Little Gloria

If you like historical biography, this one is a gem. It's a better story than any soap opera, Hollywood drama, or Aaron Spelling miniseries could come up with. In the early twentieth century, dictatorial Naney Morgan pushes her three pretty daughters to marry well. Daughter "Big Gloria" obligingly weds a playboy heir to the Vanderbilt fortune, who quickly succumbs to the effects of too much partying, but not before he fathers a daughter, "Little Gloria" Vanderbilt. Living on the income from her daughter's trust, "Big Gloria" builds a new life for herself (her twin sister having become in the meantime the wife of an English lord and eventually, the mistress of the Prince of Wales). Naney and faithful nanny Dodo take care of Little Gloria while her glamorous young mother travels and parties with wealthy friends. All goes well until "Big Gloria" falls in love with the wrong man, a German prince who wants to marry her. Terrified that Little Gloria's fortune will fall into foreign hands (and be out of her own control), Naney enlists the help of Little Gloria's aunt, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney. Uber-rich, powerful Mrs. Whitney is a closet lesbian, a sculptress, a lover and patroness of artists, and accustomed to having control of a situation at all times. Mrs. Whitney sets out to get custody of Little Gloria on the basis of Naney's allegations that Big Gloria is an unfit mother with (of all things) lesbian tendencies. The resulting court action and its outcome traumatized both Glorias for years. The history of both the Morgan and Vanderbilt families is interestingly and colorfully told. The saga of Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney's life is especially detailed and clearly shows how she matured into the powerful, autocratic dowager she was at the time of the custody battle for Little Gloria. The book is very easy to follow, even with the large number of characters and locales. If you are planning to read Gloria Vanderbilt's own books on her childhood, such sa "Once Upon a Time" or "Black Knight, White Knight", I strongly suggest you read this book first, as Vanderbilt's own books are told in first-person stream-of-consciousness that makes it almost impossible to understand what is going on if you don't already know the story.

I could hardly put the book down. I am amazed at the culture of these people-learned so much from this book about the times this story happened-things were SO different then & who could know how these people lived.

Barbara Goldsmith has combined highly extensive research and interesting insight to produce a book which is thought provoking as well as entertaining. Sad though the situation of the trial is, the book does not focus entirely on the court battle, but gives a thorough picture of the worlds of wealth in the early twentieth century - both of the mega-rich and café society variety. In relation to 'little Gloria' herself, Goldsmith's presentation is grounded in a theory that Gloria could not coherently express, yet was totally dominated by, a fear of kidnapping, in light of the Lindbergh incident. Throughout, I found myself puzzled as to why none of the adults pursued the reason for her terror. The endless medical nightmares which this child endured, largely because of her nurse's obsessions, were all the more tragic because no one grasped the underlying fear. Though the author is open about this being speculation, and containing elements she grasps because of being of the same age group, her presentation is very plausible. The work as a whole is an amazing portrait of the lavish, ostentatious, sordid but secretive world of the very wealthy. 'Big' Gloria seems flighty and narcissistic, yet one can be hang jawed that this young widow married into a family, with wealth that can hardly be matched by today's standards, which left her to auction her belongings and plead right of dower with the state of New York - assisting her would have been an easy matter that would have certainly been far from a hardship, yet they spent ostentatiously and cared nothing for others. Goldsmith does not speculate beyond the theory that little Gloria feared kidnapping. For example, she quotes the testimony of the accusation of a lesbian affair on "big" Gloria's part, but without any embellishment. Many questions are left unanswered, but I found this wise rather than evasive. The reader receives a picture of the era in many varieties - royalty, 'old money,' the emerging café society. The thoroughness was totally intriguing.

In LITTLE GLORIA, Barbara Goldsmith has written the definitive biography of Gloria Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt has had a life that reads like a preposterous soap opera. Goldsmith details all of it, particularly the notorious custody trial in which Gloria's paternal aunt, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, battled Gloria's notorious mother for custody. The fact that the focus of this well-publicized battle was just a single little girl too often is forgotten. This book is a thorough look into a fascinating footnote to history, and a glimpse at the lifestyle of America's richest family from the Gilded Age through the early years of the 20th Century. LITTLE GLORIA is required reading for students of American social history.

Little Gloria is a detailed family biography - very, very interesting to read! The author did painstaking reseach.