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Little Gloria Happy at Last [VHS]

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This is the famous story of the custody battle for little Gloria Vanderbilt, recreated with an all-star cast. When Gloria was a baby, her father (Christopher Plummer) died, and her underage mother was unable to manage her inheritance. Lawyers took over that job until Gloria was ten; then her aunt, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (Angela Landsbury), sued for legal custody claiming the mother was morally unfit. The trial was a huge scandal in 1934, and the outcome did little to boost Gloria's confidence. She felt unloved and unwanted until middle age, never reconciling with her mother.

The opulent homes and beautiful costumes and sets create a real sense of the era, when, at the height of the depression, the little heiress inherited $2.5 M. This is a fascinating look at a real-life soap opera.

Kona

I never thought I'd say this about a film made in my adult lifetime, but they just don't make them like this anymore. From 1975 until the early 1990's the miniseries was one of the mainstays of broadcast TV. In the better ones - which this was - the production values were high, the story intricately told, and prominent stars were involved.

In this day of people who seem to believe that they deserve what they have simply because they have always lived this way, this story of the super-rich set against the background of the Great Depression is timely.
Gloria Morgan is the bride of 43 year-old Reggie Vanderbilt at 18, a mother at 19, and a widow at 20 when her husband, whose health has been ruined by a dissolute lifestyle, dies and leaves her penniless. The fact that she is the mother of one of Reggie's two surviving children leaves her the impoverished mother of a wealthy infant. As Gloria is an infant, though, and she is the surviving parent, big Gloria has an income of 48 thousand dollars a year on which to live, a limitation over which she complains endlessly. 48 thousand dollars a year would be roughly half a million dollars annually in today's currency.

Over the next ten years or so, Gloria travels around Europe and complains when the judge that is her daughter's guardian says that she must come back to America so that little Gloria can grow up there, as per their prior agreement. She gripes that she can't live the way she wants and that it is all Gloria's fault. Big Gloria seems to forget she would be living in a cardboard box were it not for little Gloria's existence. Eventually big Gloria's lifestyle, her vengeful mother, and little Gloria's religious nurse all work against her when her former sister-in-law, Gertrude, sues for custody of Gloria.

There are really no sympathetic characters in this story. The doctors are more than glad to give quack treatments to little Gloria and take the Vanderbilt money, the lawyers -as always - are glad to take anyone's money, the judge in the case is more interested in the Vanderbilt's opinion than justice, and Big Gloria doesn't come across so much as a bad mother as she does as someone who simply knows no other way to live than the way she has been living. Not exactly having a glowing example of motherhood upon which to rely, Big Gloria seems genuinely baffled as to why everyone is upset with her.

Unfortunately, miniseries such as these have been replaced with one reality show after another all of which are just variations on the theme "Human Beings Behaving Badly". 27 years from now I doubt anyone will be interested in them other than as exhibits on a degenerating culture. This film was a theatric reproduction of an actual true story, and for that reason it surprises me that Gloria Warren Vanderbilt's story has so many parallels in the biography of silent film star Lina Basquette. Her tragic tale can be found in the book Lina Demille's Godless Girl. This is a rare title, but it is good reading if you can find it.

This in my opinion is one of the greatest TV-mini series of all time. It is filled with heartwarming moments, laughter, and even a few tears, the perfect combination. I consider this to be a must for every family, if you love tender moments and great films this is for you. Also, it's all based on facts and real people, The Vanderbilt name is synonymous with elegance, taste, and wealth, and Little Gloria (Gloria Vanderbilt) grew up to be a famous designer, and is the Mother of CNN's Anderson Cooper. Whenever you get the chance buy this film It won't disappoint. And that cast you can't beat it Bette Davis, Angela Lansbury, Christopher Plummer & Martin Balsam, how delicious is that.

This is the story of money, glamour, scandal anda ten-year-old-child. A story of family strife exploding into one of the most dramatic and publicised court battles of the century - the custody of Little Gloria Vanderbilt.

A beautiful story about a young girl who's father dies at a young age, and her mummy is in no sitatuon to take care of her, so she goes to her Aunt. And the constant custody battle of the young girl with 2.5 Million Dollars.

