Greta Garbo and the Rise of the Modern Woman is not strictly a Hollywood biography, it tells a different story of Garbo. It is the story of a woman who changed Hollywood and culture. Greta Garbo and the Rise of the Modern Woman tells how she transformed the world for women a century ago. What emerges is a totally different Garbo, one who changed acting and who was the person women turned to in order to become modern. 

Greta Garbo was the Scott Reisfield’s great aunt and he usres letters and documents previously unavailable to reveal her life more accurately that previously possible. Because fundamental misstatements about Garbo are disproven, an entire new, and more interesting, arc of her life and career is revealed. Garbo was talented. She was trained at the finest theater school and worked hard at her craft. 

Garbo acted in a new, naturalistic style that Hollywood then followed. This transformed acting in film. Audiences fell in love with Garbo immediately. Where most actors took a decade to work their way up to stardom, Garbo instantly created a large and dedicated fan base, Modern Women. Many of these fans were the rising numbers of clerks who drove the transformation from the Victorian to the Modern. Not content to just attend her movies and collect her photographs they copied her clothes and hairstyles. Entire fashion cycles were driven by Garbo. The intensity of their fandom was breathtaking. For example, in 1930 Garbo received nearly four times more mail than President Hoover. 

Even as a new arrival in Hollywood Garbo wanted control of her career. Garbo stood up for herself against MGM, demanding and getting contracts that recognized her value. When only twenty-one, she walked away from the studio for six months until MGM relented. 

The groundbreaking and inspiring choices Garbo made affected the women’s issues of the day. Several of her films were central to the development and implementation of the Code, the height of American censorship. She then faced a censorship backlash that led to the condemnation of Two-Faced Woman. Garbo spend another fifteen years on seven different projects, none of which were produced. The year 2026 is the hundredth anniversary of the release of Garbo’s first MGM film.

In Scott’s own words: “I have taken the skills I learned during my business career and turned them to writing. I am skilled at analysis and understanding brands and what makes them go. I spent years studying consumer motivations and behavior. My projects reflect how we fit into the modern moment.”