In a 1957 interview with reporter Mike Wallace, Hollywood legend Gloria Swanson, 58, sits in an elegant dress topped with an elaborate off-the-shoulder bow, her white-gloved hands twirling a flower in her lap. As Wallace prods her with questions about her talent, her age, and if she’s done with Hollywood after her best-known role as fading actress Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard, Gloria smiles calmly. “Wait a minute, am I through with Hollywood or are they through with me?” she asks. “I would love to do pictures. I’m one of the people who believes in romance, and I don’t think that has any age.”
Gloria would go on to prove that, for her, it was true. She rose to fame as a glamorous star of silent films and had legions of fans. “She lived extravagantly. She traveled with entourages. She spent wildly,” Stephen Shearer, author of the new book Gloria Swanson: Hollywood’s First Glamour Queen, tells Closer. “In those days, the public wanted us to live like kings and queens. And why not? We were in love with life,” said Gloria, who had six husbands, numerous lovers and three children.
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