All We Know: Three Lives (45 page)

“She wears peculiarly…cap”
: “Daily Sketch” April 27, 1928, MdAP.

“long-toed, silver-buckled…cape”
: Hugo Vickers,
Loving Garbo: The Story of Greta Garbo, Cecil Beaton, and Mercedes de Acosta
(New York: Random House, 1994), 253.

“These were the…lives”
: De Acosta, “Here Lies the Heart,” typescript [circa 1960] second draft, 221, MdAP.

“despised distance and…flesh”
: Janet Flanner to MdA, n.d. [1927], MdAP.

“The most talked-about…fears”
: Quoted in Karen Swenson,
Greta Garbo: A Life Apar
t (New York: Scribner, 1997), 260.

“Both idolized their…melancholia”
: Ibid., 250.

“a cameraman who…Costa
[sic]”: “Daily Sketch,” November 7, 1934, MdAP.

“a sort of…tristesse”
: De Acosta, “Here Lies the Heart,” typescript [circa 1960], second draft.

“in depicting people…lives”
: MdA to Cecil Beaton, October 24, n.d., Cecil Beaton Papers, St. John’s College, Cambridge University.

“a self-effacement…saint”
: De Acosta,
Here Lies
, 71.

“spiritual as well…footlights”
: Ibid., 138.

“a deeply spiritual…public”
: “Here Lies the Heart,” typescript [circa 1960], second draft, 515.

“astrology, costmic-astrology…phenomena”
: De Acosta,
Here Lies
, 146.

“a worshipper…through”
: Vincent Sheean, blurb on back of first edition of
Here Lies the Heart
; also used in display advertising in
New York Times
, March 8 and 20, 1960, MdAP.

“Greta complained during…subject”
: De Acosta, “Here Lies the Heart,” typescript [circa 1960], second draft, 415.

“done as a…Francis”
: Elsa Maxwell, “Elsa Maxwell’s Party Line: Mercedes de Acosta,”
New York Post
, April 20, 1943, 12, MdAP.

“Until I was…starlight?”
: Quoted in Maria Riva,
Marlene Dietrich
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1993), 168.

“Greta will come…it”
: Meher Baba to MdA, July 10, 1935, MdAP.

“These past years…again”
: MdA to George Cukor, July 10, 1938, George Cukor Papers, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

“Though there may…part”
: De Acosta, “Here Lies the Heart,” typescript [circa 1960], second draft, 514.

“Don’t let a…life”
: Cecil Beaton to MdA, April 25, 1958, MdAP.

“gallantry…lovers”
: Cecil Beaton, unpublished diaries, May 1968, quoted in Vickers,
Loving Garbo
, 281.

“The German people…always”
: This was Garbo’s response to her reception in Berlin for “Gösta Berlings Saga,” in
Photoplay
, May 28, 1924, quoted in Swenson,
Greta Garbo
, 69.

“always was fond…trashy”
: EM to Chester Arthur, September 12, 1936, AFP.

“sexual reaction[s]”
: De Acosta, “Here Lies the Heart,” typescript [1938], first draft, 129, MdAP.

“out on the astral plane”
: De Acosta,
Here Lies
, 39.

“affected and excited…me”
: De Acosta, “Here Lies the Heart,” typescript [1938], first draft, 129, MdAP.

“slow breathing exercises…house’”
: De Acosta,
Here Lies
, 305.

“a very different…sex”
: Ibid., 117.

“disappeared one by…ports”
: Ibid., 95.

“was crowded with…day”
: Ibid.

“While this is…Acosta”
:
Des Moines
(Iowa)
Register
, April 3, 1960, MdAP.

“met many of…knew”
: De Acosta,
Here Lies
, 140.

“Friends were kind…others”
: Ibid., 206.

collector Gabrielle Enthoven
: Mercedes notes that Enthoven acquired “thousands of engravings and photographs of actors and actresses, scenes from plays, interiors and exteriors of theatres, and a great many printed texts including 150 prompt copies of eighteenth-century plays used by the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane,” de Acosta,
Here Lies
, 124. Enthoven donated this material to the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1924, but continued to collect until her death in 1950. Her collection formed the basis of the Theatre Museum in London.

“part of the…twenties”
: De Acosta,
Here Lies
, 126.

“in her personal…way”
: Ibid., 71–72.

“so fat that…Hall”
: Ibid., 71.

drew “from memory”
: Ibid., 357.

