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*Episode originally released in December 2018*
[Star Tale theme plays]
Welcome, to another episode of Star Tales. The podcast dedicated to tell the history of Hollywood.
I am your host, Jess McCready.
This week, we bring you another tale in our latest season MGM: The King of Kings.
Today's episode is a request from one of our fans, Maybelle Fox, who wrote in our forums asking us to do an episode of Greta Gill. She writes that Greta Gill is a fascinating figure in Hollywood history that not a lot of people talked about like Katherine Hepburn or Ginger Rogers. So please, Jess, can you put the spotlight back on Miss Gill and give her the proper star treatment she deserves?
Thanks Maybelle.
It's true that Greta Gill is one of the most complex figures in Classic Hollywood. Greta Gill's life and career is both an open book and mystery. We know that she was one of the most famous actress in the first half of the 20th century, but not much has been said in the same way as most stars from her era. That is, until the publication of her autobiography, A Bird Flies in Brooklyn, that finally answer some of the questions of her life.
We also know that she is one of the few Classic Hollywood stars to publicly come out as a lesbian. A rarity in the early history of Hollywood that only a few handful of people have done. And also be proud of it.
So come join us, for the story of Greta Gill.
Greta Gill was born Daisy Gillmore Gates to a mother and father preacher family in New York City. Daisy wasn't like her fire and brimstone family as she would mostly wander off when her parents give sermons during a Sunday session. Despite living in a big city, life at the Gates house was anything but boring and strict. As she later wrote in her autobiography...
I was always under the watchful eye of my parents. There was never anything to do in that house. They even ban having books besides the Bible because they think the stuff people publish in books are always sinful.
The young Daisy would mostly find refuge in the movie houses, but can only during school times where she can cut class and watch whatever is playing. It was those times that she always dream herself of being in the silver screen like her idols.
At the same time, she became acquainted and found romance with Dana, a classmate from her senior year high school. Both will go extreme lengths to hide their romance from their strict parents. But on one night, Daisy’s mother walked in to her daughter's room and saw both Daisy and Dana kissing. Dana would later be institutionalized from this while Daisy... wasn't. She would later tell about Dana only to a few close friends, including her future wife, until she would later wrote about the romance in full detail in her book.
Dana was basically the first real person who I can trust. I never had that much friends before because most of them either think I'm weird or scared from my parents... I never get around why Dana was institutionalized while I got off scott free. I think it's probably have to do with my parent's standing in the community that people were willing to turn a blind while my parents think that they can cure me from this "sickness".
In 1932, a few months after the incident, 18 year old Daisy ran away from home and stayed at a boarding house of mostly young up and coming artists in a Brooklyn neighborhood. Despite not having any acting experience at this point in her life, Daisy told the ones running the house that she's an actress... and happily took her in. In order to not get discovered by her family and also to disassociate from them, Daisy Gillmore Gates renamed herself by choosing last name from her maiden name with “more” shaven off, and her first name from Greta Garbo. She later said she picked Garbo’s name because she had to think of a name fast, and Garbo was the first person that pops up in her mind.
It was there where the newly christened Greta Gill also met fellow aspiring actress Josephine De Luca. Today, while she was in a few movies, we know Jo De Luca (or Jo as Greta would always call her) as a legend in Broadway who has appeared in both plays and musicals. But in the early 1930s, both Jo De Luca and Greta Gill were struggling actresses who can only find work in local theaters doing small scale productions of famous plays. While those theaters could only fill half the house on an average, Greta would meet one audience member who would not only made an impact to her acting career, but also for the rest of her life.
Before there was a James Dean or even a Marlon Brando, there was John Garfield. While he might not be known by some people, Garfield was considered to be one of the first Hollywood stars who introduced the world method acting through the movies.
During a local production of George Bernard Shaw’s Major Barbara, John Garfield (or Jules as his friends, including Greta, would often call) was at the audience and was impressed by both Greta and Jo’s performance. Despite having no acting training whatsoever, Garfield can see the potential to Greta’s talents that he invited both her and Jo to join the Group Theatre.
