Gloria Vanderbilt, the “poor little rich girl” who fascinated the nation during a scandal-tinged custody trial in the 1930s, became one of the most. Taking a Closer Look at the Suicide of Carter Cooper. Introduction On the morning of July 22, 1988, 23-year-old Carter Cooper, oldest son of Gloria Vanderbilt and Wyatt Cooper, brother of Anderson Cooper, arrived unexpected at his mother's 14th floor apartment in New York City.
After a life spent in the spotlight, American heiress, socialite, and fashion designer Gloria Vanderbilt has died at the age of 95, her son Anderson Cooper announced on CNN this morning. The cause was stomach cancer, Cooper said.Though at different times in her life she worked as a stage and TV actress, model, textile designer, and artist, Vanderbilt was best known for her extravagant social life and her close friendships with the likes of Truman Capote and Diane von Furstenberg and romances with Frank Sinatra, Howard Hughes, and Sidney Lumet. With an old-world patrician’s accent and an instinctive sense of style, she and the images of her impeccably decorated apartments captivated onlookers for decades.Born on February 20, 1924, to railroad heir Reginald Claypoole Vanderbilt and his wife, Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt, Vanderbilt was famous from her birth, which was greeted with the headline “R.C. VANDERBILTS HAVE A DAUGHTER” in the next day’s.
After her father’s death 18 months later, Vanderbilt inherited a $4.7 million trust fund. In 1934 a custody battle broke out between Vanderbilt’s mother and her aunt Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, the founder of the Whitney Museum. Her mother lost and from then on Vanderbilt lived in her aunt’s home, though that the two had little contact.
The episode led the era’s press to call her the “poor little rich girl.”. In the late 1960s, she began to receive recognition for the paintings and collages she had already been making for most of her adult life, most notably when Johnny Carson used them to decorate his Tonight Show set. It led to her forays into textile design and later to putting her name of a branded line of denim that defined the fusion of mass market and luxury in the 1980s. She ultimately made more money than she inherited through her fashion venture,. “The money you make yourself is the only kind of money that has any reality,” she said to the Financial Times in 2014.
Even though CNN anchor Anderson Cooper is a descendent of one of the richest people to ever live in America, he has said in interviews that he never expected an easy ride in life, including a trust fund from his heiress mother: fashion designer and writer Gloria Vanderbilt. Actress and fashion designer Gloria Vanderbilt is seen here in 1954. (AFP/Getty Images Archives)Still, there were suggestions that Cooper would come into a pretty sizable fortune — inheriting as much as $200 million — after Vanderbilt died last month at age 95,It turns out that Cooper’s inheritance is nowhere near $200 million. Vanderbilt’s will said that her eldest son, Leopold “Stan” Stokowski, was to receive her Manhattan co-op, which is valued at $1.2 million, while “all the rest” of her estate — less than $1.5 million — would go to Cooper.To most people, anything approaching $1.5 million is a tidy sum.
But the Vanderbilts were never like most people. The prominent Gilded Age family once commanded a shipping and railroad empire that made their founding father, Cornelius, one of the wealthiest men in the world. The Vanderbilts are best remembered for displaying their extravagant wealth by erecting opulent mansions on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue, in Newport, Rhode Island, and in North Carolina. So what happened to the Vanderbilt fortune? And where did Gloria Vanderbilt’s money go?When the great-great-granddaughter of “Commodore” Cornelius Vanderbilt was born in 1924, she received a $2.5 million trust fund, which is equivalent to $35 million today, Page Six said.
Gloria Vanderbilt was called the “poor little rich girl” after a battle for her custody made tabloid headlines in the 1930s,. At the age of 21, she assumed control of her inheritance of $4.2 million, which is worth about $53 million now.But even with her money, Vanderbilt always worked, starting as a model when she was a teenager. Vanderbilt also thrived as an artist, actress and writer. In the 1970s, she channeled her gift for design into a launching a fashion empire, selling designer jeans and fragrances, that eventually was worth $100 million, Page Six said. Gloria Vanderbilt attends an event in 2009 in New York City.
(Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images Archives)Meanwhile, the “Fall of the House of Vanderbilt” was underway during the first part of the 20th century, another Vanderbilt descendent, Arthur Vanderbilt, wrote in his 1989 book “Fortune’s Children,” according to a. By the mid-20th century, the family’s prominence in American public life had waned considerably, demonstrated by the fact that the family’s great Fifth Avenue mansions had been torn down, sold or turned into museumsGloria Vanderbilt suffered personal heartbreak in 1988 when son Carter committed suicide by jumping from the 14th floor terrace of her Manhattan apartment, CNN reported. Her fashion empire also faded, and she faced legal and financial challenges, including a 1993 lawsuit in which she alleged that her lawyer and psychiatrist stole millions of dollars and sold off her business interests without her permission, Page Six said. She had to sell her seven-bedroom mansion in Southampton and her five-story Manhattan townhouse to pay back taxes and other debts.Despite her financial setbacks, Vanderbilt nonetheless spent “lavishly” on philanthropic and personal pursuits, which may in part explain where the millions went, according to Page Six.
Related Articles.Anderson Cooper said he never expected a windfall after his mother died, telling Howard Stern: “My mom’s made clear to me that there’s no trust fund. There’s none of that.”According to Arthur Vanderbilt’s book, William Kissam Vanderbilt, one of the Commodore’s grandsons, once said: “Inherited wealth is a real handicap to happiness.”Cooper, who earns a reported $11 million a year as a CNN anchor, echoed that view in his interview with Stern: “I don’t believe in inheriting money I think it’s a curse. From the time I was growing up, if I felt like there was some pot of gold waiting for me, I don’t know if I would have been so motivated.”.