Speaker 1: You are listening to History on Trial, a production of
Speaker 1: iHeart Podcasts. Listener Discretion advised this must have been how
Speaker 1: King Solomon felt. Justice John Francis Carew thought that ancient
Speaker 1: king had once confronted a similar problem to the one
Speaker 1: Carew faced. Now. Two women had come to Solomon, each
Speaker 1: claiming that a baby was theirs. The king watched the
Speaker 1: woman argue back and forth, and then he spoke, saying,
Speaker 1: bring me a sword. Once the sword was at hand,
Speaker 1: the King said, divide the living child in two, and
Speaker 1: give half to the one and half to the other.
Speaker 1: One woman, horrified, said she would rather the other woman
Speaker 1: kept the baby so that it could live. The other
Speaker 1: told the king to go ahead. King Solomon knew at
Speaker 1: once that the first woman must be the child's mother.
Speaker 1: In some ways, the custody case in front of Justice
Speaker 1: Carew was even harder than Solomon's. As a justice of
Speaker 1: the New York State Supreme Court, Carew was not allowed
Speaker 1: to use a sword to render judgment. Instead, he would
Speaker 1: have to listen to weeks of testimony and to carefully
Speaker 1: weigh his options. And things only got more complicated from there.
Speaker 1: When Solomon administered his test the Book of King's records,
Speaker 1: his subjects saw that the wisdom of God was in
Speaker 1: him to do judgment. Justice Carew could not hope for
Speaker 1: such a positive reception. No matter what he decided, people
Speaker 1: would be furious, not just the parties involved, but the
Speaker 1: crowds gathered outside the courthouse and the millions of people
Speaker 1: who followed the case avidly in newspapers. For this was
Speaker 1: not an ordinary custody case. The women fighting in front
Speaker 1: of Justice Carew for custody of a ten year old
Speaker 1: girl were not ordinary women. They were members of one
Speaker 1: of the wealthiest and most powerful families in American history,
Speaker 1: and in their battle for custody of this girl, they
Speaker 1: would bring the full force of their names and connections
Speaker 1: to bear, stopping at nothing, from hiring spies to destroying
Speaker 1: reputations to get what they wanted. After all, they were
Speaker 1: used to the world bending to their whims. It often
Speaker 1: does when your last name is Vanderbilt. On the one hand,
Speaker 1: there was the girl's mother, Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt, a defining
Speaker 1: beauty of her generation, a friend to royalty and Hollywood,
Speaker 1: a regular feet in the society columns. On the other hand,
Speaker 1: there was Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, Gloria's sister in law, the
Speaker 1: enormously wealthy patron of the arts who had founded her
Speaker 1: own museum. Between them was the girl also named Gloria,
Speaker 1: ten years old, with a sleek cap, of thick dark
Speaker 1: hair and a strange, nervous manner. What was she so
Speaker 1: frightened of? The Justice wondered, was one of the women
Speaker 1: the source of her fear? Could one of them cure it?
Speaker 1: There was much to consider, and that was before the
Speaker 1: high priced lawyers, and the interfering grandmother and the hysterical nanny.
Speaker 1: Justice carew shook his head. Perhaps he needed a sword
Speaker 1: after all. Welcome to History on Trial. I'm your host,
Speaker 1: Mira Hayward this week the matter of Vanderbilt. For a brief,
Speaker 1: beautiful period in the early nineteen twenties, it seemed that
Speaker 1: all of New York society loved the magnificent Morgans. That's
Speaker 1: what the newspapers called the Morgan twins, Gloria and Telma,
Speaker 1: and the name fit. They were stunningly beautiful, intriguingly foreign,
Speaker 1: and ever present. The twins had exploded onto the social
Speaker 1: scene in nineteen twenty one, aged seventeen and made a
Speaker 1: strong impression. No one minded that their pedigree was not
Speaker 1: entirely blue blooded. Their father, Harry Hayes Morgan, was a
Speaker 1: career diplomat and not related to the JP Morgans. Their mother, Laura,
Speaker 1: was the daughter of a Civil war general and a
Speaker 1: Chilean aristocrat. The twins had grown up abroad with their
Speaker 1: two older siblings, a brother Hair and a sister Consuelo.
Speaker 1: Their lifestyle had been nomadic and they had picked up
Speaker 1: a number of languages as a result. At seventeen, after
Speaker 1: sporadic schooling, the twins had been left alone in New
Speaker 1: York City. Their mission, their mother, Laura, made it clear,
Speaker 1: was to find husbands. Laura Morgan was a domineering, status
Speaker 1: and money obsessed women, as her granddaughter would later reflect, quote,
Speaker 1: Laura Morgan did not believe in married love, in friendship
Speaker 1: between women, or that women could ever achieve positions of
Speaker 1: power except through the men they married. The twins knew
Speaker 1: that for their financial security they would need to make
Speaker 1: good matches. Still, they were going to enjoy their independence
Speaker 1: while they could. They showed up to parties in stunning
Speaker 1: dresses they had sown themselves dancing until the wee hours
Speaker 1: charming the social columnists. The photographer Cecil Beaten was one
Speaker 1: of many who found himself drawn to Gloria and Telma.
Speaker 1: They are alike as two magnolias, Beaten wrote, and with
Speaker 1: their marble complexions, raven tresses and flowing dresses, with their
Speaker 1: slight lisps and foreign accents, they diffuse an atmosphere of
Speaker 1: hot house elegance and lacy femininity. Soon enough, Telma caught
Speaker 1: the eye of Junior Converse, scion of a wealthy family,
Speaker 1: and in February nineteen twenty two, the couple eloped. Upon
Speaker 1: their return to New York, they hosted a dinner party,
Speaker 1: and it was there that Gloria met the man whose
Speaker 1: family would shape her life. He was unprepossessing, this man
Speaker 1: nearly twenty five years older than Gloria, with a bushy mustache,
Speaker 1: graying hair, and the flush complexion and bulging belly of
Speaker 1: the heavy drinker he was. Despite all of this, the
Speaker 1: man was considered the most eligible bachelor in New York,
Speaker 1: all because his name was Reggie Vanderbilt. Wealth did not
Speaker 1: serve Reggie Vanderbilt well born in eighteen eighty, he was
Speaker 1: the youngest son of Alice and Cornelius Vanderbilt, the second
Speaker 1: the couple who built the famous or infamous one hundred
Speaker 1: and thirty eight thousand square foot Newport vacation home known
Speaker 1: as the Breakers. Raised in luxury, Reggie wanted for nothing
Speaker 1: and never faced consequences. On his twenty first birthday, he
Speaker 1: inherited several trusts worth approximately fifteen point five million dollars.
Speaker 1: That night, to celebrate his windfall, he went gambling and
Speaker 1: lost seventy thousand dollars. By nineteen fifteen, as part of
Speaker 1: an investigation into Reggie for tax fraud, authorities discovered that
Speaker 1: all he had left was the income off of the
Speaker 1: one trust, whose principle he could not touch. In fourteen years,
Speaker 1: Reggie had spent nearly twenty five or in today's money,
Speaker 1: nine hundred and twenty three million dollars. Four years later,
Speaker 1: Reggie's first wife, Kathleen, divorced him. The couple had married
Speaker 1: in nineteen oh three and had one daughter, also named Kathleen,
Speaker 1: who in nineteen twenty two was almost exactly the same
Speaker 1: age as her father's new love interest, Gloria Morgan. Kathleen
Speaker 1: and Gloria were close for a while until Reggie told
Speaker 1: his daughter of his plan to propose to her good friend, Gloria.
