Thelma Furness, Viscountess Furness
Encyclopedia
Thelma, Viscountess Furness (August 23, 1904 – January 29, 1970), born Thelma Morgan, was the woman who preceded Wallis Simpson in the affections of Edward VIII of the United Kingdom
. Her first name was pronounced in Spanish fashion as "TEL-ma." Her niece is fashion designer Gloria Vanderbilt
.
, Switzerland
, she was a daughter of Harry Hays Morgan, an American diplomat who was U.S. consul in Buenos Aires
and in Brussels
, and his half-Chile
an, half-Irish-American wife, Laura Delphine Kilpatrick. They were divorced in 1927.
Her maternal grandfather was a Union general, Hugh Judson Kilpatrick
(1836–1881), who was also U.S. minister to Chile
, and through her maternal grandmother Luisa Fernandez de Valdivieso, who was a niece of Crescente Errázuriz Valdivieso
, Archbishop of Santiago
, she reportedly was a descendant of Spain
's royal house of Navarre
.
Thelma Morgan had two sisters: Gloria
(her identical twin, the mother of Gloria Vanderbilt
, the fashion designer and artist and mother of news anchor Anderson Cooper
) and Consuelo, who was married to Count de Maupas, a spurious French nobleman; to Benjamin Thaw, Jr. of Pittsburgh; and to Alfons B. Landa, president of Colonial Airlines
and vice-chairman of the finance committee of the
Democratic National Committee in 1948. She also had a brother, Harry Hays Morgan, Jr., who became a minor Hollywood actor in such films as "Abie's Irish Rose" (1946), "Joan of Arc" (1948), and others.
). They were married in Washington, D.C., on February 16, 1922 — she was 17 years old, the divorcé groom was about a decade older — and they divorced in Los Angeles, California, on April 10, 1925.
After the divorce she was rumored to be engaged to the American actor Richard Bennett
, the matinée-idol father of Hollywood film stars Constance Bennett
, Joan Bennett
, and Barbara Bennett
(the third was the mother of talk-show host Morton Downey, Jr.
).
Her second husband was Marmaduke Furness, 1st Viscount Furness
(1883–1940), the chairman of Furness Shipping Company
. She was his second wife. They were married on June 27, 1926, and divorced in 1933 They had one son, William Anthony Furness, 2nd Viscount Furness
, and as the former wife of a British nobleman she was known as Thelma, Viscountess Furness.
Lady Furness first met the Prince of Wales
at a ball at Londonderry House in 1926 but they did not meet again until the Leicestershire Agricultural Show at Leicester on 14 June 1929. The Prince asked her to dine and they met regularly until she joined the Prince on safari in East Africa early in 1930, when a closer relationship developed. On the Prince's return to England in April 1930 she was his regular weekend companion at the newly acquired Fort Belvedere until January 1934. On 10 January 1931 at her house Burrough Court, near Melton Mowbray, she introduced the Prince to her close friend Mrs Wallis Simpson and, whilst visiting her sister Gloria in America between January and March 1934, she was supplanted in the Prince's affection by Mrs Simpson. Reacting to the Prince's coldness later that year she threw herself into a short-lived affair with Prince Aly Khan
.
magazine, "I am incorporating the Thelma Morgan Pictures, Inc., with $100,000 capital and will produce big, sane, and sound 'specials.' I will be my own star. Hitherto, my chief experience has been in Junior League
shows." Her first starring role, in 1923, was the lead in a film Aphrodite, produced by her own company and filmed at Vitagraph Studios
.
She described her leading role in Aphrodite to The New York Times
as that of "an American girl, brought up under the sinister influence of an old Egyptian woman." She also had small parts in the films Enemies of Women
(1923), a William Randolph Hearst
production whose cast included Lionel Barrymore
and Clara Bow
, So This Is Marriage?
(1924), and Any Woman (1925).
Lady Furness died in New York City. As her niece, Gloria Vanderbilt, recalled, "She dropped dead on Seventy-third and Lexington on her way to see the doctor. In her bag was this miniature teddy bear that the Prince of Wales had given her, years before, when she came to be with my mother at the custody trial, and it was worn down to the nub".
She was buried next to her twin sister, Gloria, in Holy Cross Cemetery
in Culver City, California
.
Edward VIII of the United Kingdom
Edward VIII was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth, and Emperor of India, from 20 January to 11 December 1936.Before his accession to the throne, Edward was Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall and Rothesay...
. Her first name was pronounced in Spanish fashion as "TEL-ma." Her niece is fashion designer Gloria Vanderbilt
Gloria Vanderbilt
Gloria Laura Vanderbilt is an American artist, author, actress, heiress, and socialite most noted as an early developer of designer blue jeans...
.
Early life
Born in LucerneLucerne
Lucerne is a city in north-central Switzerland, in the German-speaking portion of that country. Lucerne is the capital of the Canton of Lucerne and the capital of the district of the same name. With a population of about 76,200 people, Lucerne is the most populous city in Central Switzerland, and...
, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, she was a daughter of Harry Hays Morgan, an American diplomat who was U.S. consul in Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
and in Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
, and his half-Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
an, half-Irish-American wife, Laura Delphine Kilpatrick. They were divorced in 1927.
