Little Gloria... Happy at Last

by Barbara Goldsmith

"Not even Hollywood in its heyday could have dreamed up a melodrama so electrifying as the one that swirled around 10-year-old “Little Gloria” Vanderbilt in 1934 when she became the object of a scandalous custody battle between her beautiful but poor, and none too bright, mother, Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt, and her rich, powerful aunt, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney whose own private life included several lovers and a pseudonymous novel about lesbianism. Taking the court case as her focal point, and documenting it every step of the way, Goldsmith has produced a book of fabulous readability. It is the psychological perception she brings to her story that grips so intensely, however. What she is chronicling is the whole passing parade of American and international high society at a time of tumultuous transition when the old guard was giving way to the new “café” society. And what a cast of characters she has?everything from royals (Thelma, Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt’s twin, was mistress to the Prince of Wales), grande dames, a rigid Irish Catholic Tammany judge, and a “devoted,” hideously possessive nurse, to the terrified little girl, told her mother might kill her. Over it all loomed the aura of the Lindbergh kidnapping. Goldsmith probes the motives, the secrets, the hidden longings of them all credibly and compassionately in a book that will sell and sell and sell. This book has it all." -Publishers Weekly

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, History, Biography Memoir, Memoir

766 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

an American author, journalist, and philanthropist. She received critical and popular acclaim for her best selling books, essays, articles, and her philanthropic work. She was awarded four honoris causa doctorates, and numerous awards; been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, two Presidential Commissions, and the New York State Council on the Arts; and honored by The New York Public Library Literary Lions as well as the Literacy Volunteers, the American Academy in Rome, The Authors Guild, and the Guild Hall Academy of Arts for Lifetime Achievement. In 2009, she received the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Merit medal from the Republic of Poland. In November 2008, Goldsmith was elected a “Living Landmark” by the New York Landmarks Conservancy. She has three children and six grandchildren. The Financial Times declared that "Goldsmith is leaving a legacy—one of art, literature, friends, family and philanthropy."

Reviews

[Carla Remy · Rating 4 out of 5]

07/2016

The child Gloria Vanderbilt's custody (and her multi million dollar trust fund) is battled over in court between her glamorous world-traveling socialite mother, Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt, and her extremely wealthy older aunt, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (artist and founder of the Whitney Museum of Art in Manhattan). It is the height of the Depression (1934) and no famous trial could be bigger or more satisfying to Americans than this poor little rich girl's plight (the wealthier lady won, but it was bad for everyone). "Little Gloria" is still alive (as of this writing), in her 90s, and gave birth to Anderson Cooper when she was 42 (which seems impressive, for the 1960s). A fascinating book with good detail of NY in the 1920s and 30s. A bit exhaustive detailing the trial, but then, it's all on record, so it's good that someone wrote it up. I never knew how huge the kidnapping phenomena was in the 1930s (the tragic Lindburgh case is simply the most famous).

[Jennifer Lafferty · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is truly fascinating. I've read it at least three times and never get tired of it. There are so many different aspects to the story. The real life personalities profiled are colorful, to say the least. A must read for anyone interested in Gloria Vanderbilt, high society or sensational trials. The book is extremely detailed and well researched. There are times when it gets a little off-track, going into back stories of people who aren't that important to the main story. Over all it is a gripping, provocative and compelling read.

