School days

In Katarina Södra primary school 1919, (previous double-page spread), fourteen-year-old Greta is the third from the right in the second row from the front.

All of Garbo‘s grades in school (1912-1919) have been preserved in the school‘s records. The highest grade was an A, then came a, AB and Ba. B meant passing. Greta received no failing grades. In her last term, she got an A in Christianity and a in reading, writing, geography, history and science. In arithmetic she got a Ba. The grades in the first three columns are for “behavior“, “diligence“ and maturity“. In the first two an A was normal for a wellbehaved pupil. The seven subjects on the right include penmanship, art, singing, athletics, home economics, needlework and book-keeping.

During the spring of 1918 Greta was absent from school one day without the permission of her teacher or parents. During seven school years she missed a total of eleven days because of illness.

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Alva, Greta‘s older sister, dressed to be confirmed. It was easy to spoil little Alva. She was so beautiful and lovable that she immediately won the affection of everybody, her uncle David has said. Alva had made a modest Start on a screen career in Sweden when she died in 1926 at the age of 22. The news reached Greta in the midst of the first takes of The Temptress.

Sven, Greta‘s older brother, dressed in his suit for confirmation. Sven moved to the United States with his family during World War II. Occasionally he helped Greta with her business in Sweden and later he worked at MGM. “Her brother had a certain artistic leaning“, according to one of Garbo‘s biographers. The same source claims that Garbo paid for his studies.

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|  1-5: Cover  |  6-7  |  8-9  |  10-11  |  12-13: Family  |  14-15: Grandmother  |  16-17: Early Silence  |  18-19: Mother / Father · Confirmation  |  20-21: Primary School  |  22-23: School days · sister / brother  |  24-25: Garbo's childhood home  |  26-27: The girl in the barber shop  |  28-29: The girl in the hat department  |  30-31: Darbo-Gábor-Garbo  |  32-33  |  34-35: Arrived!  |  36-37  |  38-39: Greetings from Gurra  |  40-41  |  42-43: Waiting  |  44-45  |  46-47  |  48-49: Launching  |  50-51  |  52-53  |  54-55  |  56-57  |  58-59: Garbo's car  |  60-61: Garbo and the prince  |  62-63: Handwriting  |  64-65: Home to Mother  |  66-67  |  68-69  |  70-71: The Sphinx  |  72-73: Homage  |  74-75: Caricature  |  76-77  |  78-79: The idol  |  80-81: Leave me alone  |  82-83: On board  |  84-85  |  86-87: In Sweden  |  88-89  |  90-91: Conquest  |  92-93: Fashion · Con garbo · Garbo's diet  |  94-95  |  96-97: Garbo talks  |  98-99  |  100-101: Just friends  |  102-103: Four angles of Garbo  |  104-105  |  106-107: Garbo on camera  |  108-109: The stars predict  |  110-111  |  112-113: Dark glasses  |  114-115: Suddenly  |  116-117: High Society  |  118-119: Garbo laughs  |  120-121: Walks  |  122-123: Big game  |  124-125: Passport  |  126-127: Miss G  |  128-129  |  130-131  |  132-133: The casual visitor · Get-away  |  134-135: Garbo above the surface · On the screen  |  136-137  |  138-139  |