excerpts

[butterscotchgreer]

please post any articles from old or new magazines; online biographies, or books; or just personal stories! i would love to hear them pallies!

[snookums]

I found a great site:
www.reelclassics.com/Actresses/Greer/greer.htm
Greer Garson at Reel Classics

[ajb986]

An anecdote from Don't Wait for Smiles
(http://paulturgeon.com/PT/Peter Turgeon Dont Wait for Smiles.htm)


Bear in mind this quote from the foreword:

Most of the following anecdotes are true, or, at least they were told to me as having actually taken place. If some reader should harbor doubts about the veracity of a certain story, I would appreciate he or she putting it down to my gullibility.

Peter Turgeon
Amagansett, NY
1992

The Roommates

In December, 1942, after managing to survive six weeks of basic training in Texas, I was sent to an Army Air Force school for flight controllers in Los Angeles. We were billeted in the relative comfort of a rundown hotel and took our meals in a cafeteria the Army had taken over in the downtown area. I shared a room with two Texans, George Lyder and, yes, Woodrow Wilson, and each Sunday we were released from duty from eight in the morning until midnight and we all did our best to take advantage of this rare freedom. Before the war I had been with the hit comedy Life with Father as an understudy to Richard Ney who had come out to Hollywood to play the role of Greer Garson's son in Mrs. Miniver at MGM. When I arrived in Los Angeles I learned they had married and were living in an estate in Bel Air so I telephoned them. Richard was away on assignment in the Navy but Ms. Garson graciously invited me for a swim and brunch, adding I was welcome to include my two friends. I thought these two country bumpkins from the Pan Handle would be thrilled to meet a glamorous movie star and I was thunderstruck when they informed me that they preferred to roam around the bars in Hollywood. I wasn't about to miss this golden opportunity and I proceeded to have a memorable day in the astonishingly beautiful company of Greer Garson. I'd just gotten back to our room about eleven o'clock when George and Woody showed up. I had just began to berate them for missing the chance of a lifetime when they each produced an autographed photo. It was Greta Garbo! It seems they were picked up by the legendary star and had spent their holiday at her retreat, high in the Santa Monica hills.




--> I'd say it's most likely a fabrication, but an entertaining read nonetheless

[ajb986]

From the Los Angeles Times:

CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
Greer Garson
April 11, 1996

Re "Academy Award-Winning Actress Greer Garson Dies," April 7:

It was my great fortune to run into Greer Garson in a Beverly Hills pharmacy several years after she retired to live in Texas with her husband, Buddy Fogelson. Aware of most stars' penchant for privacy, I debated speaking, but finally blurted out, "Miss Garson, to me you will always be Mrs. Miniver."

She graciously acknowledged the compliment and chatted with me for several minutes, telling me she was in Hollywood to do a "Love Boat" episode. She described it as "a bit of fluff, really, but they treat me so nicely."

She broke off suddenly, glanced at her watch and apologized profusely for having to say goodbye. Her parting words to me were, "Buddy always says I talk too much." Not nearly enough, Mrs. Miniver, not nearly enough.

SHEILA T. BANGS

Palm Desert


* Your obituary on Garson was very good and did justice to a person who was revered in this country as a symbol of grace and charm in the face of adversity. Because of her role in "Mrs. Miniver," she also had much to do with cementing the resolve of the United States in entering World War II on the side of the Allies.

RICHARD P. COTE

Fullerton


* The story on the death of Garson contained an error.

The Greer Garson Theatre is not at the University of New Mexico. It is at the College of Santa Fe, in Santa Fe, N.M. Miss Garson also contributed, in 1990, $3 million to build the Garson Communications Center and Studios, a professional sound stage and academic facility on the campus of the College of Santa Fe.

While we are proud to have two magnificent structures on campus bearing Garson's name, it is also important to note that our library is named for Miss Garson's husband, Col. E.E. "Buddy" Fogelson. Greer and Buddy Fogelson were 35-year supporters of the College of Santa Fe.

It's disappointing that your story failed to accurately recognize these important contributions.

JANET WISE

Director of Public Relations

The College of Santa Fe

[ajb986]

From The New York Times' "Best Pictures: Oscar Winners in The Times" site:

March 15, 1942

'MRS. MINIVER'

Veni, Vidi, Vici!

By THEODORE STRAUSS

Worthy, no doubt, as were the reasons which took Greer Garson to Canada recently on a morale-boosting junket, this corner cannot but register a note of warning against further sorties of the same sort - especially by Miss Garson. To be sure, morale in Canada soared sky-high wherever Miss Garson set her pretty foot; in one day alone she helped create such a wave of enthusiasm for the national cause that no less than $58,500,000 was subscribed to the Victory Loan campaign. But there were other disquieting reports of Miss Garson's triumphal progress - of flustered officialdom, suddenly become all thumbs; of parliamentarians, supposedly intent on urgent war projects, who found time to shower the lady with rhapsodic compliments. And how, pray, can a busy defense worker keep his mind on rivets and bolts when a vision such as Miss Garson passes by?

