Swedish American Genealogist Volume 27 | Number 3 Article 9 9-1-2007 Swedes in Hollywood before WWII Agnieszka Stasiewicz Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.augustana.edu/swensonsag Part of the Genealogy Commons, and the Scandinavian Studies Commons Recommended Citation Stasiewicz, Agnieszka (2007) "Swedes in Hollywood before WWII," Swedish American Genealogist: Vol. 27 : No. 3 , Article 9. Available at: https://digitalcommons.augustana.edu/swensonsag/vol27/iss3/9 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Swenson Swedish Immigration Research Center at Augustana Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Swedish American Genealogist by an authorized editor of Augustana Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Swedes in Hollywood before World War II Greta Garbo was not the only Swedish film actress who felt the lure of Hollywood BY AGNIESZKA STASIEWICZ The history of the early American This article refers to the period cinema cannot be separated from the before World War II. It cannot be for- history of immigration to the U.S. gotten, though, that after the war What would American film have been Swedes did not disappear from the like without Charlie Chaplin, Mar- American screen. It is enough to lene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, or Pola recall such movie stars as Ingrid Negri? Many actors and directors Bergman, Max von Sydow, Bibi An- came to the U.S. looking for fame and dersson, or Peter Stormare to re- fortune and the best of them were assure us that the immigrants of the offered profitable contracts. Step by first decades of the twentieth century step the brightest cinema stars of the found many remarkable successors. world concentrated in Hollywood. The five biggest movie companies, Pioneers Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Twentieth Swedes came to Hollywood early Century Fox, RKO, Warner Bros, and enough to take part in the process of Paramount were created there. In the American film industry’s creation the 1920s, 75,000 people – actors, practically from the time of its birth. Anna Q. Nilsson (1888–1974). directors, producers, technicians, The first actress of Swedish origin contained lots of valuable, although critics, fashion designers, and many who appeared there at the dawn of not always objective, information. others – were employed there. The the twentieth century was Linda The significant presence of Swedes greatest scenes of the world were Johnson Arvidson Griffith (1884– in American cinema began in 1911 recorded there as well. Moreover, in 1949), born in the U.S. Her first steps when Anna Q. Nilsson (1888 – 1974) the first years of the twentieth in the film industry were guided by starred in Molly Pitcher. From then century the U.S. imported a signi- the famous American Biograph Com- on she was regarded as one of the ficant number of foreign films, many pany. In 1906 she married the well- leading actresses in the silent cin- of which were from Sweden. known director David Wark Griffith. ema. Nilsson came to America as a After 1923 Hollywood entered a Beginning in 1907 Arvidsson played teenager in 1907. At first she worked period of uninterrupted prosperity. in over 150 productions. Her most as a nurse, but soon became a pop- New, astonishing phenomena ap- recognized role was Hester in The ular model. Then her beauty was peared: uncommonly high salaries Scarlet Letter (1913), which was noticed by film producers. Already in for movie stars, enormous sums described by the English magazine her first movie, Nilsson revealed spent on construction of sceneries, The Bioscope as “extraordinary sub- herself not only as a beautiful woman etc. Considering all this, it is hardly tle and deeply moving.” Linda Arvid- but also as a very gifted actress and surprising that America attracted son contributed to the movie industry she soon became famous, mostly for both beginners and the most bril- also as an author. Her memoir about her roles in westerns and melodra- liant actors of the time. Many of them the people of Hollywood of that time, mas. were of Swedish origin. When the Movies Were Young (1925), 16 Swedish American Genealogist 2007:3 Unfortunately, her career was in the U.S. but also in China and In The Wind Seastrom was faithful seriously shaken by a one-year pause Japan. The films starring Oland as to his principle of simplicity of plot she had to take after a serious horse Chan are considered an important and characters. Delicate idealist Let- accident. After treatment in Sweden step in cinema history as the longest ty, righteous Lige and cunning Roddy, and Austria, Nilsson came back on and most popular series of feature- strong Cora and cordial Beverly the screen in Babe Comes Home length films of those