A Swede Rivals Garbo
All the great screen geniuses of the last quarter-century have come from Sweden. Besides Greta Garbo and Ingrid Bergman, other splendid movie stars have descended upon the sky of Hollywood from the land of Sweden. As for Greta Garbo, she is on the verge of fading out, for she has all but slipped into the abyss of time... that abyss from which no human being can escape — age. And people asked who would succeed Greta on the screen — when suddenly Ingrid Bergman appeared, and without publicity she managed to leap over hundreds of stars in America to the topmost summit. Bergman had dreamed of playing the part of Joan of Arc on the silver screen, and it was granted her to realize her greatest dream some months ago, when she was offered the role of the Maid of France by the great writer Maxwell Anderson; and all America now awaits Bergman's appearance in her new role.
The newspapers and the literary and artistic magazines are agreed that Bergman is the foremost movie star in America — indeed in the world... For she is not fearsomely secretive like Garbo... nor strange and eccentric like Joan Crawford, nor a society woman who loves life and gaiety like Irene Dunne; and she is far removed from anything that could be called swagger. The reason for her fame, and for the public's rush to her films, is her simplicity, her delicacy, her freedom from affectation — and the fact that her art issues from her heart, not from her brain... It is for this that she communicates with the millions in the language of the heart, and penetrates to the depths where most actresses fail to penetrate; for entertaining people is one thing... and entering their hearts is another... So it is with all the arts — painting, music, literature, and fiction.
Ingrid Bergman was born in Stockholm in 1917. She had barely reached the age of two when her mother died, and her father, the painter and photographer, brought her up, managing to attend to her upbringing
despite his modest material circumstances. Ingrid specialized in foreign languages and acquired an excellent education.
Her father used to laugh when she told him she wished to become an actress. But this father soon bowed with all respect to her prophecy about herself, when he saw her act — which he had not expected. She began her artistic life in Stockholm itself when she entered the Royal Institute of Dramatic Art.
Hardly had her artistic life come before the public — her gifts appreciated in her own country only — when there occurred an inevitable surprise that halted her pursuit of art: she married a Swedish lawyer, by whom she had a little girl, now six years old.
Then Ingrid resumed the artist's life in her country and played several successful roles; she was happy in her life and had no wish to leave her homeland. In 1939 circumstances willed that Bergman should leave Sweden and become a world figure. In that year the American producer David Selznick visited Sweden to negoti
ate with one of the studios over a scenario for the cinema. Bergman was playing the part of the heroine in the film, and the American producer could only say: "I accept the scenario... draw up an agreement with the Swedish actress."
The sum offered the actress was very large — offered to her for the first time — so that she could not resist its temptation...! She then accepted the offer on the condition that she play a single role only, and return to her country after a month's absence in New York.
She set out in 1939, but she did not return to her country, for fortune smiled upon her, and she found in the American cinematic art the means necessary to bring out her talents. Yet she lost one thing... She lost her first name. People today do not call her "Ingrid" but "the great Bergman"... They know only the name "Bergman"...
Bergman loves skating on the ice, and swimming, and hunting, and mountain climbing. But she rarely rides horses over any long distance. She is the greatest walker in New York; when she walks, no one can keep up with her...
As for food, her passion is to eat whatever is delicious, without discrimination, and she has a particular taste in choosing delicious dishes that cause no distress. She is such an eater that it is even said she takes no care for the slimness of her figure. But her body is a marvel of splendor, vigor, and firm natural health... Perhaps her tall stature, and the fullness of every part of her beautiful body — when joined to her intelligence and the simplicity of her movements and her life — are the secret of her superiority and her success.
As for culture, she supplies herself with it every day without interruption, and she loves to see most of her fellow actresses' films, in the belief that she can profit from everything she may read or see. Perhaps one of her greatest merits is her remoteness from enemies. She often dreamed of portraying the life of Joan of Arc, whose story she admires — and her dream has come true.