Gloria Swanson: Ready for Her Close-Up

10. American Royalty

148 C H a p t e r 1 0 American Royalty gloria and Henri finally sailed for ameriCa in mid-marCH. paramount was eager to have Swanson home, to show her fans she was ready to make movies and to show her on her new husband’s arm. If two divorces was nothing to brag about, all was forgiven when the actress acquired an attractive, titled Frenchman as Husband #3. Gloria, still delicate , was much less excited about returning to the States: she had some idea of what Paramount expected. Her marriage and her illness had kept her in the headlines for weeks, giving the studio “millions upon millions of dollars’ worth of free publicity.”1 Yet Lasky and Zukor were adamant: she had to be in New York for the premiere of Madame฀Sans-Gêne. Swanson used the peace and quiet of the crossing to rest and read the heartfelt letters sent by fans during her convalescence: “Surely you must know how we feel you belong to us all . . . [and] the anguish of your countless fans when we were being told the little star was fading—so far away there over the ocean.”2 Her fans knew only that Gloria had been seriously ill—possibly as a result of internal injuries after falling from a horse—and had undergone an emergency operation.3 What happened in Paris would not become public knowledge until Swanson herself told the story years later. As New York harbor came into view, Henri pointed out the famous skyscrapers, as thrilled as a child. He clutched his wife’s hand, unaware that her heart was pounding for a different reason: Swanson had seen a fast clipper jammed with newsmen coming to meet the boat. “It was just a swarm of people,” she recalled.4 “They were hanging on the sides.”5 Swanson was always news, but Henri was a public relations dream. Story after story gushed about his ancient family and his aristocratic title. He was handsome and athletic; he was rich (or so they said); he was a war hero. Henri was related on his mother’s side to the Hennessy cognac producers in Ireland, so when reporters wanted to tone down his patrician a m e r i C a n r o ya lt y 149 qualities, they commented on his “Irish” traits: as Swanson’s interpreter, Henri “literally talked his way into the heart of the cinema queen,” one story proclaimed.6 Another mused, “I am inclined to think the Irish in him is predominant, for he wins you at once with that frank, ready smile and easy manner.”7 They were also ready to claim him as American. The editor and publisher of Photoplay, the country’s most influential movie magazine, described Henri’s arrival: “‘That chap a Frenchman?’ was the comment of one of Gloria’s friends after meeting the marquis. ‘I’ll tell the world he’s an American to his hip pocket! Henry’s all right.’ That tells the story. He rings true, this young aristocrat. . . . [He is] a regular fellow. If he had shown one sign of losing his head, got off on the wrong foot only once— wow! But he has come through apparently unconscious that anybody was watching him—and everybody is calling him Henry.”8 Everywhere they went, people liked Swanson’s sociable, easygoing, “pleasantly democratic ” husband.9 Jesse Lasky found him a “wonderfully charming fellow ” and got a kick out of calling him “Hank.”10 “France had never had a better ambassador,” his wife declared proudly.11 The young couple faced tremendous scrutiny around the clock, in the guise of social events intended to welcome them home and celebrate their marriage. Traffic stopped for a parade to the Astoria studios, followed by a reception for the newlyweds. Paramount gave an enormous party for them at the Park Lane Hotel, with several hundred invited for dinner and several hundred more for dancing afterwards. The orchestra played “La Marseillaise” as Gloria arrived on Henri’s arm, while young women in Marie Antoinette costumes handed out two-cornered Napoleon hats. The company created tableaux of each of her Paramount pictures, as a tribute to the studio’s leading player and a reminder of her many triumphs. Swanson was in the last year of her contract, and everyone knew she had become much, much more valuable. Before new contract negotiations opened, the studio hoped to soften her up. At the Ritz-Carlton, the couple...