The Group Theatre was a theatre collective run by artists with the intent of dramatizing the life of their times during a time when Broadway was dominated by old-fashioned feel good entertainment. The company flourished during the 1930s as their plays fit with how people were living during the Great Depression. The Group Theatre were also known for being the early adapters of the theatrical teachings of Konstantin Stanislavski known as the “method”, but also innovated some of those teachings in their own way. Some of the notable members of the Group Theatre include Garfield, Stella Adler, Howard da Silva, Sidney Lumet, Lee J. Cobb, Franchot Tone, Frances Farmer, and Elia Kazan.
By the time Greta and Jo joined in 1934, the Group Theatre was celebrating its first success with the play Men in White, a play about the personal sacrifices of doctors, having just won the Pulitzer Prize. Despite being unknowns, the company took the chance with them and helped them become actresses. In between rehearsals, John Garfield and Stella Adler would often mentor Greta and Jo with Stanislavski’s teachings. Greta and Jo would start off as background supporting characters before moving towards lead as the years go by. While some of the plays she’s in would get mixed reviews from critics, Greta always get glowing reviews for her performances.
Greta would write in length about John Garfield in her autobiography about how much he has helped with her life.
If there was one man who I ever love, it would have to be John Garfield… Jules has done a lot of help getting to where I am today. He and Stella Adler saw the potential I have when me and Jo were just struggling actresses making a living in small dinky theaters... He even helped get me my first job in Hollywood.
In 1939, now a Hollywood actor and after coming off from an Oscar nomination for his performance in Four Daughters the previous year, John Garfield’s next film at Warner Bros. is having trouble getting to start production. For one, Garfield’s co-star George Raft quit before rehearsals would even start and Warners would have to settle with the then B-list actor Humphrey Bogart; a recurring theme on Bogart’s early start in Hollywood. And two, the studio’s first choice for the supporting female lead, Claire Trevor, was unavailable as she was busy filming John Ford’s Stagecoach. As Warners are scrambling to find an actress for the movie, John Garfield threw in a name in the hat and told them “I know this actress from my theatre days who would be perfect for the part. I think you should bring her in for a screen test and see her for yourself.”
Garfield, who has known about Greta’s Hollywood aspirations, called her about the offer and immediately accepted it. She took the next train to Hollywood and got the part after multiple screen tests. Greta would write in her book that she overheard the producers of the film saying, “she looks too wholesome for the part, but we got a deadline and need to start production on this movie”.
In The Hunt at the Appalachians, John Garfield plays a detective investigating a suspicious death of a mountain climber in the Appalachian Mountains. The main suspect whom Garfield’s detective thinks did it is a famed ruthless gangster played by Humphrey Bogart. Greta Gill in the movie plays the victim’s sister who demands John Garfield’s character to find the killer and bring him to justice; a precursor to Eva Marie Saint’s character in On the Waterfront.
Greta wasn’t in the movie that much, but she had a memorable scene at the end where as both Garfield and Bogart’s characters fight off at the edge of the Appalachian mountains, Gill’s character shoots Bogart before falling off from the mountain.
The Hunt on the Appalachian recoup it’s million dollar budget, but Warner Bros. didn’t find it a success. Reviews on the film are a bit positive, but a lot of critics took note of Greta Gill saying “While her appearance is short, newcomer Greta Gill has made a notable presence as the grieving sister of the victim… Especially where she delivers the final action at the end.”.
While the movie was virtually ignored by Warner Bros., rival studio MGM certainly took notice. Producers at MGM saw screenings and reviews of the film and pleaded to studio head Louis B. Mayer to sign Greta as one of their next big stars. Before signing her contract to MGM, executives took pause of her name because they already have a star who already has the same first name as her. According to her book, Greta notes how Louis B. Mayer intervened and told other studio executives that she can keep her adopted stage name.
I don’t care about her name. Mayer told executives, We have multiple actors here who have the same names as each other like William, Charles, and Joan. Why should we care that we have two “Gretas” in the studio?!
It’s important to note that during this time, the secluded Garbo is on the tale end of her career in Hollywood who is considering retiring that she didn’t care MGM has signed an actress who is also named Greta.
