The Mother We Never Had

Little-Known Facts About Gloria Vanderbilt

Friday, May 11, 2012 -- 11:00 AM

For many, Gloria Vanderbilt will always be the little girl in the middle of a vicious custody battle between her mother and her Aunt Gertrude during the Great Depression. For others, Gloria Vanderbilt is a name stitched into their pair of favorite jeans.

There is much more behind Gloria Vanderbilt, however, than the stories that made headlines. Gloria's life is one filled with love, loss, romance and hope. Click through for some little-known facts about the legendary Gloria Vanderbilt.

Little-Known Facts About Gloria Vanderbilt

1. Gloria had a one-night-stand with Marlon Brando. She attributes this to the incident that gave her the courage to leave her second husband, Leopold Stokowski.	2. She spent six years living in Paris, from the time she was 2 until she was 8.
3. Gloria appeared in Harper’s Bazaarwhen she was 15, after meeting the editor at her Aunt Gertrude’s house. (Source: The World According to Gloria Vanderbilt)	4. Though the two never wed, Gloria says Howard Hughes wanted to marry her. When Gloria told her Aunt Gertrude of Hughes’ intentions, Gertrude called him and put an end to their relationship. (Source: The World According to Gloria Vanderbilt)
5. Gloria is very sentimental and tends to “collect” a variety of things. She has huge storage units with hundreds of items in them. When Anderson recently explored her storage units, he found boxes full of old hangers, Tupperware and more.	6. Gloria survived a plane crash. While traveling to Mexico to elope with 62-year-old conductor Leopold Stokowski, their plane crashed into the Sierra Nevada Mountains. They simply dusted themselves off and hitchhiked to the judge’s office. (Source: The World of Gloria Vanderbilt)
7. For 18 years, from the time Gloria was 20 until she was 38, she did not see her mother. (Source: Newsday, July 24, 2988)	8. Gloria truly enjoys painting, and she had a one-women show of paintings at the Bertha Schaefer Gallery in 1952. (Source: GloriaVanderbiltFineArt.com)
9. Gloria is also a published poet. Acollection of her poetry, “Love Poems,” was published by World Publishing Co. in 1954. (Source: GloriaVanderbiltFineArt.com)	10. Gloria has also published seven books, including two memoirs. Her books are, in order of publication: Once Upon a Time; Black Knight, White Knight; Never Say Good-Bye; The Memory Book of Starr Faithful; A Mother’s Story; It Seemed Important at the Time: A Romance Memoir and Obsession: An Erotic Tale.
11. She was once Audrey Hepburn’s understudy. Gloria stepped up to play one of Audrey Hepburn’s acting roles at a charityball in 1954 when Hepburn fell ill.	12. Gloria was an actress for seven years. She acted in plays, films and TV shows, but eventually gave up acting because she found that she was putting aside other parts of her life in an effort to gain more success as an actress. (Source: W, July 2009)
13. She has tripped on LSD. Gloria admits to having taken a doctor-monitored LSD trip in 1964. (Source: The World of Gloria Vanderbilt)	14. Gloria is a member of the FashionHall of Fame. She was inducted in 1970.
15. Her Aunt Getrude, who raised her, had Gloria on the path to becoming a nun. Gloria was following that path until she turned 17, when she left her aunt and began dating Howard Hughes. (Source: The Independent, September 5, 2004)	16. Marilyn Monroe attended one of Gloria’s parties. When Gloria was married to her third husband, director Sidney Lumet, she says they used to throw extravagant parties. At one party, Gloria says Marilyn Monroe showed up, but she was “unrecognizable, wearing a baggy army-navy sweater, slacks and no makeup, save a bit of Vaseline on her eyelids.” (Source: The Independent, September 5, 2004)
17. She defied racial norms back in the 1950s. One of Gloria’s many suitors was the groundbreaking African-Americanphotographer Gordon Parks, with whom she went out in pubic regularly, even during times of racial segregation. (Source: New York Times Magazine, July 16, 2000)	18. She credits Anderson with giving her the continued will to live. After suffering from childhood hardships that caused separation from her mother, separation from her beloved childhood nurse Dodo, the death of her husband Wyatt Cooper and the suicide of her son, Carter Cooper, Gloria has said, “I think the only reason I stayed alive was Anderson Cooper.” (Source: Chicago Sun-Times, May 19, 1996)
19. She has never felt like a Vanderbilt. Because of her early history away from the Vanderbilt side of her family, Gloria says she never “felt connected to that name.” She was not even aware of those relatives until she began living with her Aunt Gertrude when she was about 8 years old.	20. Gloria never really knew her father. In fact, Gloria was first thrust into the spotlight when she was just 18 months old, as her father’s death from cirrhosis made headlines around the world.