Gloria Vanderbilt

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.[24] 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.[25] 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.[24]

Vanderbilt began her career as a fashion model when she was 15 years old, appearing in Harper's Bazaar.[26]

During the 1970s, Vanderbilt ventured into the fashion business itself, first with Glentex, licensing her name and a collection of her paintings for a line of scarves.[27] In 1976, Indian designer Mohan Murjani's Murjani Corporation proposed launching a line of designer jeans carrying Vanderbilt's signature embroidered on the back pocket, as well as her swan logo. Her jeans were more tightly fitted than other jeans of that time and were an immediate success with customers.[24]

In 1978, Vanderbilt sold the rights to her name to the Murjani Group[28] and re-launched her own company, GV Ltd, which she had founded in 1976.[24] With her company, she launched dresses, blouses, sheets, shoes, leather goods, liqueurs, and accessories.[24] In the period from 1982 to 2002, L'Oreal launched eight fragrances under the brand name Gloria Vanderbilt.[29] Murjan sold rights to the name Gloria Vanderbilt to the owners of Gitano Group Inc.[30] in 1988.[31]

Jones Apparel Group acquired the rights to Gloria Vanderbilt jeans in 2002.[32][33]

In the 1980s, Vanderbilt accused her former partners in GV Ltd. and her lawyer of fraud. After a lengthy trial (during which time the lawyer died), Vanderbilt won and was awarded nearly $1.7 million, but the money was never recovered. She was also awarded $300,000 by the New York City Bar Association. Vanderbilt also owed millions of dollars in back taxes, since the lawyer had never paid the IRS, and she was forced to sell her Southampton, New York and Upper East Side homes.[24][34]

Vanderbilt studied art at the Art Students League of New York.[24] She became known for her artwork, with one-woman exhibitions held of her oil paintings, watercolors, and pastels. Her first exhibition was held in 1948.[35] This artwork was adapted and licensed, starting about 1968, by Hallmark Cards and by Bloomcraft (a textile manufacturer), and Vanderbilt began designing specifically for linen, pottery, and glassware.[36]

In 2001, Vanderbilt returned to art and opened her first art exhibition, "Dream Boxes", at the Southern Vermont Arts Center in Manchester; it was a critical success.[24] She launched another exhibition of 35 paintings at the Arts Center in 2007.[37] Two years later, Vanderbilt returned to the Arts Center as a panelist at its Annual Fall Show Exhibition, signing copies of her latest novel, Obsession: An Erotic Tale.[37]

Vanderbilt wrote two books on art and home decor, four volumes of memoirs, three novels, and a singular collection of short stories The Things We Fear Most. She was also a regular contributor to The New York Times, Vanity Fair and Elle.[38] In November 2010, Vanderbilt was the subject of a new book chronicling her life, The World of Gloria Vanderbilt,[39] written by Wendy Goodman, New York magazine's design editor. The book, published by Abrams Books, featured many previously unreleased photographs.[40]

In January 2017, HarperCollins Publishers released a book, coauthored by Vanderbilt and her son Anderson Cooper, The Rainbow Comes and Goes: A Mother and Son On Life, Love, and Loss. The book was described by its publisher as: "A touching and intimate correspondence between Anderson Cooper and his mother, Gloria Vanderbilt, offering timeless wisdom and a revealing glimpse into their lives".[41][42]

On April 9, 2016, HBO premiered Nothing Left Unsaid: Gloria Vanderbilt & Anderson Cooper, a two-hour documentary, produced and directed by Liz Garbus. It features a series of conversations between the mother and son, covering her life and family history in the public eye.[43]

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.[44] They divorced in 1945 and had no children together.[45] 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."[46]

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.[47] The marriage ended in divorce in October 1955 and produced two sons:[24] Leopold Stanislaus "Stan" Stokowski (born August 22, 1950), and Christopher Stokowski (born January 31, 1952). Stan has three children; Christopher has no children.

