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Then Gloria had it over Negri in a new way. She rode from her dressing room to the set in a wheel chair, like a surrey with the fringe on top, pushed by a Negro boy. "Oh, she's just showing off," everybody said. Gloria swears to this day that her costumes were so cumbersome and heavy that she couldn't walk the distance to the stage.
Eventually Gloria decided that Hollywood was just a suburb in search of a city, whereas New York was the center of the universe. She'd make her pictures hereafter at Paramount's Long Island studios. Whereupon she blew town.
If Pola thought she'd routed Swanson, she was mistaken. Gloria still reigned as queen.
Soon after her arrival in New York her contract was up for renewal. She was offered twenty thousand dollars a week— before the day of income taxes, mind youl Cannily she deduced that if she were worth that much to Paramount, she'd be worth more to herself. She announced that her pictures would be made independently.
Right there Gloria made her biggest mistake. As an independent she had only Swanson. Working for Paramount, she had all the facilities of that studio at her service. When she went independent she got not only Paramount down on her but the other studios as well. She was establishing a precedent, setting in circulation a dangerous idea. Other stars might follow.
In the picture business when a crisis threatens to pinch the bankbook the big boys get together and form a front. They neglect to do this for the real issues such as morals and public relations.
As soon as Gloria arrived in New York she bought an apartment. Frank Crowninshield, editor of Town and Country, introduced her to a new Spanish artist who was all the rage. She had him design four doors for her apartment, one thousand dollars apiece. Living on a scale top producers couldn't afford, she always spent money faster than she made it.
She couldn't find stories or directors to suit her. She couldn't hire the players she wanted. It was a foregone conclusion that, between her extravagances and her independent setup, she would fail.
She did.
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