Gloria Vanderbilt in 1958 (age 34). Photo by Carl Van Vechten

Gloria Laura Morgan Vanderbilt (born February 20, 1924 in New York City, New York) is an American artist, actress, heiress, and socialite most noted as an early developer of designer blue jeans. She is a member of the prominent Vanderbilt family of New York.

Early life

Vanderbilt was the only child of railroad heir Reginald Claypoole Vanderbilt (1880-1925) and his second wife, Gloria Laura Mercedes Morgan (1904-1965). She was christened in the Catholic and Episcopal churches as Gloria Laura Morgan Vanderbilt. From her father's first marriage to Cathleen Neilson, she had a half-sister, Cathleen Vanderbilt (1904-1944).

She became heiress to a four million dollar trust fund upon her father's death from cirrhosis when she was 15 months old  The rights to control this trust fund while Vanderbilt was a minor belonged to her mother, who traveled to and from Paris for years, taking her daughter with her. They were accompanied by a nanny young Gloria named "Dodo", who would play a tumultuous part in the child's life, and her mother's twin sister Thelma, who was the mistress of The Prince of Wales during this time. As a result of the frequent spending, her finances were scrutinized by young Vanderbilt's paternal aunt Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney. Whitney, a sculptor and philanthropist, wanted custody of the young heiress and soon a famous and scandalous trial became the lead story of 1933 The trial was so scandalous that at times, the judge would make everyone leave the room to listen to what young Vanderbilt had to say with nobody influencing her. Some people heard weeping and wailing inside the court room. Testimony was heard depicting the mother as an unfit parent; Vanderbilt's mother lost the battle and Vanderbilt became the ward of her Aunt Gertrude.

Gloria Vanderbilt with her mother at age eight (8).

Litigation continued, however. Vanderbilt's mother was forced to live on a drastically reduced portion of her daughter's trust. Visitation was also closely watched to ensure that Vanderbilt's mother did not exert any undue influence upon her daughter with her supposedly "raucous" lifestyle. Vanderbilt was raised amidst luxury at her Aunt Gertrude's mansion in Old Westbury, Long Island, surrounded by cousins her age who lived in houses circling the vast estate, and in New York City.

The story of the trial was told in a 1982 miniseries for NBC Little Gloria... Happy at Last, which was nominated for 6 Emmys and a Golden Globe.

Vanderbilt attended Miss Porter's School in Farmington, Connecticut and then the Wheeler School in Providence, Rhode Island, as well as the Art Students League in New York City, developing the artistic talent for which she would become increasingly known in her career. When Vanderbilt came of age and took control of her trust fund, she cut her mother off entirely, though she supported her in later years. Her mother lived for many years with her sister in Beverly Hills and died there in 1965.

Personal life

At 17 years old, Vanderbilt went to Hollywood where she married agent Pasquale DeCicco ("Pat" DeCicco) in 1941 they divorced in 1945.

Her second marriage, to conductor Leopold Stokowski on April , 1945, produced two sons, Leopold Stanislaus "Stan" Stokowski, born in 1950, and Christopher Stokowski, born in 1952; they divorced in October 1955.

On August 28, 1956, she married director Sidney Lumet; they divorced in August 1963.

She married her fourth husband, author Wyatt Emory Cooper on December 24, 1963. They had two sons, Carter Vanderbilt Cooper, in 1965, and future CNN reporter Anderson Cooper, born in 1967. Wyatt Cooper died in 1978 during open heart surgery in New York City. Carter Cooper committed suicide on July 22, 1988, by jumping from the family's 14th floor apartment as his mother tried in vain to stop him. Vanderbilt believed that it was caused by a psychotic episode induced by an allergy to the anti-asthma medical prescription drug Proventil.

She has two grandchildren by her eldest son: Aurora (born March 1983) and Abra (born c. 1986).

Professional career

Vanderbilt studied art at the Art Students League of New York. 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 ventured into the fashion business, first with Glentex, licensing her name for a line of scarves. In 1979, the Murjani Corporation proposed launching a line of designer jeans carrying Vanderbilt's name embossed in script on the back pocket, as well as her swan logo. Vanderbilt appeared in a series of television ads promoting her products,and the line flourished. After Murjani, she began her own company, "GV Ltd.", on 7th Avenue in New York.

