[strandinthewind]

Gloria Swanson

She was one of the first feminists to take on the Motion Picture industry. She left her husbands when they hurt or used her. According to her book, which was almost horrifyingly unflinching in its portrayal of her great successes as well as huge failures and tragedies, she married her first husband (Wallace Berry) when she was 16 or 17 and he drunkenly brutally raped her on her wedding night and then made her drink a concotion that he told her was for morning sickness when it really was meant to and did induce a miscarriage that could have killed her - she was hospitalized as a result. She left him and had to work with him in movies for a year or so. When she became pregnant by her second husband with her first child, she told the studio (Paramount) to go hell when they told her not to have the baby because it would ruin her career and, more importantly, their chance to make a pile of money off of her. She lived in a man's world and routinely beat them at their own game. Sometimes, however, she did not win and she goes into that in detail and, again, she in unflinching about it. For example, Joe Kennedy, father of the Pres., took her for millions all while making love to her and telling her he represented her best interests. I highly recommend her autobiography "Swanson on Swanson" for a great and fascinating self-written portrayl of one of the most complex and fascinating women on the 20th century.

Interestingly, she was an inventor, sculpteress, artist, and nutrition expert. She designed an important drawing for the UN, she lobbied Congress to get more nutritious meals in schools, and she helped Jewish people escape Nazi Germany by employing them at her invention complany her.

Many did not like her because in business she carried herself frankly like a man - but all respected her and rightfully so.