By the time she joined MGM, Greta Gill never underwent an extensive beauty process that most newcomers go through. According to her book, despite the working class standing of the Group Theatre, Greta was the more fashionable member of the company. During her time in the theatre she would buy all the latest clothes by herself, and also do her own hair extensively and dying it red like Bette Davis. When she finally got to settle down in Hollywood, Joan Crawford helped her find the fancy furniture for her home by introducing her to her old friend William Haines, a former MGM star turned celebrated interior designer. Haines was also openly gay which made Greta feel comfortable to be around and the two would became friends until the end of Haines’ life. Later in her life Crawford would said that she would often see Billy and Greta have double dates with their respective partners, which Greta confirmed in her memoir.
Despite making a good impression on The Hunt on the Appalachians, MGM was having a hard time trying to find her movie parts that fit with her personality. The only thing helping them is promoting her beauty that even one press billed her as “The fiery redhead that can rival Rita Hayworth”.
Her early films at MGM were, as she would later describe, disposable. Greta would often be cast as the sweet small town girl looking for love or as high society women that Katharine Hepburn would often decline. She would receive some positive reviews from those films and were also box office hits, but Greta always hated those films to the point she was considering quitting Hollywood and going back to New York. But in 1943, she had found the role that she considers her first "true" film.
In Battle Song, Greta plays a French woman named Camille who lost the love of her life from war against the invading Nazis that she dedicated herself to the Free France movement. Greta’s Camille has become the mother figure of the Free French forces as she help nurse the wounded, clothed them, and also sew them their clothes. The film’s memorable sequence is of her going behind enemy lines and fought off the Vichy forces while also helping the Free French men escape back to an unoccupied territory.
Released in October 1943, Battle Song would be considered, and still is, one of the best feminist movies in film history. The film was a big hit at the box office and Greta received her first enthusiastic reviews of her film career. A few months later, Greta would be awarded her first Oscar for Best Actress in a tie with Jennifer Jones for The Song of Bernadette. Greta would often describe her experience with Battle Song as great and later remarked
If the military had allowed women at the time, I would’ve been first to join and beat those so called “superior” German army.
During the war times, she would often volunteer at the Hollywood Canteen, a club founded by Bette Davis and her old friend John Garfield where Hollywood stars would help cater and serve the servicemen. According to Davis, Greta held the record as the star to help the canteen the most. Greta has said that working at the Hollywood Canteen multiple times is one of her ways to thank John Garfield for helping her.
Greta has also founded what some people described as “The Second Sewing Circle”. The first Sewing Circle was a social circle where most of the members were thought as either lesbians or bisexual. Some of the members from the first Sewing Circle include Marlene Dietrich, Tallulah Bankhead, Barbara Stanwyck, and Greta Garbo. In the Greta's Sewing Circle, notable members include Gill, Katharine Hepburn, Lisabeth Scott, Lupe Garcia, Maxine Chapman, and Esther Warner. Greta Gill’s Sewing Circle was seen as one of the first social circle in Hollywood to be integrated. Greta has said the decision to include women of color into this club…
I find segregation to be an ugly thing. Why does everything have to be separated just because of the color of your skin? And why does everything have to be run by racism? Fuck racism and segregation! And if people find that a problem, then fuck them.
It was also during this time that Greta met Carson Shaw, an MGM secretary whom Greta hired as her own personal assistant. We will get to Carson Shaw more later in this episode.
By 1947, although somewhat apolitical during much of the early years in her acting career, Greta Gill became more involved with politics. The genesis of her political activism is when the House of Un-American Activities Committee started investigating Hollywood over a supposed Communist invasion in the industry. HUAC would subpoenaed over a hundred Hollywood either as friendly witnesses, or someone they think are Communists. HUAC suspects 19 of the subpoenaed were Communists, 10 of whom became famously known as the Hollywood Ten.
Greta wasn’t subpoenaed, but she knew how wrong this is that she joined with fellow actors and directors on the Committee for the First Amendment. The purpose of the group was to show support of their fellow Hollywood workers who were accused of being Communist by HUAC. Members of the Committee for the First Amendment compose of mostly liberal and left wing actors which include Gill herself, Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Judy Garland, Groucho Marx, Henry Fonda, Lena Horne, Esther Warner, and Shirley Cohen.
