So …. I was researching a vaguely remembered connection between Gloria Swanson and a certain Christian author I like. I Googled their names together and, wow, JACKPOT. I wasn’t ever expecting to find something like this: a complete inventory of her papers, scripts, posters, audiotapes, books, photos, mementos, etc. You name it; it’s there. I cannot believe the sheer volume of STUFF listed here. A movie star’s entire life, in 620+ boxes. It’s fascinating. Just the bare-bones LISTING is riveting to me. (All stored and available for viewing at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas, Austin.) And yes, I found evidence of this connection I remembered — more than I’d even expected. It’s not that I needed to find out “Oh, she was a Christian” — no, her relationship with God is between her and God. It’s more curiosity. It’s that I like this man (he’s been an SD local for years, although not anywhere near me, and is now about a gajillion years old) and she seemed to like this man — or was at least interested in what he had to say — and so it makes me feel a strange connection to her. Like it would have been so interesting to be able to sit down with her and talk about what he has to say. This man not a well-known author in Christian circles and yet she stumbled across him somewhere along the road of her life, just as I have. So that piques my curiosity. She has listings, too, of materials from other better-known Christian authors — some heavy hitters actually — at the same time, she was also clearly interested in ESP and other supernatural phenomena. She had myriad interests — macrobiotics, conservative politics, fashion, spirituality — as this long LONG list will show anyone who takes the time to go through it. Just my first time through, not really lingering, took me 30-40 minutes, but I loved it!
Anyhoo. I’ve cut and pasted a very small sampling here. Nothing is edited, but I had to change the format slightly to make it readable for the blog. (The copy/paste made the spacing all wonky.) If you like this kind of stuff — as I do — check out the link. (Any comments of mine in these listings will be italicized.)
A sampling from the boxes of Gloria Swanson:
box 267 Book, “How Do You Do It?” ca. 1966-1968
folder 14 Table of contents and chapters 1-2: “Do What?” 1. “Well, Look the Way You Do”; 2. “Are You Really 67?”
folder 15 Chapters 3-4: 3. “You’re So Short! I Thought You Were Taller”; 4. “Where Do You Get Your Clothes?”
folder 16 Chapters 5-8: 5. “Did You Really Say You Think Everybody Should Be Good and Sick in Their Twenties?”; 6. “What Do You Eat? I Heard You Were a Food Faddist”; 7. “Are You Also a Vegetarian?”; 8. “When You Go Out to Dinner Do You Really Take Your Food in a Paper Bag?”
folder 17 Chapters 9-13: 9. “Didn’t You Make a Speech in Washington on Delinquency and Malnutrition?”; 10. “What Do You Have Against Doctors?”; 11. “What About Exercise?”; 12. “What Church Do You Belong To?”; 13. “Do You Mind I Ask You a Personal Question?”
(Does this book actually exist I wonder? These chapter titles are hilarious.)
*****
box 268
folder 2 Earlier draft or version? (“Beauty Book”) Topics arranged alphabetically: chemical seasonings, chewing, coffee and tea, eggs, face lifts, fasting, food, illnesses, kitchen, liquor, manners, miso spread, oatmeal, pills, potassium broth, rice (rice cream meal, scallops with rice cream, brown rice patties), salt, seaweed, soba, sugar, tempura (apple pie, chapati), travel, vegetables, water, womb
*****
folder A15 Self caricatures, 2 items, 1978 (Some art of hers. I love that she did caricatures of herself.)
*****
box 451 folder 221-222 Miscellaneous topics: Dog songs, etc., bidets, soil, charity, garbage, castor oil, P.B., nothing new, dog songs, Neiman Marcus, Puritan, etc., movie camera, fragrance, ice cream soda, panty girdle, ironing board, seance (?), nothing beyond; TV, priest, etc., poverty program, feet, food, travel, restaurants, dinner parties, diction, college girls, show girls, dyed hair
*****
box 447 folder 111-116 Merlin Carothers, Praise Foundation Presents Selected Messages (111-116 boxed set, removed to box 453)
111 How God Taught Me to Praise
112 Leap for Joy
113 Real Faith
114 Set Free
115 Start Trusting
116 Taming the Tongue
Jack Hayford, The Church on the Way
117 The Church that Christ Builds, no. 146
118 Learning to Walk in the Dark, no. 189
119 The Name of Jesus, no. 102
120 Welcome to the Family of God, no. 250
124 The Illuminati (Complete Documented History), Christian Defense League
box 448 folder 125 The Illuminati (cont.)
126 Kathryn Kuhlman Foundation, Irene Oliver, MS2047
127 John MacArthur, How to Know God’s Will, The Word of Grace Tape Ministry
*****
138-152 The New American Standard Bible, New Testament (138-153 boxed set, removed to box 453)
*****
box 452 folder 240 The Peanut Butter Caper, 1977 (I have no idea, but I like the title. Television movie, maybe? She wasn’t doing big screen movies by this time)
*****
box 537 Cartier cases, [192-], 2 travel cases designed for Miss Swanson’s Rolls Royce by Cartier; both have a cloisonné finish with a metal rim and leather interior and were apparently made in France; one case includes a mirror, leather card case, leather sewing kit with scissors and six silver cosmetic containers; the other case has a small clock installed and also includes an ashtray, silver lighter and leather notepad (They sound gorgeous. And handy.)
*****
box 536 Overskirt, ca. 1950, chiffon leopard print overskirt worn by GS as Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard
*****
box 535 Shoes, nd, one pair Saks Fifth Avenue black fabric evening shoes with rhinestone trim and heels, size 4 1/2 B (She was teeny — something like 4-11. Look how small her feet were!)
Go check out that link if you want to see more. MUCHHH more.
This is RIVETING.
I particularly love box 268 folder 2.
I love stuff like this!! (And I love her, too. There are some great stories about what she would do to get into parts, and stuff like that: wonderful and very intelligent actress.)
Wow – it’s overwhelming – in a really good way.
And Sheila – you were the first person I thought of when I read this post.
So cool.
I’ve read Merlin Carothers. Interesting.
I want to see Box 451. Dog songs? Are they songs about dogs? Dogs singing? Followed by bidets? the placement cracks me up.
What would our boxes look like? A slightly scary thought.
Tracey, you always find the best stuff.
This sort of thing is fascinating… I know that they often do this for authors and presidents and such, but this is the first I’ve heard of an actor having such a collection, especially an extensive one. Wild.
Sal — I likes me my Merlin. And I thought of that too, my “boxes.” Uhm, all three of them.
NF — I think somewhere in the intro to the collection, it mentions that she just kept copious records — of everything.
I think she and my grandfather must be kindred spirits with all those boxes, my gosh! I wonder what “Puritan Fashions, Boston” means.
As for Sal’s question, I think people would look at mine and say, “Hasn’t she finished unpacking yet?”