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PEOPLE & ARTS Tuesday 18 June 2019

Gloria Vanderbilt, heiress, jeans queen, dies at 95

By ULA ILNYTZKY (“The Time of Your Life” interview. “I always feel The aunt, Gertrude Van- vorced Di Cicco, whom she
Associated Press on Broadway) and televi- that something wonderful derbilt Whitney, 59, who said had beaten her often,
NEW YORK (AP) — Gloria sion (“Playhouse 90,” ‘’Stu- is going to happen. And it controlled $78 million and and the next day married
Vanderbilt, the intrepid dio One,” ‘’Kraft Theater,” always does.” founded the Whitney Mu- the 63-year-old Stokowski.
heiress, artist and romantic ‘’U.S. Steel Hour”). She was Noting her father’s death seum of American Art, won The marriage to the con-
who began her extraordi- ductor lasted 10 years and
nary life as the “poor little produced two sons, Stan-
rich girl” of the Great De- islaus and Christopher.
pression, survived family After her marriage broke
tragedy and multiple mar- up, Vanderbilt found her-
riages and reigned during self embroiled in another
the 1970s and ‘80s as a de- custody case, this time
signer jeans pioneer, died as the mother. During the
Monday at the age of 95. closed hearings, Stokows-
Vanderbilt was the great- ki accused Vanderbilt of
great-granddaughter of spending too much time
financier Cornelius Van- at parties and too little with
derbilt and the mother of the boys. She accused him
CNN newsman Anderson of tyrannizing his sons and
Cooper, who announced said he really was 85, and
her death via a first-person not 72 as he claimed.
obituary that aired on the Justice Edgar Nathan Jr.
network Monday morning. gave Vanderbilt full-time
Cooper said Vanderbilt custody. But he comment-
died at home with friends ed that the court had wast-
and family at her side. She ed a month on “the reso-
had been suffering from lution of problems which
advanced stomach can- mature, intelligent parents
cer, he noted. In this April 4, 2016 file photo, CNN anchor Anderson Cooper and Gloria Vanderbilt attend the should be able to work out
“Gloria Vanderbilt was an premiere of “Nothing Left Unsaid” at the Time Warner Center in New York. Associated Press for themselves.”
extraordinary woman, who Vanderbilt married Lumet
loved life, and lived it on a fabric designer who be- when she was a toddler, custody of her niece. in 1956 and lived with him
her own terms,” Cooper came an early enthusiast she said: “If you don’t have A shocked judge had and her children in a 10-
said in a statement. “She for designer denim. The a father, you don’t miss it, closed the trial when a room duplex penthouse
was a painter, a writer, and dark-haired, tall and ultra- because you don’t know maid accused the child’s on Gracie Square. She di-
designer but also a remark- thin Vanderbilt partnered what it is. It was really only mother of a lesbian affair vorced Lumet and married
able mother, wife, and with Mohan Murjani, who when I married Wyatt Coo- with a member of the British Cooper in 1963.
friend. She was 95 years introduced a $1 million ad- per that I understood what royal family. The fight was Their elder son, Carter, a
old, but ask anyone close vertising campaign in 1978 it was like to have a father, chronicled in the best-sell- Princeton graduate and
to her, and they’d tell you, that turned the Gloria Van- because he was just an ex- ing 1980 book “Little Gloria editor at American Heri-
she was the youngest per- derbilt brand with its signa- traordinary father.” ... Happy at Last,” made tage, killed himself in 1988
son they knew, the coolest, ture white swan label into a In 2016, Vanderbilt and An- into a TV miniseries in 1982 at age 23, leaping from his
and most modern.” sensation. derson Cooper appeared with Angela Lansbury play- mother’s 14th floor apart-
Her life was chronicled in At its peak in 1980, it was together in the HBO docu- ing Whitney. ment as she tried to stop
sensational headlines from generating over $200 mil- mentary “Nothing Left Un- The “poor little rich girl” him. Police said he had
her childhood through four lion in sales. And decades said.” nickname “bothered me been treated for depres-
marriages and three di- later, famous-name de- Gloria Laura Madeleine So- enormously,” Vanderbilt sion and friends said he
vorces. She married for the signer jeans — dressed up phie Vanderbilt was born told The Associated Press was despondent over a
first time at 17, causing her or down — remain a wom- in 1924, a century after her in 2016. “I didn’t see any break-up with a girlfriend.
aunt to disinherit her. Her an’s wardrobe staple. great-great-grandfather of the press — the newspa- Vanderbilt says in “Nothing
husbands included Leop- Vanderbilt wrote several started the family fortune, pers were kept from me. I Left Unsaid” that she con-
old Stokowski, the celebrat- books, including the 2004 first in steamships, later in didn’t know what it meant. templated following him,
ed conductor, and Sidney chronicle of her love life: “It railroads. He left around I didn’t feel poor and I but the thought of how it
Lumet, the award-winning Seemed Important at the $100 million when he died didn’t feel rich. It really did would devastate Anderson
movie and television direc- Time: A Romance Memoir,” in 1877 at age 82. influence me enormously stopped her.
tor. In 1988, she witnessed which drops such names Her father, Reginald Clay- to make something of my After her success in designer
the suicide of one of her as Errol Flynn, whom she poole Vanderbilt, was 43, life when I realized what it jeans, Vanderbilt branched
four sons. dated as a teenager; Frank a gambler and boozer dy- meant.” out into other areas, includ-
Tributes online came from Sinatra, for whom she left ing of liver disease when he After spending the next ing shoes, scarves, table
celebrities and fans of her Stokowski; Marlon Brando married Gloria Morgan, 19, seven years on her aunt’s and bed linens, and china,
clothes alike. Alyssa Milano and Howard Hughes. in 1923. Their daughter was Long Island estate, Van- through her company, Glo-
called her “an incredible She claimed her only hap- 1 when Vanderbilt died in derbilt went to Hollywood. ria Concepts. In 1988 Van-
woman,” Dana Delany said py marriage was to author 1925, having gone through She dated celebrities and derbilt joined the designer
she treasures one of her Wyatt Cooper, which end- $25 million in 14 years. declared she would mar- fragrance market with her
paintings and one Twitter ed with his death in 1978 Beneficiary of a $5 million ry Hughes. Instead, the signature “Glorious.”
user mourned by remem- at age 50. Son Anderson trust fund, Vanderbilt be- 17-year-old wed Hughes’ By the late 1980s, Vander-
bering the canary Vander- Cooper called her memoir came the “poor little rich press agent, Pasquale di bilt sold the name and li-
bilt jeans she wore in junior “a terrific book; it’s like an girl” in 1934 at age 10 as Cicco, prompting her aunt censes for the brand name
high school. older ‘Sex and the City.’” the object of a custody to cut Gloria out of her will. “Gloria Vanderbilt” to Gi-
Vanderbilt was a talented “I’ve had many, many fight between her globe- Vanderbilt came into her tano, who transferred it to
painter and collagist who loves,” Vanderbilt told The trotting mother and matri- own $5 million trust fund in a group of private investors
also acted on the stage Associated Press in a 2004 archal aunt. 1945 at age 21. She also di- in 1993.q