Hollywood was created by its 'others'; that is, by women, Jews, and immigrants. Salka Viertel was all three and so much more. She was the screenwriter for five of Greta Garbo's movies and also her most intimate friend. At one point during the Irving Thalberg years, Viertel was the highest-paid writer on the MGM lot. Meanwhile, at her house in Santa Monica she opened her door on Sunday afternoons to scores of European emigres who had fled from Hitler - such as Thomas Mann, Bertolt Brecht, and Arnold Schoenberg - along with every kind of Hollywood star, from Charlie Chaplin to Shelley Winters.