On October 27, 1947, Greta and the Committee for the First Amendment flew to Washington to show their support for the Hollywood Ten. During the flight to Washington, the group made stops on American cities to help persuade the public against HUAC’s actions. The Committee also produced radio broadcasts called Hollywood Fights Back!, where members voiced their opposition towards the investigation. Greta was part of the broadcasts, but her portions on it were lost. However, she kept a transcript of it that she would publicly release decades later. Here is a portion of Greta’s episode…
Hollywood Fights Back!
This is Greta Gill. As I am speaking to you right now, me and my fellow actors are flying to Washington DC to convince the House Committee of Un-American Activities to stop this unlawful investigation. I know some of the accused during my time in Hollywood, and I can tell you that they are good American citizens. Chances are you've seen movies like Casablanca, A Walk in the Sun, Objective, Burma!, Woman of the Year, or Battle Song. Did you like any of those pictures? Now what these films have in common is they were made by the people who the House Committee think are subversive citizens.
If the House Committee punish our own people just because they think their views are Un-American, it will change the way of how movies are made. And it will not be for the better.
Unfortunately, their efforts didn't work. A few weeks later Congress voted to convict the Hollywood Ten of contempt. At the same time, every studio executive and powerful figures in Hollywood put out a statement declaring that they won't employ anyone who has been suspected of being Communists or refuse to cooperate with HUAC; effectively starting the Hollywood Blacklist.
To make matters worst, many have accused the Committee for the First Amendment as a Communist front. To create damage control, Greta Gill had to put out a full page ad in Variety with a photo of herself and big bold words saying "AMERICAN CITIZEN AND PROUD OF IT!". Her ad wasn't as harsh as other members of the group who put out statements saying they were duped into supporting the Hollywood Ten, but it was patriotic-sounding enough that it kept her off from being suspected from HUAC and not getting blacklisted. Other members, like Marsha Hunt, Sterling Hayden, and Shirley Cohen, weren't so lucky and would get blacklisted for over a decade.
But the biggest tragedy of the Blacklist in Greta's life would be John Garfield. In the months following the HUAC hearings, the anti-Communist publication Red Channels started publishing a list of names of people in Hollywood whom they suspected to be Communists. One of the names they published was John Garfield. Now, I must point out to tell you that John Garfield was never a Communist. The reason they suspected Garfield was because he had known people, including his wife, who were members of the party. When HUAC subpoenaed him a couple years later, John Garfield refused to comply with them and refused to name names of his friends and wife.
Sadly, Garfield would find himself blacklisted for refusing to cooperate with HUAC and couldn't find work in Hollywood. The stress of the Blacklist and the fear of HUAC reopening his case on charges of perjury that he would die from a heart attack on May 21, 1952.
When Greta received the news that her old friend had tragically die, she was completely devastated. Many of her friends have said that when she received the news, she seclude herself in her home and wouldn't wouldn't talk to anyone in Hollywood for a couple of weeks. Carson Shaw has said that Greta couldn't bring herself to attend the funeral because she would be more heartbroken to see his body.
Greta has wrote about John Garfield's blacklisting extensively in her memoir saying...
They know damn well that Jules wasn't a Communist... Not even the major studios didn't do a thing to protect him. The reason they threw him into the lion's den was because he was a non-contract actor after his contract with Warner Bros. had ended. And unless if you're a Cary Grant, the studios won't protect you from danger.
The death of her old friend has emboldened Greta even more into participating in politics, and also made a private personal vow from this experience, saying...
From that point on, I vow to never work with anyone who supported HUAC and McCarthy's witch hunt and anyone who supports having their friend's reputation destroyed.
And she did kept her word with that vow.
One example of this is when she was loaned to Warner Bros. to star in one of John Ford's Western, They Ride Through the Night, Greta managed to convince Ford to replace John Wayne, who was an ardent supporter of the Blacklist. According to Greta…
I had to find a way to tell Ford not to cast Wayne in the film without saying “I don’t want to work with John Wayne because he is a rat bastard”. Instead, I told Ford that I read the script and I think you should find another actor for the lead because John Wayne isn't right for the part. To my surprise, it worked.
When John Ford honored Greta’s request to replace John Wayne, he cast Gregory Peck in Wayne's role. I watched They Ride Through the Night in preparation for this episode, and even if Greta didn’t lie to get John Ford to replace John Wayne, John Wayne feels wrong for the movie. Gregory Peck’s performance as a rough yet compassionate cowboy really compliments well with Greta’s rancher character.
