Saga of Signe Hasso (1943) 🇺🇸
The German submarine threat in the Atlantic forced her to make the trip from her native Sweden by way of Russia, Siberia, Japan and the Pacific. (Of course, this was before we were at war.) It took her two and a half months to circle more than half of the globe.
by Leon Surmelian
This flaming-haired daughter of the Vikings, who pronounces her name Si-nee, was once the toast of Stockholm. She even has the much- coveted Scandinavian Prize to prove it. Five feet-four, curvacious and green-eyed, Signe was one of the most popular and beautiful actresses on the Swedish stage and screen. Then R-K-O signed her for American movies in 1940, which entailed that long and dangerous journey across Europe and Asia to Hollywood.
Once here she was hailed as an exotic new find. She posed for leg art, gave scores of interviews, attended night clubs and important parties. “But,” Signe sighed, “nothing happened. They told me they couldn’t find a good story for me. Months passed and I was doing nothing. I was on salary, of course, but I wanted to work for it. When I went out, people would ask me when I would start working. It was so embarrassing. I was miserable. You can be so terribly lonely even though surrounded by thousands of people.”
So Signe fled from Hollywood. She flew to Washington to get her immigration papers in order. While she was there, the Swedish ambassador gave an elaborate party for her. The next thing she knew she was appearing in a Broadway play, Golden Wings. George Jean Nathan promptly proclaimed her “the most attractive new foreign actress in America.” And most important, she was discovered by M-G-M.
Even with this sudden good fortune, the glamorous Swedish star was unhappy. Her seven-year-old son was still in Sweden. (Signe had divorced her director husband, Harry Hasso, in 1940.) She couldn’t be happy without her son, so she pulled strings, and recently he was a passenger on the famed Drottningholm during the exchange of Nazi and American diplomats. Mother and son went to Canada to re-enter the United States for permanent residence, only to discover that they would have to wait a year. So they hurried to Mexico, re-crossed the border a half an hour later and eagerly applied for citizenship papers.
Hollywood is to Signe “too beautiful to be true.” She was very poor as a child after her father died. She claims it was the suffering and experiences of her childhood that made her an actress. An orange was a great treat. She wore second-hand shoes that were too big, and her first dress made of new material was her wedding dress when she was seventeen. She sacrificed and worked hard in order to attend the Royal Dramatic School in Stockholm.
Signe’s first film for Metro will be “Assignment in Brittany,” adapted from the best seller. She will appear opposite the new French star, Pierre Aumont [Jean-Pierre Aumont].
Not only can this Scandinavian beauty act, but she can write, too! Her first job in Hollywood was as correspondent for a Swedish newspaper. She’s had scores of articles about Hollywood and America published. Not knowing Swedish, we can’t pass on the merit of her work, but she is certainly one of the most beautiful writers.
“In Sweden,” Signe explained, “they know everything about American stars. What interested my readers most was the backstage life of Hollywood — what the town was really like. So I wrote about eating in drugstores (in Sweden drugstores are strictly prescription pharmacies and very dignified). I wrote about the drive-ins, hamburgers with onions and hot dogs with mustard, and those wonderful huge markets where you wait on yourself.”
It was in one of those super-markets that Signe helped her English along by getting the clerks to name all the products she bought or that she saw displayed. Now she speaks a rapid-fire, colloquial English, interspersed with the best American slang, though with a slight delightful accent.
Ingrid Bergman, another of Sweden’s best, is a close friend. Also she has met Garbo [Greta Garbo] and found her “very nice,” but that silent lady remains a mystery even to her fellow-countrymen.
Signe lives in a charming, flower-filled home on Cheviot Hills, where she writes and studies to her heart’s content. She’s come a long way by a long route, but once here she’s finding the shortest way to America’s heart.
Signe Hasso was the toast of her native Sweden before she left for Hollywood. Once here, she couldn’t land a part. Now she’s in M-G-M’s “Assignment in Brittany”
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Are the Mickey Rooneys [Mickey Rooney, Ava Gardner] reconciling? Or will their separation end in divorce? Read the February issue of Hollywood for the inside story
Collection: Hollywood Magazine, January 1943