[Bobby D · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rooting around my book shelves I came upon my copy of LITTLE GLORIA which I had always wanted to read. Especially since I loved Goldsmith’s book OTHER POWERS. We met Goldsmith in 2005 and she signed both of our books. So I thought I would give it a try even though I was not in the mood to start another long and heavy book. Especially one that was now some 34 years old.
It did not take long for the book to hook me with its subject and Goldsmith’s research and sense of detail for the book reads like an early twentieth Century novel. Move over Great Gatsby. In fact if that were not all true you would have to consider the story to unbelievable for a publishable novel.
Here is what we have.
The Vanderbilt family and all their wealth and power generated by inherited wealth as decedents of Cornelius Vanderbilt. All this family history is very entertaining. Yet given Cornelius’s best laid plans for his dynasty all of the male heirs died early. Alcohol and an ill-timed trip on the Lusitania take center stage in this sad affair of who gets to keep Little Gloria (and her money?).
Gloria Morgan still a teen ager became the second Reginald Vanderbilt who was 24 years her senior. He was considered a good catch but was also at the time of the marriage in the process of killing himself with drink and finishing gambling his whole fortune away. He died broke leaving only a 5 million dollar trust fund set up only for his new baby daughter Gloria (Little Gloria). If he could have gotten his hands on even this he would have gambled it too away. Reginald also had a sister Gertrude (Vanderbilt) Whitney who still had her 76 million dollar inheritance. Yes, Gertrude is that very same Whitney that founded New York’s Whitney Museum.
So let the custody fight begin.
But first we meet a whole rush of characters. Lawyers, the Crazy Judge (and I mean crazy), Gloria’s twin sister Thelma Morgan (who had a five year affair with Edward the Prince of Wales before he became King and before he meet Wallis Simpson and left the throne. Gloria Morgan’s mother who declares from the roof tops that her daughter is an unfit mother to Little Gloria even while on the daughter’s payroll. We travel all over Europe and back and forth to the United States generating a whirlwind of spending and name dropping. No one seem to have a real job or work for a living… they just spend and entertain. Little Gloria’s Grandmother Alice Gwynne Vanderbilt happened to be the one who had that summer home in Newport, Rhode Island call THE BREAKERS which is now visited by some 500,000 tourist a year). And all this goes on while the Lindbergh child is kidnapped and found dead along with what seems to the media and Roosevelt administration a sudden crime wave of kidnappings for ransom. The fun of the book is following all these different threads and getting an overall picture of the life style the Gilded Age produced. It is 1933 and the end of this era at the height of the depression.
The second half of the book is a blow by blow accounting of the custody court battle over 10 year old Little Gloria between her rich Aunt Gertrude and her Mother Gloria whom the child says she fears and hates. Gertrude has many secrets she wants to stay private but she does not mind digging up the dirt on her brother’s widow. All in the name of saving the child. After all the Judge wants Little Gloria to become Catholic. It makes for a story… an object lesson provided by one of the most dysfunctional families you will find…and all encouraged by a media frenzy, incompetent judge and an eager public.
All in all an entertaining, fascinating and marvelous story and book. Well worth going back to discover.

[MaryannC Victorian Dreamer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this a few times because it's a fascinating look into the world of Gloria Vanderbilt as a child and the sensational headlines of the custody battle surrounding her. Little Gloria was a pawn in her mother's fight against her aunt Gertrude for custody after her father dies. Never understanding the reasons why she was being fought for she put all her love and trust into her childhood nurse Dodo, who was eventually sent away. In this book you get a real sense of Little Gloria's profound sadness and loneliness.

[Karol · Rating 2 out of 5]

My sister was enthralled with this story when it was on TV, either as a made-for-TV movie, or a miniseries (I can't remember which). I didn't see the show, but I was intrigued enough to buy the book. Evidently, however, not intrigued enough to actually READ the book until some 20 years later.

The book chronicles how the Vanderbilts made their fortune and became prominent in New York Society, and how the near-penniless Morgan twins, Thelma and Gloria, were swept up into that world. That aspect of the story was interesting to me.

The rest of it - not so much. The whole situation with "Little Gloria" was a real mess, based in part on a fashionable but absent mother, and in part on the horrors reported in the newspapers of wealthy children being kidnapped, and in particular the sad case of the Lindbergh baby. These horrors caused Little Gloria to fear her mother, and since the adults didn't understand where the fear came from, they assumed Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt was the cause.

I usually am fascinated with the legal process, but in this story I just didn't get there. The whole thing was sad, sordid, and depressing.

[Bargain Sleuth Book Reviews · Rating 4 out of 5]

For this and other book reviews, check out www.bargain-sleuth.com. Find us on Facebook at Bargain Sleuth Book Reviews.

You know Anderson Cooper, the news anchor? He comes from a once-famous family, the Vanderbilts. His mother, Gloria Vanderbilt, was the subject of custody battle that was front page news during the Great Depression. Little Gloria... Happy at Last is the story of that battle, and it is a very interesting tale.

Fighting over her were her young widowed mother Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt, and her aunt, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney.

I first read Little Gloria... Happy at Last about 30 years ago and decided to check it out again because I remember being fascinated by all the trappings of wealth, as well as all the salacious gossip. The first half of Little Gloria... Happy at Last is really interesting, exploring the lives of the major players of the story, as well as a look at high society during the 1920s and 30s.

Once Little Gloria... Happy at Last gets to the custody trial, the book drags. I may as well have read the actual transcript it was so boring. In fact, the book heavily relied on transcripts and directly quotes them repeatedly. I found myself skipping parts to get to the end to find out the verdict, which I couldn't remember from my original reading.

Still, Little Gloria... Happy at Last is a fascinating look at another time, and another way of life, if you can slog through the trial stuff, it is worth the read.

Also, for the record, in my opinion, neither Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney or Gloria Vanderbilt should have had custody of Little Gloria. It is a real tragedy the way she was treated during her childhood.

