Overview

A memoir about showbiz in the early twentieth century that travels from the theaters of Vienna, Prague, and Berlin, to Hollywood during the golden age. Salka Viertel's autobiography tells of a brilliant, creative, and well-connected woman's pilgrimage through the darkest years of the twentieth century, a journey that would take her from a remote province of the Austro-Hungarian Empire to Hollywood. The Kindness of Strangers is, to quote the New Yorker writer S. N. Behrman, a very rich book. It provides a panorama of the dissolving civilizations of the twentieth century. In all of them the author lived at the apex of their culture and artistic aristocracies. Her childhood . . . is an entrancing idyll. In Berlin, in Prague, in Vienna, there appears Karl Kraus, Kafka, Rilke, Robert Musil, Schoenberg, Einstein, Alban Berg. There is the suffering and disruption of the First World War and the suffering and agony after it, which is described with such intimacy and vividness that you endure these terrible years with the author. Then comes the migration to Hollywood, where Salka's house on Mabery Road becomes a kind of Pantheon for the gathered artists, musicians, and writers. It seems to me that no one has ever described Hollywood and the life of writers there with such verve.

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9798200194629

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Reviews

"Christina Delaine provides a remarkable narration of actress/screenwriter Salka Viertel's autobiography.-- ""AudioFile"" ""Christina Delaine provides a remarkable narration...using an impeccable Polish accent with never a slip...Delaine resonates with Salka's humanity and determination to succeed. Salka's positive effect on the arts is hardly remembered today, but thanks to Delaine's convincing presentation, her life story becomes fascinating listening. Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award."" -- ""AudioFile"" ""From early childhood in the Polish Ukrainian sector of Austria-Hungary through her experiences in the German theater and Hollywood, Mrs. Viertel shares a full life, candidly and rewardingly."" -- ""Kirkus Reviews"" ""Salka ends her book with a phrase about her 'incorrigible heart.' It is this quality which sustains and ennobles all the artistic, intellectual, social and political events which her book narrates."" -- ""The Nation"""

Author Information

Christina Delaine is an AudioFile Earphones Award-winning narrator and accomplished stage actress. Her theater credits include Jewtopia, the longest-running comedy in Off-Broadway history, and the title role in Antigone at both Portland Center Stage and Kentucky Repertory Theatre. She holds a BA degree from Dartmouth College and an MFA in acting from Brown University. Salka Viertel (1889-1978) was born Salomea Sara Steuermann in Galicia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In the late 1920s, Salka and her husband, Berthold Viertel, left Berlin for Hollywood, where Berthold wrote screenplays and directed films and Salka began acting in motion pictures. There, she befriended Greta Garbo on the set of Anna Christie and cowrote screenplays for many films. During World War II, the Viertels started a salon in their home for other emigres. In 1942, Salka was put on an FBI watch list and later her salon was dissolved under the inquisition of the Hollywood film industry. After the war, she returned to Europe, where she lived until the end of her life.

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