GLORIA MAE JOSEPHINE SWANSON
1899 - 1983
Back in 2009 when I began this blog, the very first posts I made here at MISTRESS MANIFESTO included Gloria Swanson, a silent screen star who made it to the talkies, was married repeatedly, and might be most known today for the 1950 film "Sunset Boulevard" in which she portrayed an actress clinging to a famous past long gone. An unconventional woman for her times, the petite and classically beautiful Swanson was a talented actor who earned fabulous sums of money but lost control of her finances when producing her own movies. In 1927, Joseph P. Kennedy, the future father of President John F. Kennedy, and by then a successful banker and broker in his late 30's, married with children, came into her life. She was married too, to her third husband.
Some would say he targeted her. But, my dear readers, after reading this book I've decided to take the perhaps unpopular stance that Kennedy's confidence, built through other business and investment successes - as a Harvard educated banker who was quite savvy with money and investing in other areas, including the stock market - might have given him the idea that he could succeed in the movies too. But he was in over his head, in business and in love - and so was Gloria when it came to the business side. There was a lot of ruthless competition and the Stock Market Crash of 1929 that plunged the country into the Great Depression, though Kennedy personally wasn't plunged, is something to consider too.
The silent film era was almost over and Swanson was one of the actresses who moved into the talkies with some success. But perhaps, though Swanson was at the top, earning record-breaking sums for her acting, she wouldn't have sustained her career anyway, for she was getting older. Acting for women, like modeling, tends to span years, not decades, to this day. Swanson wanted to produce her own movies. Kennedy wanted to expand his financial empire by investing in the movie business, by owning his own production company, and making movies with a star that would attract the audiences. So, he was quite possibly learning as he went himself and the day came when he knew it was all too much for him and he got out. However, the overall opinion circa 2026 is that the man was ruthless and heartless, allowed her to sink her fortune into a movie that didn't go so well, and then left her in a lurch and broke.
That's why the book "Gloria and Joe" by Axel Madsen jumped off the library shelf; and my quick review of it at this moment is that it goes into detail about both Gloria and Joe's career success and financial dealings before they met, while I will focus on what happened when they did. Though Gloria Swanson was at the top when they met in November of 1927, she had been taken advantage of by men before, in various ways. Joe Kennedy had done his business research, had interesting questions that proved he'd done his 'due diligence", but also manipulated her to agree to let him get her out of debt and into his bed.
Gloria Swanson was married several times, the first time at age seventeen to Hollywood star Wallace Beery, who was thirty. According to Gloria, he raped her on their wedding night and he was very abusive. She had an abortion he tricked her into during that brief marriage and wanted out quickly. They were married in 1916 and divorced in 1918; she had to wait a year before the divorce could be granted at that time.
Her second husband was Herbert K. Somborn, a movie business executive who was the president of Equity Pictures Corporation at the time. According to author Madsen, he hid his financial problems from Gloria until they were married and unfairly threatened to ruin her by lying that she'd had a long list of men - adulterous affairs, in order to get money from her, when she wanted out. They were married in 1919 and divorced in 1922-23. Movie moguls at the time were involved in getting Somborn a settlement that would preserve her reputation and thus her career, though there were some shenanigans going on there too. Gloria felt this husband was blackmailing her. A morality cause was added to her studio contract. Herbert was the father of her daughter, Gloria Swanson Somborn, who was born in October of 1920 and called Sister. It was a difficult birth and so Gloria also adopted a son from an orphanage, Joseph, called Brother. Somborn used the money he got in his divorce settlement from Gloria to invest in the restaurant business, the popular Brown Derby. Of interest to me, though perhaps it is just a coincidence, Gloria named the son, said to be of Irish heritage, Joseph Patrick Swanson...
Her third husband was Henri de la Falaise, a French aristocrat with a noble heritage who also benefited by his marriage to Gloria. She met him in Jazz age Paris, and he followed her to Hollywood where he was offered the opportunity to become a movie director. It Joseph P. Kennedy who offered him that opportunity and Henri had to go back to France to take the job; this was likely Kennedy's manipulation to get him out of the way. Some of her friends thought Henri was a gigolo, but he was one who could hold his own in conversations and an intellectual who seemed to have loved Gloria, if his heartfelt, sad goodbye is to be believed. They were married in 1925 and divorced in 1931, this being Gloria Swanson's longest marriage.
Her fourth husband was Michael Farmer, a rich sportsman, who she married in 1931 and divorced in 1934. During this marriage Gloria gave birth to Michelle Bridget Farmer in 1932.
Her fifth husband was William Davey, an investment banker, who she married in 1945 and divorced in 1946.Her sixth husband was William Dufty, a successful ghost writer and anti-sugar activist, who she married in 1976 and stayed married to until her death in 1983. They shared a macrobiotic lifestyle. Gloria believed healthy food was the key to, not only health, but also her enduring good looks. She was considered to be a "fitness pioneer."
Now dear readers, I want to let you know that while reading this book, I learned a little bit about a mistress I had never heard of and a little bit more about one I elected Mistress of the Month years ago. So stick with me, because next month I'm going to include them in this narrative!
Missy
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For this month's posts, Axel Madson's book is the primary reference. Having once read Swanson's memoir and at least two books about Joseph P. Kennedy, I also did some Internet research.
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January 2016
CLARA BOW
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