Gloria Vanderbilt: World Famous Socialite | Full Documentary | Biography

millionaire socialite best-selling author  world-famous designer gloria vanderbilt had it   all did it all and very nearly lost it all she was  born into one of america's richest families and   one of the most bizarre her childhood was a blur  of exotic travel castles the century's most famous   custody battle and headlines little gloria was  the number one target of her day's version of   paparazzi she suffered through the death of an  alcoholic father the neglect of a glamorous mother   and then she tried to compensate with numerous  marriages and love affairs and his biography   reveals when gloria vanderbilt finally had what  she wanted most a loving husband and family   again she was struck by multiple tragedies if  you're of my era and you heard the name gloria   vanderbilt i mean you go like this because you've  heard her story her story was a famous american   story little gloria was initially presented as  this waif uh almost an orphan type figure being   torn apart by the conflict between her mother  and her enormous family she was complex she was   witty she was funny she loved to laugh and have  a good time she was always sort of catnip to men   everybody probably thought you know she's a  little bit off the wall she'd married all these   extraordinary people and she had an art show and  an art gallery in one minute and suddenly she made   a go of this design stuff by gum she made so much  money she made millions and millions and millions she was indeed the pioneer in in designer gene  putting her name on the genes was indeed the first   well i really think the whole creative drive comes  of wanting to make order out of chaos i wanted   really to make something of my life you know  my mom is shaped i think by loss and shaped by   those she has met and those she has  been with and though she has lost vanderbilt born into one of the most prominent  families in america gloria vanderbilt has emerged   as an individual in her own right her name  has become the symbol for a style that is both   fashionably chic and classically elegant yet her  vanderbilt heritage has been both a blessing and   a curse she has endured lifelong public scrutiny  faced loss alienation family intrigue and shocking   deaths and through it all lived with a name that  dates back to the early days of american royalty in the early 1800s cornelius vanderbilt a boatman  started a ferry service in new york harbor this   thriving business expanded into a fleet of steam  ships that plied the world and made him millions   known as the commodore vanderbilt went on to build  a railroad network and become one of america's   first millionaires the vanderbilts were american  royalty when commodore vanderbilt died the   american stock exchange closed for three days when  his son william henry died he was the richest man   in america the commodore's great-grandson reggie  vanderbilt was considered a prize catch in the   1920s even though he was a known drinker who  had gone through nearly all of his fortune   in 1922 he met the lovely young gloria morgan who  with her twin sister was one of the great beauties   of the day when 44 year old reggie married 19 year  old gloria in 1923 it seemed a wonderful match   alice vanderbilt reggie's mother was actually  very happy that he had chosen gloria morgan   and what was finally looking at settling  down his sister gertrude however was not   so sure that gloria would be the best  for him and maintain some distance   reggie's sister gertrude vanderbilt whitney was  a married socialite and noted arts patron she may   have had her doubts about the newest vanderbilt  bride but she and the entire family welcomed the   birth of gloria and reggie's child on february 20  1924 a daughter they named gloria laura vanderbilt   soon after her birth little gloria's parents  departed for europe they left her in the care   of her grandmother morgan and her nurse whom she  called dodo it was a situation that soon became   a habit they were really my substitute mothers  because they were really the only mother images   really people that i had that were close to  me that were there and we were happy together   in 1925 little gloria's father died of liver  disease at his death the infant became an   heiress with a 3 million dollar trust fund   her 21 year old mother suddenly single again  headed for paris and took her baby with her it was the height of the roaring 20s and the  beautiful widow gloria indulged herself in a   dazzling world of travel and glamorous partying  society takes the stage mrs gloria vanderbilt as   sun goddess is among the 2000 present at the most  littering pageant in gotham social merry-go-round   little gloria quiet and reserved was cared for  only by her grandmother and dodo and soon felt   isolated from the mother she rarely saw and  it was always from the back that i saw her   disappearing down the corridor or getting  into a rolls-royce or a hispano-swissa   as if she was a butterfly and i was   trying to catch her but i didn't she was very  elusive unattainable magical extraordinary little gloria a shy and sensitive girl developed  a tight bond with dodo since she was afraid of   the dark dodo would sleep in the child's bedroom  every night the two played games together swam had   picnics and sang songs it was a relationship  typical of wealthy families of the day   our parents were very removed from  us and so in their place were these   wonderful surrogate nurses or nannies  or governesses and