Walking With Garbo: Conversations and Recollections - Softcover

Daum, Raymond

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0060923555 ISBN 13: 9780060923556

Publisher: Perennial, 1992

Synopsis

1991 HarperCollins oversized softcover (trade paperbacK), 2nd printing. Raymond Daum. After meeting Greta Garbo at a party in the early 1960s, Daum was invited by the great actress to accompany her on her strolls aroung Manhattan. The two became close friends, and Daum began to keep notes of Garbo's comments about everything from life in the city to how to make coffee. Daum's reminiscences are linked by Muse's anecdotal biography.

About this title

From Kirkus Reviews:

Superb collection of Garbo photos along with a running monologue by Garbo--taken down by Daum (curator of the Gloria Swanson Archives at the Univ. of Texas, Austin)--and with a text by Muse (a Life magazine editor) that covers her history. Muse's is by far the livelier of the two alternating texts, for Garbo couldn't talk her way out of a hatbox. Though a certain charm does shine through, she is completely vacuous and focused on her sensations. That's disappointing, but it doesn't matter--or shrink her glorious image on page after page or her accomplishments in film after film. What matters for Garbo lovers is that this is a marvelous sheaf of Garbolatry, eyes that smolder with nymphal adolescence (photographed by Arnold Benthe), eyes that suggest the great romance of your life. And then Garbo speaks: ``There are clothes in my closet that are fifty years old. I wear the same old things. Some days around here, you've never seen anything like it- -I'm in my long underwear. I go in and out of the kitchen and say to my girl, `In case you're wondering, just pretend that I've joined the circus.' '' Or, ``I was thinking maybe I should get a new color scheme in here--I mean for the telephones. I only have black telephones. That'll keep me awake at night, trying to decide the color scheme. I do so little telephoning it really doesn't matter. Sometimes I don't call anyone for weeks...I don't answer the phone.'' The historical text is delightful, a delicious review of the public Garbo, but hasn't one new fact. What does come through is a sensuality from Garbo's early years as a vamp that gives a hectic undertone to her later coolness. No pix of the goddess's last years--just pure beauty. A nice way to go. (Seventy-five b&w photographs.) -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Perennial
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 0060923555
• ISBN 13: 9780060923556
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224
• Editor: Muse Vance