Gloria Swanson

At 84 years old, Gloria Swanson has this physical status:

Gloria May Josephine Swanson (March 27, 1899 - April 4, 1983) was an American actress and producer.

In the critically acclaimed 1950 film Sunset Boulevard, a major Hollywood actress of the silent period. She later gained widespread critical acclaim and praise for her role as Norma Desmond, a reclusive silent film star.

The film received an Academy Award nomination and a Golden Globe Award. Swanson appeared in silent film as both an actor and a fashion icon, particularly under Cecil B. DeMille's direction.

Swanson appeared in hundreds of silent films during the 1920s and was nominated for the first Academy Award for Best Actress.

During this time, she also produced her own films, including The Love of Sunya (1927) and Sadie Thompson (1928).

Swanson transformed herself from talkies in 1929 with her appearance in The Trespasser.

Her fame waned in the 1930s, despite personal hardships and shifting tastes, and she later moved into theater and television.

Early life

Swanson was born in a tiny Chicago suburb in 1899, the only child of Adelaide (née Klanowski) and Joseph Theodore Swanson (né Svensson), a soldier, was born in 1899. She was raised in the Lutheran faith. Her father, a Swedish immigrant, was of German, French, and Polish origins, and she had a Polish lineage. The family moved frequently due to her father's service to the US Army. She spent some of her childhood in Key West, Florida, where she was enrolled in a Catholic convent school, and Puerto Rico, where she saw her first motion pictures.

Personal life

Swanson, a vegetarian and a pioneer of health care, was known for bringing her own meals to public functions in a tin box. Swanson travelled to the United States in 1975 to help promote William Dufty's book Sugar Blues. Swanson's 1981 autobiography Swanson's Swanson on Swanson was also a commercial success. She created a stamp cache for the United Nations Decade for Women in the same year, which was her last creative endeavor.

Devi was a pupil of yoga master Indra Devi and was snapped performing a series of yoga poses, according to Devi's book Forever Young, Forever Healthy, but not Devi's; the photographer Prentice-Hall decided to use the photographs for Swanson's book, not Devi's. Swanson, who seldom attended publicity functions, was a co-founder of Devi's book, released at the Waldorf-Astoria in 1953.

She was a Republican who voted for president Wendell Willkie and Barry Goldwater's 1964 presidential campaign as a Republican. She chaired the New York chapter of Seniors for Reagan-Bush in 1980.

Swanson appeared at a "Project Prayer" rally attended by 2,500 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles in 1964. Following two rulings in 1962 and 1963 of the United States Supreme Court, mandatory school prayer was denied due to the establishment clause of the United States Constitution. Walter Brennan, Lloyd Nolan, Rhonda Fleming, Pat Boone, and Dale Evans were among those on the Project Prayer rally with Swanson and Eisley. "Under God, we became the world's richest, richest nation," Swanson said.

Should we change that?"

Wallace Beery and Swanson married on March 27, 1916, but by her wedding night she felt she had made a mistake and saw no way out. She did not like his house or his family and was mocked by him as a lover. She discovered her husband with other women after becoming pregnant and learned he had been banned from Keystone. She miscarried the fetus and was admitted to the hospital unconscious after taking medications ostensibly for morning sickness. She applied for divorce shortly after, which was finalized on December 12, 1918. A one-year waiting period began after a divorce was approved before it was finalized, and neither of the parties could remarry under California law in that period.

Herbert K. Somborn was born in 1919, and she married him on December 20, 1919. He was at the time president of Equity Pictures Corporation and later the restaurant's owner. Gloria Swanson Somborn was born in 1920 and was the daughter of the family. Sonny Smith, a 1-year-old girl who was renamed Joseph Patrick Swanson after her father's in 1923, was adopted by her mother. Somborn accused adultery with 13 guys, including Cecil B. DeMille and Marshall Neilan, during their divorce proceedings. Swanson's studio deal now had a "morals clause" attached. Somborn was granted a divorce in Los Angeles on September 19, 1923.

Swanson met her third husband, Henri de la Falaise, who had been hired to act as her translator during the film's production. Henri, despite being a Marquis and related to the Hennessy cognac family, had no personal wealth. Before her divorce from Somborn was final, she had conceived a child with him, a situation that would have resulted in a public scandal and possibly the end of her film career. She had an abortion that she later regretted. They married on January 28, 1925, just after the Somborn divorce was finalized. They returned to the United States as European nobility after a four-month recovery from their abortion. Swanson formerly held the title of Marquise. She received a warm reception in both New York and Los Angeles with parades. In France, he began as a film executive for Pathé (USA). In 1930, this marriage came to an end.

