In a 1957 interview with reporter Mike Wallace, Hollywood legend Gloria Swanson, 58, sits in an elegant dress topped with an elaborate off-the-shoulder bow, her white-gloved hands twirling a flower in her lap. As Wallace prods her with questions about her talent, her age, and if she’s done with Hollywood after her best-known role as fading actress Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard, Gloria smiles calmly. “Wait a minute, am I through with Hollywood or are they through with me?” she asks. “I would love to do pictures. I’m one of the people who believes in romance, and I don’t think that has any age.”
Gloria would go on to prove that, for her, it was true. She rose to fame as a glamorous star of silent films and had legions of fans. “She lived extravagantly. She traveled with entourages. She spent wildly,” Stephen Shearer, author of the new book Gloria Swanson: Hollywood’s First Glamour Queen, tells Closer. “In those days, the public wanted us to live like kings and queens. And why not? We were in love with life,” said Gloria, who had six husbands, numerous lovers and three children.
As she aged, she refused to dwell on her dimming celebrity. Instead, she took TV parts, became a sculptor and designed a clothing line sold at Saks Fifth Avenue called Forever Young. “Gloria represented an image of glamour,” says Shearer, “She never lived in the past as Norma Desmond did. Gloria always lived for the future.”
Inside Gloria Swanson’s Scandal
Barely 5-feet tall, with luminous eyes and the aura of a star, Gloria started in silent films at 14, first in her native Chicago and then in Los Angeles, working with such legends as Charlie Chaplin, Rudolph Valentino and Cecil B. DeMille. She became more and more famous — at one point she reportedly received 10,000 fan letters a week. And Gloria reveled in the spotlight, traveling, spending like crazy, taking lovers and dressing in Chanel couture. “She knew she had to live a lifestyle to present that image,” Shearer explains, “so she could perpetuate her career and her lifestyle.”
By 26, she was being offered million-dollar contracts and had married her third husband, the French marquis Henri de la Falaise. She had a daughter and an adopted son with her second husband, director and producer Herbert Somborn. Somborn had divorced her in 1923 after accusing her of having 13 affairs. “Gloria always was a sensualist,” Shearer says. The subsequent scandal led studios to add a morality clause to her contracts.
While married to Henri, she met Joseph Kennedy, who offered to help Gloria with her growing money problems. Their chemistry was undeniable.“His mouth was on mine before either of us could speak,” she later wrote of their first encounter. But Kennedy didn’t help her financially. Instead, says Shearer, “he mishandled her money and basically padded his own bank account.”
Gloria Swanson Honed in on Her Future
Gloria stayed focused on the future. “She always was able to use her name, her clout, her legend and image to keep income coming in,” Shearer says. Though her film career cooled, she experienced a resurgence with 1950’s Oscar-winning Sunset Boulevard. She continued to act on stage and TV, was a prolific painter and sculptor, and “she had good, loving relationships with her children and grandchildren,” says Shearer.
Gloria died in 1983 at age 84, and she never lost her sparkle. “Her image is something you can’t take your eyes off of,” Shearer tells Closer. “Hollywood will never be what it was when Gloria Swanson was the first glamour queen.”
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