Speaker 1: Kathleen fled to her mother's house in Florida. Reggie bought
Speaker 1: a sixteen carrot heart shaped diamond engagement ring. Gloria Morgan
Speaker 1: knew who she was married, wrying Reggie had told her
Speaker 1: about his financial difficulties. He had explained his health problems
Speaker 1: to her too. Reggie's drinking was quickly killing him, but
Speaker 1: still Gloria wished to marry him. She seemed to see
Speaker 1: Reggie as something of a father figure. Her own father
Speaker 1: had often been absent, and she liked how Reggie took
Speaker 1: care of her. After winning over Reggie's mother, Alice with
Speaker 1: her bold personality, Gloria married Reggie on March sixth, nineteen
Speaker 1: twenty three. Eleven months later, on February twentieth, nineteen twenty four,
Speaker 1: Gloria gave birth to a baby who the couple named
Speaker 1: Gloria Laura Vanderbilt. To keep the Glorias apart, I'll call
Speaker 1: the child Little Gloria, as her mother's family did. The
Speaker 1: couple designated Reggie's older sister, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney as Little
Speaker 1: Gloria as godmother. Laura Morgan Glory, Loria's mother, helped her
Speaker 1: daughter with the difficult early days of parenthood. Soon as
Speaker 1: was her way, Laura had completely taken charge. She was
Speaker 1: the one who selected and hired the baby's nanny, Emma
Speaker 1: Sullivan Keislich. The thirty three year old nanny was well
Speaker 1: trained and had worked with a number of other wealthy families.
Speaker 1: But most importantly to Laura's mind, Nurse Keeslick had the
Speaker 1: same view of little Gloria that she did. To their minds,
Speaker 1: little Gloria was not an ordinary baby. She was special.
Speaker 1: She was a Vanderbilt, practically American royalty. Laura and Nurse
Speaker 1: Keeslick treated the baby like she was made of glass.
Speaker 1: As author Barbara Goldsmith writes in Little Gloria Happy at Last,
Speaker 1: her account of the trial, quote, the child was the
Speaker 1: main concern of their lives and their justification for being
Speaker 1: in Gloria's household. Their obsessive focus on the baby would
Speaker 1: one day have devastating consequences for the entire family. On
Speaker 1: September fourth, nineteen twenty five, Reggie Vanderbilt died from alcoholic cirrhosis,
Speaker 1: aged forty five. Gloria barely had time to mourn her
Speaker 1: husband before the bill collectors came knocking on her door.
Speaker 1: The extent of Reggie's debts soon revealed itself. He owed
Speaker 1: hundreds of thousands of dollars. He had left Gloria with
Speaker 1: almost nothing of her own. However, their daughter, Little Gloria,
Speaker 1: inherited her father's one remaining asset, the inviolable trust, whose
Speaker 1: principle he was never able to touch. She and her
Speaker 1: older sister Kathleen, each received half of this money, two
Speaker 1: and a half million dollars each, to be held in
Speaker 1: trust until they were twenty one. Laura Morgan suggested that
Speaker 1: Gloria reach out to a family friend, the lawyer George Wickersham,
Speaker 1: for financial and legal advice. Wickersham sent over an associate,
Speaker 1: Thomas Gilchrist, to help the thirty nine year old. Gilchrist
Speaker 1: advised Gloria that her daughter would need a legal and
Speaker 1: financial guardian. Gloria, who was only twenty at the time,
Speaker 1: was not old enough to serve in these roles. The
Speaker 1: law said you had to be twenty one. Wickersham agreed
Speaker 1: to take on the guardian ships, with Gilchrist acting as
Speaker 1: his representative. Eventually, Gilchrist would become an official guardian Gilchrist
Speaker 1: and Wickersham helped Gloria prepare a petition asking that money
Speaker 1: be withdrawn from Little Gloria's Trust to support herself and
Speaker 1: her child. Justice James Foley of the Surrogate's Court, the
Speaker 1: legal body which administered estates in New York, approved Gloria's
Speaker 1: request for four thousand dollars into day money seventy one
Speaker 1: thousand dollars a month. That is an enormous sum to
Speaker 1: most of us, but within Gloria's circles, this was a
Speaker 1: paltry amount, especially considering that Gloria soon began financially supporting
Speaker 1: her parents. It should also be noted that this amount
Speaker 1: was well within the income the trust generated each year.
Speaker 1: In nineteen twenty six, Gloria decided to move to Paris.
Speaker 1: Little Gloria's guardian, Thomas Gilchrist, objected to this plan, believing
Speaker 1: that it was better for the child to be raised
Speaker 1: in America. He threatened Gloria, telling her that Justice Foley
Speaker 1: would cut her income off, but Justice Foley had no
Speaker 1: such plans. He told Gloria to enjoy life abroad, but
Speaker 1: said that she ought to bring the child home when
Speaker 1: it was school aged. Gloria happily agreed and set off
Speaker 1: for Paris. These years in Europe were happy ones. Mostly,
Speaker 1: Gloria lived the life of a beautiful young society widow,
Speaker 1: staying out late, taking trips to the south of France,
Speaker 1: throwing cocktail parties. Like nearly all wealthy women of her generation,
Speaker 1: Gloria left the child care to the nanny. Nurse Keislich
Speaker 1: and Laura Morgan created a loving, if over protective atmosphere
Speaker 1: for the toddler, but beneath the surface, trouble was stirring.
Speaker 1: In October nineteen twenty six, Gloria met Gutfried, Prince of
Speaker 1: ho and Loah Landenberg on a ship. Friedel, as friends
Speaker 1: called him, was close to Gloria's age, and the two
Speaker 1: bonded as they crossed the Atlantic. Within months they were
Speaker 1: in love. In March nineteen twenty seven, they announced their engagement.
Speaker 1: There were two problems though. First, Friedel had no money
Speaker 1: you would not have any until the death of his father,
Speaker 1: Thomas Gilchrist told Gloria that her daughter's money could not
Speaker 1: be used to support a new husband. Secondly, there was
Speaker 1: the problem of Laura Morgan, Gloria's mother, Always tightly wound
Speaker 1: and prone to hysteria had become increasingly unhinged. She was
Speaker 1: obsessed with Little Gloria's safety. She saw Friedel as a
Speaker 1: threat to her granddaughter's well being, and this threat was
Speaker 1: not metaphorical. She believed, on the basis of no evidence,
Speaker 1: that Friedel would murder Little Gloria for her money. Soon
Speaker 1: this year expanded, Laura began openly claiming that Friedel and
Speaker 1: Gloria were trying to kill the child. Nurse Keieslich, who
Speaker 1: had become obsessed with the child, refusing to ever leave
Speaker 1: her side, fell into step with Laura's paranoid fantasy. Little Gloria,
Speaker 1: who loved her grandmother and her nanny fiercely, could not
Speaker 1: help but absorb their anxieties. After a year of stress
Speaker 1: from all sides, Gloria and Friedol decided to call off
Speaker 1: their engagement. Gloria kicked her mother out of her house
Speaker 1: in Paris. Laura moved into a hotel ten blocks away.
Speaker 1: Nurse Keislick took Little Gloria to visit her regularly. Gloria
Speaker 1: began spending more time in England, where her twin sister
Speaker 1: Telma was living. Telma had by now divorced her first husband,
Speaker 1: married a wealthy English viscount and started an affair with
Speaker 1: the Prince of Wales. Life was a whirlwind of parties
Speaker 1: and hunts, and even a presentation at court, but by
Speaker 1: nineteen thirty Gloria was receiving increasing pressure from Gilchrist to
Speaker 1: return to America. He held her financial position over her head,
Speaker 1: constantly threatening to cut her off. To Gloria, the arrangement
Speaker 1: was unbearable. She later wrote, quote, everything was under constant surveillance.
Speaker 1: I was never able to do anything on my own
Speaker 1: initiative when it came to expenditures without first consulting my
Speaker 1: child's guardians. Gilchrist's desire to control Gloria's life is at
Speaker 1: times difficult to understand. There are several factors that might
Speaker 1: explain it. A genuine desire to serve the child's financial interests,
Speaker 1: Gilchrist's condescending paternalistic feelings towards the elder Gloria, and most importantly,
Speaker 1: the fact that he was receiving regular letters from Laura
Speaker 1: Morgan claiming that Gloria was an unfit mother. Eventually, Gilchrist
Speaker 1: and Wickersham issued an ultimatum. If Gloria and seven year
Speaker 1: old little Gloria did not return to America in nineteen
Speaker 1: thirty two, they would be cut off financially. Reluctantly, Gloria
Speaker 1: made reservations on an ocean liner. The America that the
Speaker 1: Vanderbilts returned to was a much bleaker country than the
Speaker 1: one they had left. The Great Depression had ravaged the nation.
