Classic Mr NYC

There's a big new biography on 1930s movie star Greta Garbo that is getting stellar reviews.

A native of Sweden, Garbo came to Hollywood in the 1920s and became an immediate sensation during the silent-movie era, then successfully transitioned to talkies in the 1930s. She became one of the highest grossing (and paid) stars of her era, the jewel in the crown of the biggest studio of the time, MGM. While the country was mired in the Great Depression, Garbo's beauty and talent and glamour lifted the spirits of a people that were otherwise struggling. 

And then, in the 1940s, at the outbreak of World War II, at the height of her fame, Garbo quit Hollywood and never made another movie. She lived the rest of her life (she died in 1990) as a recluse on the Upper East Side, becoming dubbed "the hermit about town."

In 2011, I actually found the building that Garbo lived in, and took a picture and blogged about it. I've also written about Garbo (including one of her notorious lovers) over the years. Garbo was a forever mystery, in life and death, and nowhere did she seem more mysterious than in NYC.