Another incident where Greta refused to work with a “friendly witness” was on the set of her MGM film We Both Reached for the Gun. The first actor to play the male lead of the film was Billy “Dove” Porter, another supporter of the Blacklist who named names to HUAC in 1951.
Unlike her time in They Ride Through the Night, Greta wasn’t able to get rid of Dove Porter so easily. She tried to plead with MGM producers not to cast her, but she used up many requests in previous years that they simply ignored her. The only thing she can think of is to screw up production to point of irritating Porter to quit.
And it worked. Greta would intentionally either forget her lines or mess up her action a week into production that Dove Porter quit and filed a complaint to MGM executives calling Greta “unprofessional”. The film’s director, John Huston, put Greta aside to have a private conversation and asked what was happening. Greta told Huston about her pledge about not working with people like Wayne or Porter, and told him how much John Garfield was to her. Understanding, Huston went to MGM executives and asked them not to fire Greta.
Greta is having a difficult time in her personal life. Huston told executives. I understand that she loves working in movies and she didn’t mean to sabotage production. I suggest that you find another actor for the film just so Greta can feel comfortable again.
MGM accepted Huston’s requests and replaced Dove Porter with Montgomery Clift, which is for the better for both the movie and Greta.
Huston would later spoke of praise about Greta later in his life.
Greta was simply one of the best people I worked in this business. I understand that some people would say the stunt she pulled during the making of We Both Reached for the Gun was unprofessional. But I would do it too if I have to work with people who I really despise… Greta has more integrity than most people during our time in Hollywood.
Despite the hardships of the Blacklist, it was at this time that Greta Gill has achieved the status of one of the greatest actresses in Hollywood history. Film historians have noted that this steady level of fame from 1951 to her retirement in 1985 is very unprecedented, and something that could rival Katharine Hepburn’s career. She appeared in forgettable films and sometimes gave not so good performances though, but when she gives a good performance, she takes it to another level.
Film historians have noted that one of the reasons her film career started to take off in 1951 was because of the mainstream emergence of method acting, a technique that Greta has used since her time at the Group Theatre. With the arrival of method actors like Marlon Brando, James Dean, Montgomery Clift, and Julie Harris, Greta Gill was seen as the elder stateswoman of the method and the newcomers praised her the same way as the Grunge bands from the 1990s praised Neil Young. When Van Johnson asked her how she was able give a good performance in the movie they were in, she simply answered…
I just try to think how my character would act if she were real.
Her first high point, although she might disagree if you ask her, was 1951’s Mother of the Groom. An obvious cash in to the success of Father of the Bride the previous year. Like the previous film, Greta played the mother preparing her son, played by Peter Lawford, for his wedding. While not much successful as Father of the Bride, Mother of the Groom brought in enough money at the box office for MGM to consider it a hit and critics gave it decent reviews citing the film provided a different prospective from other members of the family during a wedding.
Greta, on the other hand, gave a different opinion about the film.
Mother of the Groom was an obvious rehash of the other film starring Spence and Liz. I won't argue if everyone likes it, it's their opinion. But I wouldn’t consider it to be the best movies I have ever done in my career.
Greta’s luck of finding better roles finally happened in 1952, a few months after Louis B. Mayer was forced to step down as head of the studio. With Mayer gone, directors and writers were free to able to cast whatever actors from MGM’s roster they wanted beyond the family friendly roles Mayer would cast his actors in.
In her first post-Mayer film, Rosie’s War, Greta played an American woman who works at a factory during World War II that was loosely based on the Rosie the Riveter posters. With director Billy Wilder having been influenced by Italian Neorealism to make the film, Rosie’s War was the first true film where Greta can flex her method acting training from the Group Theatre into the movies. The film was a modest hit and had decent reviews, but it wasn’t seen as great like how it would be seen today.
During much of the 1950s, Greta’s filmography is a mix between America’s attempt to make their own Italian Neorealism, or Noir. And the latter genre gave her what may be her most iconic film of her entire career.
