said (or thought) and not be required to list a source...

Sensationalist gossip masquerading as an informative biography.
It's not often that I venture forth to offer a review on Amazon, but I was so upset with this book that I had to speak up. I checked this book out of my University library to help with research for a film exhibit I am working on. I was hoping to find an at most academic and at least intelligent, or reliably informative retelling of the lives of these famous actresses within, how they were perceived by the viewing public, and the effect they had on the film industry during their tenures as stars. What I got was a sensationalist account concerned only with detailing every sexual encounter these women ever had, and taking delight in citing most of them as gay or bisexual, something that is not offensive to me but seems particularly overemphasized in this book.

Why is it important to know that several of these women didn't wear underwear on the set? This book is full of lascivious quotes from male film stars about the sexual appetites of all of these women, and time and time again I found myself questioning the legitimacy of these sources, not to mention the bias of what these men were saying considering attitudes about women at the time. Perhaps even more offensive, in Wayne's account none of these women are allowed to succeed on their own without men. Instead Wayne depicts their careers as driven primarily by sex, and there is no real examination of how these women succeeded based on their own talents or business savvy. They need men to land roles in films, they need men to fulfill whatever emotional void is in their life, and don't forget they prey on men like the vamps many portrayed on screen to fulfill their rampant sexual appetites. But I kept asking, over and over, so what? The dreaded question that every historian or biographer should strive to answer to justify the time and money spent into publishing any paper or book. The drivel presented here doesn't even attempt to answer this question.

There's no denying that none of these film stars were saints, but what does this book honestly add to any serious or intelligent discussion of film? Whether or not these actresses were as oversexualized as Wayne takes delight in portraying them, they are fascinating subjects who captured the imaginations of millions through their revolutionary presence on screen, whether through sheer talent, manipulation of their images, or both. They were acting during one of the most fruitful times for women in Hollywood in many cases, when women were allowed to be sexual and independent creatures who strove for what they wanted in their roles on screen. But instead of even attempting to point this out, Wayne is almost offensively interested in cataloging everything that supposedly went on in their bedrooms.

This book read like the worst of gossip columns with no analysis that even the more disappointing biographies I have read for this project made sure to offer. Further, the endless catalog of love affairs reads like a laundry list, making the writing bland and boring no matter how tantalizing the questionable subject matter attempts to be.

pure speculation
i have read the book and i keep wondering if any of this really true. it is just pure specualtion. idle gossip. but it was fun reading it. why was so much attention given to grace kelly when she only made a couple pictures with MGM. katharine hepburn was a much bigger star and the author gave her a couple of pages. just not enough.

Not Worthy for the Collector
Miss Wayne clearly did not investigate the rumors that fills this book.Many of her facts are not validated and that many more are known to be just rumor.The typographical errors abound, i.e. Wiltshire Boulevard in Los Angeles - it is Wilshire Boulevard.Her dates are deplorable - i.e. Esther Williams and Fernando Lamas were married for 22 years from 1969 until his death in 1982 - that's 13 years, Miss Wayne!

As an avid collector of classic movies and the literature of the Golden Age of Hollywood, this book has no value to this or any other collector! ... Read more

Product Description
Noted fashion illustrator recaptures one of the greatest cult figures of Hollywood history in 3 lifelike dolls and 33 costumes from 27 films: Anna Christie, Mata Hari, Grand Hotel, Queen Christina, Anna Karenina, Camille, Ninotchka, 20 others. Costumes by Adrian, Andre-Ani, Gilbert Clark, Max Ree. Biography.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

More perfection from Tom Tierney!
These costumes and dolls are beyond perfection. The artist has captured the essence of the screen's Goddess, the immortal Greta Garbo.

If you are a fan of classic film and love paper dolls, Tom Tierney's dolls are a must for your collection. Greta Garbo Paper Dolls in Full Color is a book by that you must have!

The Divine Garbo
One of the reasons I love these paper dolls by Tom Tierney is that they capture the magic and star quality of Greta Garbo.The book is clearly aimed at adult customers, whether they be Garbo fans, paper doll enthusiasts or students of costume design.
As someone who fits into all three categories, I loved the portrayal of Garbo.There are three dolls showing her at different times during her career, and the first two in particular are very life-like.I also enjoyed seeing the development and growing sophistication of costume design from the silent era until the early 1940-s.The costumes from "Mata Hari" and "Camille" are especially lovely.
My only complaint is a small one.I would have liked to see more than just one costume each from two of Garbo's greatest roles:"Queen Christina" and "Anna Karenina".