times. mesh into a sugestive and clear com- (1927). But with the dawn of the Before creating the character of position. The end of the film, though, sound film Nilsson’s fame faded. She Chan, Oland performed in the well- is not convincing. The main character was offered only minor parts such as known The Jazz Singer (1927). In the suddenly declares love to her hus- a very short scene in Sunset Boule- thirties he played in Shanghai Ex- band whom she previously despised vard (1950) when she played herself press (1932) and The Painted Veil and decides to stay in the land of as the movie star of yesterday. She (1934) with, respectively, Marlene winds, although she has hated it retired in California. Dietrich and Greta Garbo. In 1937 until then. Moreover, she claims not In her finest days Nilsson per- Oland unexpectedly resigned from to be afraid of the storm anymore formed in, among the others, Seven his work, returned to Sweden, and when a moment before she was close Keys to Baldpate (1917), The Luck of died a year later. to death with fear. the Irish (1920), The Lotus Eater Seastrom himself didn’t plan this (1921), The Top of the World (1925), Victor Sjöström – the banal and inconsistent ending. In the and Babe Comes Home. She also original version Letty, in the claws played a minor role in An American Swedish film school in of madness, runs outside into the in Paris (1951). Anna Q. Nilsson was Hollywood. sandstorm and dies. Such an ending, the first Swedish actress in Holly- Victor Sjöström (1879 – 1960) was a though, didn’t seem attractive e- wood who achieved real stardom and highly talented director and one of nough for an American audience, so whose name appears on the Holly- the creators of Swedish movie indus- Seastrom was made to change his wood Walk of Fame. try; in America he is known as Victor vision and introduce a classic Holly- Among the Swedish pioneer actors Seastrom. wood happy ending. Such incidents in American film industry one of the In the first decades of the twenti- were not uncommon. brightest stars was Warner Oland eth century Scandinavian films were Despite this incident, the Ameri- (1879–1938). He became an expert very popular in the U.S. American can experience left a remarkable in playing characters from the audiences were thrilled to experience mark on the works of Victor Sea- Orient, obtaining the desired look by their melancholic atmosphere, exot- strom. Under its influence he di- contracting eyelid muscles and icism, spellbinding folklore, and the rected, among the others, A Scarlet brushing the ends of his eyebrows up subtle play of light and semitones. Letter with Lilian Gish and Lars and his moustache down. To that These features were clearly visible in Hanson, giving one of the best-known ability he owed the role of a Chinese the works of Victor Seastrom. He masterpieces of American literature detective, Charlie Chan, which was treated film as a branch of culture a place on the screen. Gish praised offered to him by Twentieth Century close to poetry and in this spirit he highly Seastrom’s vision in this film: Fox. This role brought him fame and created them, making nature one of “I felt that this film should be a large group of admirers, not only the most important “characters” and directed by a Swede. Swedes are passionately introducing mystical and supernatural phenomena into his works. These features, typical for Swedish film of that time, are also visible in his American works. In 1923, already a successful director in Sweden, Seastrom came to America. Between 1924 and 1930 he directed nine films with the most famous stars of the time, among them Lillian Gish (A Scarlet Letter, 1926, The Wind, 1928), Greta Garbo (The Divine Woman, 1927), Lon Chaney, and Edward G. Robinson. Seastrom’s first American work was He who gets slapped, but the most significant one was The Wind star- ring Lilian Gish and a very popular Warner Oland (1879–1938). Swedish actor, Lars Hanson. Victor Sjöström/Seastrom (1879–1960). Swedish American Genealogist 2007:3 17 spiritually closer to our Fathers’ melodramas. Still, she managed to Pilgrims . than contemporary create fascinating characters even in Americans . He perfectly under- the most banal and unimaginative stood the soul of this story and . stories. turned out to be an excellent actor, At first, finding herself in a com- the best I have ever worked with.” pletely new environment, she felt In an interview from 1924 Char- intimidated and lost. She didn’t know lie Chaplin described Seastrom as the language and the media showed “the most outstanding director of the no interest in a taciturn Swedish girl. world.” And indeed, he achieved In her next movie, The Temptress immortal fame as a master of silent (1926), she appeared as a femme fa- cinema.