Напомнив памятного персонажа "Дней Турбиных" общей чертой касательно взаимоотношений с миром, Эрих бесспорно окружил себя шедеврами - прежде всего, того, что назидательный ученый люд назвал бы термином сродни "ауто-фанфикшену": неодолимая фантазия имела результатом не только измывательства над угнетенными актерами, но и создание бесчисленного биографического мифа, цитировать который не придется без должной доли удовольствия —
"In 1919 he told interviewers,
"My father was a count, and my mother . . . was a baroness and lady-in-waiting to the late Empress Elizabeth [but] titles are not worth a pfennig in Austria . . . I've been an American citizen too long to care for such baubles." However, he did not actually become an American citizen until 1926, seven years after the interviews."
...далее...более того! Эрих придумывал себе моменты медицины - бесспорно преданный канонам жанра мастер xD
"He claimed he was an officer in the Austrian cavalry. He fought, was wounded and scarred in Bosnian border skirmishes; between battle engagements he made love to gypsy girls mesmerized by a man in a dashing Austrian Imperial uniform. After years of meritorious service to the Emperor Franz Josef, he came to America where he served with the American military and trained soldiers prior to the first world war. Except that none of these stories is true."
"Henabery confirmed to Lennig that neither he nor Stroheim were Griffith's assistants. He also insisted that Stroheim did not perform any stunts on Birth, especially one in which a soldier falls from a rooftop, which Stroheim later claimed he had performed, resulting in two broken ribs."
"As a penniless immigrant in 1909, Erich Stroheim had arrived at Ellis Island and told immigration officers he was "Erich Oswald Hans Carl Maria von Stroheim," an officer and an aristocrat." [sic!]
"Henabery met Stroheim at the earliest point in Stroheim's career, and offered an amusing account of how Stroheim, looking for extra work, would show up on film lots in a rented black limousine with a rented chauffer, wearing a long black coat and his trademark monocle. After pulling out his wallet and paying the chauffer, he would take his place on a bench with the other extras, waiting for an opportunity. According to Henabery, it certainly made him stand out from the usual pack of hopefuls."
(с)
...продолжение последует)