Speaker 1: Kidnappings for ransom were on the rise, and wealthy families
Speaker 1: were hiring bodyguards to protect their children. Nurse Kislich was
Speaker 1: terrified of Little Gloria being kidnapped and spoke constantly of
Speaker 1: the danger. This annoyed Gloria Vanderbilt, who did not believe
Speaker 1: that her daughter was at risk. But she was wrong.
Speaker 1: Already plans were being put in place to take Little
Speaker 1: Gloria away from her. It was not anonymous criminals who
Speaker 1: were planning the kidnapping, though, it was the child's own family.
Speaker 1: For all the conflict that would define Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt
Speaker 1: and Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney's relationship, the two women had a
Speaker 1: surprising amount in common. They had both been raised by
Speaker 1: status ofsessed mothers, were both bound by strict social conventions,
Speaker 1: and both had a taste for pleasure. The biggest difference
Speaker 1: between the two ultimately was money. Gloria, despite her lifestyle,
Speaker 1: did not have any money of her own. Gertrude, on
Speaker 1: the other hand, controlled one of the largest fortunes in
Speaker 1: the world. Gertrude was born on January ninth, eighteen seventy five,
Speaker 1: the second daughter of Alice and Cornelius Vanderbilt. The second
Speaker 1: She was five years older than her brother Reggie, making
Speaker 1: her thirty years older than her sister in law Gloria.
Speaker 1: From childhood, Gertrude had had an overwhelming a waywareness of
Speaker 1: her social status and the expectations for a woman in
Speaker 1: her position. She consciously developed a chilly, impenetrable shell of
Speaker 1: perfect manners which concealed her inner desires, perhaps because she
Speaker 1: knew that those desires would shock society. As a teenager,
Speaker 1: Gertrude fell in love with another woman. The two began
Speaker 1: a passionate three year relationship that lasted until Gertrude was
Speaker 1: twenty one. By eighteen ninety six, Gertrude's feelings for her
Speaker 1: girlfriend had begun to fade, and she turned her attention
Speaker 1: to Harry Payne Whitney, the dashing, handsome air to a
Speaker 1: prestigious family In eighteen ninety six, she married Harry in
Speaker 1: the social event of the season. The couple would have
Speaker 1: three children. Like Gloria, they left the raising of these
Speaker 1: children to Nanny's. Though their life was filled with luxury,
Speaker 1: the marriage was not a happy one. The Whitneys had
Speaker 1: little in common, and Harry was frequently unfaithful. To occupy herself,
Speaker 1: Gertrude began to explore the art world. She took up
Speaker 1: sculpting and then collecting. By the nineteen twenties, she had
Speaker 1: established herself as one of the foremost patrons of American art.
Speaker 1: She had also established a hidden private life, playing out
Speaker 1: beneath her public role as a respectable society matron. In
Speaker 1: the second life, she was a bohemian, throwing wild parties
Speaker 1: in her downtown art studio for her artist friends and
Speaker 1: having affairs of her own. In both lives, public and private,
Speaker 1: she was a force to be reckoned with. My ways
Speaker 1: are deep, Gertrude wrote of herself, and I cover my
Speaker 1: tracks with discretion, but nonetheless, when I want something, it
Speaker 1: often happens. In nineteen twenty nine, the Metropolitan Museum of
Speaker 1: Art declined Gertrude's donation of her entire collection of American art.
Speaker 1: Gertrude wanted to keep her collection together, and she wanted
Speaker 1: it to be displayed. So she did what any passionate
Speaker 1: collector with a mind boggling fortune would do. She created
Speaker 1: a museum of her own. The Whitney Museum of American
Speaker 1: Art opened in New York City in nineteen thirty one
Speaker 1: and today attracts more than seven hundred thousand visitors a year.
Speaker 1: In nineteen thirty Harry Whitney died, bequeathing Gertrude his five
Speaker 1: thousand acre of Long Island estate, Wheatley Hills. It was
Speaker 1: at Wheatley Hills that the true trouble with Little Gloria began.
Speaker 1: In the summer of nineteen thirty two, after the two
Speaker 1: Glorias returned from their years abroad, a doctor informed Gloria
Speaker 1: that her daughter needed to have her tonsils removed. The
Speaker 1: surgery went smoothly, but a week after the night before
Speaker 1: Gloria planned to take a trip to Europe, the child
Speaker 1: had a hysterical fit, screaming that she was going to die.
Speaker 1: Gloria pushed back her trip. The next day, Gertrude stopped by.
Speaker 1: She asked Gloria if she could take the child to
Speaker 1: Wheatley Hills for the summer so she could recover from
Speaker 1: her surgery in a peaceful environment. Gloria readily accepted. At
Speaker 1: Wheatley Hills, little Gloria's troubles continued. She seemed to be
Speaker 1: in constant pain, but none of the eight physicians that
Speaker 1: Nurse Keeslick was constantly summoning to the house could find
Speaker 1: anything physically wrong with her. Little Gloria had night terrors
Speaker 1: and emotional outbursts. Gertrude Whitney was concerned. She had received
Speaker 1: letters from Laura Morgan and Nurse Keeslick while they had
Speaker 1: been abroad, letters full of concerns over the environment that
Speaker 1: Little Gloria was growing up in. They had portrayed the
Speaker 1: elder Gloria as an immoral pleasure seeker. Laura had also
Speaker 1: expressed darker concerns, fears that Gloria might harm the child.
Speaker 1: Gertrude had thought these concerns far fetched, but now that
Speaker 1: she spent more time with Little Gloria witnessed her panic
Speaker 1: and instability, she began to believe, especially as the child's
Speaker 1: conditions seemed to improve while away from her mother. By
Speaker 1: the fall, little Gloria seemed happier and healthier, and even
Speaker 1: began school on Long Island. In September, Gertrude telegrammed Gloria
Speaker 1: in Europe and asked if little Gloria could stay through Christmas.
Speaker 1: Gloria said yes. In January, Gloria returned to New York,
Speaker 1: but after her return, Telma wrote to her that their
Speaker 1: father was dying. Gloria quickly headed to Europe, but did
Speaker 1: not tell Gertrude or Thomas Gilchrist why. Gertrude and Gilchrist
Speaker 1: were concerned. How could Gloria so casually leave her child.
Speaker 1: Gilchrist wrote a sternly worded letter to Gloria demanding that
Speaker 1: she returned to New York or be cut off, But
Speaker 1: when Gloria met with Gilchrist, he informed her that her
Speaker 1: daughter would be staying at Wheatley Hill's. Gloria was confused.
Speaker 1: On the one hand, Gilchrist was telling her that she
Speaker 1: needed to have her daughter with her in order to
Speaker 1: receive money, but he was also saying that she could
Speaker 1: not have her daughter back. Gilchrist also decided to alter
Speaker 1: the financial arrangements. Instead of Gloria receiving four thousand dollars
Speaker 1: a month to cover all expenses. He would pay household
Speaker 1: expenses straight from the trust, and Gloria would receive a
Speaker 1: reduced income of seven hundred and fifty dollars a month,
Speaker 1: plus two hundred and fifty dollars to give to Laura Morgan,
Speaker 1: who was supporting. Unbeknownst to Gloria, Gilchris used his new
Speaker 1: power to hire household servants that spied on Gloria and
Speaker 1: reported on her lifestyle to him. This uneasy situation continued
Speaker 1: through nineteen thirty three. Gloria visited her daughter occasionally at
Speaker 1: Wheatley Hills, but spent most of the year abroad. In September,
Speaker 1: she met with Gertrude to discuss Little Gloria. It was
Speaker 1: an unproductive conversation, as Barbara Goldsmith writes, quote, neither woman
Speaker 1: would speak of her true concerns. Gloria would say nothing
Speaker 1: of what she felt to be the punitive financial measures
Speaker 1: that were being enacted against her because of the child's absence.
