A prolific inventor who founded a profit-sharing invention company in New York and saved German scientists from Hitler, Oscar-nominated Gloria Swanson’s real-life invention story reads like a film script.
With Academy Award season upon us, it is a perfect time to look back at a star who stood out not only for her memorable performances, but for her creativity, humanity and business acumen.
Much has been written about Hedy Lamarr, and deservedly so. Lamarr was a silent and sound screen star who was often referred to as “the most beautiful woman in the world.” The award-winning documentary, “Bombshell,” looks at her life as a serious innovator, whose work includes a 1942 frequency skipping invention developed for use during WWII that foreshadowed the Internet. (Patent, 2,292,387, “Secret Communications System.”)
Another actor generally written off as little more than the sum of the characters she played is Gloria Swanson. Until recently Swanson received almost no attention about her inventions and her unique invention company, Multiprises. Oscar-nominated for Billy Wilder’s 1950 classic, “Sunset Boulevard,” a murder-mystery and among the first films added to the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry, Swanson’s life is filled with uncharacteristic surprises.
‘Too sexy’ to be taken seriously: movie star’s invention story is a lesson for both men and women
Best known for playing silent screen star Norma Desmond, loosely based on her own life as a silent-screen star and C.B. Demille discovery, Swanson’s larger-than-life portrayal of the faded celebrity trapped in her screen persona is indelible. Norma comes alive when the cameras roll. Without them she is a frightened refugee from a bygone era.
Not many audiences realize that Gloria Swanson was, in fact, the antithesis of Norma Desmond, an astute and independent survivor with her eyes clearly fixed on the future.
Multi-Talented
In addition to being an actress of significant acclaim and wealth, Swanson was a film producer, fashion designer (and fashion icon), acclaimed visual artist, best-selling author, newspaper columnist, businesswoman, health advocate, radio host, and television pioneer. She raised three children and married (and usually divorced) eight husbands. Joseph P. Kennedy, President Kennedy’s film financier father, was among her lovers.
During their three-year affair Kennedy arranged the funding for her films The Love of Sunya (1927) and the ill-fated Queen Kelly (1928). Their relationship ended when Swanson discovered that an expensive gift from Kennedy had actually been charged to her account.
Inventor, Entrepreneur, Humanitarian
An aspect of her life for which Swanson is rarely remembered is as an inventor, patent holder, patent facilitator/executive and humanitarian. In 1939 Swanson helped Jewish inventors living in Nazi Germany escape Hitler and join her invention company, which she self-funded with $200,000, the equivalent of $3 million today.
Credit tracking Swanson’s incredible story to Librarian of Congress Cory O’Dell. His highly informative and eminently readable article, Gloria Swanson: A Woman of Invention, draws on original research, as well as the autobiography, Swanson on Swanson and Stephen Michael Shearer’s Gloria Swanson: The Ultimate Star. The piece appears in Library of Congress Blogs. The background below is excerpted from A Women of Invention.
“By the mid-1930s, Swanson had become aware of the plight of many German-based scientists,” writes O’Dell, “especially those of the Jewish faith or those who were refusing to support the Nazi regime. These scientists were not only at risk of losing the rights to their inventions, they were also at risk of losing their lives. Swanson came up with a plan to bring various inventors out of Europe and set them up in labs in the US, working with them to further their work and market their creations.
“Initially, Swanson had her sights set on developing a long-lasting luminous paint, which she believed would be of great use both in the film industry and to the U.S. military. According to her biographer, Stephen Michael Shearer, Swanson also had her eye on various new inventions and developments in plastics, metals and liquids (i.e. paints) which she could utilize in the creation of fashions, jewelry and art products.
Gloria Swanson in the Silent Era
“In 1939, after throwing herself an opulent Hollywood going-away party, Swanson moved to New York City. There, she rented office space at 630 Fifth Avenue, atop Rockefeller Plaza, [and a factory in Queens]. She set up a corporation and assembled a board of directors. The company, as described by Shearer, was ‘a profit-sharing enterprise that secured patents and markets for inventions.'”
At the birth of Multiprises (multiple ways of “opening up” or identifying the lever), there were five scientists Swanson set out to extricate from Europe. It would not be easy. In 1939, Europe was already at war with Germany.
To achieve success it would take several transAtlantic trips, as well as numerous cables, visa applications, the connections and multi-lingual skills of one of Gloria’s ex-husband, Henri (a Marquis), and Swanson’s own considerable charm and star power. She succeeded in bringing over four prized inventors.” [A fifth, who did not make it, is thought to have perished in a concentration camp.]
This part of Swanson’s life is an adventure that has the makings of screenplay. Someone please purchase the rights if they are still available!
O’Dells Article Continues:
“During her company’s existence, Swanson and her team developed a carbide-steel-alloy cutting tool and developed the first plastic buttons for clothing. According to one source, it is to Swanson’s company that we also owe the invention of the extension cord.
This part of Swanson’s life is an adventure that has the makings of screenplay. Someone please purchase the rights if they are still available!
“Finally, Richard Kobler, one of her inventors, began work on his later patented ‘Talking Typewriter’ while under the auspices of Multiprises. Eventually that innovation led to other Kobler inventions including the Dictaphone and speed dial on telephones.”
As for Swanson’s early flirtation with wireless communication? She lamented in a 1950 interview that she never followed up on the original idea. Kobler went on to become a key inventor for Edison Research Laboratory in West Orange, NJ.
“Unfortunately, despite some early promising design developments, Multiprises, Inc. was out of business by 1943,” writes O’Dell. In her memoir, Swanson explained its demise: “The war effort, however, soon overtook…private interests, and Anton Kratky and Leopold Neumann asked permission to work for the U.S. government…for the duration. We kept our office, but as long as the war lasted, it was obvious that Multiprises was going to be a small concern.”
32 Archival-Size Boxes
Shortly before her death in 1983, Swanson sold her papers (a massive collection of correspondence, business records and notes) to the University of Texas at Austin. The section of her papers devoted to Multiprises (dating from 1937 to 1951) consists of 32 archival-size boxes.
Though Multiprises ended in the 1940s, Swanson, herself, never stopped inventing and tinkering. Later she began to explore a photography process that would impose photographic images onto fabrics, and she drew up plans for a water-conserving toilet.
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