Garbo letters leave secrets intact

A selection of the Garbo letters going on display

A batch of letters written by Hollywood film siren Greta Garbo and opened 10 years after her death have failed to clear up rumours over a lesbian affair with a wealthy socialite.

Greta Garbo playing Mata Hari

The 55 letters, 17 cards and 15 telegrams were opened by the Rosenbach Museum and Library in Philadelphia 40 years after they were donated by Garbo's close friend, screenwriter Mercedes de Acosta.

They chronicle a 28-year friendship, but give no explicit evidence of a lesbian relationship between Swedish-born Garbo and de Acosta.

"I see nothing that refers to a liaison," said Garbo's great niece Gray Horan.

"I don't think there's much here to back it up. I only knew her to be interested in men."

Garbo's mystery remains intact

Garbo's great niece

Ups and downs

About half of the letters go on public show from Tuesday until 4 June.

Biographers and historians hoped the letters would shed some light on the relationship between Garbo and de Acosta, who gave the letters to the Rosenbach in 1960 with the stipulation that they not be opened until 10 years after the death of Garbo or Acosta, whichever came later.

Mercedes de Acosta was close to Garbo for nearly three decades

Acosta died in 1968, while Garbo - star of films such as Mata Hari and Anna Christie - died on 15 April 1990, after living as a recluse for nearly 50 years.

Rumours

"There is no concrete evidence that any sexual relationship between these two women ever existed," Ms Horan said.

"The letters indicate that they had a long-standing friendship, one that had its ups and downs, but one that could not be characterised as tumultuous or amorous

Topless photos of Garbo snapped by de Acosta picture the actress with her back to the camera.

I am not the same kind of human being as you

Garbo letter to de Acosta

De Acosta sparked rumours of a lesbian romance by writing in her memoirs that the pair wrote each other passionate letters and bathed naked together.

Childlike scawl

But Garbo's letters to de Acosta, in block letters or a childlike scrawl, express her unhappiness with her "ghastly profession," her "topsy-turvy life".

One letter to de Acosta says: "I am not the same kind of human being as you."

Garbo's great niece Gray Horan

"The fact that the letters didn't say anything explicit, like I love you or I need you, says a lot," said Garbo biographer Karen Swenson. "Mercedes would have demanded that from her lover and pasted it in her Bible."

"But, it still left the question mark there. People will interpret things however they want to."

The two women were very close friends and sustained an on-and-off relationship from 1931 to 1959. Biographers, historians and family members have disagreed for years on whether they were lovers.

De Acosta claimed to have had affairs with Marlene Dietrich and dancer Isadora Duncan as well as Garbo.