Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt - Double Exposure: A Twin Autobiography

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Text originally published in 1958 under the same title.

Papamoa Press 2017, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means, electrical, mechanical or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright holder.

Publishers Note

Although in most cases we have retained the Authors original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern readers benefit.

We have also made every effort to include all maps and illustrations of the original edition the limitations of formatting do not allow of including larger maps, we will upload as many of these maps as possible.

DOUBLE EXPOSURE:

A TWIN AUTOBIOGRAPHY

BY

GLORIA VANDERBILT

AND

THELMA LADY FURNESS

Contents

To Tony and Gloria

Life is mostly froth and bubble.

Two things stand like stone:

Kindness in anothers trouble,

Courage in your own.

Why a twin autobiography? A good question and one we have often been asked. Well, in the first place we are identical twins. Indeed, we looked so much alike when we were children that even our parents were hard pressed to tell us apart. Then, too, our lives have been curiously intermingled in spite of the very different paths we have trod. At nearly every important crisis either of us has been confronted with, the other has been on hand to help. Thus there has been an intertwining of our lives, a pattern and a continuity rarely experienced by sisters however close.

But above all there is an empathy, an understanding, between us that borders on telepathy. For example, when we were little girls of thirteen living in Hamburg, where our father was Consul General, I, Thelma, bought a birthday present for Gloria. It was a statuette of a Dresden dancing girl, and I carefully wrapped it and hid it so Gloria wouldnt know what I intended to give her. When finally the day came and we exchanged our presents, I was crushed to see the look of disappointment on her face when she opened her package. However, when I opened mine from her I understood; she had given me the identical figurine, purchased secretly at a different store at a different time. She had thought I was giving her back her own gift!

When Thelma was expecting her child, I, Gloria, was in New York. The baby was not due until May, and I had made steamer reservations in what seemed ample time to be with her. On the last day of March I had a luncheon engagement; but about an hour before I was to leave the house I developed violent abdominal pains, so severe in fact that I had my maid telephone to say I should have to cancel. I remember saying to her, as she started for the phone, that if I didnt know such a thing was out of the question I would think I was having a baby. I finally dozed off under the influence of a sedative; when I awoke some hours later, I felt completely recovered. On the bedside table was a cable from Lord Furness announcing the premature birth of Thelmas son, Tony.

When Gloria married Reggie Vanderbilt, she had a very sore throat; she kept her condition a secret from everyone in order not to be persuaded to postpone the ceremony and disappoint Reggie. I, Thelma, was in Europe with my father and mother to establish residence for a divorce on the breakup of my first marriage, and thus could not come back to New York for the wedding and therefore knew nothing of all this. But I did develop a sore throat that persisted until I received the cabled news that Gloria had a severe case of diphtheria.

These are but a few of innumerable instances of this strange sharing of each others thoughts and feelings. Thus, while we differ in many ways, there is this psychic bond, this common entity, which is in many ways the strongest influence in our livesalmost as if we were Siamese twins without the physical connection. Since this is the way it is with us in life, so in the tellingwe cant imagine doing it any other way.

GLORIA VANDERBILT

THELMA FURNESS

Our father, Harry Hays Morgan Mamma

Our mothers family

Double exposure

Little Gloria and her mother

Little Gloria and her father

The Breakers

Mrs. Vanderbilt

Thelma in Hollywood

Presented at court

With Duke and Tony

Burrough Court

Averill

The Prince of Wales

Christmas presents for the staff at the Fort

Friedel Hohenlohe

Margarita and Friedel with their son

Entrance to Schloss Langenburg

Young Gloria at sixteen

Young Glorias wedding

Elizabeth Wann, a faithful friend

Thelma and Edmund

Tony

Dick

Our sister, Consuelo

Gloria

Thelma

Thelma

One early summer morning at 2 a.m., at the Hotel Nationale in Lucerne, Switzerland, one could have heard a proud and nervous father say to the maid standing patiently by, The baby is here. Bring the bottle of champagne. We must celebrate.

When the champagne was brought to him, the door opened. From the next room a nurse came in, a baby girl in her arms. Youd better sit down, Mr. Morgan, said the nurse gently as she placed the baby in his arms. Looking at the bottle of champagne, she said, Youd better order another bottle; there is another baby on the way. It must have been quite a shock for Papa and Mamma. They already had Harry and Consuelo. Harry, five; Consuelo, two; and now twins.

Our father, Harry Hays Morgan, was American Consul at Lucerne, Switzerland. Papa came from a long line of diplomats who had served their government well. Our grandfather, Philip Hickey Morgan, was a judge of the Supreme Court of the State of Louisiana and was later appointed the first judge of the International Court of Alexandria, Egypt, and after that was given the post of American Minister to Mexico. Our father was born at Baton Rouge where his family owned a plantation called The Aurora.

Much of our familys background was chronicled in items Mamma kept in her scrapbooka record we had no opportunity to examine carefully until a few weeks before her death. Here is one item, an account of Mamma and Papas wedding, that appeared in the New York Herald in 1897:

The bride became suddenly imbued with the idea that the sum of her happiness would be complete if she could only secure a foreign appointment which would carry her abroad as soon as she was married. Her father, General Kilpatrick, and Vice-president Hobart had been intimate friends. She called on Mr. Hobart and blushingly explained the object of her visit, an appointment for her prospective husband. He gallantly offered to aid her and, as a first step, introduced her to the President. When the President argued that there were a few others who wanted foreign appointments, she answered gently that there were none surely more deserving than he. The President surrendered completely and promised that before her wedding was celebrated, Mr. Morgan should have a desirable appointment abroad. From the hands of President McKinley himself, Mr. Morgan received the commission of Consul to Berne, Switzerland, an appointment with a salary of $2,000 a year.