Her maternal grandfather was a Union general, Hugh Judson Kilpatrick
Hugh Judson Kilpatrick
Hugh Judson Kilpatrick was an officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War, achieving the rank of brevet major general. He was later the United States Minister to Chile, and a failed political candidate for the U.S...
(1836–1881), who was also U.S. minister to Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
, and through her maternal grandmother Luisa Fernandez de Valdivieso, who was a niece of Crescente Errázuriz Valdivieso
Crescente Errázuriz
thumb|300px|Monsignor Crescente Errázuriz Valdivieso.Monsignor Crescente Errázuriz Valdivieso was a Chilean Dominican friar, Roman Catholic archbishop of Santiago, professor, writer and historian...
, Archbishop of Santiago
Archbishop of Santiago (Chile)
The Archbishop of Santiago de Chile is a Roman Catholic title given to the archbishop of the church in the Diocese of Santiago de Chile. From 1561 to 1840 the title was a bishop but since 1840 with Manuel Vicuña Larraín it was elevated to archbishop status....
, she reportedly was a descendant of Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
's royal house of Navarre
Navarre
Navarre , officially the Chartered Community of Navarre is an autonomous community in northern Spain, bordering the Basque Country, La Rioja, and Aragon in Spain and Aquitaine in France...
.
Thelma Morgan had two sisters: Gloria
Gloria Laura Mercedes Morgan-Vanderbilt
Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt was a Swiss-born American socialite best known as the mother of fashion designer and artist Gloria Vanderbilt and maternal grandmother of television journalist Anderson Cooper. She was a central figure in Vanderbilt vs...
(her identical twin, the mother of Gloria Vanderbilt
Gloria Vanderbilt
Gloria Laura Vanderbilt is an American artist, author, actress, heiress, and socialite most noted as an early developer of designer blue jeans...
, the fashion designer and artist and mother of news anchor Anderson Cooper
Anderson Cooper
Anderson Hays Cooper is an American journalist, author, and television personality. He is the primary anchor of the CNN news show Anderson Cooper 360°. The program is normally broadcast live from a New York City studio; however, Cooper often broadcasts live on location for breaking news stories...
) and Consuelo, who was married to Count de Maupas, a spurious French nobleman; to Benjamin Thaw, Jr. of Pittsburgh; and to Alfons B. Landa, president of Colonial Airlines
Colonial Airlines
Colonial Airlines was a Canadian airline from the 1940s and 1950s with bases in Montreal and at LaGuardia Airport in New York City. It was formerly known as well as Canadian Colonial Airways and Colonial Airways before becoming Colonial Airlines.By 1956, Colonial's executive offices were on Park...
and vice-chairman of the finance committee of the
Democratic National Committee in 1948. She also had a brother, Harry Hays Morgan, Jr., who became a minor Hollywood actor in such films as "Abie's Irish Rose" (1946), "Joan of Arc" (1948), and others.
Marriages and Relationships
Her first husband was James Vail Converse, a grandson of Theodore N. Vail, former president of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&TAT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas, United States. It is the largest provider of mobile telephony and fixed telephony in the United States, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services...
). They were married in Washington, D.C., on February 16, 1922 — she was 17 years old, the divorcé groom was about a decade older — and they divorced in Los Angeles, California, on April 10, 1925.
After the divorce she was rumored to be engaged to the American actor Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett (actor)
Richard Bennett was an American actor who became a stage and silent screen matinee idol over the early decades of the twentieth century.-Early Life:...
, the matinée-idol father of Hollywood film stars Constance Bennett
Constance Bennett
-Early life:She was born in New York City, the daughter of actor Richard Bennett and actress Adrienne Morrison, whose father was the stage actor Lewis Morrison , a wealthy performer of English and Spanish ancestry...
, Joan Bennett
Joan Bennett
Joan Geraldine Bennett was an American stage, film and television actress. Besides acting on the stage, Bennett appeared in more than 70 motion pictures from the era of silent movies well into the sound era...
, and Barbara Bennett
Barbara Bennett
Barbara Jane Bennett was an American silent film actress.Born into an acting family, she was the daughter of actor Richard Bennett and actress Adrienne Morrison, whose father was the stage actor Lewis Morrison. Her sisters were actresses Constance and Joan Bennett.Bennett would never succeed to...
(the third was the mother of talk-show host Morton Downey, Jr.
Morton Downey, Jr.
Morton Downey, Jr. was an American singer, songwriter and later a television talk show host of the 1980s who pioneered the "trash TV" format on his program The Morton Downey Jr. Show....
).
Her second husband was Marmaduke Furness, 1st Viscount Furness
Marmaduke Furness, 1st Viscount Furness
Marmaduke Furness, 1st Viscount Furness , known as The Lord Furness between 1912 and 1918, was a British businessman....
(1883–1940), the chairman of Furness Shipping Company
Furness Withy
Furness Withy was a major British transport business. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange.-History:The Company was founded by Christopher Furness and Henry Withy in 1891 in Hartlepool. This was achieved by the amalgamation of the Furness Line of steamers with the business of Edward Withy and...
