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(Thais Alalia Dickerson)
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| 13 August 17 |
is born in Pocatello, Idaho, the second daughter of a banker, Fred Dickerson, and his wife, Emma Starrett. Her older sister is named Doris.
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develops a close bond with her father. They share a love of nature and spend holidays in the mountains horseback riding and trout fishing.
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knows from an early age that she wants to be an actress. Her parents, both interested in the arts, are very supportive and give her every opportunity with lessons, including diction and poise. The Dickersons set aside a portion of their basement as a stage so that Gloria can develop her craft in front of friends and neighbors.
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| 29 |
her father suddenly dies; Gloria takes his death especially hard
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| 30 |
her mother moves with her two daughters to Long Beach, California
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| Mid-30s |
performs dramatic readings at social clubs and on KFOX radio station in Long Beach
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| 35 |
graduates from Polytechnic High School, majoring in dramatics
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| ? |
joins the Wayside Colony Players in Long Beach
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| 35 |
tours with the Hart Players, a tent show troupe, in performances that run the gamut, from Shakespeare to modern
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| April 36 |
auditions for the Federal Theaters Project, a government-sponsored organization designed to promote young talent, at the Los Angeles Mason Opera House. She is accepted and moves to Los Angeles.
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| 36 |
is on stage for four weeks with the lead part of Diane in Seventh Heaven at the Mason Theatre in Los Angeles
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| 36 |
is on the LA stage with leads in Smilin Through and The Devil Passes
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| November 36 |
is spotted by Warner Brothers talent scout Max Arnow and signed to a Warner contract. Her name is changed to Gloria Dickson.
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| Late 36 / early 37 |
attracts the attention of Warner Brothers talent scout Irving Kumin during her performance in The Devil Passes. He leaves his business card on her dressing table. It is said she tosses it in the wastebasket. Kumin, very impressed with the young actress, is persistent and arranges a screen test.
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Two days after her screen test, she is signed to a three-year, $200-a-week contract at Warner Brothers; her name is changed to Gloria Dickson. She says, "Mother and I could hardly believe that I was suddenly really an actress. It had been my only ambition ever since I could remember. It seemed that all my dreams had come true when we moved to Los Angeles and I went to work studying parts, rehearsing one role during the day and playing another at night. I didn’t give a thought ever to playing in pictures. I didn’t have time!"
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| 37 |
meets famed makeup artist Perc Westmore on her first day on the Warner lot
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| 37 |
is offered the role of a lifetime, the female lead part of Sybil Hale in They Won’t Forget. The powerful film is a hit, and Gloria’s star rises. Jack Warner praises his new star at the film’s premiere. About winning the role she says: “I was so happy I could hardly speak. I felt as if Christmas, my birthday and the Fourth of July had all come together with sound effects.”
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| August 37 |
“I save some of my money but not much. I’m living in a small home now with my mother, and I run my own roadster to and from the studio. So far, I haven’t gone in for any of the larger expenditures like buying a boat or building a swimming pool. The small things mount quickly enough.” She wants “a house full of clothes.” ”Clothes are my worst extravagance and costume jewelry’s my secret sorrow and little cross. I can’t seem to keep from buying it, but I never wear it.”
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| August 37 |
pays no attention to diet. “Why should I? she asks. “I weigh only 113 pounds, and I just love big thick steaks and almost any type of seafood.”
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| August 37 |
Sinclair Lewis is her favorite author, with Charles Dickens running a close second. The essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Elbert Hubbard and Walt Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass” also receive honorable mention for a position among gray-eyed Gloria’s literary loves.
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| August 37 |
she has no pet at the moment but is searching for the right kind of Scotch collie
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| August 37 |
to keep fit, she takes long walks, swims, plays tennis and rides horseback. She likes to go to polo matches, football games and professional tennis matches. Table tennis is her choice for indoor sports.
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| August 37 |
likes violets and gooey desserts, hates prize fights and playing bridge and is looking forward to the time she can afford a mountain lodge. Her favorite color is blue.
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| August 37 |
“It’s a funny thing, I was always afraid when I walked out onto the stage at school. My throat would get dry and my heart would pound like a hammer. I felt as if every one of these faces that made up the white blur beyond the footlights was just waiting to criticize me. Then, suddenly, it would all change. I’d start speaking my liens and I’d forget about the people. The next thing I’d notice would be the applause. It always seems to break over me like a golden wave.”
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| 20 September 37 |
still prefers her real name over her stage name
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| 37 |
Gloria’s is the first natural color photo to be transmitted by International News Pictures from Hollywood to the East Coast
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| October 37 |
receives film offers from many studios, but Jack Warner won’t consent. He agrees to her appearing on the New York stage in Wise Tomorrow. The praise she receives from critics and the patrons is one of the highlights of her life.
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| Winter 38 |
returns to Hollywood with high hopes for her career
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| 38 |
makes four B films
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| June 38 |
marries Westmore. They have a lot in common, including the love of the great outdoors.
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| 38 |
Westmore, a notorious womanizer and partygoer, is very controlling and jealous. He insists Gloria have her nose reconstructed with plastic surgery in hopes of her getting femme fatale roles; it drastically changes her looks. Although she complies with his requests, she does not share his visions for her career, and their marriage is a rocky one. One of Westmore’s bad habits, heavy drinking, is picked up by Gloria.