dodo was gloria's   nurse but more than a nurse she was like a  friend and a companion and a mother figure as they moved throughout europe dodo  and grandmother morgan began to complain   about the elder gloria's active partying gloria  enjoyed the attentions of many handsome escorts   among them a young german prince when she decided  to marry him grandmother morgan was outraged she   began a campaign to separate little gloria from  her mother wanting to please her grandmother   and keep dodo at her side little gloria  followed their instructions she wrote   awful letters about her mother and even faked  illnesses to prove she was being neglected   back in the states the vanderbilt relatives  worried about little gloria's upbringing   it wasn't typical to go off and party  and and leave the child behind the way   gloria morgan was so i think that gertrude and  other members of the family were really behaving   appropriately from their point of view when  they became concerned about the baby's welfare when little gloria returned to the united states  her aunt suggested she stay at her home on long   island the sprawling estate became a haven for  little gloria a secure castle for her and dodo   her mother allowed little gloria to stay on for  the first time in her life she attended school   little gloria was enrolled at the prestigious  green veil school in roslyn long island   we were just little girls at school  rather the way she was retiring shy   and careful to stay with people  that she liked or that she trusted little gloria was now so busy with her country  life she hardly had time to miss her mother at all   and she'd become completely attached to dodo  one day while visiting her mother little gloria   overheard her plans to fire dodo the mere  suggestion sent her into a crying fit dodo   took the hysterical child back to gertrude who by  now was convinced her niece should remain in her   care the stage was set for a battle over little  gloria both her mother and her aunt went to court   in the height of the depression on october 1 1934  the custody trial called the matter of vanderbilt   became the talk of the nation i was little gloria  i wouldn't want to go with my mother because she   went out nice and in case there was a fire i would  have gotten burnt and that would have been the end   of may already in a frenzy over the lindbergh baby  kidnapping and its big trial the press were primed   for another major courtroom event when this trial  hit the headlines the public was hungry and just   ate up all the news every day they crowded to the  trial spot and yelled and screamed at gertrude and   young gloria they would yell at gertrude don't  take her away from her mom don't do that little   gloria herself was questioned by the judge and  had bad things to say about her mother i'd been   coached of course to say things against my mother  and i was told that if i did dodo would stay and that really is what i wanted  more than anything in the beginning   the sympathy was all or pretty much with gloria  morgan vanderbilt and the trial was wide open   and then there was a fatal scandalous moment that  moment came to light when gloria morgan's french   maid was questioned by her lawyer he said did you  ever see anything that was the least bit peculiar   and the maid said well actually yes i came  in one morning with the breakfast tray   and gloria vanderbilt and the martinez of milford  haven were in bed together and both of these women   were kissing each other as if they were lovers  and at that moment there was pandemonium in the   courtroom and justice carew knocked down  his hammer and said this court is closed in november of 1934 little gloria was declared a  ward of the state her aunt gertrude was named her   guardian her mother was declared unfit little  gloria would see her only on summer visits but   the real shock for little gloria was the court's  decision about dodo the judge felt dodo was an   obstacle to the mother-daughter relationship  and ordered her out of the child's life   little gloria's one true mother  was dismissed on christmas eve 1934   when dodo was sent away that was really the most terrible thing  that had ever happened to me because i was told i'd never see her again it was  a loss from which she would never fully recover   ten-year-old gloria was now alone back at  her aunt's estate she would live as a true   vanderbilt child with all its gilded trappings but  she was stripped of the love and security that she   would now search an entire lifetime to replace by  1935 eleven-year-old gloria vanderbilt's childhood   was over she had been dragged through one of  the most dramatic and notorious custody fights   in legal history and she emerged the ultimate  loser separated from her beloved nurse   and fearful of her mother she lived with her aunt  gertrude who was herself an aloof and frequently   absent guardian gloria was left without the love  and support she and most children her age craved   this was not an era where one was close we we  were brought in in the morning to say good morning   or we were brought in for tea all dressed up  and that was it we didn't know it i mean we were   materially very well provided for but  we were emotionally starved and deprived   the court allowed gloria to spend summers with  her mother time they took to repair their torn relationship in july of 1935 the two put  on a play shown here in this home movie   her mother portrays a queen and gloria  is her faithful attendant she combs her   mother's long hair and waits on