Gloria Swanson was not only a significant actress, starting with silent films, but also an individual who worked to aid potential scientist refugees fleeing from the Nazis. She also created Multiprises, an inventions and patents company. With her ex-husband, Henri de la Falaise, she helped to guarantee jobs for them, and helped to secure their passage to New York where they were headquartered in Rockefeller Center.
Source: (Classic Movie Hub/colorized).
Swanson’s acting career began with a celebrity crush. She had a crush on an actor, Francis X. Bushman, and when she was 15, her aunt took her to his studio, Essanay Studios in Chicago. Here, she was hired as an extra. After her first walk on, she started getting steady work with the studio and left school to work there full time. In 1915, she co-starred in Sweedie Goes to College with Wallace Beery, who would later become her first husband. In 1916, she went to California to act in Mack Sennett’s Keystone Studios comedy shorts opposite Bobby Vernon; together they appeared in The Danger Girl (1916), The Sultan’s Wife (1917), and Teddy at the Throttle (1917). Eventually, Famous Players-Lasky approached her to work for Cecil B. DeMille, and Triangle loaned her to DeMille to work on the comedy Don’t Change Your Husband. She then signed a contract with Famous Players-Lasky on December 30, 2018, for $150 per week, which would eventually be raised to $350 per week. Under the new contract, her first film was For Better or Worse. While working with DeMille she made six pictures, including Male and Female (1919), the film in which she posed with a lion.
She Acted In A Sound Short That Predated The Jazz Singer
Source: (Classic Movie Hub).
She also appeared in 10 films directed by Sam Wood, including Beyond the Rocks (1922) with Rudolph Valentino, who had become a star in 1921. In 1925, she appeared in a short by Lee de Forest which used the Phonofilm sound-on-film process which predated the talkies. On June 25, 1925, she turned down a million-dollar-a-year deal contract with Paramount, as well as an offer to make King of Kings with DeMille, opting instead to join the United Artists partnership.
Starting Her Own Production Company
Yes, she posed with a lion in Male and Female. Source: (San Francisco Silent Film Festival).
While under agreement for United Artists, the Swanson Producing Corporation became the umbrella organization for her films. She first produced The Love of Sunya, but the production barely broke even on the production costs. Her second production, Sadie Thompson, was about a prostitute in American Samoa. She was nominated for Best Actress for her performance in the film at the first annual Academy Awards, and although the film did make money, Swanson found herself with only $65 in the bank. In dire financial straits, she decided to use the services of Joseph P. Kennedy as her financial advisor who advised her to shut down Swanson Producing Corporation, sell the rights to her two films to Art Cinema Corporation, and start a dummy corporation in Delaware, Gloria Productions.
The End Of Her Time With United Artists
Source: (Pinterest/colorized).
Under Gloria Productions, three films were made. The Trespasser (1929) was a talkie and Swanson, who sang in the film, received her second Oscar nomination for her work. The Swamp, later retitled Queen Kelly (1932), which was a silent film, and encountered challenges because the director, Erich von Stroheim was notoriously difficult to work with; in 1931, Swanson directed an alternative ending to salvage the film. What a Widow! (1930) was the final film for Gloria Productions.
In 1933, she released Perfect Understanding as Gloria Swanson British Productions Ltd. In the film, a comedy, she acted opposite Laurence Olivier, and it was both a critical and commercial failure. It was the only film produced by Gloria Swanson British Productions Ltd. To finance it, United Artists bought back all of her UA stocks, and so her relationship with them ended.
Redefinining Her Career
In Sunset Boulevard. Source: (Classic Movie Hub/colorized).
In 1938, after moving to New York City, she started to redefine her career. She starred in Father Takes a Wife in 1941. In 1948, she starred in The Gloria Swanson Hour on WPIX-TV. She also took up painting and sculpting and published a newsletter, Gloria Swanson’s Diary. She also toured in summer stock, marketed clothing and accessories, made personal appearances, and engaged in political activism. She remained politically active in the Republican Party throughout her later years.
Then she was cast as Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard. Her character, a former silent film actress in love with a failed screenwriter lives with her former director-turned-butler, played by Erich von Stroheim, who only took to role out of financial need. Swanson was nominated for an Academy Award for the role. Her last major film appearance was 3 for Bedroom C (1952), her first color film. In 1973, she made her final screen appearance, acting as herself in Airport 1975.
After Her She Was No Longer On The Big Screen
Source: (IMDb/colorized).
After her movie career ended, she continued to appear on television. After hosting The Gloria Swanson Hour, she hosted Crown Theatre with Gloria Swanson, and from the 1960s to the 1980s, she appeared on a number of talk and variety shows, including The Carol Burnett Show and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. She also acted in an episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour and appeared as herself in a 1966 episode of The Beverly Hillbillies. Swanson also continued her stage career with her final major stage appearance coming in 1971.
Personal Life And Recognition
Source: (Classic Movie Hub).
Swanson’s first marriage was to Wallace Beery on her 17th birthday, March 27, 1916. By her wedding night, she knew she had made a mistake, and her divorce was finalized by December 13, 1918. On December 20, 1919, she married Herbert K. Somborn. They had a daughter, Gloria Swanson Somborn, and Swanson adopted Sonny Smith, who she renamed Joseph Patrick Swanson, after her father. She divorced Somborn, and during the proceedings, Somborn accused her of adultery with 13 men. This led to the addition of a “morals clause” in her studio contract. She met her third husband, Henri, Marquis de la Falaise and was pregnant with his child in the midst of her divorce from Somborn; she ended up aborting the baby. Once the divorce was finalized, they married. During their marriage, she had an affair with Joseph P. Kennedy, the father of JFK. Her marriage ended in divorce in 1930. She met Michael Farmer and got pregnant with Michelle Bridget Farmer. She did not want to marry him, but he threatened to go public with the news. They married in 1931 and separated two years later. She next married William M. Davey before marrying for the sixth and final time in 1976. She remained married to William Duffy until her death in 1983. In 1960, she was honored with two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and in 1995, the Library of Congress chose four of her films, including
Sunset Boulevard, “to be preserved in the permanent collection of the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress as culturally, historically, and aesthetically important.”