Speaker 1: Gertrude would not speak of her apprehension regarding the atmosphere,
Speaker 1: which she had come to consider both morally and physically
Speaker 1: dangerous to her niece. There existed between these two women
Speaker 1: an exquisite non communication that avoided all the ugly realities
Speaker 1: of their relationship. Concerned that things were progressing beyond her control,
Speaker 1: Gloria contacted a lawyer named Nathan Berkin. Berkin, of Romanian
Speaker 1: born jew had immigrated to New York as a child
Speaker 1: and grown up in the tenements of the Lower East Side.
Speaker 1: Like Max Stoyer, the defense lawyer in the Triangle firecase
Speaker 1: covered in episode six of History on Trial, Berkin had
Speaker 1: used his intelligence and work ethic to rise to the
Speaker 1: top of the legal profession. He represented many show business
Speaker 1: clients and to help found the American Society of Composers,
Speaker 1: Authors and Publishers to help musicians protect their intellectual property.
Speaker 1: Now fifty four, Berkin had a long Island mansion of
Speaker 1: his own and a thriving law practice. He quickly agreed
Speaker 1: to help Gloria Vanderbilt. Berkin's hiring was seen by Laura,
Speaker 1: Gertrude and Nurse gos Keislick as another sign that Gloria
Speaker 1: was unfit to raise her child, not because she was
Speaker 1: getting a lawyer involved, but because that lawyer was Jewish.
Speaker 1: Berkin suggested that Gloria apply to become the sole guardian
Speaker 1: of little Gloria and the co guardian of Little Gloria's property.
Speaker 1: Gloria liked the idea, but was concerned that it was
Speaker 1: too bold. She was worried about alienating Alice Vanderbilt, Reggie,
Speaker 1: and Gertrude's mother, who she had always had a good
Speaker 1: relationship with. Gloria also didn't have enough money to pay
Speaker 1: Burkin's legal fees. But in April nineteen thirty four, Alice
Speaker 1: Vanderbilt died, aged eighty eight. She left Gloria one hundred
Speaker 1: thousand dollars in her will. Gloria told Burkin to move
Speaker 1: forward with the petition. He submitted the petition to the
Speaker 1: Surrogate's Court on June eighteenth. Thomas Gilchrist, as the existing
Speaker 1: guardian of Little Gloria's property, received notice of the petition,
Speaker 1: and he quickly notified Gertrude Whitney. Gertrude was concerned over
Speaker 1: the past two years, Little Gloria had grown strong and
Speaker 1: happy at Wheatly Hill's All that progress might be undone
Speaker 1: if she had to return to her mother. Gertrude began
Speaker 1: to hatch a plan. On July third, Justice James Foley
Speaker 1: of the Surrogate's Court heard Gloria's application for guardianship. It
Speaker 1: should have been a routine hearing, but once Nathan Burkin
Speaker 1: finished reading the application aloud, a man at the back
Speaker 1: of the courtroom declared, I object to the petition. Fully
Speaker 1: summoned the man to the bench and asked on what
Speaker 1: grounds he objected. On the grounds the man replied, of
Speaker 1: unfit guardianship, Foley said he would hear more in his
Speaker 1: chambers after lunch. Gloria was horrified, and her shock only
Speaker 1: increased after lunch, when it was real that the man
Speaker 1: who had objected had done so on behalf of her
Speaker 1: own mother, Laura Morgan. Gloria didn't know it then, but
Speaker 1: Gertrude and Laura had worked together, deciding that it would
Speaker 1: look best if the child's grandmother was the public face
Speaker 1: of the objection. Aware that the stakes were now raised,
Speaker 1: Nathan Burkin advised that Gloria take a more aggressive tack
Speaker 1: against Gertrude. He told her to begin gathering affidavits that
Speaker 1: testified to her fitness as a mother. Burkin also hired
Speaker 1: a private investigator to surveil Laura Morgan and gathered dirt
Speaker 1: on Gertrude Whitney. The Whitney camp was working along similar lines,
Speaker 1: hiring detectives of their own to follow and investigate Gloria Vanderbilt.
Speaker 1: In the meantime, Justice Folly was holding regular meetings for
Speaker 1: the two camps to try to work something out. Eventually,
Speaker 1: a compromise was reached, although the terms were understood different
Speaker 1: by each side. In essence, Little Gloria would stay for
Speaker 1: a year with Gertrude, spending one month of the summer
Speaker 1: with her mother. Gloria could see her daughter whenever she wished.
Speaker 1: After that, Gloria believed that Little Gloria would return to
Speaker 1: her custody full time. Gertrude, on the other hand, believed
Speaker 1: that at this point a further discussion over custody would
Speaker 1: be had. In August, Gloria sailed to Europe to collect
Speaker 1: affidavits from her friends. Upon her return in September, she
Speaker 1: called Gertrude Whitney on the phone. The women realized that
Speaker 1: they had different understandings of the agreement, and Gloria became
Speaker 1: frightened that Gertrude planned to contest her custody every year.
Speaker 1: She asked Gertrude to send Little Gloria to her house
Speaker 1: in New York City for the weekend and Gertrude agreed.
Speaker 1: Gloria consulted with Burkin about the development. He advised Gloria
Speaker 1: to buy a house of her own near Girha Trudes
Speaker 1: on Long Island. That would undermine Gilchrist and Gertrude's argument
Speaker 1: that Little Gloria needed to stay at Wheatley Hills because
Speaker 1: country living was better for the child. That weekend, Gloria,
Speaker 1: excited about the plan, told Nurse Keeslick that Little Gloria
Speaker 1: would soon be living with her full time. This was
Speaker 1: a mistake. Nurse Keeslick, while out with Little Gloria, called
Speaker 1: Gertrude Whitney. Gertrude told Keeslick to bring the child to
Speaker 1: her quickly. Soon, Gloria realized that her child was missing. Furious,
Speaker 1: she and her sister Consuelo sped to Gertrude's city home
Speaker 1: and demanded to see little Gloria. Gertrude claimed that Little
Speaker 1: Gloria had gotten sick and that she was simply caring
Speaker 1: for her. Gloria was incensed and spotting Nurse Keeslick immediately
Speaker 1: fired her. Then she asked for her daughter again, But
Speaker 1: when Little Gloria appeared, she seemed to be terrified of
Speaker 1: her mother, take her away. Don't let her hurt me.
Speaker 1: She's going to kill me, she cried. Gloria could not
Speaker 1: understand what was happening. Two doctors were summoned to examine
Speaker 1: little Gloria. After some time with the doctors, little Gloria
Speaker 1: seemed to calm down, even hugging and kissing her mother.
Speaker 1: But Gloria was still frightened. She believed that Gertrude and
Speaker 1: Laura and Nurse Keyslich were turning her child against her.
Speaker 1: She knew Little Gloria was supposed to say at Gertrude's
Speaker 1: that week to attend school, but after the events of
Speaker 1: the day, she felt she could not allow Little Gloria
Speaker 1: to stay with Gertrude for one moment more. She went
Speaker 1: to Nathan Burkin's office and told him she needed Little
Speaker 1: Gloria back now. Berkin cautioned her against taking any drastic
Speaker 1: actions which could lead to a court battle, but Gloria
Speaker 1: was at the end of her rope. She had spent
Speaker 1: the past two years in a date of limbo, and
Speaker 1: she felt it had been a mistake to wait so long.
Speaker 1: She thought her child had been poisoned against her while
Speaker 1: she waited. She told Burkin to do whatever it took.