her when  the queen's jewels are stolen gloria is horrified but they are recovered and in  the end love seems to conquer all   for gloria and her mother however things  were never so simple the more time gloria   spent with her mother the more she began  to doubt if the two would ever become close i think there are some women that  really should not have children and   i think probably my mother was  one of them because she was not to have a child you have to extend yourself and you have to want to extend  yourself despite her problems gloria flourished   at the greenvale school though she was an average  student and rather shy an artistic side began to   emerge she played ruth in the in the pirates  of penzance and she had a mother singing voice   a controlled her she was wonderful and  she also was extremely good at painting   and drawing she also had a fascination with  the movies she love to escape her own troubles   by watching the imaginary lives of  the stars unfold on screen well i was   completely movie struck all i wanted to do  was go to the movies i felt that the movies were how it was going to be when you  grew up and i couldn't wait to get there so in 1937 when her mother took her on a summer  trip to hollywood gloria was thrilled they mingled   with many of her mother's star friends like  mourinho sullivan and joan crawford they even   spent time at san simeon the extravagant home  of her mother's friend william randolph hearst   we used to have lunches and dinners at this  long table in the great hall and of course   my mother was on mr hearst ride and i was way  down at the end of the of the table but it was   kind of neat because i could look up and see all  the grown-ups who were there you know gloria had   the time of her life but her adventures displeased  her aunt she decided gloria needed a more stable   environment upon her graduation from greenvale in  1938 gertrude sent gloria off to boarding school   in farmington connecticut farmington was very  conventional and i don't think she liked it at all   you had to wear a brook's brother's polo coat  basically a boys polo coat with white buttons and   gloria certainly did not did not wear those things  she wore angdora sweaters or cashmere i suppose   she was different and that was  not a good thing to be different   gloria's well-dressed style and artistic  sensibilities made her a dynamic combination   in her teen years she became a trend setting east  coast society girl she was even featured in the   fashionable women's magazine harper's bazaar  in 1939. flamingo as soon as she could be one   you know plum little girls aren't very glamorous  but then when when you get through that stage she   was very much you know she went to all those kind  of new york parties and had a lot of boyfriends   meanwhile on the other coast gloria's mother had  become a fixture on the hollywood social scene   and gloria longed to once again  returned to that exciting lifestyle   when she turned 16 with permission from the  court gloria packed her bags and headed out west   it was really as if i was a bird let out of a cage  it was the most incredible sense of freedom and of   course all i was interested in was dating movie  stars and they had to be much older than i was   perhaps searching for a father figure gloria  began dating several older and sometimes   infamous men like errol flynn and howard  hughes but it was an employee of hughes that   seemed to take the most interest pat desicco who  was almost twice her age the former actor's agent   was an art and suitor and soon proposed  marriage and to many people's surprise   gloria accepted i don't think i could have chosen  anything more perfect to get my aunt's attention   to really annoy her which of course it did he  was perfect for that wanting to escape her aunt's   control and her tense relationship with her mother  seventeen-year-old gloria married 31 year old pat   on december 28 1941. we felt when we were married  this would be a marvelous different world but you   know we didn't know anything then at 17 or 18.  we we didn't know anything about life or people   we didn't have a clue about anything well i think  there's no question that she was on an enormous   search for her own identity i think she was always  looking to find out who she was yet gloria's new   burst of independence was tinged with sadness her  aunt gertrude died four months after the ceremony   she remained against the marriage till the end  though her niece ignored her negative feelings   with the nation now entering world war  ii pat enlisted he and gloria lived on   army bases until they moved to new york city  between assignments pat a second lieutenant   indulged in the big city nightlife he started to  drink and gamble which fueled his well-known quick   temper a violent side emerged in him  that was soon directed at gloria i think   very often that uh women who are in an abusive  situation which i was he used to beat me up you're ashamed gloria turned to painting for  comfort she also met a man who dazzled her   at first sight the distinguished and  talented conductor leopold stakowski   as her 21st birthday neared gloria knew  she would soon have control over her large   vanderbilt inheritance and could do what  she wanted she decided she would affect   major changes in her life she left pat in january  of 1945 and she began making plans for her future   a future she hoped would bring her the  security and love that had so far eluded her in 1945 21 year old gloria vanderbilt took  charge of her life