. She was his second wife. They were married on June 27, 1926, and divorced in 1933 They had one son, William Anthony Furness, 2nd Viscount Furness
William Anthony Furness, 2nd Viscount Furness
William Anthony Furness, 2nd Viscount Furness , was a British peer.Furness was born in Melton Mowbray, England, the only child of Marmaduke Furness, 1st Viscount Furness, and his second wife, Thelma Furness, Viscountess Furness , an American socialite...
, and as the former wife of a British nobleman she was known as Thelma, Viscountess Furness.
Lady Furness first met the Prince of Wales
Edward VIII of the United Kingdom
Edward VIII was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth, and Emperor of India, from 20 January to 11 December 1936.Before his accession to the throne, Edward was Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall and Rothesay...
at a ball at Londonderry House in 1926 but they did not meet again until the Leicestershire Agricultural Show at Leicester on 14 June 1929. The Prince asked her to dine and they met regularly until she joined the Prince on safari in East Africa early in 1930, when a closer relationship developed. On the Prince's return to England in April 1930 she was his regular weekend companion at the newly acquired Fort Belvedere until January 1934. On 10 January 1931 at her house Burrough Court, near Melton Mowbray, she introduced the Prince to her close friend Mrs Wallis Simpson and, whilst visiting her sister Gloria in America between January and March 1934, she was supplanted in the Prince's affection by Mrs Simpson. Reacting to the Prince's coldness later that year she threw herself into a short-lived affair with Prince Aly Khan
Prince Aly Khan
Prince Ali Solomone Aga Khan , known as Aly Khan was a son of Aga Khan III, the head of the Ismaili Muslims, and the father of Aga Khan IV. A socialite, racehorse owner and jockey, he was the third husband of actress Rita Hayworth...
.
Film career
For a very brief time, she was a motion picture producer and actress, after founding Thelma Morgan Pictures at the age of 17 in 1923. As she told TimeTime (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine, "I am incorporating the Thelma Morgan Pictures, Inc., with $100,000 capital and will produce big, sane, and sound 'specials.' I will be my own star. Hitherto, my chief experience has been in Junior League
Junior League
The Association of Junior Leagues International, Inc. is a non-profit organization of 292 Junior Leagues in Canada, Mexico, United Kingdom and the United States. Junior Leagues are educational and charitable women's organizations aimed at improving their communities through volunteerism and...
shows." Her first starring role, in 1923, was the lead in a film Aphrodite, produced by her own company and filmed at Vitagraph Studios
Vitagraph Studios
American Vitagraph was a United States movie studio, founded by J. Stuart Blackton and Albert E. Smith in 1897 in Brooklyn, New York. By 1907 it was the most prolific American film production company, producing many famous silent films. It was bought by Warner Bros...
.
She described her leading role in Aphrodite to The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
as that of "an American girl, brought up under the sinister influence of an old Egyptian woman." She also had small parts in the films Enemies of Women
Enemies of Women
Enemies of Women is a 1923 silent romantic drama film directed by Alan Crosland and starring Lionel Barrymore, Alma Rubens, Gladys Hulette, Pedro de Cordoba, and Paul Panzer. The film was produced by William Randolph Hearst through his Cosmopolitan Productions...
(1923), a William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst was an American business magnate and leading newspaper publisher. Hearst entered the publishing business in 1887, after taking control of The San Francisco Examiner from his father...
production whose cast included Lionel Barrymore
Lionel Barrymore
Lionel Barrymore was an American actor of stage, screen and radio. He won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in A Free Soul...
and Clara Bow
Clara Bow
Clara Gordon Bow was an American actress who rose to stardom in the silent film era of the 1920s. It was her appearance as a spunky shopgirl in the film It that brought her global fame and the nickname "The It Girl." Bow came to personify the roaring twenties and is described as its leading sex...
, So This Is Marriage?
So This Is Marriage?
So This Is Marriage? is a drama film directed by Hobart Henley. The film was originally released with sequences filmed in Technicolor.-Cast:* Conrad Nagel as Peter Marsh* Eleanor Boardman as Beth Marsh* Lew Cody as Daniel Rankin...
(1924), and Any Woman (1925).
Final years
She and her sister Gloria wrote a memoir called "Double Exposure" (1959) cited below as 'Vanderbilt'.Lady Furness died in New York City. As her niece, Gloria Vanderbilt, recalled, "She dropped dead on Seventy-third and Lexington on her way to see the doctor. In her bag was this miniature teddy bear that the Prince of Wales had given her, years before, when she came to be with my mother at the custody trial, and it was worn down to the nub".
She was buried next to her twin sister, Gloria, in Holy Cross Cemetery
Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City
Holy Cross Cemetery is a Roman Catholic cemetery at 5835 West Slauson Avenue in Culver City, California, operated by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles....
in Culver City, California
Culver City, California
Culver City is a city in western Los Angeles County, California. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 38,883, up from 38,816 at the 2000 census. It is mostly surrounded by the city of Los Angeles, but also shares a border with unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County. Culver...
.