“Let me tell…it”
: MdA to William McCarthy, June 27, 1960, MdAP.

“Am sending you…them”
: MdA to William McCarthy, October  17 [1961], MdAP.

“Utterly broke,” she…“worries”
: MdA to William McCarthy, n.d. [postmarked September 20, 1961], MdAP.

“I never get…people”
: MdA to William McCarthy, October 31, 1964; emphasis hers, MdAP.

“My kisses like…hips”
: Isadora Duncan to MdA, n.d. [1927], MdAP.

“with the eyelash…fly”
: De Acosta,
Here Lies
, 343.

“A single stocking…note”
: Catalogue, Mercedes de Acosta Papers, Rosenbach Museum & Library.

“wore during rehearsals…slippers”
: MdA to William McCarthy, Wednesday [postmarked September 20, 1961], MdAP.

Sitting in the reading room:
The reading room has since been relocated.

“Anyone determined to…1960”
: Press conference, April 17, 2000, Rosenbach Museum & Library, Philadelphia, Pa.

“Garbo Letters: Reveal…Lesbianism”
:
Metro
, Philadelphia, April 18, 2000.

“No Hint of…Trove”
:
Philadelphia Daily News
, April 18, 2000, 6.

“When we climbed…clasp”
: De Acosta, Poem no. 7, “Hollywood 1935,” MdAP.

“There is holiness…dreams”
: De Acosta, Poem no. 5, “Tistad 1935 Sweden,” MdAP.

“a lover of…years”
: Edwin Wolf,
Rosenbach. A Biography
(Cleveland: World Publishing, 1960), 7, 8.

“The brothers loved…‘collection!’”
: “The Rosenbach Brothers: Collecting Their Collections,” in The Rosenbach Collectors’s Kit, educational material, Rosenbach Museum & Library.

“11-year-old…DiCaprio”
: Carrie Rickey, “Garbo, Ever Guarded,”
Philadelphia Inquirer
, April 18, 2000, F1, F3.

“Acosta’s fanatical devotion…point!”
: Press conference, April 17, 2000.

“It was not…own”
: Quoted in Swenson,
Greta Garbo
, 225.

“a
great many…
appeared”
: MdA to William McCarthy, July 25, n.d., MdAP.

“because she insinuated…art”
: Carrie Rickey, “55  Greta Garbo Letters to Be Opened Here,”
Philadelphia Inquirer
, March 19, 2000, A1, A18.

“round[ing] out a…century”
: Rosenbach Museum & Library press release, March 2000.

“a pre-Enlightenment…unrealities”
: Terry Castle, “Seductress Extraordinaire,”
London Review of Book
s 26, no. 12 (June 24, 2004).

“Probability is not…dictionary”
:
Times Literary Supplement
, May 10, 1928, MdAP.

“purple passages that…decade”
:
Weekly Dispatch
(London), June 24, 1928, MdAP.

“amazed that the…window”
: De Acosta,
Here Lies
, 112.

“Suddenly I thought…Infinite!”
: Mercedes de Acosta,
Mood
s (New York: Moffat, Yard, 1919).

“I have seen…them”
: EM to Chester Arthur, September 12, 1936, AFP.

“so absurdly and…room”
: De Acosta,
Here Lies
, 70.

“I do know…words!”)
: Riva,
Marlene Dietrich
, 168.

“Garbo Letters Leave Mystery Intact”
:
USA Today
, April 18, 2000.

“One by one…everything”
: MdA to William McCarthy, n.d. [postmarked September 16, 1964], MdAP. She did not sell the Garbo papers, however; the Rosenbach has stated clearly that this material was a gift.

“quite unique and…material”
: MdA to William McCarthy, June 29, n.d., MdAP.

VELVET IS VERY IMPORTANT

“graver trouble…paranoia”
: All quotations from Madge Garland memoir drafts, MGP. She typed some of these pages herself, and some were typed from tapes she dictated.

“as a pale…mother”
: Angela Neustatter, “The Magic Circle,”
Guardian
, September 9, 1975, MGP.

“rather excessive charm”
: Virginia Woolf,
The Diary of Virgina Woolf
, vol. 3: 1925–30, ed. Anne Olivier Bell, 5  vols. (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1977–84), 184 (May 31, 1928).

“intellectual devotee of
couture”: “Madge Garland,” obituary,
Sunday Telegraph
, July 17, 1990, MGP.