In the 1980s, Vanderbilt accused her former partners and lawyer of fraud. After a lengthy trial (during which time the lawyer died) Vanderbilt won and was awarded nearly 1.7m, but the money was never recovered, though she was also awarded $300,000 by the New York Bar Association from its Victims of Fraud fund. Vanderbilt owed millions in back taxes the lawyer had never paid the IRS and she was forced to sell her Southampton and New York City homes.

She also lost the rights to use her name in the Home Furnishing and fashion accessories fields. Today, she is not involved in the fashion or home furnishings business and is in no way affiliated with the clothing and accessories company that uses her name.

Works

• Once upon a Time: A True Story
• Black knight, White knight
• A Mother's Story
• It Seemed Important at the Time: A Romance Memoir

Novels:

• The Memory Book of Starr Faithfull
• Never Say Good-Bye
• Obsession (June 2009)

Portrayals in media

• 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

                                                                                                    
April 6, 2009

GLORIA VANDERBILT, iconic New Yorker, has gone from poor little rich girl to dirty old lady.

Gloria has been famous since the word was invented. She's slept with everyone, married the others. Now, at the ripe age of 85, Anderson Cooper's mother has reinvented herself again -- as the writer of pure, elegant, unadulterated smut.

Smelling salts, please. This gives me the vapors.

Her novel, "Obsession: An Erotic Tale," out in June from Ecco books, has found its way into my hot, little hands, where it's burning a hole. Packed with four-letter words I don't think my mother knows, as well as innovative tips for employing garden vegetables, there's not much I can print. But here goes:

"I will begin, softly at first so that you can sleep a few more minutes, the long, slow, delicious process of licking your ----, and since I must have your honey milk . . . I will struggle to stay quiet . . . Master, I whisper as you surrender to our ecstasy."

Someone call a parent. Or an exorcist.

"Obsession" is the story of Priscilla Bingham, a "frigid" woman who, after her husband, Talbot, dies, discovers a stack of letters from his mistress. They reveal that her beloved led a secret life, filled with orgies, sadomasochistic rituals and creative product placement. It is Al Goldstein, filtered through the exclusive Miss Porter's School.

"Dare I suggest to be placed fully dressed over our favorite ottoman . . . That done, placed over your knees, skirt lifted, begging you not to restrain yourself in giving my flesh the serious whacking I deserve. An ebony, smooth-backed hairbrush -- most appropriate. The Mason-Pearson are considered the finest, and it would be no trouble, while you are in London, to pick one up of a heft that pleases you at Harrods." Those brushes retail for upward of $150.

In the novel, Priscilla is hurt. She is angry. She is . . . strangely turned on.

Whew. Poor little rich girl. Gloria was a beauty born with a platinum spoon in her mouth. But after her father's death, she endured a front-page 1933 trial against her unfit mother. Later, she sold Gloria Vanderbilt designer jeans, which every girl in my school tried to squeeze into. But in the '80s, she was robbed by her psychiatrist and lawyer and forced to sell her Southampton estate and New York homes.

Gloria moved in with Anderson, her son from her fourth marriage to Wyatt Cooper.

Today, she lives in an elegant building on Beekman Place. Attempts to reach her were unsuccessful.

So what does Coop think? Anderson admitted being embarrassed by his mother four years ago after reading her memoir, "It Seemed Important at the Time," in which she admits affairs with Marlon Brando, Frank Sinatra and Howard Hughes.

"Reading her description of her current boyfriend as the 'Nijinsky of [a particular sex act]' was kind of shocking. It's not really a visual image I wanted to have," Cooper wrote on CNN.com. "The truth is, I don't know much about dance history, but I'm guessing Nijinsky was creative, or at least very limber."

Sorry, son. Mommy has graduated to the full monty. But at 143 pages, "Obsession," you'll be relieved to know, is easily read with one hand.

I guess there comes a point in one's life where a dame must say, "What the hell!"