Speaker 1: On September twenty third, a process server arrived at Gertrude
Speaker 1: Whitney's house at Wheatley Hill's. Gertrude refused to receive the
Speaker 1: legal papers he had brought. He returned thirty minutes later
Speaker 1: and told Gertrude's footman, quote, tell missus Whitney that unless
Speaker 1: she accepts in person, I will plaster the whole front
Speaker 1: of her city mansion with these court papers. Gertrude Whitney
Speaker 1: came down the stairs and took the papers. Burkin had
Speaker 1: sent her a writ of habeas corpus, an order to
Speaker 1: produce someone before a court. This writ demanded that Gertrude
Speaker 1: Whitney present little Gloria to New York Supreme Court Justice
Speaker 1: John Francis Carew. It also commanded her to explain why
Speaker 1: she had quote wrongfully recived, strained, and detained the child.
Speaker 1: After years of below the surface dealings, the Vanderbilt case
Speaker 1: had suddenly erupted into the public eye. There was no
Speaker 1: going back now, and if the actions of the first
Speaker 1: weeks of September were any indication, things were going to
Speaker 1: get very, very ugly. On Monday October one, nineteen thirty four,
Speaker 1: The matter of Vanderbilt began in Courtroom number three hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty five of the New York Supreme Court. Justice
Speaker 1: John Francis Carew presided there would be no jury in
Speaker 1: this case. Justice Carew would hear all the testimony and
Speaker 1: make a decision on his own. Carew was fifty eight,
Speaker 1: a lifelong New Yorker and a socially conservative, devout Catholic.
Speaker 1: He was inclined to keep children with their parents, telling
Speaker 1: Gertrude Whitney at a pre trie hearing quote, only the
Speaker 1: most unusual circumstances warrant the refusal of custody of a
Speaker 1: child in favor of any other relative, no matter how
Speaker 1: unselfish the motives of the relative might be. The burden
Speaker 1: of proof was on Gertrude to prove that Gloria was
Speaker 1: an unfit mother. Knowing that they faced a difficult fight,
Speaker 1: Gertrude's team had brought on an experienced trial lawyer, Herbert
Speaker 1: Crommelin Smith. Smith's first witness with little Gloria's life, long nanny,
Speaker 1: nurse Emma Sullivan Keieslich Keeslick, now in her mid forties,
Speaker 1: was a large woman with heavy features, Little Gloria called
Speaker 1: her Dodo Keeslich was devoted to her charge and had
Speaker 1: spent the past ten years harboring a growing hatred for
Speaker 1: Gloria Vanderbilt. On the witness stand, her anger irrupted. She
Speaker 1: described Gloria Vanderbilt as an immoral party girl and an
Speaker 1: absentee mother. I will never understand the type of woman
Speaker 1: Missus Vanderbilt is. She said she had seen Gloria in
Speaker 1: bed with Prince Friedel. She claimed she and Little Gloria,
Speaker 1: she said, had been abandoned in rat infested ramshackle houses
Speaker 1: in France and England while Gloria swanned around. Her personal
Speaker 1: dislike for Gloria was so evident that Justice Carew cautioned her,
Speaker 1: saying this credits a witness. When the witness seems to
Speaker 1: be too eager, it throws a partisan spirit, which discounts
Speaker 1: her testimony severely. His multiple warnings went unheeded, and Kislick's
Speaker 1: testimony became increasingly angry and unhinged. By the time she
Speaker 1: stepped down. Many people watching, including Carew, were con discerned
Speaker 1: about the impact a woman like this might have on
Speaker 1: a child. The defense next called Maria Kyo. The twenty
Speaker 1: three year old frenchwoman had been Gloria Vanderbilt's personal maid
Speaker 1: for four years from nineteen twenty nine to nineteen thirty three.
Speaker 1: Like Kieslich, Kyo described troubling goings on in the Vanderbilt household.
Speaker 1: There were parties that lasted all night and kept the
Speaker 1: child awake. Kyo said at these parties, people got so
Speaker 1: drunk that they couldn't walk. Kyo also claimed to have
Speaker 1: seen pornographic books and photographs in the house. On cross
Speaker 1: Nathan Burkin undermined Kyo's credibility, getting her to admit that
Speaker 1: she had been promised money for her testimony, although she
Speaker 1: would not say by whom. Shaken Kyo seemed to crumble
Speaker 1: under Berkin's questioning, admitting that she didn't know if Gloria
Speaker 1: was frequently drunk, as she had claimed on direct examination,
Speaker 1: but that she had only assumed that Gloria was because
Speaker 1: quote she always smiled and often repeated herself. Cayo admitted
Speaker 1: that many of Gloria's friends were perfectly respectable people. By
Speaker 1: the end of the cross examination, Burkein must have felt
Speaker 1: that Cayo had become his witness, but then he pushed
Speaker 1: things too far. You saw nothing improper in her conduct,
Speaker 1: he asked. Kyo, paused, yes, I remember something. It seems
Speaker 1: to me very funny. Burkin should have quit while he
Speaker 1: was ahead, but instead he asked Cayo for details. Certain
Speaker 1: that this would be another non story like all her others,
Speaker 1: Cayoe obligingly described a scene in the south of France
Speaker 1: where Gloria had been traveling with her friend Nadezhda, Marchioness
Speaker 1: of Milford Haven. When I came into the bedroom one morning,
Speaker 1: Cayoe said, Missus Vanderbilt was in bed reading a paper,
Speaker 1: and there was Lady Milford Haven beside the bed with
Speaker 1: her arm around Missus Vanderbilt's neck and kissing her just
Speaker 1: like a lover. A stunned silence fell over the courtroom.
Speaker 1: Homosexual behavior was a crime in most states at the time,
Speaker 1: including New York. Homosexuality itself was seen by many to
Speaker 1: be immoral, deviant, and indicative of mental problems. The news
Speaker 1: of Gloria Vanderbilt's alleged lesbian relationship with a British aristocrat
Speaker 1: made international news. Justice Carew was horrified both by the
Speaker 1: allegation and by the potential damage the testimony might have
Speaker 1: on the child. He ordered that the trial was to
Speaker 1: be private from that moment forward. The next morning, Carew
Speaker 1: called all the lawyers into his chambers. He told him
Speaker 1: that he recommended an out of court settlement. Frank Crocker,
Speaker 1: a longtime legal representative of Gertrude Whitney, told Justice Carew
Speaker 1: that there would be no more scandalous testimony. Their case
Speaker 1: was based on neglect, not character assassination. Carew allowed the
Speaker 1: trial to proceed. He also said he would again admit
Speaker 1: the press, but he never did. Carew's approach to the
Speaker 1: press would be baffling for reporters. He wanted to protect
Speaker 1: the trial participants privacy and reputations, but he also didn't
Speaker 1: like being criticized for cutting the press off. He decided
Speaker 1: to give the reporters summarized versions of each day's testimony,
Speaker 1: but his summaries were often vague and inaccurate, and both
Speaker 1: sides quickly began leaking transcripts favorable to their own cases,
Speaker 1: So the story that emerged for the public was full
Speaker 1: of contradictions and contextless statements. The public was absolutely obsessed
Speaker 1: with the trial. Conditions in America were dire. Thousands of
Speaker 1: people were unemployed and hungry, and this kind of glamorous
Speaker 1: yet tragic trial was the perfect distraction. Public opinion largely
Speaker 1: favored Gloria Vanderbilt, who many saw as a struggling widow
Speaker 1: being persecuted by her wealthy sister in law. Crowds of
Speaker 1: women would gather outside the courtroom and cheer for Gloria
Speaker 1: when she emerged. Laura Morgan felt no such sympathy for
Speaker 1: her daughter. During her testimony on October ninth, she ripped
Speaker 1: into Gloria, It is not my daughter's fault, but she
Speaker 1: has not been born with a maternal instinct. She was
Speaker 1: indifferent to the child, she proclaimed. Laura also focused on
Speaker 1: the gaps in Little Gloria's religious education. The issue of
Speaker 1: real religion had come up several times during Kieslik and
Speaker 1: Cayote's testimony too. In truth, religion had not been especially
Speaker 1: important to any of Little Gloria's caregivers, but it was
Speaker 1: very important to justice carew and so lawyers on both
Speaker 1: sides instructed the witnesses to discuss how they wished to
Speaker 1: raise Little Gloria as a good Catholic. Laura Morgan held
Speaker 1: a large gold crucifix in her left hand throughout her testimony.