she now controlled her 4   million dollar inheritance she paid two hundred  thousand dollars to pat tosico they divorced   in april the day the decree was final april  21st 1945 she married the new man in her life   famed conductor leopold stakowski i absolutely  loved him a lot yes first of all he was a genius   whose music to me was glorious and wonderful  and it was it was an extraordinary thing that   happened to me the two were a charming and  sophisticated couple who seemed to delight   in their life together even though there  was an almost 40-year gap in their ages   gloria and leopold had a wonderfully whimsical  playful slant on life i remember once they   pitched up at my apartment at on west 57th street  and they were he was in full black tie and she   was in a beautiful lame evening dress and i came  to the door in an old rapper and they said we're   here for dinner and i said oh oh but it it it's  next week and of course they knew perfectly well   and they were just playing a joke gloria and  leopold settled down on a farm in connecticut   1950 saw the arrival of a son stanley a  year later came another boy christopher gloria enlisted a housekeeper to help with the  boys now she could continue her work as a painter   and juggle the duties of motherhood as well  sometimes she managed to combine both her children   and her art various times the walls would get  plastered and then while it was still wet we would   take all these different seashells and cover  the wall we covered the whole wall with that   gloria also tried her hand at acting in 1954  she made her stage debut at the pocono playhouse   in the swan gloria portrayed the princess  the new york times praised her performance   noting she seemed more at home on stage than other  veteran actors gloria was now hooked on acting   she immediately secured an agent and she took on  other roles she had found a new creative niche   gloria vanderbilt was the ingenue i  mean she was wonderful looking and   it just wanted so much to be an actress  at that at that point in her life i mean   i'm not trying to say this she was going to  be greta garbo and i i don't mean that i mean   that at that time in her life she wanted to be  an actress and she was acting and she was good the leopold encouraged her painting he  was not thrilled with glorious interest   in acting he seemed to consider it a lesser art  form problems began to surface in their marriage   gloria had been supporting her mother  with an allowance from her inheritance   leopold urged her to cut off that allowance which  caused a media stir and further eroded the fragile   mother-daughter bond his heavy touring schedule  also took its toll on their family life in 1954   after nine years of marriage the two separated  i would go with my father uh on weekends and   most of the summers and then be with my mother  during the week and on part of vacations and   um and yeah there's there's a lot of difficulty  to that it would have been great if they had   communicated more but you know  for various reasons they didn't   now 30 years old gloria began to exhibit a growing  sense of independence while she still searched to   find a secure and satisfying life she explored  her newfound freedom soon she was seen around   town on the arm of one of the country's biggest  stars frank sinatra she divorced tokowski in 1955   and continued to act appearing in the play  picnic her director was sidney lamette   before long a romance blossomed between  the two and they married august 27 1956.   she married sydney lumet  who was this quintessential   new york tough guy movie director i think  she was attracted to this kind of gritty   uh jewish guy from the streets grew up in  queens or the bronx or someplace you know she   she wanted experience unlike leopold sydney  encouraged gloria's career she expanded her   roles from the stage to television you know  johnny lying here i've been thinking what about i want you to go to medical school we've been all over that please  johnny please think about it promise me all right i'll think about it johnny i mean  it you've always wanted to and now dr coleman   says you should do you have any ideas i know the  money but i can get a job we may not have a baby in 1959 gloria found herself right back in the  thick of another court battle reminiscent of her   own childhood trauma this time it was over her  sons leopold stakowski filed suit to gain full   custody of the boys the battle was draining but  gloria prevailed still her troubles continued   cracks began to appear in gloria's marriage to  sydney caused she felt by her increasing career   ambitions the timing was wrong because sydney  always puts the life first and the work second   but i was not that way then i put the work first  and the life second so the timing was wrong   but just because the marriage ended doesn't  mean it wasn't happy i think gloria's a   terrific romantic and i think romantics tend not  to stay married all that long to the same person   necessarily after seven years together  gloria and sydney divorced in august of 1963.   