SWANSON ON SWANSON

by Gloria Swanson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 6, 1980

At what can only be called a glittering 81, the Queen of the Silents tells an eye-popping all--in an autobiography studded with clips of art, finance, and finagling in the movies' salad days, the highs and lows of six marriages, and penultimate affairs with Big Names. . . all now gone but hardly forgotten. A kind of earthy Isadora with a funnybone, Gloria could never, she claims, be ""dishonest"" in love or do other than follow her heart. Husband #1 was Wallace Beery, first met clowning in Essenay two-reelers in Chicago (Gloria's hometown), whom Gloria later married in California when she was just 17. Wally, alas, was a ""desperate gypsy"" who caused her a miscarriage; the marriage lasted a mere two months. As Gloria was becoming ""public property,"" after three De Mille pics, along came Herbert Somborn, who in spite of Gloria's calling him ""Daddy,"" didn't take care of her at all. Then followed dear Henri, a French Marquis; an Irish playboy; a one-month spin with a businessman (""scarcely long enough to order new towels""); and her present happy marriage to William Dufry, a nutrition writer (Gloria has been a lifelong crusader for the right vegetarian diet). But ah, the men she loved through the years! Some lovers were platonic, like ""Daddy"" De Mille--""who wore baldness like an expensive hat,"" who insisted his stars choose their own (real) jewelry before shooting and had violins playing on the set. Others were not platonic: director Marshall Neilan (""brilliant madcap Mickey""), whom Gloria untethered for a brief marriage to Blanche Sweet--it seemed only fair; the divine Herbert Marshall; and also Joseph P. Kennedy, in the film biz when Gloria was with United Artists, who took charge of all her business matters. The affair with Kennedy (""a roped horse. . . racing to be free"") resulted not only in artistic and financial pratfalls but a verbal shoot-out between Gloria and the Cardinal of New York. After her film career waned, Gloria's plunge into other enterprises--dress designing, a talk show, theatre, painting and sculpture, politics, even a business using new inventions by refugees--came with ease after her 1951 triumph in Sunset Boulevard, in which she played an aging movie siren. (Her analysis of the movie is ruefully witty and acute). With the many close-ups of movie greats, of Gloria at work in the days of beads and peacock feathers, of Gloria in excelsius while thousands cheered, and the delicious scandal, this is irresistible, and for cinema buffs, the bees' knees.

Pub Date: Nov. 6, 1980

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Random House

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1980

Categories: NONFICTION