Ekberg article No3 – This Is Anita

What do you know about Anita.

Ask Tjing Chi Chu who is wolfing down rice with her chop sticks in a bar in Shanghai, ask Igli Iglookutz sitting in her igloo eating seal fat or ask plumber Karlson drinking Three Towns lager in a pub in Malmö. They know about just as much or just as little.

Oh yeah, her. Says Tjin Chi. She’s the one fooling around with Tyron Power. Isn’t she the one Frank Sinatra is dating, says Igli. Karlson thinks she is hanging out with Gary Cooper.

We don’t know yet whether Anita is an actress, or just a starlet. Whether she is a ambitious, suburban girl from Malmö, or just a sexbomb, whether she’s a golddigger or a victim of bad press. But we know one thing, Anita is a star to day, a star on everyones lips, a star who is the image in millions of teenager girl’s dreams of fortune and fame.

And we know one thing more. Those who claim Anita has made a career because she is a blond sexbomb with no moral what so ever is wrong. There are 3.000 blond sexbombs without moral trying their best to make it, and they have not in spite of all their effort.

Anita worked three years to make a break through. The break through took five months. Five months of press harassment, false tributes, muck throwing, miss trust and finally victory.

Here it all started with a telegram from Rome in Expressen (a Swedish newspaper); "The tall Swedish blond was a sensation among the Italians as she walked down the air plane stairs with a dramatic gesture. She was immediately aked about the rumours about her forth coming marriage to Frank Sinatra.

I’m married to my work, she answered. My only love is Robert, she continued stroking the little, white dog she carried on her arm."

She tried hard to hide how proud she was of her part in "War and Peace". Only Audrey Hepburn, Mel Ferrer and Henry Fonda have got larger parts then her. It is wonderful she claimed, I hope I’ll do all right.

This was August 24, last year and here in Sweden we find a healthy scepticism towards Anita’s movie career in Hollywood, but American and the English press in particular thinks Anita is the hottest thing around. In England she is filling more paper columns than the Royal Family.

One American paper wrote; "Hollywood is full of disappointment. Of the more than sixty beautiful young women who have come to Hollywood in recent years only two has still got a studio contract. Only Anita Ekberg seems to be heading for the stars."

In her first movie in Hollywood she played a sweet, young girl, a small part but she was noticed. Behind her you can see Tyron Power, the famous dark eyed heartbreaker, once rumoured to have had a romantic liaison with Anita.

Who said Anita is just a sexbomb. Just recently she finished the work on her part in the famous movie "War and Peace". Anita is dancing in the not yet finished "Zarak Khan". Images released from the film has shocked prudent Englishmen. Indignation all round. Surely, Anita is laughing with the director on this picture, but the movie they are making is a serious one. Anita’s part is a very unglamorous Chinese girl.

Anita has played a police woman on Mars as well. The comedians Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin plays the main characters in the coming "Artists and Models". Anita is the one having her back painted in this scene. From the Swedish movie and news magazine "Bild Journalen" – February 8, 1956.