shortly afterwards she found love again with the  mississippi-born writer and editor wyatt cooper   warm sensitive and full of southern courtliness  wyatt became the steady partner gloria needed   he could give her the love and support she  had longed for since childhood they married   on christmas eve 1963. soon gloria found herself  living in the happiest and most fulfilling period   of her life a time that would soon make the  well-known heiress into a household name by the mid-1960s it seemed gloria vanderbilt  had finally found the happiness she longed   for now in a solid marriage to wyatt cooper  she was able to enjoy a wonderful home life   at last it was the calmest of the  marriages i think in a way and very sturdy   wyatt was just right for her you know some  people are just right together and they were   gloria also developed a closer relationship with  her mother after years of estrangement the two   finally started to get along but a lifetime  spent living in alienation still left gloria   slightly uneasy about their bond she was the most  passive gentle person you could possibly imagine   and when wyatt met her he said this woman  doesn't know one single thing that's ever   happened to her and i really think that's true  i also don't really know how bright she was   really gloria morgan vanderbilt died in  february of 1965. her daughter was filled with   sadness the two had become close but still never  established the bond that gloria had longed for   in gloria's last conversation with her mother she  told her about the birth of her grandson carter with the arrival of anderson in 1967  gloria's family was complete and since   wyatt was a devoted dad she could observe  firsthand the role of a loving father   bryant cooper was an extraordinary father  i had never really understood what a father   could be like but i did when i saw how  wyatt was with carter and anderson it   was a sort of miraculous revelation to me and  it was sort of really like i had a father too   and gloria reveled in motherhood but she was  hardly the typical parent her style was definitely   looser and more laid back than that of more  traditional women i mean i always have sort of   viewed her as this sort of incredible apparition  almost you know i don't think we ever expected   um her to be baking cookies and on the pta i mean  there was always this great sense of um you know   my mom is sort of this unique creature and so  is my dad and and so um i sort of the values   that were instilled in me were you know that it's  important to be unique and it's important to to be   yourself as opposed to sort of going along with  what the crowd thinks or what other people say   fulfilled in her family life gloria  concentrated on her professional one   her paintings and collages  spawned an interest in design   in 1968 hallmark asked her to create cards and  stationary she also got a call from a textile firm   to design fabrics when a hong kong-based company  asked her to lend her name and creative input   to their clothing line she agreed by the early  1970s gloria had established a solid reputation   in the fashion world i think it was something that  interested her and charmed her because she was so   well-dressed herself she had been dressed by all  of the great dressmakers in paris and in new york   the woman tends to design for herself and that  indeed is what gloria did when she was doing   the gloria vanderbilt collection she was also  making money lots of it by 1976 her company was   bringing in millions and was being courted by  larger corporations gloria was now making her   mark as a businesswoman quite a surprising role  for a wealthy heiress and there's nothing so nice   as making money of your own it was marvelous for  gloria to make her own money and buy gum she made   so much money she made millions and millions  and millions with blue jeans and sheets and   china and household things and goodness i  mean she had hundreds licensees with her   name gloria vanderbilt there it was and the  place where that name became most prominent   was on the denim-clad bottoms of millions of  american women gloria started a fashion sensation she was indeed the a pioneer in in designer jeans  doing the jeans putting her name on the jeans was   indeed a first look my jeans and tops imagine what  uh an impact that must have had among the the new   york elite who saw this prominent name that had  been associated with uh philanthropy splashdown   genes of all things and she had so much fun doing  the advertising uh she just gave a very different   attitude from what women of her  class are supposed to portray   but while gloria was coming into her own  professionally she suffered a severe personal blow   wyatt who had long suffered from heart problems  had a major heart attack in 1978 waiting in the   darkened hospital gloria was not prepared for  the agonizing announcement she soon received that   wyatt had died after an unsuccessful operation for  gloria it was another painful loss of a loved one he was only 50 when he died and it was it was  just inconceivable to me that he would die   i really couldn't believe it in gloria's darkest moments she refused to  break down though she began seeing a therapist   she remained strong and determined something  she had learned from her long ago struggles   gloria said that no matter what happened she had  really emotionally died years ago when she was 10 she just learned to be very  historical and self-contained now a single mother gloria focused on her family  and her work by 1980 gloria vanderbilt jeans   grossed over 160 million dollars she  launched a signature perfume in 1982   vanderbilt a rich expressive fragrance that  reveals to the world just how splendid you are   vanderbilt let it release the splendor of you  vanderbilt and she wrote two volumes of her   memoirs in which she finally explored  the details of her turbulent childhood   with a successful career created  apart from her famous family   and a new