Gloria Vanderbilt
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Gloria Laura Vanderbilt (b. February 20, 1924) is a member of the prominent United States Vanderbilt family. She is an accomplished artist, actress, and socialite most noted as a spokeswoman for designer blue jeans.
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Early Life and Heiress Status
Vanderbilt is the only child of American railroad heir Reginald Claypoole Vanderbilt (1880-1925) and his second wife, Gloria Laura Mercedes Morgan (1904-1965).
She became heiress to a four million dollar trust fund on her father's death, when she was two years old. The rights to control this trust fund while Vanderbilt was a minor belonged to her mother. The child, therefore, became the subject of a custody battle in a famous and scandalous trial in 1934 placing her mother against the powerful and influential Vanderbilt family. Testimony was heard depicting her mother as an unfit parent, much of which was conjecture and hear-say.
Vanderbilt's mother eventually lost custody to her sister-in-law Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney but litigation continued.
Marriages and Relationships
- Vanderbilt married Hollywood agent Pasquale DiCicco ("Pat" DiCicco) in 1941; they divorced in 1945.
- Her second marriage, to conductor Leopold Stokowski on April 21, 1945 produced two sons, Leopold Stanislaus Stokowski (born 1950) and Christopher Stokowski (born 1955); they divorced in October 1955.
- Her third marriage took place on August 28, 1956 to director Sidney Lumet; they divorced in August 1963. Her final marriage to author Wyatt Emory Cooper took place on 1964; they had two sons, Carter Vanderbilt Cooper (1965-1988), and CNN reporter and news chief anchor Anderson Cooper (born 1967).
Professional Career and Later Life
Vanderbilt studied art at the Art Student's League in New York City. She became known for her artwork, giving one-woman shows of oil paintings, watercolors, and pastels. This artwork was adapted and licensed, starting about 1968, by Hallmark (a manufacturer of paper products) and by Bloomcraft (a textile manufacturer), and Vanderbilt began designing specifically for linens, china, glassware and flatware.
During the 1970s, she licensed the use of her own name on lines of fashion eyeglasses, perfume and clothing. Initially, her involvement in clothing consisted of putting her name (in place of the previous brand name, "Lucky Pierre") on a line of blouses produced by the Murjani Corporation. In 1979, Murjani proposed launching a line of designer jeans carrying Vanderbilt's brand. They were more tightly fitted than other jeans of the time, with the heiress's name in script on the back pocket. Vanderbilt appeared in a series of television ads promoting the product. The designer label flourished, with the Gloria Vanderbilt swan logo eventually appearing on dresses and perfumes as well.
Author of:
- Once upon a Time: A True Story
- A Mother's Story: Telling the story of her son Carter's death
- It Seemed Important at the Time: A Romance Memoir
Subject of:
- Trio: Oona Chaplin, Carol Matthau, Gloria Vanderbilt: Portrait of an Intimate Friendship by Aram Saroyan
- Little Gloria... Happy at Last by Barbara Goldsmith
- That Vanderbilt Woman by Philip Van Rensselaer
Fashion Designers: