Last of a dynasty: The story behind ‘poor little rich girl’ Gloria Vanderbilt’s family fortune, built in the 1880s and once worth $100million, and her private life scandals, including famous lovers, four marriages and son’s suicide:
* Heiress Gloria Vanderbilt died of stomach cancer at the age of 95 on Monday
* The family's fabulous wealth was built by Cornelius Vanderbilt, who was born on May 27, 1794 on Staten Island, and
he built a shipping and railroad empire
* At the time of the business magnate's death on January 4, 1877, his fortune was estimated to be $100million and left
to his eldest son William Henry Vanderbilt
* Gloria's father, Reginald Claypoole Vanderbilt, was a gambler and drinker who squandered his inheritance, but left her *$2.5million in a trust at 18 months old
* Her mother, Gloria Morgan, took control of her trust and spent it on herself, parting her way through Europe and
frittering away the money
* In 1934, Gloria was the center of a lawsuit, dubbed 'poor little rich girl,' when her aunt tried to wrangle custody of her
from her absent mother
* Gloria moved to Hollywood where she carried out a string of affairs with: Howard Hughes, Errol Flynn, Marlon Brando
and Frank Sinatra
* She married her first husband, Pat DiCicco at 17-years-old but divorced after four years; admitting she was originally
'mesmerized' by his domineering personality
* She married her second husband, Leopold Stokowski and they had two sons Leopold and Christopher, and after they
divorce, married Sidney Lumet
* After Lumet, she married Wyatt Cooper on December 24, 1963 and stayed with him until his death on January 5,
1978
* They had two children together, Anderson, now a CNN journalist, and Carter, who was born on January 27, 1965, but
died after committing suicide aged 23
‘The poor little rich girl’ and grand dame of society, Gloria Laura Vanderbilt passed away at the age of 95 on Monday from stomach cancer. Vanderbilt was born into unimaginable wealth on February 20, 1924 as the heiress to the Vanderbilt railroad fortune; her life story is one marked by privilege, glamour, powerful friends, famous lovers, and penetrating sadness.
‘She wanted to feel it all, she wanted to feel life’s pleasures, its pains as well,’ said her son, Anderson Cooper.
Gloria was a mother, designer, philanthropist, writer, poet, artist, and actress – a veritable Renaissance woman.
Scandal defined Gloria's early life after her father Reginald Claypoole Vanderbilt, a philandering drinker and gambler, frittered away his inheritance and died when she was just 18 months old. Too young to take control of her trust, her mother, Gloria Morgan, spent the the money on herself, partied her way across European soignee circles, including with the Prince of Wales, and funded her extravagant lifestyle by pilfering her daughter’s $2.5 million trust fund.
In 1934, Gloria was just a little girl when she became the center of a sensational lawsuit that was heard and reported around the world, it was dubbed as ‘The Trial of the Century.’ Gloria’s paternal aunt, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney sued for custody of little Gloria citing the neglect and immoral influence of her mother as cause. Salacious details from behind the curtain of America’s richest family captivated the poverty-stricken public during the Great Depression. Whitney slammed Morgan with reports of her ‘alleged erotic interested in women,’ while the defense argued that Whitney's work as a celebrated sculptor featured nudes.
Custody was eventually awarded to Gertrude Whitney, but Gloria was left traumatized and even more isolated from the event.
Years later, Gloria would write in her autobiography: ‘If you've never had a mother or a father, you grow up seeking something you're never going to find, ever. You seek it in love and in people and in beauty.’
This raison d’etre set the stage for a lifetime of romantic interests with some of the 20th century’s most celebrated men: Howard Hughes, Frank Sinatra, Errol Flynn and Marlon Brando. Vanderbilt was married four times and had four children, most famously her son Anderson Cooper who has devoted his life to chronicling his mother and in his words, ‘I always felt it was my job to try to protect her.’
While the Vanderbilts would become one of America’s most illustrious families, their roots stretch back to a humble Dutch farmer from the village of De Bilt in the Netherlands who came over to the colonies as an indentured servant in 1650, according to the book, 'Commodore Vanderbilt and his family: A biographical account of the Descendants of Cornelius and Sophia Johnson Vanderbilt.'
The ancestor, Jan Aertszoon or Aertson, settled in what was then known as New Netherland, a swath of the East Coast that now includes New York, New Jersey, Delaware and Connecticut, and the village’s name was likely added to create ‘Van der Bilt,’ according to the book, 'American Nations: A History of Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America.'
The man who built the family fortune wasn’t born until the next century: Gloria’s great-great-great grandfather Cornelius Vanderbilt. Born on May 27, 1794, in Staten Island, he was one of nine children. Growing up he worked on his father’s ferry, and quit school when he was 11. His empire started with one boat after he decided to start a ferry service like his father, according to a New York Times obituary about Vanderbilt.
Such was his love of boats that those around him called him the Commodore, a nickname that stuck to him throughout his life. From ferries, he expanded to steamboats in the 1830s, and after dominating that business, turned his attention to the railroads – a natural extension of his transportation empire.
