Gloria Swanson in “Her Gilded Cage” (1922)
Gloria Swanson in “Sunset Boulevard”, 1950.
Gloria Swanson in Manhandled c.1924
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Gloria Swanson
happy birthday Gloria May Josephine Swanson (March 27, 1899 – April 4, 1983)
The stellar prima donna hailed with this flourish of trumpets is the decorative motif of De Mille’s purple-lined-plush opera, the newly crested star of the bizarre, empress of modes, Gloria Swanson. There is more than a little aesthetic pleasure in meeting such a woman. Her beauty is comparable to that of gleaming Sauterne, cool; smooth, and possessed of a distinctly tingling quality that renders it all the more memorable (…) add to these intimate riots of radiance the attributes of graceful motion, swimming movement, and a not unintellectual outlook on life, and you will have a hazy idea of Swanson in the flesh.
She is of the Ritz Ritzy, and it was entirely in keeping with her personality to hold court high in the gilded pile bearing that standardised name. Hers is not the hauteur of upstaged aristocracy, hers is not the regal manner in any way, but about her there is an unmistakeable air, an atmosphere of chic, of smartness, of that certain je ne sais quoi that might make the passers-by stop to stare. - Malcom Oettinger in Picture-Play magazine, January 1922
Gloria Swanson is swarmed by adoring fans upon her return from Europe in 1925. The “Queen of the Screen” was accompanied by the Mayor of Los Angeles, two brass bands, and a motorcycle escort as she swept triumphantly from the station to the studio in her limousine, the streets massed with cheering fans.
