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How Sylvia Tamed
r Jumpy Nerves"
for
Gloria Swanson
Sadie Thompson, the character Gloria played when Sylvia first met her. And Gloria herself, like Sadie, proved to be taut as a violin string
I ADORE Laura Hope Crews. She's a grand woman and I wanted to do everything I could for her; but when she told me one day that Gloria Swanson was her best friend and she wanted me to take her I said, "Nothing doing!"
I'd already heard about Gloria. There aren't any secrets in Hollywood, and I knew that she had a habit of keeping people waiting. Well, I was too busy to wait on stars, no matter how important they were.
That's what I told Laura, but every morning when I treated her all I heard was, " Poor Gloria, she's so fatigued. Poor Gloria, she's so run down." And finally one morning she said, "Sylvia, I'm going to stop begging you to take poor Gloria. You've just got to take her — that's all."
My first appointment with La Swanson was for nine P.M., but at seven. I got a call from the studio saying she would be an hour late. That was nothing new for Hollywood, so I drove up to Gloria's mansion at ten o'clock.
A very solemn butler let me in and told me to walk up the big stairs with the mulberry carpets. There a very chic French maid showed me into a little den, the walls of which were decorated with sketches that the Marquis had done (Gloria was married to Hank then), and a lot of amusing French books.
Pretty soon the butler came in with a tray of tiny sandwiches and a long chilled glass. After i hat I must have dozed off , for the nexl thing I heard was Laura's voice calling, " Yoo hoo, Sylvia, here we are." It was half past eleven, SO the first time I took. Gloria 1 had to wait! Gosh, 1 knew it!
I had to wait some more while Gloria took her perfumed bath and then I began to work on her. She wanted to reduce her tummy and her waistline, but 1 saw that what she really needed was nerve treatment, for she was as nervous and as sensitive as a race-horse. And no wonder Laura kept calling her "poor Gloria!" She was worn out. As] began to treat her she looked up at me and murmured, " My, Sylvia, that feels good."
One glimpse of Gloria at work as Sadie, though, such as the scene above, is ample to explain her worn, nervous state. Nobody keys herself to such a pitch, or throws herself into roles, more than Gloria. No wonder Sylvia was needed!
When I left her she was sound asleep. Put I wasn't. It was three A.M., too. I got home at sunrise.
The next day a man called and asked me if I would like to be put under contract by Miss Swanson.
"Right now," 1 told him, " there's not a star wealthy enough to have me exclusively."
"Maybe not a star but a studio," he said. And then he told me he was Joseph Kennedy, at that time the head oi I'athe Studios, so although I went to Pathe to treat all the stars. Gloria was one of my main charges.