By 1863, he had taken control of what was then known as the Harlem railroad, and merged later that decade the Hudson River and New York Central Railroads. This led him to commission a new station, the Grand Central Depot, which would later be finished by one of his descendants to become the Grand Central Terminal of today. The Commodore bought up real estate in his native Staten Island and Manhattan and also built other businesses.
Cornelius Vanderbilt died on January 4, 1877 and left his fortune – estimated to be $100 million – to his eldest son William Henry Vanderbilt. William Henry reportedly doubled the family’s wealth, and built its first mansion on Fifth Avenue. The opulent homes continued with his son, Cornelius Vanderbilt II, with the construction of 1 West 58th Street, which had over 100 rooms. His brother, William Kissam, turned to philanthropy, giving $1 million to build ‘tenement houses in New York city, as well as hundreds of thousands of dollars to Columbia University, the YMCA, the Vanderbilt Clinic and Vanderbilt University,’ according to Forbes.
During the Gilded Age, the family collected art and homes: 10 magnificent residences on Fifth Avenue, and houses in Newport, Rhode Island, according to Forbes.
The lavish lifestyle and charitable giving caught up to the family, and when William Kissam died in 1885, he had not grown the family’s fortune, according to the article.
The lavish lifestyle and charitable giving caught up to the family, and when William Kissam died in 1885, he had not grown the family’s fortune, according to the article.
Leopold Stokowski, above in an undated photo, was a well-known symphony conductor and Gloria Vanderbilt's second husband. He was 42-years, her senior when they got married, leaving his long time lover, Greta Garbo for the heiress
Leopold Stokowski, above in an undated photo, was a well-known symphony conductor and Gloria Vanderbilt's second husband. He was 42-years, her senior when they got married, leaving his long time lover, Greta Garbo for the heiress
By the time Reginald Claypoole Vanderbilt – Gloria’s father and Cooper’s grandfather - was born on January 14, 1880, the family’s ‘inheritance was dispersed between more and more descendants,’ according to Forbes, and his brother, Cornelius ‘Neily’ Vanderbilt III, ‘spent vast sums on maintaining a high society appearance.' Meanwhile, the railroad empire built by Cornelius was changing, and the family’s role would continue to dwindle until the 1970s when it would go bust.
‘Every Vanderbilt son... has increased his fortune except me,’ Niely once said, according to the Forbes article.
Reginald Claypoole Vanderbilt, who was known as ‘Reggie,’ was a gambler who made the news not for what he built but rather what he spent, and reportedly squandered his fortune. He first married Cathleen Neilson in 1903 and together they had a daughter, also named Cathleen, before they divorced in April 1920. He then married Gloria Morgan about three years later, and Gloria was born the next year on February 20. The two daughters were left with a $5 million trust, with half for each.
After her mother took control of her trust and spent her money, her aunt, Gertrude Whitney, sued to gain custody and won.
'She lived her entire life in the public eye,’ said Cooper of his mother. Vanderbilt attended finishing school at the celebrated Miss Porter’s School in Connecticut where other famous graduates were Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Lee Radziwill, Katharine Hepburn and Gene Tierney.
As a young girl, Vanderbilt was so painfully shy that she spoke with a stutter and considered becoming a nun. She struggled to find her place in the world while trying her hand at writing, poetry, art and acting. She studied the latter under the renowned acting coach, Sanford Meisner at New York’s Neighborhood Playhouse, making her debut as the lead in 'The Swan,' which years later would inspire the logo for her eponymous fashion line.
It was inevitable that Vanderbilt would become a doyenne of New York society. Her porcelain skin, jet black hair and sultry pout grabbed the attention of fashion magazines and photographers, most notably Richard Avedon, who said she was his biggest inspiration. She ran in fancy circles too, counting Charlie Chaplin, Diane von Furstenberg and Truman Capote as her closest friends. She shared her position among Lee Radziwill, Babe Paley, Slim Keith and C. Z. Guest in Capote’s exclusive inner circle of elegant socialites he called his ‘swans.’ Vanderbilt is rumoured to have been his inspiration behind the 1958 Holly Golightly character in his novella, ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s.’
‘I think we should always be in love,’ she once told Cooper in an interview. At 17-years- old, she moved to Hollywood where she made bed fellows with Hollywood’s most eligible (and not always available) bachelors. ‘Every night I went out on dates with movie stars,’ she wrote in her 2016 memoir titled 'The Rainbow Comes And Goes.' ‘To attract my attention they had to be famous and much older. It was totally inappropriate, not to mention dangerous.’
Things got serious with the producing, aviation magnate, Howard Hughes who was 19 years her senior. Admitting that she often looked for a father substitute in her romantic conquests, she categorized her relationship with Hughes as ‘wildly romantic’ and ‘extremely masculine;’ a far cry from the eccentric recluse he became later in life. Vanderbilt was candid when she said that the best thing about their tryst was: ‘sex not only worked, but it was the first time . . . that I didn’t have to fake an orgasm.’
When her relationship with Hughes didn’t seem promising in the marriage department, Vanderbilt briefly moved on to the famous womanizing on-screen lothario: Errol Flynn. ‘… I was so goggle-eyed at 17, I was so moviestruck, that these were like gods to me because all my life I had grown up as a child watching them on the movies and suddenly here they were looking at me and they were asking me out.'