[Sherry Bledsoe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Few inconsistencies in this biography

Most of the archival info is of course accurate but at the time this books ends - Gloria Vanderbilt still held on tightly to most of "her story or perspective" in regarding how these facts shaped her life. It tells the story of the trial - that's mostly what the book is about. To get the "story" of Gloria Vanderbilt I suggest you read the book written by her son Anderson Cooper with his mother, Gloria Vanderbilt written at the end of her life. THAT book was fascinating, poignant and gave you a true picture of the real Poor Little Rich Girl!

[Ainsley · Rating 2 out of 5]

The early chapters are fascinating and a pleasure to read, but once the narrative moves to the legal proceedings, Goldsmith's text becomes almost as tedious as a trial transcript.

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written life story of Little Gloria Vanderbilt.

[Laurie Hoppe · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a fascinating -- if overlong -- retelling of the custody case I only knew the barest bones of. I was aware, going into it, who won custody of Little Gloria, but now I understand what precipitated America's most famous custody battle.

It was mother vs. aunt, and no one comes off especially well.

AUNT: Gertrude Whitney, aka Auntie Ger, seems just as interested in keeping Vanderbilt money in the Vanderbilt family as she is in caring for the child. It isn't that she didn't want Little Gloria, it's that women in the Vanderbilt family at that time jobbed out child rearing to nannies and nurses. Mrs. Whitney seemed to sincerely believe she was doing right by the little girl, giving her stability, if not love and attention. Her authenticity made her a better choice, I suppose than the mother.

MOTHER: As an adult, Gloria Vanderbilt referred to her mother as, "a pathetic woman who didn't understand a single thing that happened to her in her own life." I saw Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt that way, too. She was a teenager when she married Reginald Vanderbilt. Too young to be a bride, too young to be a mother, and then too young to be a widow. She didn't know how to parent a fatherless little girl. She referred to Little Gloria as "my baby," even when the child was 10 years old. She saw herself as the heroine of a romance novel, and didn't seem interested in her child or reality. This ninny actually had to be told that she could not use the allowance she received for Little Gloria's care to pay for cartons of cigarettes.

There are other colorful characters here -- most notably a nurse who loved the child but was, well, a conspiracy and control freak and a judge who loved the limelight and saw himself as Solomon.

It's a juicy read, filled with insights about America in the 1920s and 1930s. But it could have used a good editor. A lot of the good stuff gets lost amid the extraneous.

[Virginia Boylan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although it’s fascinating, this is a difficult book to read. It’s packed with interesting detail about the times and the world these people lived in, different in so many ways from what we know today. Goldsmith spends almost half the book explaining these details as she follows “Big Gloria’s” youth, marriage, and early motherhood. It’s invaluable in understanding what was to happen. Rather than passing judgement, the author simply relates the facts and lets the reader come to conclusions. All those details, though, made the book easy to put down and seeing the heartbreak unfold made it easy not to return. Having toured some of the places mentioned in the book, I gained a new appreciation for the era and the people who lived in it.

[Susan Baranoff · Rating 4 out of 5]

I never actually got my questions answered.. I guess I'll have to read another book. Did "Little Gloria" ever tell anyone why she was so afraid of being murdered? How does the author know this? The conjecture is good, but we never hear, in the accounts later in her life that she says how terrified she was because of all the famous children who were being kidnapped, beginning with he Lindbergh baby... the author says it repeatedly, but never ties the notion to Gloria herself.

Interesting the book ends in the 1970s when I was a college student and "Gloria V" jeans fit my body type like a glove!

[Debbie Hill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vanderbilt Fun

Book was a little rough in the beginning bc the author went in great detail about each character's background: how they were raised, who they married and how they met. It was really difficult to keep up with the names of English royal titles. I was also getting mother Gloria mixed up with little Gloria as in which one is the author referring to. Also mother Gloria and Aunt Gertrude were mixing in my mind a few times- so many names!
The trial was really interesting and well written. Also interesting how Edward, Prince of Wales was important to some of the story.

[Lacey Jo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ah, the lives of the rich! It was truly fascinating to be brought into their world of travel and excess. Definitely feel bad for their kids though, and I was shocked to read the stories of multiple children from rich families being kidnapped for ransom.

"When the babies are young they are taken care of by nurses and governesses. Mothers are busy with the duties that their social lives entail. You will usually find them out to lunch and then on to cocktails somewhere. They rush home to dress for dinner and away they go again." - Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt

[Marelda Hart · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a Story

I’ve known that there was a trial for custody of Gloria Vanderbilt for many years. But I had no idea about the twists and turns and lies and manipulation and horrors of this tale.
I’ve known for years about the kidnapping of Lindbergh’s baby but I had no idea kidnapping was epidemic and terrified children throughout the country. What a story.