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| 39 |
makes six films for Warner Brothers
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| 38 / 39 |
The House of Westmore hosts its annual lavish Christmas party for employees and their family members. Perc dances with Ola Hall. The two are in love; Ola will become his fourth wife. Gloria suddenly smashes her highball glass and rams the sharp edges into Perc’s face. Blood pours down his cheeks.
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| 1 April 39 |
she and Perc are aboard the Warner Brothers Special. It carries Warner Brothers stars and contract players to Dodge City, Kansas, for the premiere of Warner’s Dodge City.
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| Early 40 |
with her career going nowhere, she leaves Warner Brothers
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| Early 40s |
her turbulent private life and drinking take a toll on her looks. She has gained weight and looks much older than her years.
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| February 40 |
travels cross-country and stops off in Utah to see an old friend, actor-singer Cliff Edwards. Perc reports her as missing, and this makes newspapers headlines. Gloria claims her husband knew of her whereabouts the entire time, and it was just a publicity stunt.
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| April 40 |
begins production of I Want a Divorce and is romantically linked with the film’s director, Ralph Murphy, who is twenty-two years her senior
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| June 40 |
divorces Westmore
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| April 41 |
This Thing Called Love is released. The film is condemned by the Legion of Decency and is banned in several countries, including Ireland and Australia.
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| 10 October 41 |
marries director Ralph Murphy for the second time. The earlier marriage occurred before her divorce was final.
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| 42-45 |
makes five films, none of which advances her career
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| 42 |
realizes her second marriage is a mistake
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| February 43 |
legally separates from Murphy due to his wandering eye. He is linked to several women, including an actress under his direction, Ann Corio.
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| 44 |
makes one movie and does radio work
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| April 44 |
divorces Murphy on grounds of mental cruelty. During the court proceedings she testifies, "He wouldn’t come home for four or five days at a time. It made it difficult to establish a home at all. He told me he didn’t love me and wasn’t happy."
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| May 44 |
marries William Fitzgerald, who works at MGM, in Acapulco, Mexico. The native Southern Californian is an ex-Marine, former middleweight boxer, and former bodyguard to Jean Harlow. This marriage is her happiest.
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| Summer 44 |
the Fitzgeralds rent a large home in West Hollywood from Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Toler. The hillside house, which overlooks the Sunset Strip, has large windows on the ground floor and small windows upstairs, feet above the ground.
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| 10 April 45 |
fails to keep an appointment with agent Leon Lance to discuss new film work. Lance is not concerned since he knows she has a reputation for tardiness and taking afternoon naps.
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shortly after 2:00 p.m., one of Gloria’s neighbors smells what he thinks to be burning leaves, but he is not alarmed. Two hours later, he sees flames coming from the front of Gloria’s house. He runs to the house and sees flames shooting from the roof. A crowd has gathered. Five fire departments and Gloria’s husband rush to the scene. Unfortunately, it is too late. Fitzgerald tries to enter the house screaming, "My baby’s in there! I have got to get to my baby!" He has to be restrained.
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Gloria’s body is found face down by a bathroom window. An autopsy reveals that she died of asphyxiation from inhalation of flames that seared her lungs. She suffered first- and second-degree burns over her entire body. Her lifeless pet boxer is found a few feet away.
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it is theorized the fire began by an unextinguished cigarette that ignited an overstuffed chair on the main floor, while Gloria napped upstairs. Gloria's dog probably awakened her once the main floor was engulfed. The upstairs windows were too high to reach, and she tried to escape through the small bathroom window, but was overcome with smoke. She may have waited for an hour in the bathroom to be rescued.
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| 11 April 45 |
a visibly upset Emma Dickerson visits the scene of the fire in hopes of finding some of her daughter’s personal possessions. Damage to the house is estimated at $22,500.00.
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| 17 April 45 |
funeral services are held at 2:00 p.m. Internment is at Hollywood Forever Cemetery, Section 2, Lot 18. She rests beneath a shady tree; her marker reads, "Thais A. Dickerson, My Baby, 1917 - 1945."
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| 50 |
working as a long-haul truck driver, William Fitzgerald is arrested for desertion in time of war and serves time in a military brig in Plattsmouth, New Hampshire
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| 51 |
Fitzgerald is dishonorably discharged
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| 55 |
in a Reno ceremony, Fitzgerald marries a woman from Darr, Nebraska. The marriage ends in less than one month when she discovers he has been writing bad checks on her account. The last check, for thirty dollars (payable to Omaha’s Castle Hotel, a known location of prostitution), sends him to the Nebraska State Penitentiary for a five-year sentence.
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| 5 May 58 |
Fitzgerald dies in prison from complications of venereal disease at age 47. His body is unclaimed and he is buried in the prison cemetery.
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Sources:
"Gloria Dickson: We Won’t Forget" by Dan Van Neste in Classic Images, www.findagrave.com, www.nebraskapen.org, www.moviehousehistory.tripod.com, Herald Press, Syracuse Herald, The Oakland Tribune
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Recommended Books:
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Links:
Filmography |