Speaker 1: When Herbert Smith asked her about Gloria's morals, Laura began
Speaker 1: to sob and raise the crucifix in front of her face.
Speaker 1: A strange fact emerged during Berkin's cross examination of Laura.
Speaker 1: During a routine line of questioning about guardianship, Laura revealed
Speaker 1: that she believed Gloria to already be the child's legal guardian.
Speaker 1: Berkin explained that she was not because she had only
Speaker 1: been twenty when Reggie died. That is not true, said Laura,
Speaker 1: claiming that Gloria had been twenty one. She said her
Speaker 1: twins had been born on August twenty third, nineteen oh four,
Speaker 1: not August twenty third, nineteen oh five, as the guardianship
Speaker 1: papers declared. This came as a shock to everyone in
Speaker 1: the courtroom, Gloria Vanderbilt included Laura. It later came out,
Speaker 1: had lied to her daughters about their birth year, believing
Speaker 1: that younger women were more eligible brides. This pointless lie
Speaker 1: had sparked years of misery. Had Gloria known she was
Speaker 1: twenty one at the time of Reggie's death, she could
Speaker 1: have become her daughter's legal and financial guardian and none
Speaker 1: of this would have happened. But unfortunately, it was too
Speaker 1: late to go back now. There were a number of
Speaker 1: other witnesses who testified for Gertrude's case, Gertrude herself who
Speaker 1: spoke mildly about Little Gloria's happy life at Wheatley Hill's,
Speaker 1: employees of Gloria's who discussed her fast living. These were
Speaker 1: the same servants that Thomas Gilchrist had hired to spy
Speaker 1: on Gloria, and several doctors who discussed Little Gloria's physical
Speaker 1: and emotional problems. They all provided helpful information. But just
Speaker 1: as Carew knew that he now needed to speak to
Speaker 1: Little Gloria herself, wishing to spare her the ordeal of
Speaker 1: public testimony, krew decided to have Little Gloria speak to
Speaker 1: him in his chambers. Herbert Smith and Nathan Burkin were
Speaker 1: also present. Little Gloria quickly made it clear that she
Speaker 1: hated and feared her mother. She has never been nice
Speaker 1: to me, little Gloria said. Carew asked her about letters
Speaker 1: she had written to her mother, where she said that
Speaker 1: she loved her. No, I did not, never, said Little Gloria.
Speaker 1: I used to write letters to her because I was
Speaker 1: afraid of her. Do I have to go back to her.
Speaker 1: Little Gloria asked, I think you will want to Carew replied.
Speaker 1: Little Gloria began to sob. No, she cried. Carew was
Speaker 1: deeply troubled, but there was something strange about Little Gloria's answers.
Speaker 1: She could not explain why she did not like her
Speaker 1: mother or why she was afraid of her. She could
Speaker 1: not give examples of any way in which her mother
Speaker 1: had hurt her, and there was something else. She seemed
Speaker 1: to have anticipated what questions would be asked, sometimes giving
Speaker 1: answers that seemed rehearsed, but her tears and her fear
Speaker 1: seemed very real. Un Settled, Carew turned to more familiar ground,
Speaker 1: the Catholic Church. He began testing Little Gloria on a
Speaker 1: litany of Catholic prayers and rituals. Nervous Little Gloria froze
Speaker 1: and struggled to remember words. After nearly two and a
Speaker 1: half hours of questioning, little Gloria left the courthouse. Carew
Speaker 1: was concerned. The child was clearly troubled, but he could
Speaker 1: not understand just what was going on. Unfortunately for Gloria,
Speaker 1: her own witnesses did not do much to counteract the
Speaker 1: damaging testimony. Of her daughter. Nathan Burkin had originally threatened
Speaker 1: to go after Gertrude's reputation, calling in witnesses from the
Speaker 1: art world who could testify to her own partying and bisexuality,
Speaker 1: but Theobald Matthew, a lawyer representing Lady Milford Haven, advised
Speaker 1: Berkan against it, warning that this would cause Gertrude's lawyers
Speaker 1: to go after Gloria even harder than they already had.
Speaker 1: So Instead, Berkan presented a number of Gloria's friends, all
Speaker 1: of whom said that she was an affectionate and caring mother.
Speaker 1: Gloria's former fiance, Prince Friedel, came over from Europe with
Speaker 1: his wife, Princess Marina, both of whom testified on Gloria's behalf.
Speaker 1: So did Glodelaria's twin Telma, and her brother Harry. None
Speaker 1: of their testimony was very compelling, and the absence of
Speaker 1: certain witnesses implicated in Gloria's scandalous behavior, including Lady Milford Haven,
Speaker 1: raised questions about whether the allegations against them were true. Finally,
Speaker 1: Gloria herself testified during the trial. Nathan Burkin had urged
Speaker 1: her to appear weak and helpless to feed into the
Speaker 1: public narrative, but Gloria didn't need to act. She had
Speaker 1: had health problems ever since catching diphtheria right before her wedding,
Speaker 1: and the trial had driven her to the point of
Speaker 1: emotional and physical collapse. She had lost seventeen pounds off
Speaker 1: her already slim figure by the time she testified on
Speaker 1: the stand. Gloria frequently felt fate, cried, and took breaks.
Speaker 1: Berkin led her through her early life, marriage and the
Speaker 1: birth of Little Gloria. Emotionally, Gloria proclaimed her love for
Speaker 1: her daughter, Mister Burkin, the only thing I want to
Speaker 1: say is this. I loved my baby then as I
Speaker 1: love her now, and there is no use asking me
Speaker 1: how much I love her, because I do love her.
Speaker 1: Fragile and passionate Gloria made for a sympathetic witness, but
Speaker 1: Herbert Smith's cross examination of her was damaging. He brought
Speaker 1: up letters that Little Gloria had written to her grandmother
Speaker 1: in which she criticized her mother. In one, Little Gloria wrote, quote,
Speaker 1: my mother was in Paris enjoying herself, while poor me
Speaker 1: was unhappy in England. Gloria claimed that Little Gloria had
Speaker 1: been forced to write this either by Nurse Keieslich or
Speaker 1: by Laura Morgan, but she had no evidence to support
Speaker 1: her claim. More damning was Smith's account of Gloria's travels
Speaker 1: during her daughter's lifetime. Between nineteen twenty five and nineteen
Speaker 1: thirty three, Gloria had traveled almost constantly, never staying in
Speaker 1: one place for more than a few months. After Smith
Speaker 1: took her through all of these trips, he asked, quote,
Speaker 1: did you spend one percent of all the days of
Speaker 1: the year with your child? Later, when Smith pressed her
Speaker 1: on the issue again, Gloria shot back that Gertrude traveled
Speaker 1: nearly as much, which was true, but Smith quickly rejoined, quote,
Speaker 1: how does that compare with your absences time and again
Speaker 1: with your daughter lying sick? He had made his point
Speaker 1: On Tuesday, November thirteenth, after nearly seven weeks, both sides
Speaker 1: rested just as Carew paused for a moment and then spoke.
Speaker 1: In the matter of Vanderbilt, he had concluded that the child,
Speaker 1: Gloria Laura Vanderbilt, should live with Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney. Justice.
Speaker 1: Carew's full statement in court that day was a somewhat
Speaker 1: ambiguous one. What he said was this quote. This child
Speaker 1: is very much better off where it is than where
Speaker 1: it was. Nevertheless, this mother is a young woman. I
Speaker 1: don't think this child should be altogether taken from this woman.
