
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, April 20, 1990                   TAG: 9004200714
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

ALLURING `REAL' GARBO WAS NEVER REVEALED

ON THE SCREEN, Greta Garbo was larger than life. She set a standard for feminine wiles that may never be matched. She was glamorous, wicked and passionate yet aloof, and her fans longed to know the real Garbo.

That was not to be. Her most famous line, "I vant to be alone," from the movie "Grand Hotel," was more than a line. It was a primary goal in her private life, one that she pursued diligently.

For the most part, she achieved it. She had no children to gather around her before she died Sunday at New York-Cornell Medical Center in New York City. When asked once why she never married, she said, "There is always my overwhelming desire to be alone." After her last film in 1941, she alternated between Europe and New York City in pursuit of a solitary life.

While she had eschewed close relationships for many years and had lived as a recluse, even at the end Garbo could not count on privacy. Nearly 50 years after her last movie, she still was likely to be ambushed by paparazzi when she ventured out in public.

Those photographs didn't reveal very much of Garbo. The Swedish beauty, whose sensuality had scandalized movie audiences, in later years usually concealed herself in a big floppy hat, baggy clothes and dark glasses.

Garbo's retirement was abrupt and unplanned. It came, at 36, after her only flop - "Two-Faced Woman." Her previous 23 films - both silent and talking - made an indelible mark on the movie industry. Her elusive nature in private only added to the mystique.

Garbo once said, "There are many things in your heart you can never tell to another person . . . You cheapen yourself, the inside of yourself when you tell them." At her death, no one could claim to have known her well. That's the way Garbo wanted it.

by CNB