Despite the divorce, they stayed close, and Falaise became a partner in her World War II efforts to assist refugees fleeing from Nazi lines. Swanson referred to herself as a "mental vampire," someone with a keen curiosity about how things work and who pursued the possibility of turning those ideas into reality. Henri de la Falaise, founder of a multinational Paris office for the scientists, established a multiprises, an invention, and patents firm in 1939; she gave the authorities written evidence certifying employment for the scientists. Richard Kobler, chemist Leopold Karniol, metallurgist Anton Kratky, and acoust Leopold Neumann, both vanished from New York and headquartered in Rockefeller Center. "Big Chief" is the group's name, according to the company.

Swanson, who was still married to Henri, had a long affair with Joseph P. Kennedy, the father of future President John F. Kennedy. In Hollywood, he became her business partner and their affair was kept a little private. He took over all of her personal and company affairs, and she was supposed to make her millions. After the disastrous Queen Kelly's wretchedness, Kennedy left her.

Swanson became acquainted with Michael Farmer, the man who would become her fourth husband after Henri's marriage and her affair with Kennedy was over. They met by chance in Paris when Swanson was being fitted by Coco Chanel for her 1931 film Tonight or Never. The farmer, who appeared to be unemployed, was a man of independent financial means whose job was not to have been employed. He was rumored to be a gigolo, according to rumors. Swanson began spending time with him, including the discovery of a breast lump and also becoming pregnant, but she was not yet divorced from Henri. She was not interested in marrying a Farmer, but he did not want to break up the marriage. When a farmer discovered she was pregnant, he threatened to go public with the news unless she agreed to marry him, something she did not want to do. Her family, some of whom openly opposed him, believed she was making a mistake. They married on August 16, 1931, and divorced two years later.

Swanson's divorce from La Falaise at the time of the marriage was unanswered, and she was forced to marry Farmer the following November, when she was four months pregnant with Michelle Bridget Farmer, who was born on April 5, 1932.

In 1934, Swanson and Farmer divorced after being involved with married British actor Herbert Marshall. The media covered her affair with Marshall in a slew of events. After almost three years with the actor, Swanson left him at a point that she was convinced she would never divorce his wife Edna Best for her. Swanson recalled that "I was never so convincing and deeply loved as I was by Herbert Marshall" in a early manuscript of her autobiography that she wrote in her own hand decades later.

Davey, a wealthy investment broker, was visiting Swanson in October 1944 when she was competing in A Goose for the Gander. They were born in 1945, on January 29, 1945. Swanson had hoped she would be able to recover from acting, but Davey's alcoholism from the start of the relationship was complicated. Erratic conduct and acrimonious recriminations followed. Michelle Farmer, Swanson and her daughter, attended an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting and collected AA pamphlets, which they scattered around the apartment. Davey was kicked out. In the pending legal separation hearings, the judge ordered Swanson to pay his alimony. Davey unsuccessfully applied for divorce on the grounds of mental health in an attempt to prevent the payments from being paid. He died within a year, but not having paid anything to Swanson, and left the bulk of his estate to the Damon Runyon Cancer Memorial Fund.

Swanson's last marriage took place in 1976 and continued until her death. William Dufty, her sixth husband, worked at the New York Post for many years, where he served as an assistant to the editor from 1951 to 1960. He was the co-author (ghostwriter) of Billie Holiday's autobiography Lady Sings the Blues, the creator of Sugar Blues, a 1975 best-selling health book that is still in print, and the translator of Georges Ohsawa's You Are All Sanpaku's You Are All Sanpaku. They met in the mid-1960s and moved in together. Swanson shared her husband's enthusiasm for macrobiotic diets, and the two men traveled widely together to learn about diet. Because they were avid fans of Dufty's art, Swanson and her husband were able to know John Lennon and Yoko Ono right away. At Lennon's immigration hearing in New York City, he testified on his behalf, resulting in his arrival as a permanent resident. She and Dufty spent time in Beverly Hills, California; Colares, Portugal; Croton-on-Hudson, New York; and Palm Springs, California, California; and Dufty, California; Dufty returned to Birmingham, Michigan, after Swanson's death. In 2002, he died of cancer.

Swanson died at the New York Hospital on April 4, 1983 from a heart ailment. She had just returned from her home in the Portuguese Riviera when she had just returned. She was cremated and her ashes laid to rest at the Episcopal Church of the Heavenly Rest on Fifth Avenue in New York City, which was attended by just a select group of relatives. The church was the same one where Chester A. Arthur's funeral took place.

