Gloria Laura Vanderbilt (February 20, 1924 – June 17, 2019) was an American artist, author, actress, fashion designer, heiress, and socialite. During the 1930s, she was the subject of a high-profile child custody trial in which her mother, Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt, and her paternal aunt, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, each sought custody of her and control over her trust fund. Called the "trial of the century" by the press, the court proceedings were the subject of wide and sensational press coverage, due to the wealth and prominence of the involved parties and the scandalous evidence presented to support Whitney's claim that Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt was an unfit parent.[1]
In the 1970s, Vanderbilt launched a line of fashions, perfumes, and household goods bearing her name. She was particularly noted as an early developer of designer blue jeans.[2]
Early life
Vanderbilt was born on February 20, 1924, in Manhattan, New York City, the only child of railroad heir Reginald Claypoole Vanderbilt of the Vanderbilt family[3][4] and his second wife, Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt.[5][6] When Vanderbilt was born, her father was heard to exclaim in delight, "It is fantastic how Vanderbilt she looks! See the corners of her eyes, how they turn up?"[7] She was baptized in the Episcopal Church by Bishop Herbert Shipman as Gloria Laura Vanderbilt. After her father's death, she was confirmed and raised in the Catholic Church, to which her mother belonged.[8] From her father's first marriage to Cathleen Neilson, she had one elder half-sister, Cathleen Vanderbilt.[9]
Upon their father's death from cirrhosis, when Vanderbilt was 18 months old, she and her half-sister became heiresses to a half share each in a $5 million trust fund, equivalent to $ million in value.[10] The control of Vanderbilt's share, while she was a minor, belonged to her mother, who, for years, traveled to and from Paris, taking her daughter with her. They were accompanied by a beloved nanny—Emma Sullivan Kieslich,[11] whom young Gloria had named "Dodo"—who would play a tumultuous part in the child's life,[12] and her mother's identical twin sister, Thelma, who was the lover of the Prince of Wales (later Edward VIII), during this time. As a result of her spending habits, her mother's use of finances was scrutinized by the child's paternal aunt, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney. A sculptor and philanthropist, Whitney wanted custody of her niece, which resulted in a custody trial.[13][14] The trial was so scandalous that at times, the judge would make everyone leave the room, so as to listen to what young Vanderbilt had to say without anyone influencing her. Some people heard weeping and wailing from inside the courtroom.
Litigation continued, however. Vanderbilt's mother was forced to live on a drastically reduced portion of her daughter's trust, which was worth more than $4 million, at the end of 1937,[17] equivalent to $ million in value. Visitation was also closely watched, to ensure that Vanderbilt's mother did not exert any undue influence upon her daughter with her supposedly "raucous" lifestyle. Vanderbilt was raised amidst luxury at her aunt Gertrude's mansion in Old Westbury, Long Island, surrounded by cousins her age who lived in houses circling the vast estate and in New York City.[18]
The story of the trial was told in the 1980 Barbara Goldsmith book, Little Gloria... Happy at Last, and a 1982 NBC miniseries of the same name based on it,[15] which was nominated for six Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Award.[19] Actress Jennifer Dundas played Gloria.[20]
Vanderbilt attended the Greenvale School on Long Island; Miss Porter's School in Farmington, Connecticut; and then the Wheeler School[21][22] in Providence, Rhode Island, as well as the Art Students League in New York City, developing the artistic talent for which she would become increasingly known during her career. When Vanderbilt came of age and took control of her trust fund, she cut her mother off entirely,[23] though they later were reconciled. Her mother died in Los Angeles, in 1965.[24]
Following the death of her paternal grandmother Alice Claypoole Vanderbilt in 1934, Gloria inherited approximately $880,000.[25][26] Upon reaching her majority, the value of Gloria's inheritance fund from her father and grandmother had grown to approximately $4,717,000.[27]
Career
Theater arts
From 1954 to 1963, Vanderbilt applied herself to acting. She studied acting at the Neighborhood Playhouse, with teacher Sanford Meisner, and debuted in 1954, in The Swan, staged at Pocono Playhouse in Mountainhome, Pennsylvania. In 1955, she appeared on Broadway, as Elsie, in a revival of William Saroyan's The Time of Your Life. Vanderbilt also appeared in a number of live and filmed television dramas, including Playhouse 90, Studio One in Hollywood, and The Dick Powell Show. She made an appearance in a two-part episode of The Love Boat, in 1981.[28] Other TV programs on which she appeared include Person to Person, with Edward R. Murrow, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, The Oprah Winfrey Show, Live! with Kelly and Michael and CBS News Sunday Morning.
Fashion
Vanderbilt began her career as a fashion model when she was 15 years old, appearing in Harper's Bazaar.[29]
Personal life
Marriages
In 1941, aged 17, Vanderbilt went to Hollywood, where she became the second wife of Pat DiCicco, an agent for actors and an alleged mobster.[50] They divorced in 1945 and had no children together.[51] She later alleged that DiCicco was an abusive husband who called her "Fatsy Roo" and beat her. "He would take my head and bang it against the wall," Vanderbilt said, "I had black eyes."[52]
In April 1945, within weeks of divorcing DiCicco, Vanderbilt married conductor Leopold Stokowski, who was 42 years her senior. He had three daughters by his previous marriages to Olga Samaroff, an American concert pianist, and Evangeline Love Brewster Johnson, a Johnson & Johnson heiress. She was his third and last wife.[53]
Works
External links
- "Gloria Vanderbilt's Many Loves". CBS News. July 31, 2005
- "CBC's Q with Jian Ghomeshi", July 30, 2012
References
- Gillian Brockell. 'Poor little rich girl': Gloria Vanderbilt was caught between a neglectful mother and an oppressive aunt The Washington Post, June 17, 2019^
- Katherine Lam. How Gloria Vanderbilt became a designer jeans pioneer, fashion industry leader Fox Business, 2019-06-17, retrieved 2023-06-13^
- Gloria Vanderbilt. A Mother's Story