MYSTERY LADY CAPTURED BY TIERNEY
OUTSTANDING COLLECTION OF COSTUMES OF THE FIRST GREAT SCREEN ACTRESS.HER EXTENSIVE SILENT FILM CAREER IS WELL REPRESENTED BY THE BEST COSTUMES BY EARLY DESIGNERS."FLESH AND THE DEVIL"COSTUME IS EXCELLENT, DOLLS ARE TERRIFIC."GRAND HOTEL" BALLARINA DRESS IS ANOTHER HIGHLIGHT. A DELIGHT FOR ANY COLLECTOR OF MOVIE MEMORABILIA. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

diva times three
affron's text is insightful; the frame enlargements are helpful and supportive of the text.

the most interesting aspect of this book could be its only failing.by choosing to study gish's silent work, davis and bridging the two with garbo, who acted in both silent and sound film, there is not a clear reason why affron selected these three. nor is there a clear connection between the three.not to mention, davis' filmography was the most accessible, as well as the most diverse (yes, that can be argued but how many of gish's films actually survive to disprove what i'm saying?) and davis could warrant a book all her own.

so, if it is of interest, read closely and draw your own conclusion. i will be doing it again very soon.

A must for students of acting and iconoclasm
Written before the age of video and DVD, where images can be frozen or the real time of movement altered, this book features over 750 frame enlargements from the films in which Lillian Gish, Greta Garbo and BetteDavis appeared. These enlargements dissect the craft of each star's actingstyle, by reproducing moments, often close-ups, in a frame by frame study,and also documents the evolution and refinement of technique. The chapterson Gish are less interesting to me (a matter of personal taste), but theones on Garbo and Davis are priceless. The films Garbo made werenotoriously inferior to what she brought to them. Nowhere is this moreevident than in her silent period, though Affron gives us images from filmslost or unavailable to us. An example is A Woman of Affairs and thesequence where she embraces a bouquet of flowers from her lover. Affron'simages convey the series of expressions that range from relief, panic atthe thought of losing the bouquet again, and hysteria. The enlargementscapture the transitions, and the "organic and spontaneous nature ofher epiphany". The text which accompanies the frames is oftenhyperbolic and unnecessary. Garbo's sound era is best represented andfinalised by the enlargements from Camille, since Affron does not coverConquest, Ninotchka or Two-Faced Woman.Affron's chapters on Davis coverher apprenticeship with Warner Bros, highlights the three films she madewith William Wyler - Jezebel, The Letter and The Little Foxes - asexercises in control and focus, and culminates in her triumph in All AboutEve.There is an argument that reducing film performance, particulary onesfrom a talkie, is diminishing the accomplishment of the performer. Whilethis book could be used as an alternative to the films the frames are takenfrom, I prefer to use it as a supplement to the films, and an opportunityto appreciate the beauty and talent of these extraordinary actors ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Walking With Garbo-Conversations and Recollections
While this book doesn't go deep enough in getting to know the real Garbo, it does come close. People don't seem to be able to distiguish between Greta Gustafsson (her real name),the person, and Greta Garbo, the actress.She has been depicted as stupid, lazy, a sexual pervert, and strange.Even in this book, some people who knew her have said that her eating habits were strange.What is so strange about liking Swedish food? Or preparing your own breakfast or lunch?What is so strange about going window shopping, going to flee markets, or taking a walk in Central Park?What is so strange about going out with friends, or going to bed early and getting up early?She was a former movie star who gave it up for a normal life-as normal as she could make it considering that she was followed by paparazzi and fans for the rest of her life.It is to her credit that she didn't allow her fame to turn her into a complete recluse.I think she was shy and thought by giving up her career, her celebrity would go away, but it never did.

A fascinating look at the very private Greta Garbo
At the time that I stumbled upon this book, not only had I read a couple of biographies about Garbo, I had also found the images of the older Garbo walking the streets of New York fascinating.I decided to take a chance and add it to my collection. I am glad that I did, in fact, once I started reading it, I had a hard time putting it down.

