Gloria Swanson - Talkies

Talkies

On March 29, 1929, at the bungalow of Mary Pickford at United Artists brought together Swanson, Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Charles Chaplin, Norma Talmadge, John Barrymore, Dolores del Río and D.W. Griffith to speak on the radio show The Dodge Brothers Hour to prove he could meet the challenge of talking movies.

To try to recover from the Queen Kelly fiasco, Swanson jumped into making talkies, including The Trespasser (1929), What a Widow! (1930), Indiscreet (1931), Perfect Understanding (1933), and Music in the Air (1934).

The Trespasser tells the story of a "kept woman" who maintains a lavish lifestyle. The film stars Swanson, Robert Ames, Purnell Pratt, Henry B. Walthall, and Wally Albright. The movie was written and directed by Edmund Goulding and released by United Artists, and earned Swanson an Academy Award nomination in her talkie debut. Swanson sang the song "Love, Your Magic Spell Is Everywhere" written by Goulding and Elsie Janis. The Trespasser was filmed simultaneously in a silent and a talking version, and was a smash hit.

The Trespasser was an important film for Swanson, following the disastrous Queen Kelly and the hit Sadie Thompson, and garnered Swanson her second Oscar nomination. Sadly for Swanson, The Trespasser proved to be one of her only two hit talkies, the other being Sunset Boulevard, made over 20 years later. Subsequent follow-ups like What a Widow!, Indiscreet, Tonight or Never, Perfect Understanding, and Music in the Air all proved to be box-office flops. Despite the disappointments following The Trespasser, Swanson was well remembered by Billy Wilder, a writer on Music in the Air, when he was casting the part of Norma Desmond in his masterpiece Sunset Boulevard (1950).

Even though she managed to make the transition to talkies, as her career began to decline, Swanson relocated permanently to New York City in 1938, where she began an inventions and patents company called Multiprizes, which kept her occupied during the years of World War II. This small company had the sole purpose of rescuing Jewish scientists and inventors from war-torn Europe and bringing them to the United States. She helped many escape, and some useful inventions came from the enterprise. She made another film for RKO Radio Pictures in 1941, began appearing in the legitimate theatre, and starred in her own television show in 1948.

Never one to dwell on the past, she threw herself into painting and sculpting, writing a syndicated column, touring in summer stock, engaging in political activism, radio and television work, clothing and accessories design and marketing, and making occasional appearances on the big screen. But it was not until 1950 when Sunset Boulevard was released (earning her yet another Academy award nomination), that she achieved mass recognition again.