understanding of her past gloria seemed  secure but soon another personal devastation   would disrupt her life and anguish  unlike anything she'd ever known by july of 1988 gloria vanderbilt had  suffered many blows but had emerged   unbeaten yet nothing she had experienced could  prepare her for the tragedy that soon overtook   her life once again it was a loss she could not  prevent and from which some thought she might   never recover on a warm friday evening when gloria  was in her room her 23 year old son carter entered   he'd gotten up from a nap dazed and confused he  ran through his mother's apartment and headed out   onto the terrace going right to its edge and sat  on the edge of the balcony and he put his hand up   like that not to come near and uh i started to  get down on my knees and i said carter he said   don't do that mom don't do that and he put his  hands on the edge and hung down and just let go carter slipped over the side  and fell 14 stories to his death she was stunned that's the only word i can  think of just absolutely stunned she um   talked about it describe what it happened   it's just one of those moments in life  you know when you just think what what you know it can't have happened   people speculated on whether or not carter's  death was a suicide gloria came to believe he   had been sleepwalking and that combined with the  new medication he'd been taking for respiratory   problems caused his untimely accidental death yet  despite her overwhelming grief she was determined   to go forward when carter died one of  the things that that really sustained   me moment by moment i thought i want to be  on my feet i want to show that a person can   experience this and survive and live on and  have a life the amazing thing about her is that   despite surviving things which  are for many people unimaginable   she has maintained this vulnerability and this  ability to sort of be touched and moved by things   that is her greatest strength by the early 1990s  gloria found the will to continue on with her life   despite the devastating losses she had suffered   she began to ease herself out of her business  projects to concentrate on her art but soon   faced another crisis two people whom she trusted  completely betrayed her her longtime therapist   and the lawyer he'd recommended to handle her  finances cheated her the two of them together   formed a company and defrauded me of my business  money that i'd worked for in 1993 a court ruled   in glorious favor and she was awarded some of the  money she'd lost but she was never able to collect   it reports of financial trouble soon plagued  gloria tax debts and legal bills began to mount   the one-time millionaires was forced to sell her  homes and live more modestly still gloria did not   allow financial setbacks to defeat her in 1996  she rebounded with a well-received account about   her son's death and her own acceptance of the  years of loss with which she'd had to contend throughout her life she'd struggled to find the  stability and love she lacked as a child but it   was in that singular struggle she discovered  her own unique strength you see i think we're   all survivors everyone in the world is  a survivor because it's my belief that pain and joy fear and hope desperation  and determination always joined   i look around and i see plenty of people with  famous last names who you know have done diddly   squat i don't have much respect for them you  know and i've got a lot of respect from them   she's managed to handle herself and i think in  an extraordinary way she somewhat has some of the   naive qualities of a child and at the same time  she's one of the most sophisticated women i know   i think that other people would have  cracked easily under the pressure that   she's been subjected to in her life she's a  star it's what she is this is no 15 minutes   this is real life-flowing providence of a kind  that you either learn to handle or you go under   or you lose it her life is inextricably tied to  this moment in america when you know all of these   people who had made their fortunes had become  big social names she has to drag that behind her   for all of her life i think there's more to  come from gloria vanderbilt this is a woman   who's never going to just sit back and settle into  her seventh decade it's just never going to happen gloria vanderbilt's book published last year  is called a mother's story but originally she   considered another title the glass  bubble a reference to the wall she   erected around herself as a child she says that  that emotional wall existed until carter's suicide   after which she sought out the help of others and  even joined a support group filled with strangers   the first sentence in her  autobiography speaks volumes   some of us she writes are born with a sense of  loss gloria vanderbilt has had more than her share you

Channel: Biography

Views: 593,014

Rating: 4.7191114 out of 5

Keywords: mini biography, biography, full biography, bio, history, bio channel, biography channel, biography tv, documentary, biography documentary channel, the biography channel, full episode, biography documentary, biographies, mini bio, biography channel documentary, biography a&e, documentaries, biography of famous people, jim jones, jones, jonestown, murder, cult, poison, biography full episode, Mastermind, paranoia, followers, biography clips, biography videos, recent videos, gloria vanderbilt

Id: N9urO8ygCk4

Length: 45min 58sec (2758 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 04 2020