OCR Text |
Show 'WayBackWhen By JEANNE GARBO LATHERED FACES IN A BARBER SHOP TF YOU had walked Into certain Stockholm barber ihop 'way back in 1920. you would have seen wistful little Greta Garbo working up a lather and preparing hot towels for stubbly faces as she assisted the local barber. Later, in Berpstrnm'a department store, you might have taken a second look at the pretty littl clerk who sold you a hat. But if someone had told you she would one day be world famous in pictures for her portrayals of romance, passion pas-sion and ecstasy, It would have seemed too fantastic to believe. Greta Garbo was born in 1905 in the mill district of Stockholm. Her father was a poor machinist, and her mother an uneducated farm woman. The mysterious airs and aloofness of the great Garbo of today to-day are natural, for they were traits of the sensitive little daughter of this poor family. Her father died SWIM V ill when she was fourteen and she went to work In the department store to help support her penniless mother, her small brother and sister. The manager of the millinery department depart-ment chose her to model hats and, through publication of photographs made then, sho was given a chance in motion pictures. Her rise to fame was rapid, and the little lather girl of Stockholm became the greatest example of movie publicity. One of her very first pictures was awarded the Nobel prize, and she received the medal of the New York Film Critics for her performance in "Anna Karenina." Men fought duels over her, and famous directors, direc-tors, writers and actors have sought her favor. So, think twice before you laugh at that neighbor's child with the theatrical ambitions. The great Garbo was once a lather girl! MOTOR BOAT KING WAS A CATTLE HERDER SOMETIMES I think we place too much emphasis on the stigma of failure. A man may fail at one thing after another that he attempts, at-tempts, but he is never a failure himself until he quits. Many a fortune for-tune has been built upon past mistakes. mis-takes. Gar Wood's father had a viewpoint something like that, and he Instilled into his children the belief be-lief that even though they failed in an endeavor, they had fun In trying try-ing it Gar Wood was born in Mapleton, Iowa, in 1872, one of 13 children. All of the children had to earn money mon-ey early to help make expenses, and Gar had little formal school- ing. When only a boy, Gar worked as a cattle herder for one dollar a day. He loved boats and enjoyed constructing mechanically run models mod-els from clock parts. At the age of thirteen, his unusual knowledge of boats run by motors got him a job in Duluth on one of the first gasoline craft to dock there. As automobiles became popular, Gar Y.ood wes hired to sell them. He obtained one odd job after another. an-other. He was a teacher of electricity elec-tricity and gasoline motors in a night class. He ran a garage for awhile in St. PauL One thing after another he tried, and failed to advance. ad-vance. A less philosophical man, a less courageous man might have become stagnant But not Gar Wood. His mind was ever alert to new opportunities In mechanics. Then he perfected a hydraulic hoist for trucks, risked the family's savings sav-ings in constructing a model, and became wealthy almost overnight Suppose this man had been as utterly stricken with shame as some of us think we might be, when he failed in his first attempts to make a successful living. He probably prob-ably never would have had the courage cour-age to risk all the money he had saved for tlie model of an invention others told him was Impractical. WNU Service. |