William Doyle Galleries in New York carried out a series of auctions from August to September 1983. Swanson's funeral was announced in August. Collectors bought her furniture and accessories, jewelry, clothes, and memorabilia from her personal life and work.

Source

Career

The adolescent Gloria of Chicago once more resided in Chicago, and she learned he was employed by Essanay Studios in the city. Swanson will later recall that her Aunt Inga took her to Bushman's studio, where she was discovered by a tour guide. According to other reports, Swanson's star-struck Swanson herself is speaking out about her work. In either case, she was immediately recruited as an extra.

Without the benefit of today's casting companies and talent agents promoting their latest find, the movie business was still in its infancy, churning out short subjects. A willing extra was often a valuable asset. Gerda Holmes' first role was a short walk-on, earning a handsome (back in those days) $3.25. The studio began paying her regular income at $13.25 (equivalent to $358 in 2021) per week. Swanson left school to work full time at the studio. Wallace Beery, her future first husband, co-starred in Sweedie Goes to College in 1915.

In 1916, Swanson's mother was taken to California for her role in Mack Sennett's Keystone Studios comedy shorts opposite Bobby Vernon, directed by Clarence G. Badger. Beery, who was pursuing his own career aspirations at Keystone, met them at the train station. Vernon and Swanson predicted a great screen chemistry that would be popular with audiences. Swanson was "frightened to death" of Vernon's dangerous stunts, according to director Charley Chase. The Danger Girl (1916), The Sultan's Wife (1917), and Teddy at the Throttle (1917), are two survived films in which they appear together. In 1918, Badger was sufficiently impressed by Swanson to recommend her to director Jack Conway for Her Decision and You Can't Believe Everything. Swanson had never been under labour, but she did bring her salary up to $15 a week. The resulting court struggle obligated her to Triangle for many months after she was asked by Famous Players-Lasky to work for Cecil B. DeMille. Triangle was in a financial crisis soon after, and DeMille's loaned Swanson to DeMille for the comedy Don't Change Your Husband appeared.

Swanson's mother, DeMille, agreed to a Famous Players-Lasky deal on December 30, 1918, worth $200 a week but eventually $350 a week. For Worse, DeMille's World War I romantic drama For Better. Female and Female (1919), in which she posed with a lion as "Lion's Bride," she took six pictures under DeMille's direction, including Male and Female (1919). When she and her father were dining out one evening, Equity Pictures president Herbert K. Somborn introduced himself by inviting her to visit actress Clara Kimball Young, one of her personal heroes.

Why Change Your Wife?

(1920) Something to Think About (1920) and The Affairs of Anatol (1921) were soon followed. She debuted in ten films directed by Sam Wood, beginning with The Great Moment (1921) and ending with Beyond the Rocks in 1922 with her longtime friend Rudolph Valentino. Valentino made a name for himself in 1921 for his role in The Four Horsemen of Apocalypse, but Swanson knew him well before he started working as an aspiring actor with little to worry about his professional prospects. His stoic, well-mannered demeanor, the complete opposite of what his public image would be like.

She appeared in Zaza (1923), directed by Allan Dwan, after her appearances with Wood. Seven out of her films were directed by Dwan during her time at Famous Players-Lasky.

Swanson appeared in the French-American comedy Madame Sans-Gêne, directed by Léonce Perez in 1925. For the first time at several of Napoleon's historic sites, filming was permitted at many of the historic sites. Although it was well-received at the time, no prints were found to exist and it is regarded as a lost film. In his Phonofilm sound-on-film process, Swanson appeared in a 1925 short film directed by Lee de Forest. The Coast of Folly (1925), Stage Struck (1925), and The Untamed Lady (1926) were three of Paramount's films. She completed Fine Manners with Paramount before deciding not to make The King of Kings with DeMille.

On June 25, 1925, she turned down a one-million-dollar (equivalent to $15,600,000 in 2021) contract with Paramount to join the newly formed United Artists partnership, rejecting president Joseph Schenck's six-picture distribution request. Swanson was dubbed the most bankable actress of her time at the time. The creations of individual partners's Art Cinema Corporation subsidiary was able to advance financial loans for the benefit of those artists. Her partnership deal contained a pledge to a purchase of $100,000 of preferred stock subscription.

The Swanson Producing Corporation was established as the umbrella company for her United Artists' deal. She created The Love of Sunya with herself in the title role under that banner. John Boles was co-starring in this film, directed by Albert Parker, based on Max Marcin and Charles Guernon's play The Eyes of Youth. Parker was unsure and the actors did not have enough resources to deliver the performances she needed, resulting in a flop. The film fell behind schedule, and by the time of its unveiling, the end product had not lived up to Swanson's hopes. Although it did not lose money, it was still a financial wash, with production costs falling even more.