Alarmed, we proceeded in a northerly direction to Miss Garson's local hospice the moment she arrived in this city for a brief stop before returning westward for additional scenes in the forthcoming ''Mrs. Miniver.'' But the Miss Garson we found was not at all the limpid lady of ''Good-bye, Mr. Chips,'' nor the maternal goddess of ''Blossoms in the Dust'' nor even the cool miss of ''Pride and Prejudice.'' This Miss Garson was gayly flouncing about amid a collection of giddy little hats and dropping bon mots like chain firecrackers. The first chapeau, a most edible-looking arrangement of grapes and assorted candied fruits, didn't suit at all. ''I feel as though I should be covered from shoulder to shoulder under a large glass bell,'' said Miss Garson and tried the next - a wispy affair of blue sprinkled with tiny scarlet stars. It was at this point that this austere department, which naturally tries to maintain a correct perspective in such matters, began to think in iambic pentameters.

North of the Border

But Miss Garson was chatting on at a tripping pace. Canada, she said, was ''a flurry of snowstorms and orchids'' from the moment she crossed the border near Vancouver until her train pulled out of Montreal ''in rather a hurry and a welter of good-will.'' Meanwhile she had journeyed to Uplands, where she puzzled the cadets by landing a Link trainer twenty feet below ground level, according to the instruments at least; she attended a reception at the Duke of Athlone's palatial residence, ''a very electric occasion - because of the carpets,'' and in the course of events delivered two addresses, one in English and one in French, to the people of Canada.

Finally, she attended a meeting of Parliament, where ''a very naughty member who was forever rising to make objections'' found time to pen gallant little notes to the guest of honor. Arriving in New York to buy a few hats and see the town the same to-do began all over again. Telegrams began to arrive in quantity and at least one huge orchid arrived from a ''knight sombre'' she had never seen. With such benedictions a lady could hardly be blamed for being in a heady mood.

Out of the Web

But Miss Garson, or so she reported, was once ''really a rather stuffy child,'' and only by a hair's breadth missed becoming a junior don at London University. An Irish-born descendant of Rob Roy Macgregor, Miss Garson at the age of 4 appeared in her first ''premeditated entertainment'' - a fairy tale composed by herself and stuffed with princes and dragons and such. She decided then on becoming an actress. But a flair for the abstruse took her to the university as a scholarship student at the tender age of 15, and there the good scholars selfishly, no doubt, restrained her theatrical bent.

But studying amid the great racks of books at the British Museum, ''full of old men with long, long beards and lonely little Hindu ladies like butterflies,'' Miss Garson decided that she was not meant for this dusty hive of scholarship; instead of reading all the books, she would try to live just one for herself. Thus when she left school her family ''set me up in business as a writer'' by presenting her with typewriter and paper and shortly thereafter she embarked on the career of advertising executive.

This was a long way from the theatre, but it happened that one of the partners' sisters was an actress with the Birmingham Repertory. No sooner discovered than done. After a quick audition Miss Garson tossed up her job with the advertising agency and embarked for the uncertain horizons of the stage. After a season or two in repertory she moved into London, but couldn't even see the ''secretaries of secretaries.'' Then, quite magically, as she sat forlorn in the dark-paneled dining room of the University Women's Club, a trimly dressed woman approached her table and said: ''My name is Sylvia Thompson and I have just completed a play. Are you an actress?'' It was as easy as that.

The West End Theatre was good to her despite its confusion as to whether she was an American or not, and after a succession of hits Miss Garson received the inevitable summons from Hollywood - in the person of Louis B. Mayer. Miss Garson arrived hopefully, only to languish for a year on the Gold Coast, and just as she was thinking of ways and means of returning to England she was assigned to play the role of Mrs. Chips in ''Good-bye Mr. Chips,'' and the rest is familiar history. At the moment, Miss Garson's greatest concern is in escaping the halo of sweetness and light which has hovered above each of her roles.

Meanwhile, we are sure the old men with the long, long beards at the British museum are much more composed in recent years. What a boon to scholarship when Miss Garson kissed the books good-bye!

Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company


Also, here is The New York Times' review of Mrs. Miniver from June 5, 1942 by Bosley Crowther

[ajb986]

From Movie Anecdotes by Peter Hay:

Sweaters

When Greer Garson was one of the reigning queens at MGM, she was
constantly typecast as a prim and proper lady. In one picture she wanted
to put on a sexy sweater for a change, but the studio was afraid it might
spoil her carefully built virtuous image.
"What's the matter?" Miss Garson exploded. "Are you afraid I'll make
Clark Gable look flat-chested?"

Richard Ney is also mentioned in Movie Anecdotes (presumably in regard to the film The Late George Apley (1947)):

Top Billing

In one of the classic Hollywood stories about credits, Richard Ney had
been cast in a major picture at Twentieth Century-Fox, when he told his
agent that he wanted top billing.
"I'll try," said the agent, "but you know that Ronald Colman is also in
the picture . . ."
"Makes no difference," said the client. "I want top billing or nothing."
A few days later the agent called Ney and said:
"Well, I got you what you wanted."
"You got me the top billing?" asked the relieved actor.
"No," said the agent, "we got the nothing."