Lipstick Red centers around a down on his luck Phillip Simmons, played by Glenn Ford, who has recently lost his job at the office. Overwhelmed by his life going down the drain, Phillip enters into a fit of rage that his anger has blinded him from seeing a man walking on the road as he was driving and instantly killing the man. After disposing the body, Phillip has become paranoid about everyone who knows about him killing a man. Among the paranoia, he soon meets and becomes attracted to a mysterious redheaded woman who simply goes by the name “Jenny”, played by Greta Gill. Throughout the film Phillip would often see Jenny in random circumstances and doesn’t understand why he always sees her, but he would never doubt because he’s captivated by her beauty.
If you haven’t seen Lipstick Red, I won’t spoil about what happens in the film because it deserves to be seen with fresh eyes. But I will give you the film’s iconic line from Jenny.
[audio clip taken from Lipstick Red]
Why are you here?
Why? Because I go where I please. I do what I please… And I don’t say please.
[end audio clip]
Lipstick Red was a major success to both critics and audiences; a feat that is unheard of for the Noir genre during that time. Critics would also single out Greta’s performance in the film as the best; with Bosley Crowther of the New York Times writing in his review “Gill’s performance as the mysterious Jenny gives out a presence of Lady Macbeth whenever she appears on the screen… It is a performance that makes the audience on the edge wondering what she’ll do next to Phillip.”.
Greta’s performance in Lipstick Red earned her a second Oscar win for Best Actress; beating out other nominees like Deborah Kerr, Katharine Hepburn, and Ingrid Bergman. Her acceptance speech in that ceremony was short, yet memorable that you can watch it on YouTube.
[audio clip of Greta Gill’s Oscar acceptance from 1957]
Wow! I don’t know what to say but thank you! I think I should play mysterious characters more often.
*audience laughs and cheers*
[end audio clip]
Greta continued to appear in movies for the rest of the 1950s, and would also receive career best reviews and box office success in every movie she’s in. By 1960, Greta took a five year hiatus from acting to focus on political activism. Despite the fallout of the backlash of the Committee for the First Amendment, she never abandon her views to fight for civil rights and equality for all Americans. In 1963, Greta Gill and numerous celebrities like Sidney Poitier, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Lena Horne, Paul Newman, Marlon Brando, Maxine Chapman, and Esther Warner participated in Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom to help advocate the civil rights of African Americans.
At the same time, Greta helped formed an organization for the purpose of bringing blacklisted actors, writers and other craftspeople back for employment in Hollywood without the need of complying with HUAC and naming names. One of the people Greta helped get employment back to the movie business was her old friend and fellow member of the Committee for the First Amendment Shirley Cohen. Greta helped get Shirley's name off the Blacklist and also helped Shirley get her first movie work by co-starring in Greta’s first movie back from hiatus in Sidney Lumet’s political drama The Hill. Thanks to Greta’s efforts Shirley was able to mount a successful comeback and appeared in a lot of films from the late 60s to the 80s, including winning an Oscar.
As the studio system ended and most of her contemporaries are starting to retire or not appearing in a lot of movies, Greta was able to find stable work as the movie industry in America was entering the New Hollywood era. Greta appeared in a lot of noteworthy films during this time because a significant handful of people part of the New Hollywood movement have great respect for her the same way as people like Brando respected her in the 1950s.
One of the noteworthy films she made at that time was 1977’s Broadway Melodrama. The film centers around a playwright trying to finish his script for his next play. Greta plays an acting veteran who always steals the scene with her wisecracks whenever she appears on screen.
Since watching The Last Picture Show, Greta was fascinated by the film’s art designer Polly Platt. And when she heard Platt had become a major movie producer, Greta was determined to work with her. Not only did Platt helped design the sets for Broadway Melodrama, she also brought the aspects needed to make the movie work; including casting up and coming stars like F. Murray Abraham, Sally Fields, and also rewriting parts of the script. Broadway Melodrama was a hit and gave Greta her final Oscar nomination.
By 1985, Greta announced that she is retiring from the movies. She never retired from acting entirely, but she would only appear in occasional TV appearances and voice work. She also became a part time acting teacher in an academy run by famed acting coach and her former mentor Stella Adler.
In 2000, Greta has published her autobiography A Bird Flies in Brooklyn. In the book, she talks about her childhood, her early career in the theatre, and her Hollywood career. But there was one major part of her life that she kept secret until she wrote it down in her book.
