Born in Surrey, England in 1972, twins Austin and Howard Mutti-Mewse were raised in a household that enjoyed classic black-and-white Hollywood movies, and aged 12, the pair enthusiastically began writing to their on-screen legends. “Ultimate glamour personified,” says Howard of old Hollywood’s faraway appeal. Many responded with heartfelt, handwritten notes and signed pictures, with Lillian Gish the first actor to reply. The so-called First Lady of American Cinema was entranced by the twins’ “Englishness” and was followed by Katharine Hepburn, Frank Sinatra and Shirley Temple. Letters soon turned into invites for tea, and the twins made their first visit to Hollywood in 1992, long after the demise of the much-loved studio system. “Someone once asked our mum about our fascination for film, but she was always nonchalant,” says Austin. “She and Dad were equally relaxed when Marlene Dietrich called and one New Year's Eve when Robert Mitchum rang.” Over a decade later, the twins—who continue to keep in contact with surviving stars—compiled their treasured findings in the book, I Used to be in Pictures. Below, Austin Mutti-Mewse reveals to NOWNESS some of his untold Hollywood stories.

Only one screen legend eluded us: Greta Garbo. Rex Harrison who lived in the same apartment building as Garbo suggested to Howard and I that our flattery was futile. “Gentleman, she has no interest,” he once told us. “Miss Garbo has made a second career out of trying to avoid anything relating to her first as a film actress, and like the former she's succeeding rather brilliantly at it.”

Mildred Shay once told me that at the famed movie director Cecil B. DeMille’s estate Paradise Ranch, guests would eat oysters with the pearls still attached. For the females there was a gift of an ermine cape on each of the dining room chairs with tiny ermine tails around the collar.

We walk along a path and through a small gate and suddenly, there’s Anita Page. Sitting poolside on a white plastic sunbed wearing a white and pink polka-dot short sleeve day dress. No makeup; bare arms with just wisps of white hair; her skin, alabaster. On spotting the pair of us [her companion] quickly grabs a Walmart carrier bag and pulls out a honey-colored wig and in a flash forces it rather haphazardly on her head.