Garbo's Slavic pronunciation

[Prof Steven P Hill]

Dear colleagues:

In a famous Hollywood film from 1932, "Grand Hotel," Swedish-American 
actress Greta Garbo plays the role of a Russian ballerina.  In one of her 
melancholy scenes she sadly recalls her life in St Petersburg, including 
a romance with a grand duke, whose name Garbo distinctly pronounces 
"ser-GHEE" [ ser  GIJ }, rather than "ser-GAY" [ ser GEJ ].

I was curious to see whether there had been a technical consultant on 
this film who would have advised the actors on pronunciation, 
ex-Russians like Koblyansky [Kobylianskii], Bertensson, or one of the 
Tolstoy descendants.  But I didn't find any "consultant" credited on 
either "IMDB" or "TCM-DB." (Two fullest on-line sources of minor 
credits in major films, past and present.)

Does anyone out there have an idea where Miss Garbo got that 
old-style pronunciation, "ser-GHEE"?

I suppose a remote possibility might be Garbo's friend SALKA VIERTEL 
(1889-1978), who'd been born Salomea Steuermann, and lived as a 
child, in Sambor,  Galicia.  Mrs Viertel worked as a writer at MGM 
(Garbo's studio) in the 1930s, and collaborated on the scripts for 
several major films in which Garbo played the lead role.  Would it 
make any sense that Garbo could  have picked up "ser-GHEE"
from Salka Viertel?  

Happy Presidents' Day,
Steven P Hilll,
University of Illinois.
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