This shot, snapped circa 1958, captures Gloria Vanderbilt during her tenure as a television actress.
“I’ve had privileges, but I’ve always wanted to make my mark,” she says.
Yet even though her childhood was darkened by turmoil, Vanderbilt says her first memory is bright.
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“My mother used to make these boxes and do decoupage on them.
This was one thing she included me in.
I remember being in a room in Paris with her, filled with sunlight.”
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“Sinatra and I remained friends all our life,” Vanderbilt says.
“He would really move mountains for you.”
He liked the attention to be on himself and no one else, especially kids."
Courtesy of Anderson Cooper and Gloria Vanderbilt
“She’s constantly changing,” Cooper says.
“I’ll visit and the walls will have a different fabric on them.”
There’s something about the ocean.
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The shot below was taken in New York City for a magazine profile of Vanderbilt.
Hence the equestrian outfit which Vanderbilt fully endorsed.
“Everybody should love to dress up,” she says.
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“Fantasy, fantasy!”
OUTWARD BOUND
“This is a picture taken when I was 17,” Cooper says.
But she never even suggested I reconsider.
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I actually have this Polaroid on the bulletin board at work."
“His death is something I deal with every day,” Cooper says.
Vanderbilt adds: “Oh, of course I love to talk about him.
Courtesy of Anderson Cooper and Gloria Vanderbilt
It brings him alive.
It brings him in the room as we’re speaking.
And you know he would be 50 now.”
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“I understand it more now, having written this book with my mom.
“I hope it encourages people to communicate with the ones they love,” Vanderbilt says.
“It may take time, but it changes the way you see the world.”
Courtesy of Anderson Cooper and Gloria Vanderbilt
Courtesy of Anderson Cooper and Gloria Vanderbilt