This 1982 miniseries, based on the book of the same name by Barbara Goldsmith, explores the opulent world of the ultra-rich on the Eastern Seaboard in the 1920s and 30s, focusing on the events that culminate in the highly-publicized custody battle for 10-year-old Gloria Laura Madeline Sophie Vanderbilt in 1934.
The scope and cinematography of this production are somehow reminiscent of watercolors from an Impressionist's palette, with a bit of the contemporary Art Deco style thrown in for good measure...Dapper gentlemen escorting etherally pale-faced ladies with smoothly coiffed hair and lips done in brilliant shades of red...
We view the beginning of this affair when the lovely young socialite, Gloria Mercedes Morgan (Lucy Gutteridge) attends a party with her sisters Thelma( in actuality, Gloria's identical twin, played here by a non-identical Rosalyn Landor) and Consuelo (Leueen Willoughby), and has a chance meeting with Reginald Vanderbilt (Christopher Plummer)which chages the course of her life.
Interestingly, upon her first meeting with Reggie, Gloria focuses part of her discussion on her mother, Laura Kilpatrick Morgan ( Glynis Johns), the Chilean-born wife of an American American Ambassador, who fills her daughter's heads with stories about their relationship to European Royalty, which as it turns out are not true, and whom, in regards to monied families, holds the same conservative views of many South Americans.
Gloria's reaction to the news that one of her sisters had beaten her to the punch in telling their mother that she had met Reggie makes her look very spoiled.
The courtship between the middle-aged alcoholic divorce with one daughter and the ingenue in her late teens proceeds, amid Gloria's pleasant interactions with Reggie's mother, Alice Gwynne Vanderbilt ( the charismatic Bette Davis).
During an evening's drive home, Reggie warns his young sweetheart that he doesn't have much money in a moment of foreshadowing. The drowsy young naif expresses apathy about her fiance's finacial status, but states that she only wants him for himself as she rests against his shoulder.
The May-December marriage quickly produces a daughter, Little Gloria (played by Francesa Coombs as an infant). Mrs. Morgan, who will be known to her granddaughter as "Naney", takes the liberty of hiring a nurse for her new grandchild, Emma Sullivan Keislich, a.k.a. "Dodo" (Maureen Stapleton), who had previously served the children of President Grover Cleveland, and these two ladies of the Catholic faith watch ruefully as the infant receives the Episcoplian baptism her father had.
Life seems tranquil for a while, although, as it typical in many upper-class homes, the nurse spends more time with the baby than do her parents, both whom are off on social whirls until Reggie falls ill.
At the same time, Big Gloria is called away to tend to a dying relative in South America. Reggie's cirrhosis of the liver worsens, and the young Mrs. Vanderbilt arrives home just in time to learn from her stoic mother-in-law that she is a widow. She collapses at the news.
Soon, Big Gloria, her mother, and Reggie's sister, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney(Angela Landsbury)deal with the young widow's insolvency in contrast to her one-year-old's $2.5 million trust fund.
Mrs. Morgan and Nurse Keislich take the opportunity to baptize the toddler as a Catholic before she goes off to Europe with her widowed mother.
The narration of society columnist Maury Paul/Cholly Knickerbocker( John Hillerman) moves the action of the story along.
The American attorney, Gilchrist (Michael Gross) visits Big Gloria during her years in Europe, complaining that her daughter is an American heiress, and those in charge of her trust fund want her to be raised in her own country. But Big Gloria has fallen victim to an unfortunate rule of American High Society: When her husband was alive, she had a more active social life, but once left single, young, and pretty, wealthy married women, who inevitably view her as a potential home wrecker, cut her off socially. Most of Big Gloria's friends were in Europe, her daughter wasn't doing so badly there, either, and as Big Gloria observed, "It's a sad state of affairs when your child becomes a rope around your neck dictating where you can or can't live!"
Soon, this "rope" would be lifted from her neck in a way she would not have prefered.
Gloria and her daughter return to America in time to learn of the Lindberg Baby's murder.
Mrs. Morgan reads the account of the Lindberg Baby's death to the now-eight-year-old Gloria (Jennifer Dundas)as she sits on Dodo's lap, and combined with Dodo's expressed dislike of her charge's mother from the time both were still in Europe, the young girl suffers from bad dreams and nervous disorders, and while in Europe she had begun to write letters expressing her unhappiness in Europe to her dear "Naney", which are shown to Mr. Gilchrist.
Having acted on Getrude's advice to leave the child with her, Mrs. Vanderbilt obeys, and continues her social whirl for a while.
But at some point, Big Gloria decides to reclaim her daughter and find a nice place for them to live.She now finds her daughter to be terrified of her, and decides to take legal action to regain custody.
Her attorney is Nathan Burkam (Martin Balsam). When the case comes to trial before a closet tippler named Justice John Francis Carew, the world discovers that the defendant's own mother is against her attempt to win custody of her own child. As it happens, she is willing to do the dirty work for Gertrude because Gertrude will pay her handsomely to do so.
Servants take the witness stand against the defendant, defaming her character and claiming her to be an unfit mother. Big Gloria's supporters include her two sisters, and mothers struggling to survive the Depression who gather outside the courtroom to express their support of the defendant as well.
The religious pandering of both Dodo and Naney on the witness stand is irritating, and probably wouldn't sell so easily in Court today.
The child in question appears in court briefly and is interviewed by Judge Carew. Otherwise, she engages in her routine activities at school and at home.
The end results of the trial are devastating for the defendant and irreparably damage the fragile ties of a mother and daughter, and also costing Little Gloria the closest relationship of her life when Dodo is dismissed.
The attitudes of those who should really have had the young girl's best interest at heart provoke disgust because with everything they had been given in this life, they could have been less petty and recriminatory.
Sadly, Dear Auntie Gert lost interest in her niece once she secured her custody--just as if the girl were a prize she had won at auction, or a vase in the art museum she founded.
But it is good to see that Socialite, Businesswoman, and author Gloria Vanderbilt has survived and outlived that era, and triumphed over the tragic turn her life took when she was young. Perhaps now she truly is happy at last.
Maury Paul obeserved that if this story were a fictional play, audiences would have responded with incredulity. But indeed, from this story, were are reminded of the old adage, "Truth is stranger than fiction."

I first saw this moving on tv but I missed part of it so I had to buy it to find out what I missed. Very good movie. Little Gloria was afraid of her mother so she lived with her aunt but the mother fought to get her back. her mother was a tramp & also liked women.

It has a wonderful cast. Bette Davis, Maureen Stapleton, Angela Lansbury.

It is a very interesting movie about the live of a poor little rich girl who was only wanted because of her money.