Speaker 1: The child certainly today is very very strongly prejudiced against
Speaker 1: the mother. I would be glad if the mother could
Speaker 1: have an opportunity, first of all, to win back the
Speaker 1: confidence and affection of the child, and second to show
Speaker 1: that her future conduct will not be as her past
Speaker 1: conduct has been. Nathan Burkin was confused. How was Gloria
Speaker 1: Vanderbilt supposed to make a stronger connection with her daughter
Speaker 1: if the child was living with another woman, a woman
Speaker 1: who was hostile to Gloria. Carew responded that that was
Speaker 1: for the lawyers to sort out. The custody arrangement would
Speaker 1: be hammered out in a series of conferences over the
Speaker 1: next week. Ultimately, it was determined that little Gloria would
Speaker 1: stay with Gertrude during the school week and with Gloria
Speaker 1: on the weekends. Carew especially wanted Gloria to have her
Speaker 1: daughter on the weekends so that they could attend Catholic
Speaker 1: Mass together, which seemed to be his largest concern. No
Speaker 1: one was happy with this outcome, it wasn't an outcome
Speaker 1: that made much sense from a variety of perspectives. For
Speaker 1: those with firsthand knowledge of the case, who had witnessed
Speaker 1: little Gloria's apparent terror of her mother, it seemed preposterous
Speaker 1: that weekends together would reconcile the pair. For those on
Speaker 1: the outside, in the press and the public, the decision
Speaker 1: seemed illogical. Justice Carew's full decision criticized Gloria Vanderbilt's quote
Speaker 1: mode of life. If her mode of life was so terrible,
Speaker 1: many wondered, why was he allowing her custody at all.
Speaker 1: The United States Law Review published a cheeky poem which
Speaker 1: summed up the public feeling quote, rock a bye baby,
Speaker 1: up on a writ Monday to Friday. Mother's unfit as
Speaker 1: the weekends she rises in virtue Saturday's Sunday's mother won't
Speaker 1: hurt you. A Family Court judge, writing on the decision declared, quote,
Speaker 1: the mere fact that the court believes the parent is
Speaker 1: not pursuing the wisest course in the rearing of the
Speaker 1: child does not justify taking the child from the parent.
Speaker 1: People also criticized the idea of a judge dictating a
Speaker 1: child's religious education. Carew had somehow not expected this criticism.
Speaker 1: Throughout the trial, he had struggled with the high profile
Speaker 1: nature of the case. By November, he had begun screaming
Speaker 1: at reporters. He called press conferences and then abruptly canceled them.
Speaker 1: He compared himself out loud, this time to King Solomon,
Speaker 1: leading reporters to dub him the Socialites Solomon. The bad
Speaker 1: reaction to his decision seemed to deeply affect Carew. Two
Speaker 1: years later, he checked into a hospital in Connecticut that
Speaker 1: specialized in treating nervous breakdowns. Nathan Berkin was also profoundly
Speaker 1: impacted by the trial. Normally tough and unrelenting, he had
Speaker 1: become emotionally involved in this case and was brought to
Speaker 1: tears by Justice Carew's decision. He felt personally responsible for
Speaker 1: Gloria Vanderbilt's public humiliation. It had been his imprudent questioning
Speaker 1: that elicited Maria Coyote's scandalous TESTI. He promised to appeal
Speaker 1: the case. His first appeal failed. The Appellate Division of
Speaker 1: the New York State Supreme Court upheld Carew's ruling. Burkin,
Speaker 1: undaunted appealed again asking the United States Supreme Court to
Speaker 1: review the case. He worked day and night on this
Speaker 1: final appeal, but in the spring of nineteen thirty six,
Speaker 1: the Supreme Court declined to hear the case. Several months later,
Speaker 1: on June sixth, nineteen thirty six, Nathan Burkin died, aged
Speaker 1: only fifty six. He had a great heart, said his associate,
Speaker 1: Herman Finkelstein, and I think this case broke it. And
Speaker 1: what of Little Gloria. After the trial, everyone simply forgot
Speaker 1: about Gloria. Her cousin Gerda Henry recalled. Gerda, who grew
Speaker 1: up at Wheatley Hills with Little Gloria, described their childhood
Speaker 1: as a lonely one quote, we were so much alone.
Speaker 1: My grandmother and my parents both would leave for months
Speaker 1: at a time. We never saw anybody but servants. Little
Speaker 1: Gloria and Gertrude's relationship was always a distant one, mainly
Speaker 1: due to Gertrude's aloofness. Little Gloria would later write, quote,
Speaker 1: I felt that she wanted to be close to me
Speaker 1: as much as I wanted to be close to her.
Speaker 1: She extended herself to me as much as it was
Speaker 1: possible within her nature to do. The hard shell that
Speaker 1: Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney had cultivated to protect her interior life
Speaker 1: prevented her from ever making a true connection with her niece.
Speaker 1: As Little Gloria grew older, she chafed against Gertrude's strict
Speaker 1: restrictions on her. In nineteen thirty nine, when she was fifteen,
Speaker 1: she asked the court to adjust the custody arrangement so
Speaker 1: that she could her mother whenever she wished. Both Gertrude
Speaker 1: and the court agreed to this arrangement, and then in
Speaker 1: nineteen forty one, Little Gloria, now seventeen, moved to Los
Speaker 1: Angeles to live with her mother and her mother's twin, Telma.
Speaker 1: But even then a happy home life eluded her. Her
Speaker 1: mother seemed uncertain of how to act around her, and
Speaker 1: more interested in her own social life than in connecting
Speaker 1: with her daughter. The elder Gloria drank heavily, unexpectedly, disappeared
Speaker 1: on weekend trips, and spent many nights at the apartment
Speaker 1: of her girlfriend, the actress Keeddy Kevin. The situation was
Speaker 1: untenable for Little Gloria, now no longer so little. In
Speaker 1: her memoir, she wrote, quote I couldn't go on living
Speaker 1: with my mother, and I wasn't going back to live
Speaker 1: with Aunt. Gertrude best get married quick. On December twenty eighth,
Speaker 1: nineteen forty one, two months before her eighteenth birthday, Gloria
Speaker 1: married thirty two year old Pat de Chico, a Hollywood agent. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: Di Chico was physically and emotionally abusive. Gertrude strongly disapproved
Speaker 1: of the marriage, and the relationship between aunt and niece
Speaker 1: became strained. Four months after the wedding, on April eighteenth,
Speaker 1: nineteen forty two, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney died, aged sixty seven.
Speaker 1: In nineteen forty five, Gloria turned twenty one and got
Speaker 1: control of her trust. She divorced Pat di Chico and
Speaker 1: married conductor Leopold Stekovski, forty two years her senior, the
Speaker 1: next day, shortly after, she cut her mother off financially.
Speaker 1: She later said that it was Leopold's idea for her
Speaker 1: to do this, but it was true that the mother
Speaker 1: and daughter were estranged. They fought publicly in the press.
Speaker 1: Gloria and Leopold had two sons before divorcing. In October
Speaker 1: nineteen fifty five. Laura Morgan died in nineteen fifty six.
Speaker 1: Gloria married the director Sidney Lamette the same year. They divorced.
Speaker 1: In nineteen sixty three. Gloria would write of her many marriages, quote,
Speaker 1: my search for love has and always will be to
Speaker 1: revive the dream of fulfilling the half forgotten, inevitably frustrated
Speaker 1: wishes for perfect harmony and complete mutuality, wishes that originated
Speaker 1: in the now buried fantasy of obtaining the perfect mother
Speaker 1: to love me unerringly and unceasingly. The men are substitutes,
Speaker 1: let's say, substitutes for my old sweetheart. In nineteen sixty three,
Speaker 1: Gloria finally found a good substitute, a writer named Wyatt Cooper.
