Greer Garson loved Dallas
. . . . so much. The city's fondness for her was reciprocal. It is my understanding that her death on 4/6/96 was the morning headline there.
I am still amazed that I was only vaguely aware of her until a few weeks ago and that the only movie of hers that I had seen up until then was The Singing Nun (1966).
She was nothing short of one of this century's greatest actresses. After seeing a dozen of her classics the last few weeks, thanks to Turner Classic Movies, I can honestly classify only two actresses as better: Katharine Hepburn and Meryl Streep.
Greer was magic in The Valley of Decision, Random Harvest, and Pride and Prejudice. I look forward to digging up every movie of hers that I can find.
It thoroughly amazes me that A&E, with its esoteric Biography series, does not have one of its 2,500 videos dedicated to her. In fact, she is not even one of the 25,000 "personalities" on their www.biography.com website. This is so for an actress who had 2,000 fan clubs during World War II. How could I, a film buff and educated person, have been so unaware of one of this century's greatest actresses? It simply tells me that her magic is not withstanding the test of time. But Turner is showing her movies so regularly now, even to the point of celebrating her birthday (9/29) by showing four of them that day, that I think a Greer Garson revival is underway.
I have taken to asking my educated 50-ish clients if they have heard of her. Less than half have. Weird!
Rambling and in an obsession. I tend to do that. Kind of reminds me of my old Qualcomm obsession. At least this one won't cost me so much money.
-john- |