Vanderbilt's third husband was the director Sidney Lumet. She was the second of his four wives. They were married on August 28, 1956, and divorced in August 1963. They had no children together.[24]

Vanderbilt's fourth marriage was to author Wyatt Emory Cooper, on December 24, 1963. The marriage, which lasted 15 years, ended with his death in 1978 while he was undergoing open-heart surgery. They had two sons: Carter Vanderbilt Cooper (January 27, 1965 – July 22, 1988), who committed suicide at age 23 by jumping to his death from the family's 14th-floor apartment,[34][48][49] and Anderson Hays Cooper (born June 3, 1967), a CNN news anchor.[24]

Vanderbilt maintained a romantic relationship with photographer and filmmaker Gordon Parks for many years until his death in 2006.[50] Other relationships included Marlon Brando, Frank Sinatra,[24] Howard Hughes and Roald Dahl.[51][52]

Vanderbilt was very close friends with fashion designer Diane von Fürstenberg. While appearing as a guest on her son Anderson Cooper's television talk show, Anderson on September 19, 2011, Vanderbilt referred to comedian and actress Kathy Griffin as her "fantasy daughter".[53]

Truman Capote was speculated to have modeled the character of Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany's on Vanderbilt, but others say it was based on her friend Carol Grace.[54][55]

Vanderbilt was also an artist. When she celebrated her 90th birthday on February 20, 2014, a collection of her drawings, paintings and collages was placed on display in the 1stdibs Gallery at New York Design Center in New York City, in an exhibit called "The Left Hand Is The Dreamer".[56]

Vanderbilt was baptized into the Episcopal Church as an infant, but was raised a Roman Catholic and as a child was particularly fascinated with St. Therese. Although religious in her youth, she was not a practicing Catholic in her later years.[57]

Vanderbilt died at her home in Manhattan on June 17, 2019, aged 95 of stomach cancer.[24] She is buried next to her son Carter and late husband Wyatt in the Cooper plot in the Vanderbilt Family Cemetery on Staten Island, New York.

Upon her death, Vanderbilt left her son, Anderson Cooper, almost her entire estate, which was valued at less than $1.5 million.[58]

• Vanderbilt, Gloria (1970). Gloria Vanderbilt Book of Collage. New York City: Galahad Books. ISBN 0-88365-097-5. OCLC 1143871.
• Vanderbilt, Gloria; Roderick, Phyllis Hingston (1977). Gloria Vanderbilt Designs for Your Home. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-0-671-22637-4.

• Vanderbilt, Gloria (1979). Woman to Woman. Garden City, New York: Doubleday. ISBN 978-0-385-13645-7.
• Vanderbilt, Gloria (1985). Once Upon a Time: A True Story. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 978-0-394-54112-9.
• Vanderbilt, Gloria (1987). Black Knight, White Knight. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 978-0-394-54412-0.
• Vanderbilt, Gloria (1995). A Mother's Story. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 978-0-679-45052-8.
• Vanderbilt, Gloria (2004). It Seemed Important at the Time: A Romance Memoir. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-0-743-26480-8.
• Cooper, Anderson and Gloria Vanderbilt (2016). The Rainbow Comes and Goes. Harper-Collins. ISBN 978-0-06-245494-2.

• Vanderbilt, Gloria (1989). Never Say Good-Bye: A Novel. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 978-0-394-57155-3.
• Vanderbilt, Gloria (1994). The Memory Book of Starr Faithfull: A Novel. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 978-0-394-58775-2.
• Vanderbilt, Gloria (2009). Obsession: An Erotic Tale. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-061-73489-2.[59]

• Stasz, Clarice (1991). The Vanderbilt Women: Dynasty of Wealth, Glamour and Power. New York: St. Martin's Press.
• Saroyan, Aram (1985). Trio: Oona Chaplin, Carol Matthau, Gloria Vanderbilt: Portrait of an Intimate Friendship. New York: Linden Press/Simon & Schuster. ISBN 9780671509194.
• Van Rensselaer, Philip (1978). That Vanderbilt Woman. Chicago: Playboy Press.