It Seemed Important at the Time: A Romance Memoir

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Simon & Schuster, 2004 - Biography & Autobiography - 161 pages
Born to great wealth yet kept a virtual prisoner by the custody battle that raged between her very proper aunt and her self-absorbed, beautiful mother, Gloria Vanderbilt grew up in special world. Stunningly beautiful herself, yet insecure with a touch of wildness, she set out at an early age to find romance. And find it she did. There were affairs with the likes of Howard Hughes, Bill Paley and Frank Sinatra, to name a few, and one-night stands, which she writes about with delicacy and humour, including one with the young Marlon Brando. legendary conductor Leopold Stokowski; who kept his inner most secrets from her; the film director Sidney Lumet; and finally writer Wyatt Cooper, the love of her life. Now, in an irresistible memoir that is at once ruthlessly forthright, supremely stylish, full of gossip and deeply touching, Gloria Vanderbilt writes at last about the subject on which she has hitherto been silent, the men in her life. This is the candid and captivating account of a life that has kept gossip writers speculating for years, as well as Gloria's own intimate description of growing up, living, marrying and loving in the glare of the limelight.

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Contents

THE SCARLET STING OF SCANDAL
4
BILL PALEY AND THE TINY TERROR
57
OVER THE RAINBOW AT TEN GRACIE SQUARE
91
Copyright

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About the author (2004)

Heiress and socialite Gloria Vanderbilt was born in New York City, New York in February 1924. She studied art at the Art Students League of New York and successfully worked in oil, watercolor, and pastel. Vanderbilt designed for linens, china, glassware, and flatware, and in the 1970s she began licensing the use of her name in fashion lines of scarves, eyeglasses, perfume, and clothing. In 1979 her designer jeans debuted, and she later began her own company in New York. Vanderbilt has written books including "A Mother's Story" and several novels. Gloria Vanderbilt was married 4 times and had 4 sons. Her husband's included Pat DiCicco, Leopold Stokowski, Sidney Lumet and Wyatt Cooper. She lost 1 son, Carter Cooper, to suicide in 1988 at the age of 23. She claimed in an interview in 2012 that she thought about that tragedy every day. One of her memoirs told of her romances with Hollywood figures such as Sinatra, Marlon Brando, Gene Kelly and Howard Hughes (she was a teenager at the time), as well as various married men. In 2009 at age 85 she published an explicit erotic novel, "Obsession." Gloria Vanderbilt passed away on 06/17/19 at the age of 95.

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