[Marilyn K · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Detailed account of the trial. A bit too detailed, but it was a good read.

[Billie Rae Bates · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very comprehensive.

[Sandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m glad I read it. It has been on my list for years. But some parts I really had to slog through. Especially the word got for word transcription from the trial.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

good book but a little too long

[Sarah Fonseca · Rating 4 out of 5]

~45 years later and I do not know if anyone has or will ever top Goldsmith's ability to root out and assimilate the sources, lost histories, and contexts of long-gone American dynasties.

[Kristi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book about the struggle over custody of Gloria Vanderbilt. Kristi & Abby Tabby

[Karen-Leigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Not even Hollywood in its heyday could have dreamed up a melodrama so electrifying as the one that swirled around 10-year-old “Little Gloria” Vanderbilt in 1934 when she became the object of a scandalous custody battle between her beautiful but poor, and none too bright, mother, Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt, and her rich, powerful aunt, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney whose own private life included several lovers and a pseudonymous novel about lesbianism. Taking the court case as her focal point, and documenting it every step of the way, Goldsmith has produced a book of fabulous readability. It is the psychological perception she brings to her story that grips so intensely, however. What she is chronicling is the whole passing parade of American and international high society at a time of tumultuous transition when the old guard was giving way to the new “café” society. And what a cast of characters she has?everything from royals (Thelma, Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt’s twin, was mistress to the Prince of Wales), grande dames, a rigid Irish Catholic Tammany judge, and a “devoted,” hideously possessive nurse, to the terrified little girl, told her mother might kill her. Over it all loomed the aura of the Lindbergh kidnapping. Goldsmith probes the motives, the secrets, the hidden longings of them all credibly and compassionately in a book that will sell and sell and sell. This book has it all." -Publishers Weekly

[Kathleen Hulser · Rating 3 out of 5]

A strange child, Gloria Vanderbilt was caught between warring mother and aunt, with spiked interventions on occasion by grandmother. Why did Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney even want this child? Like many upperclass offspring, it was nannies and butlers who were her everyday companions and child-rearers in chief. Barbara Goldsmith probes the crazy court shenanigans as the ladies battled for custody, and reveals the less than stellar early path of the women who emerged to create madly popular jeans rather late in her career. Trailing clouds of her own perfume, Gloria cut a swath through the society pages -- flaunting her entitlement and her alienation from that fading round of blue-blooded ritual. Who knew that before Wyatt Cooper marriage (father, of course, of Anderson Cooper), that Gloria had hooked up with the leading Romeo of the Dominican Republic, a darkly handsome playboy who turned out to be rather poor marital materiel?

[Judith · Rating 4 out of 5]

A rather slow, but good read if one is interested in this type of subject matter. It shows how the rich lived back in the day and how Gloria Vanderbilt, Sr. was intimidated into giving up custody of her child, Little Gloria, to Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, the child's aunt. Lots of photographs of the mansions on 5th Avenue in NYC, and the "summer homes", all more ostentatious than the last. Interesting note: in the 70's, a Vanderbilt family reunion was held and their wasn't a millionaire among them. These folks made millions over the years and spent it all.

[Valerie]

I really had no general opinion of biographies until I read this book. I had read several other biographies, and hadn't come away with such a bad taste in my mouth.

I read this because it was recommended to me, and frankly found it disgusting. Every detail that was revealed had me thinking more and more "What business is this of mine?" I think I did finish it, but it pretty much soured me on biographies.

[Lenore Riegel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is such a juicy read. Not just because it tells the back story on Gloria Vanderbilt, and quite a story that is, but because it gives you a picture of the very very rich who created New York City. Along the way, learn fascinating details about how Gloria's family interacted with the Royal Family. You won't forget this one. Sex, romance, intrigue, tragedy, comedy, legal maneuverings, and it's all true.

[Celene Swagler · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is chock full of details!!! It's comprised of mostly courtroom details but it's very compelling. It ends rather quickly and should be sold as a book about the case rather than anything else. I found myself getting frustrated at the idiocy of the judicial system during the trial and the incompetency of the lawyers and judges but alas it was a different time and values were different.

[Diz White · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book should put paid to the notion that money makes you happy - for ever. Get out the Kleenex for poor Gloria's unhappy but nonetheless fascinating story. She was a survivor alright. Well written.

[Susan Molloy · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a surprise this was; until now, I did not know that Gloria Vanderbilt was "somebody" before her clothing and perfume lines. I found this to be a very interesting biography and am glad the library had a copy.