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Timeline
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Timeline
This timeline lists important events and details in Greta Garbo's life. More detailed information can be found in a number of excellent biographies that have been written on her life. A list of these books can be found in the Bibliography.
Beginnings
September 18, 1905 - Greta Garbo is born Greta Lovisa Gustafson in Stockholm, Sweden. Her parents were Karl and Anna Gustafson.
1912-1919 - Greta attends Katarina Grammar school until she leaves in 1919 due to the illness of her father.
June 1, 1920 - Karl Gustafson dies at the age of 48 of nephritis. Two weeks later, Greta is confirmed in the Swedish State Church.
June - July 1920 - Greta's first job as a lather girl begins at a local barbershop on Horn Street in Soder. On July 26, with the help of her sister Alva, she gets a job in the millinery department at PUB, a large department store.
Fall 1920 - Greta is selected to model hats for PUB's spring catalog and appear in a promotional film for the department store called "How Not To Dress" (or "Mr. and Mrs. Stockholm Go Shopping").
Summer 1921 - Greta appears in another promotional film ("Our Daily Bread"), this time promoting bakery products for the Consumer's Cooperative of Stockholm.
July 1922 - Greta meets comedy producer/director Erik Petschler and he offers her a part in his upcoming film "Luffar-Petter" (or "Peter The Tramp"). She leaves her job at PUB to concentrate on a career in acting.
September 1922 - Greta is accepted as a student in the Royal Dramatic Theater Academy.
December 26, 1922 - "Luffar-Petter" premieres in Stockholm but the film, nor Greta, is given much attention.
Mona Martenson
Spring 1923 - Greta and another classmate, Mona Martenson, are selected by the school to audition for noted Swedish film director Mauritz Stiller. Both girls get parts in his upcoming film, "The Saga of Gosta Berling".
November 9, 1923 - Greta's name is legally changed to "Greta Garbo".
March 1924 - The four hour "The Saga of Gosta Berling" premieres in Stockholm with much fanfare and noted attention to Mauritz Stiller's new discovery, Greta Garbo.
November 1924 - On a visit to Stockholm to see a screening of The Saga of Gosta Berling, Louis B. Mayer meets Stiller and Garbo. A contract is signed that requires Stiller and Garbo to come to Hollywood no later than May of 1925. Neither Garbo or Stiller are too excited about the prospect.
March 1925 - After Mauritz Stiller's next project (to be shot in Turkey) falls through and his film company goes bankrupt, the German filmmaker G. W. Pabst agrees to buy Greta Garbo's services for his next film The Joyless Street.
May 18, 1925 - The Joyless Street premieres in Berlin and Paris. It is an instant success.
July 6, 1925 - Stiller and Garbo arrive in New York.
September 10, 1925 - After spending the summer in New York waiting for MGM to send them west, they finally cross the U.S. by train to arrive in Hollywood.