Speaker 1: Wyatt came from a tight knit Mississippi family, and Gloria
Speaker 1: would later remember quote, when I met his large, loving family,
Speaker 1: I was overwhelmed to see what it must have been
Speaker 1: like to experience a supportive family behind you. Wyatt and
Speaker 1: Gloria had two sons together, including Anderson, who became a
Speaker 1: famous news anchor. Wyatt tragically died during surgery in nineteen
Speaker 1: seventy eight. He was, in Gloria's words, quote the most
Speaker 1: honest person I've ever met, and his sense of values
Speaker 1: taught me what the loving parenting I never had could
Speaker 1: be like. Two years after Gloria and Wyatt married, the
Speaker 1: elder Gloria died on February thirteenth, nineteen sixty five. The
Speaker 1: mother and daughter's relationship had never been an easy one,
Speaker 1: but in recent years it had thawed. In nineteen eighty seven,
Speaker 1: Gloria wrote of her mother quote, although I still search
Speaker 1: for her, and part of me probably always will, it
Speaker 1: is an ache I have learned to live with, and
Speaker 1: we have found she and I a place of peace
Speaker 1: where we rest together, closer perhaps in death than we
Speaker 1: ever were in life. On June seventeenth, twenty nineteen, little
Speaker 1: Gloria herself died, aged ninety five. She had found great
Speaker 1: success in the field of fashion design and true happiness
Speaker 1: in her family and friends, but her childhood haunted her.
Speaker 1: How could it not. Her early life was deeply unstable,
Speaker 1: populated by people who were supposed to care for her,
Speaker 1: but who, for their own reasons, could not. No one
Speaker 1: had ever simply sat down with little Gloria and tried
Speaker 1: to figure out what would be best for her. The
Speaker 1: Vanderbilt money, which brought so much luxury to its owners,
Speaker 1: also brought great stree. It prevented family members from talking
Speaker 1: to each other, from being honest. It inspired greed and possessiveness.
Speaker 1: It hired lawyers. It made what could have been a
Speaker 1: simple problem a horrifically difficult one. Is it any surprise
Speaker 1: that when little Gloria, now grown up, first saw the
Speaker 1: television program Judge Judy, she had a fantasy that this
Speaker 1: woman could have solved the problem for her. Judge Judy
Speaker 1: wouldn't subject me to the hostile formality of a trial,
Speaker 1: Gloria wrote. Instead, I'd be invited to sit up beside
Speaker 1: her on the bench for a cozy chat, so she
Speaker 1: could get a sense of what I was like and
Speaker 1: what I wanted. That's the story of the matter of Vanderbilt.
Speaker 1: Stay with me after the break to learn the answer
Speaker 1: to the trial's most enduring mystery, why who was Little
Speaker 1: Gloria so afraid of her mother? In nineteen eighty, the
Speaker 1: journalist and author Barbara Goldsmith published Little Gloria Happy at Last.
Speaker 1: The book, which is an extremely well reported and comprehensive
Speaker 1: account of the case, brought renewed interest to the trial.
Speaker 1: In nineteen eighty two, the book was adapted into a
Speaker 1: television mini series, which was nominated for six Emmy Awards.
Speaker 1: The little Gloria in question was now in her late fifties,
Speaker 1: and she was not happy about the book or TV show.
Speaker 1: Her son Anderson Cooper recalled she never read the book
Speaker 1: nor watched the series. But in nineteen eighty five, perhaps
Speaker 1: in response to Goldsmith's book, Gloria published her own account
Speaker 1: of the trial as part of a memoir called Once
Speaker 1: Upon a Time. In this memoir, Gloria finally explained her
Speaker 1: own behavior jury the trial, which had long unseettled observers,
Speaker 1: Gloria had seemed to experience extreme fear at the idea
Speaker 1: of living with her mother. This fear was central to
Speaker 1: Justice Carew's decision to have her live with Gertrude. Goldsmith
Speaker 1: had theorized in her book that, based on the constant
Speaker 1: fears about kidnapping at the time, and exacerbated by her
Speaker 1: grandmother and nanny's obsession with the subject, little Gloria had
Speaker 1: been afraid that her mother would kidnap and kill her.
Speaker 1: In Once upon a Time, Little Gloria provides a different answer.
Speaker 1: Her fear was not of having to live with her mother.
Speaker 1: She said it was of losing her beloved nanny, Nurse Keislich,
Speaker 1: who she called Dodo. Dodo, despite her helicopter nannying loved
Speaker 1: and cared for Gloria, and the child was terrified of
Speaker 1: losing her. Why did she believe that that her mother
Speaker 1: would fire Dodo because her grandmother, Laura Morgan, had told
Speaker 1: her so. Gloria paints a terrifying portrait of Laura Morgan,
Speaker 1: a woman so obsessed with status that she schemed to
Speaker 1: remove her granddaughter from her daughter's custody in order to
Speaker 1: bring herself closer to the Vanderbilt name and fortune. Gloria
Speaker 1: said that Laura had fed her harsh words to write
Speaker 1: down in letters about her mother, letters that would later
Speaker 1: be used at trial. Laura told Gloria to pretend to
Speaker 1: hate her mother. She told her to play sick. She
Speaker 1: told her to be affectionate towards Gertrude Whitney. If she
Speaker 1: did these things, Laura told her, Gloria would not lose
Speaker 1: her beloved Dodo. Unfortunately, Laura's scheme fell apart. The only
Speaker 1: clear outcome of the trial was the loss of Dodo,
Speaker 1: whose disturbing performance on the stand had convinced both sides
Speaker 1: that she needed to go. She was instructed to leave
Speaker 1: Wheatley Hills and cease contact with the child. Gloria wrote
Speaker 1: of the horrifying moment that she learned Dodo would be leaving, saying,
Speaker 1: from that moment to this nothing has ever been the
Speaker 1: same again. When Gloria finally reunited with Kieslik as a teenager,
Speaker 1: she vowed to never leave her again. She financially supported
Speaker 1: Kieslick for years, even having her live with her at
Speaker 1: one point. However, even this relationship eventually soured. Kieslick loved Gloria,
Speaker 1: It's true, but the love was not a healthy one.
Speaker 1: She saw the child as an extension of herself, not
Speaker 1: as an individual. Reflecting on this dynamic, Gloria wrote, quote,
Speaker 1: when I was a child, she gave me the love
Speaker 1: of a mother, But when I grew up, it was
Speaker 1: hard for her to do this. Perhaps some mothers can
Speaker 1: love their young only when they are that. The final
Speaker 1: breaking point came during Gloria's marriage to the director Sidney Lamett,
Speaker 1: who was Jewish. Kieslich was anti Semitic. She had, in
Speaker 1: fact made anti Semitic comments to Nathan Burkan during the
Speaker 1: trial and Gloria could not tolerate her prejudices. By the
Speaker 1: time Keeeslick died in nineteen seventy three, Gloria had not
Speaker 1: spoken to her for more than a decade, but not
Speaker 1: being by Dodo's side at her death would be one
Speaker 1: of Gloria's greatest regrets. The Dodo, for all her faults,
Speaker 1: had loved Gloria, and love, as Anderson Cooper notes in
Speaker 1: his account of the trial, is the one thing that,
Speaker 1: despite all of their other privileges, the Vanderbilt family never
Speaker 1: seemed to have enough of. Thank you for listening to
Speaker 1: History on Trial. My main sources for this episode were
Speaker 1: Barbara Goldsmith's book Little Gloria, Happy at Last and Gloria
Speaker 1: Vanderbilt's memoirs, including Once Upon a Time and It seemed
Speaker 1: important at the time. For a full bibliography, as well
Speaker 1: as a transcript of this episode with citations, please visit
Speaker 1: our website History on Trial podcast dot com. History on
Speaker 1: Trial is written and hosted by me Mira Hayward. The
Speaker 1: show is edited and produced by Jesse Funk, with supervising
Speaker 1: producer Trevor Young and executive producers Dana Schwartz, Alexander Williams,
Speaker 1: Matt Frederick, and Mira Hayward. Learn more about the show
Speaker 1: at History on Trial podcast dot com and follow us
Speaker 1: on Instagram at History on Trial and on Twitter at
Speaker 1: Underscore History on Trial. Find more podcasts from iHeartRadio by
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