In the early 1940's, her mother purchased Rosecliff, a 50-room white marble luxury villa in Newport, valued at $2.7 million. The purchase price at auction was $17,000. Gertrude later assumed ownership.
Sultry vaudevillian and contralto torch singer of Swedish-Russian descent. Famous on the New York stage as burlesque queen in "Follow the Girls", and, on the West Coast, as Lorelei Lee in "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" (1950).