Greta Gill came out as a lesbian.
When the memoir was first released, it came as a shock to some of the public because they found it hard to believe that an actress from the Golden Age of Hollywood would come out publicly, and be proud of it. Many people were eager to deny that Greta was a lesbian because they don’t want to believe it, or (at worse) just plain old homophobia. But a lot of people ranging from actors who worked with Greta during her latter half of her career, the living relatives of Greta’s friends, and Greta herself, have confirmed that she is telling the truth.
Here’s how Greta’s love life was like in Hollywood, according to what she wrote in A Bird Flies in Brooklyn…
During her first year as a movie actress, the only person in Hollywood to know who knew of her sexuality was John Garfield, who had supported her for whoever she can love. Back in New York, some of the members of the Group Theatre were either gay, lesbian, or bisexual, and most of the members were supportive of them. But in Hollywood, Greta had a hard time finding people who are like her or find people who support same-sex relationships.
The first people who were gay or lesbian that Greta met in Hollywood were William Haines, and half of the members of the second iteration of the Sewing Circle which include Lupe Garcia, Maxine Chapman, and Esther Warner. While she was able to find friends who were like her, she couldn’t find any woman to be in a romantic relationship.
That is until she met Carson Shaw. Carson Shaw first came to Hollywood working as a secretary for MGM. She met Greta when MGM assigned her to be her assistant during the making of the movie A Respectable Lady in 1942. Greta would describe her first encounter with Carson as “starstruck”.
It felt like I was back to being a child who gets excited about meeting a most famous star. I was very infatuated by her, but I fear if I told her my romantic feelings for her, she would hate me. Thankfully, when we got to know more about each other during the first months of our time that she too had feelings for me and was also scared to share it to me.
After sharing their love for each other for the first time, Greta invited Carson to live in with her. To hide their relationship from the public, Greta hired Carson as her assistant full time and would often tell visitors of her home that Carson is the housekeeper. Greta took great lengths to hide the relationship from people besides a few trusted friends, but there were a few times where they almost got caught.
In 1945, Greta was summoned to Louis B. Mayer's office in a private meeting. When she got to his office, she sees Mayer sitting behind his desk quietly with studio fixer Eddie Mannix behind him. Mannix then show Greta photos of her and Carson in what clearly shows them holding hands and giving each other romantic looks; and one photo clearly showing them kissing. Mayer being known as moralistically conservative made Greta fear for the worst, but was relieved when all she got was talking to from Mayer and said this to Greta:
I'll tell you what I told Billy Haines over a decade ago: I don't care what you do in your private life. Just behave in public.
From that point on, Greta and Carson's relationship has been a bliss. Greta has credited Carson as the only person who comforted her during her two week grieving period after John Garfield's tragic death. Whenever she's not as Greta's "assistant", Carson would often play in amateur baseball games with other women in Los Angeles, a sport that both Carson and Greta love. Carson has also participated in political activism of her own as well. She help bring awareness for people suffering from HIV/AIDS in the 80s and 90s, and most importantly the fight for equality for the LGBTQ+ community.
Today, Greta and Carson are still alive and had just celebrated their 70+ years of their relationship.
For all the ups and downs, heartbreaks and tragedies she had to endure, Greta Gill is one of the few people from the Classic Hollywood era who has gotten a happy ending: She got to be with someone who loves her. When asked in an interview how she felt about the Supreme Court's decision to legalize same-sex marriage, Greta answered...
I may have all the awards and fame and praise for my career as an actress, but having live to see people to finally accept to love whoever they want is considered to be my happiest moment of my entire life.
[credits]
Thanks for listening to Star Tales
This episode has been written, edited, and narrated by Jess McCready (that's me).
Our research for this episode and the whole series is done by Clance Morgan.
Also want to give a big thanks to our returning special guests. Bill Hader as John Huston, and Nick Kroll as Louis B. Mayer.
And a special thanks to D'Arcy Carden for voicing Greta Gill.
For more information about this episode, visit our website startales.com where you can find past episodes and sources for each episode including this one.
Join us next week for more stories about Hollywood's Golden Age and beyond.
Good night.
[closing theme song for this episode is Taylor Swift's "Wildest Dreams"]