The very private Garbo said, "I've always wanted two lives - one for movies, one for myself." While Walking With Garbo contains quite of bit of biographical information, beautiful photographs, and interesting trivia and quotes about Garbo in relation to her film career, what I found most fascinating was the look this book gives into Garbo's private life, her life after her film career had ended, her likes and dislikes, her habits, her sense of humor, her very human longings, her observations of the anonymous others who were so busy observing her. The author extensively quotes from conversations with her, and getting to know a bit about the private Garbo was fascinating. Unlike other books I have read about her, this book does not dwell on Garbo's sexuality, which I found refreshing and which is one of the things I most appreciate about this book.

I found this book to be very well written and a joy to read. It is one of my favorites, and in my opinion, it is worthy of Five Stars. ... Read more

Product Description
Greta Garbo was known as the most beautiful woman in the world, and now, thanks to talented artist Norma Lu Meehan, she is the subject of a beautiful paper doll book. Featured are 3 dolls of the great star and exquisitely rendered costumes from her famed films of the 1920s and 30s including Camille, Mata Hari, Anna Christi and others.

Authorized by the Garbo estate, this is truly an important collectible book for paper doll fans and classics cinema buffs. Included is a star biography by David Wolfe. ... Read more

Product Description
Drawing on previously unpublished letters and manuscripts, an intimate portrait of the chic bisexual world of Hollywood, Europe, and New York captures the complex relationship that existed among Greta Garbo, playwright Mercedes de Acosta, and photographer Cecil Beaton. 15,000 first printing. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

a wonderful book
I can't understand the previous reviewer's disappointment with this book. I have read many, many movie related books, essays and biographies of all kinds, and found this volume perfectly readable, extremely informative, carefully written, well-balanced and entertaining. ... Read more

Product Description
Les achats comprennent une adhésion à l'essai gratuite au club de livres de l'éditeur, dans lequel vous pouvez choisir parmi plus d'un million d'ouvrages, sans frais. Le livre consiste d'articles Wikipedia sur : Ninotchka, Grand Hotel, Anna Karénine (Film, 1927), La Reine Christine, Terre de Volupté, Intrigues, Anna Karénine (Film, 1935), le Baiser (Film, 1929), La Chair et le Diable (Film, 1926), La Belle Ténébreuse, L'inspiratrice, La Femme Divine, le Droit D'aimer, La Courtisane (Film, 1931), La Tentatrice, le Torrent (Film, 1926), La Femme Aux Deux Visages, Comme Tu Me Veux, Marie Walewska, Anna Christie (Film, 1930), le Roman de Marguerite Gautier, La Rue Sans Joie, le Voile Des Illusions (Film, 1934), Mata Hari (Film, 1931), Romance (Film, 1930). Non illustré. Mises à jour gratuites en ligne. Extrait : Greta Garbo, de son vrai nom Greta Lovisa Gustafsson, est une actrice suédoise, née le 18 septembre 1905 à Stockholm en Suède et morte le 15 avril 1990 à New York, aux États-Unis. Elle fut surnommée « la Divine ». Federico Fellini a dit d'elle : . Greta Gustafsson est la benjamine de Karl Alfred Gustafsson (1871-1920) et d'Anna Lovisa Johansson (1872-1944). Elle est née au 32 de la Blekingegatan à Stockholm. Sa maison natale a aujourd'hui disparu. Ses parents sont des personnes de conditions modestes dans la Suède pauvre du début du siècle. Elle avait une sœur, Alva et un frère, Sven. Elle entra à l'Académie royale d'art dramatique de Stockholm - le Dramaten - en 1922 et y étudia jusqu'en 1924. C'est là qu'elle rencontra le réalisateur suédois Mauritz Stiller qui la repéra, lui enseigna les techniques cinématographiques et lui confia un rôle majeur dans son film La Saga de Gösta Berling, d'après Selma Lagerlöf en 1924. C'est à cette occasion que son mentor lui donna son nom de scène : Greta Garbo. Arrivée à Hollywood, la carrière de Garbo prit un tournant inattendu, à son arrivée, elle n'avait rien d'une femme fatale - Lou...http://booksllc.net/?l=fr ... Read more