Raoul Walsh hired her in 1927, and the two of them discussed making a film based on W. Somerset Maugham's short story "Miss Thompson." Gloria Swanson Productions suggested filming the travails of a prostitute living in American Samoa, a venture that enthralled United Artists President Joseph Schenck. As she started with the scheme, union representatives advised Schenck to stop the work due to the subject matter. Members took further action by expressing their dissatisfaction with Will H. Hays, Chairman of Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America. Walsh had his own protests with the Hays office before deciding against censorship issues with What Price Glory? Hays and Swanson created a working relationship for the film by taking him to the table rather than just over breakfast in her house. Hays was excited about the basic plot but the film had specific problems to address before it was released. The film was shot on Santa Catalina Island, just off the coast of Long Beach, California. Gross receipts in 202 were barely over $850,000 (equivalent to $13,300,000 in 2021). Swanson was named for Best Actress for her role in the first annual Academy Awards, and George Barnes of the film's cinematographer was also nominated for Best Actress for her work.

Swanson was in dire financial hardship by the end of 1927, with only $65 in the bank. Her two films had earned income, but not enough to cover her production loan debts to Art Cinema Corporation. Swanson also didn't follow through with her $100,000 purchase of preferred United Artists shared stock. Before engaging Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. as her financial advisor, she had received financial estimates from United Artists studio head Joseph Schenck, as well as from Bank of America. He suggested she personally bankroll her next picture and undertook an extensive investigation of her financial records. Swanson Producing Corporation, according to Kennedy, she was advised to close the Swanson Producing Corporation. She committed to her proposal for a fresh start under the dummy company name Gloria Productions, headquartered in Delaware. Following her counsel, she dismissed the majority of her employees and sold her rights for The Love of Sunya and Sadie Thompson to Art Cinema Corporation. To place her third husband Henry de La Falaise on the payroll, Kennedy created the position of "European director of Pathé" in order to bring her third husband Henry de La Falaise on the payroll.

Sound films were already gaining attention from audiences, most notably singer Al Jolson's films, who appeared with The Jazz Singer in 1927 and The Singing Fool in 1928. Kennedy, on the other hand, recommended Erich von Stroheim to direct another silent film, The Swamp, which later renamed Queen Kelly. She was hesitant to recruit Stroheim, who was known for being difficult to deal with and who was unwilling to work within any budget. Nonetheless, Kennedy was persistent, and was able to have Stroheim released from contractual obligations to producer Pat Powers. Stroheim continued to write the basic script for several months. In November, Queen Kelly's filming began. His filming was slow, but thorough, and the cast and crew suffered from long hours of filming. After Swanson's concerns about him and the general direction the film was going, shooting was suspended in January, and Stroheim was fired. On November 24, 1931, Swanson and Kennedy tried to save it with an alternative ending shot shot directed by Swanson and photographed by Gregg Toland.

Under Gloria Productions, only two other films were made. The Trespasser in 1929 was a good show, and Swanson's second Oscar nomination went to Swanson. Edmund Goulding's book, with Laura Hope Crews fine-tuning the chat, Kennedy approved funding for the project's go-ahead. The film was a melodrama, with musical numbers sung by Swanson and finished in 21 days. The world premiere was held in London, the first American sound performance to do so. adoring supporters throned Swanson. She appeared at a concert broadcast on the BBC right before leaving London.

What a Widow!

Gloria Productions' last film, which was in 1930, was in 1930.

The Dodge Hour radio program, which originated from Pickford's private bungalow at United Artists, was broadcast to audiences in American movie theaters by Mary Pickford and her husband Douglas Fairbanks. It was a marketing ruse to attract audiences into movie theaters to hear the voices of their favorite actors as sound productions became the future of commercial filming. Swanson, Charlie Chaplin, Norma Talmadge, John Barrymore, Dolores del R.o., and D. W. Griffith were on hand.

Gloria Swanson British Productions Ltd. completed a two-film package for Art Cinema, which also included Indiscreet and Tonight or Never (1931), before starting filming Perfect Understanding as Gloria Swanson British Productions Ltd. The only film ever produced by this company was Perfect Understanding, a 1933 sound production comedie. Laurence Olivier co-starred Swanson as Swanson's on-screen husband, and it was made entirely at Ealing Studios. United Artists sold all of their assets with them in order to ensure her funding for this film, thus ending her relationship with the company. Following its release, the filmmakers panned the film, and the box office dropped.