“meringue”
: Anne Scott-James to author, interview, London, December 9, 1997.

“A bunch of froth”
: Helen Drummond to author, interview, London, December 8, 1997.

“ideally cast…new”
: “Madge” [by Natasha Ledwidge], MGP.

book after book
: See Madge Garland,
The Changing Face of Beauty: Four Thousand Years of Beautiful Wome
n (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1957);
Fashion
(Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1962);
The Indecisive Decade: The World of Fashion and Entertainment in the Thirties
(London: Macdonald, 1968);
The Changing Form of Fashion
(London: Dent, 1970); and Madge Garland and J. Anderson Black,
A History of Fashion
(London: Orbis, 1975).

“I was never…independent”
: SaraJane Hoare, “Come into the Garland, Madge,”
The Observer
, December 14, 1986, MGP.

“She believes in…personality”
: “The Changing Face of Beauty, by Madge Garland,” n.d., MGP.

so-called minor arts
: See Isabelle Anscombe,
A Woman’s Touch: Women in Design from 1860 to the Present Day
(London: Virago, 1984).

“Fashion can be…personality”
: Madge Garland, “For Thousands of Years Women’s Dress Has Proclaimed Her Status—Does It Now?” n.d., 64, MGP.

“She really was…rebel”
: Sarah Stacey to author, interview, London, December 7, 1997.

“kitten…ruffles”
: De Acosta,
Here Lies
, 133.

“an exquisite piece of porcelain”
: Rebecca West to MG, February  25, 1980, RWP.

“She was undoubtedly…monument”
: Peter Ward-Jackson to author, interview, London, September 17, 1997.

“Fashion is both…worn”
: Madge Garland, “Artifices, Confections, and Manufactures,” in
The Anatomy of Design: A Series of Inaugural Lectures by Professors of the Royal College of Art
, Delivered at the Royal Society of Arts, March 6, 1951 (London: Royal College of Art, 1951), 81.

“Never in all…dress”
: MG memoir drafts, MGP.

“a state in…time”
: Ibid.

“cherished”
: MG to Isabelle Anscombe, interview, London, July 2, 1980, IAP.

“futuristic”
: Cecil Beaton,
Photobiography
(New York: Doubleday, 1951), 42.

“beautifully dressed in…make-up”
: “Dress Reformer,” n.d. [circa mid-1940s], MGP.

“wearing a Marimekko…pearls”
: Prudence Glynn, “50  Years On,”
Time
s (London), December 12, 1972, 18.

“looking absolutely marvelous”
: Julia Burney to author, interview, London, January 22, 2002.

“the most beautiful…outfit”
: Patrick Woodcock to author, interview, London, January 25, 2002.

“as if she…archive”
: Selina Hastings to author, conversation, London, January 14, 1999.

I ABSOLUTELY REFUSED

“horrid, thick…dresses”
: Madge Garland, “Children’s Clothes,” transcript, May 29, 1947, BBC Written Archives Centre.

“My family didn’t…all”
: MG to Flora Groult, interview, London, July 26, 1986.

“I told them
…‘no’”: MG to Shaunagh Ward-Jackson, conversation, London, n.d.

“I thought, ‘No…won’t!’”
: MG to Isabelle Anscombe, interview, London, October 8, 1979, IAP.

“Millinery, Straws, Ready-to-Wears…Gloves”
:
Draper of Australia
, February 27, 1920, 70.

“very, very fond of clothes”
: MG to Peter and Shaunagh Ward-Jackson, conversation, London, October 14, 1989.

“just the stamp…colonist”
: “Colonial Industrie: Mr. Thos. Aitken’s Victoria Parade Brewery, East Melbourne,”
Carlton Advertiser and Trades Advocate
, April 8, 1882, MHFP.

“the
wilds
of Hampstead”
: MG to Shaunagh Ward-Jackson, conversation, London, n.d.

“always smelled delicious”
: MG memoir drafts, MGP.

“beautifully dressed, always…buttoned”
: MG to Peter and Shaunagh Ward-Jackson, conversation, London, October 14, 1989.

“pretty-mama” and…“neck”
: MG memoir drafts, MGP.

“My
darling
Mama”
: MG to Isabelle Anscombe, interview, London, July 2, 1980, IAP.

“many fringes, fish-tails…hats”
: Garland,
Fashion
, 119–20.