Months after she and Flynn parted, Vanderbilt married Pat DiCicco a Hollywood agent and alleged mobster, who her son Cooper described as 'a gambler and rumored to have killed someone.' Later Vanderbilt said ‘It was one of the greatest mistakes of my life.’ The cream of Hollywood’s crop attended their wedding which was held at the Spanish Mission in Santa Barbara and Vanderbilt spent the majority of her wedding night alone while her new husband stayed up late playing cards with Zeppo Marx of the Marx Brothers. In a 2017 interview with her son, Vanderbilt explains that she was 'mesmerized' by the man’s forceful and domineering personality.’ The couple split after four years because DiCicco was physically and emotional abusive to his teenage bride.
Twenty-one year old Vanderbilt married just a few months later with yet another strikingly unsuitable match: Leopold Stokowski. She had known the 63-year-old British orchestra conductor for only three weeks before walking down the aisle. Stokowski built Vanderbilt a palatial mansion on a mountain in Santa Barbara called The Monastery and the couple had two sons: Leopold and Christopher. She wrote in her book that they were happy and ‘lived cloistered like a sexy monk and nun.’
But then she met Frank.
In a 2017 interview she said, ‘I thought the man I was married to was god and he would never let me go, and then Frank Sinatra came along.' It wasn’t long after meeting Frank that she decided her marriage to Stokowski was over in 1955. Frank was recently separated from his second wife, Ava Gardner, and was performing in New York’s Copacabana Club when he engineered a meeting with Vanderbilt. In her memoir she wrote: ‘As a lover, he made me believe I was the most important person in the world to him.’ But that relationship also was short lived, lasting only three weeks before he went on tour.’…he was just kind of the most amazing person in my life because he came along at a time when I thought I was trapped in a marriage I didn't want to be in,’ wrote Vanderbilt.
In between Frank and marrying her third husband, film director Sidney Lumet; Vanderbilt took on a number famous lovers from Gene Kelly to the writer, Roald Dahl. Her one-night-stand with Marlon Brando soured after she noticed a large silver framed photo of himself sitting on his bedside table.
Unsurprisingly Vanderbilt’s third marriage to the legendary Hollywood director, Sidney Lumet was also a disaster, like her previous relationship with Stokowski; their courtship was fast and furious and they agreed to marry after dating just three weeks. Lumet showered her with love but in her book, she writes that Lumet was possessive and ‘wildly insecure;’ he obliged her to turn down three film opportunities to star alongside Sinatra for fear and jealousy that she might succumb to the intoxicating charms of ‘ol blue eyes’ once again.’
Vanderbilt’s way of saying ‘goodbye’ to an old relationship was by starting anew with someone else. After seven years with Lumet, she fell head over heels for Wyatt Cooper, a handsome screenplay writer with penetrating turquoise blue eyes. They had two sons, Anderson and his brother Carter, and remained married until his untimely death during open heart surgery in 1978.
In the years since the death of her fourth husband Vanderbilt also found success as a designer and writer, most notably with her line of designer jeans. The line was so popular she began to release more clothing multiple fragrances with cosmetics company L'Oreal.
But tragedy struck again in July 1988 when her youngest son, Carter Cooper committed suicide by jumping from the 14th floor of Gloria’s Upper East Side penthouse apartment. Carter had graduated from Princeton and was working as an editor for the history magazine American Heritage at the time of his death. He had begun seeing a therapist in the months before and on the day in question showed up at his mother's apartment and spent most of the day sleeping until early that evening.
At around 7pm he woke up and went in to see his mother, repeatedly asking her; 'What's going on?' He then went out on the terrace and sat on the ledge with his feet dangling over the edge as his mother helplessly stood by watching her son. Vanderbilt said at one point he asked her what the number of his therapist was and when she could not remember told her 'F*** you" before reciting it himself and then going over the edge. 'He reached out to me at the end,' Vanderbilt had said in the past.
'Then he went over, hanging there on the wall, like on a bar in a gymnasium. I said, “Carter, come back,” and for a minute I thought he'd swing back up. But he let go.’ Vanderbilt would later reveal in an interview on her son’s now-cancelled talk show Anderson Live that she immediately considered killing herself after Carter went over the balcony: 'There was a moment when I thought I was going to jump over after him…I thought of you and it stopped me.'
Vanderbilt has also said that in the wake of Carter’s death, she and her son stopped celebrating Christmas. Cooper describes his mother as 'interesting and unconventional' while pointing how happy he is the two have gotten closer over the past year and that in the end he managed to have some unique experiences growing up as 'few people's moms take them to Studio 54 when they're 11.'
'My mom has lived many different lives and has inhabited many different skins,' said Cooper in a 2017 documentary. Indeed, Vanderbilt has left an indelible mark on the cultural history of America, but perhaps it is her own story of self-invention and survival that has become a symbol of perseverance. In the eulogy for his mother, Cooper said: 'She always worked hard, always pressed on, always believed the best was yet to come.'
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September 30, 2010, 07:19:26 pm