Swanson migrated to New York City in 1938 when she made the switch to sound films as her career also began to decline. In 1941, Swanson appeared in Father Takes a Wife for RKO. She appeared in stage plays and appeared in The Gloria Swanson Hour on WPIX-TV in 1948. Swanson delved into painting and sculpture, and Gloria Swanson's Diary, a general newsletter, was released in 1954. She toured in summer stock, participated in political activism, produced and sold clothing and accessories, and made personal appearances on radio and in movie theaters.

The film Sunset Boulevard was created by director Billy Wilder and screenwriter Charles Brackett and expanded to include writer D. M. Marshman Jr. They blasted Mae West, whose public persona even in her senior years was regarded as a sex symbol, but they refused to play a has-been. Also considered for the leading role of Norma Desmond was Mary Pickford. Swanson was recommended by director George Cukor, who noted that she had once been such a valuable asset to her company that she was "carried in a sedan chair from her dressing room to the set."

Norma Desmond (Swanson), a legendary silent film actress, was in love with failed screenwriter Joe Gillis (William Holden). Max von Mayerling (Erich von Stroheim), a former director-turned-butler who really disliked the job and only agreed to it out of financial necessity, lives at the mansion. "We didn't need dialogue, we had faces," Queen Kelly says in the scene where Joe and Norma were watching one of her silent films. Norma is a member of "the Waxworks" group of actors. Buster Keaton, H.B., was among them. Warner and Anna Q. Nilsson. Her Isotta Fraschini luxurious vehicle was towed from behind the camera during Cecil B. DeMille's appearance, where Max chauffeurs Joe and Norma to the studio were seated because Stroheim had never learned how to drive. Norma's hopes of a comeback are shattered, and Gillis attempts to break up with her, but instead kills him. By the time the police and news media arrive, she is delusional. Max directs her down and leads her down toward the waiting police and news cameras, saying, "All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up."

Although Swanson had objected to doing the film screen test, she had been thrilled to see her income rise more than she had been on television and on stage. Making the film a pleasure, she said later, "I hated to have the picture end." "Print it!" I burst into tears as Mr. Wilder announced it, but she was nominated for a Best Actress Academy Award, but she lost to Judy Holliday.

Following the unveiling of Sunset Boulevard, Swanson received several acting offers, but the majority of them turned down, saying that they tended to be pale imitators of Norma Desmond. Jennifer's last major Hollywood motion picture role was also her first color film, the poorly received 3 for Bedroom C in 1952. Suzy, a nationally syndicated columnist, called it "one of the worst films ever made." Swanson made Nero's Mistress, an Italian film shot in Rome, which starred Alberto Sordi, Vittorio de Sica, and Brigitte Bardot. In 1975, she was the first time she had appeared in an airport as herself.

Swanson hosted The Gloria Swanson Hour, one of the first live television series in 1948, in which she welcomed family and others to attend. Swanson appeared in Crown Theatre with Gloria Swanson, a television anthology show in which she appeared occasionally.

Swanson appeared on numerous talk and variety shows from 1960s, 1970s, and early 1980s, including The Carol Burnett Show and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, to recollect her films and lampoon them as well. Swanson portrayed Charlie Chaplin from both Sunset Boulevard and Manhandled on the Carol Burnett Show in 1973. On What's My Line, she was the "mystery visitor." She appeared on "Behind the Locked Door" on The Alfred Hitchcock Hour in 1964 and was nominated for a Golden Globe award for her work in Burke's Law the same year. In 1970, she appeared on The Dick Cavett Show for the first time; a visitor on the same exhibition as Janis Joplin. In a 1966 episode of The Beverly Hillbillies in which she plays herself, she made a memorable appearance. The Clampets mistakenly believe Swanson is unethical and plan to fund a comeback film for her – in a silent film.

Swanson appeared in many plays throughout her later life, beginning in the 1940s. Swanson, actor and playwright Harold J. Kennedy, who had studied at Yale and with Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre, recommended that Swanson do a road tour of "Reflected Glory," a comedy that had appeared on Broadway with Tallulah Bankhead as the lead. A Goose for the Gander, which began its road tour in Chicago in August 1944, was written by Kennedy.

Let Us Be Gay was also on tour. She appeared on Broadway in a revival of the Twentieth Century with José Ferrer and with David Niven in Nina. Butterflies Are Free at the Booth Theatre, 1971, was her last major stage appearance. Kevin Brownlow and David Gill talked to her about Hollywood, a television history of the silent period.

Source