Tilden, Gladys, 1900-

Gladys Tilden, daughter of the renowned California sculptor, Douglas Tilden. She served as a business manager, copy editor & editorial assistant at the office of French Vogue, wrote French and German synopses for Paramount Pictures, was a traveling representative for Bonwit-Teller, and free-lanced for Vogue and House and Garden. She also was the first woman managing editor in the engineering department of Douglas Aircraft Company, taught mechanics and edited a variety of other publications.

From the description of Gladys Tilden papers, 1875-1982. (University of California, Berkeley). WorldCat record id: 122501784

Biographical Chronology

• 1900: Born January 5 to the sculptor Douglas Tilden and his wife Elizabeth Delano Cole Tilden. Lived in the Cole's Victorian mansion at 1545 Webster, Oakland.
• 1901: Grandfather, L. G. Cole, dies.
• 1903: Brother, Willoughby Lee, born.
• 1907: Moved to coach house at 1545 Webster.
• 1909: Mother at St. Helena Sanitarium due to nervous breakdown.
• 1917: Moved to Hobart Street near Webster in Oakland.
• 1918: Graduates from Oakland High School. Parents separate. Father moves into studio at 314 Hobart.
• 1918 - 1919 : Attends Heald Business College.
• 1919 - 1922 : After graduating from Heald Business College, works as administrative secretary to William B. Bosley, general counsel to Pacific Gas and Electric Company.
• 1923: Webster Street property in Oakland sold. Moves, with Mother, to Fillmore Street in San Francisco.
• 1924 - 1926 : Office manager for Blyth & Company, investment bankers.
• 1925: Begins attending evening classes at the San Francisco School of Fine Art, studying under Rudolph Schaeffer and Lucien Labaudt.
• 1926 - 1927 : Administrative secretary to James D. Black, vice-president and general manager of San Joaquin Light & Power Company.
• 1927: Leaves March 19 for New York City. Sails to Paris, France on March 31.
• 1927 - 1933 : Obtains position in office of French Vogue, variously as business manager, office manager, copyeditor, editorial assistant to Michel de Brunhoff. Supervises layout, art work, production, and mailings. After departure of de Brunhoff, takes over as managing editor for Vogue's Paris Trade Bulletin under it's various titles. In its pioneer color editions, it is Gladys' handwriting that appears in the final copy, as part of the layout. Travels throughout Europe.
• 1929: Does French and German synopses for Frank Farley of Paramount Pictures.
• 1930: Brother Lee dies.
• 1931: Meets, in Paris, divorcee William Taylor of Philadelphia, who becomes the love of her life.
• 1934 - 1935 : Accepts position as traveling representative for Bonwit-Teller covering all social and style events, buying, reporting, marketing surveys, and fashion lectures.
• 1935: Father dies August 6. Returns to California. In October moves into Father's studio on Channing Way, Berkeley.
• 1936: Continues fashion activities: advertising for City of Paris Dry Goods Company and I. Magnin, and California fashion reports for Vogue and Harpers Bazaar. Coordinates Bay Area fashion show and presents department store fashion lectures. Develops her own fashion segment on radio KYA, with frequent guest appearances on radio KGO. Continues Douglas Tilden's lawsuit against the California School for the Deaf over Bear Hunt, Albert K. Whitton as attorney.
• 1937: Continues free-lancing for Vogue. Helps create About Town, assumes advertising sales.
• 1938: Creates In Person for the H. S. Crocker Company. Continues to report on fashion for various fashion and style publications (Vogue, House and Garden). Writes suede publication and associated advertising for trade.
• 1939: For the H. S. Crocker Company, edits the Golden Gate International Exposition Official Guidebook, and various associated publications (Today at the Fair, brochures, various post cards booklets) including research, copyediting, proofreading, design and layout, supervising production (1st and 2d editions).
• 1940: Moves to Los Angeles. Continues free lance fashion reporting activities, editorial consulting. Becomes advertising and editorial representative for several of her own accounts: Magda Polivanoff, Scully Brothers Suede, Catalina Swimwear.
• 1941: Invents ration chart adopted by Office of Price Administration, and syndicated in coast to coast newspapers during the duration of the war. Staff feature writer, advertising copy and sales, production supervisor for California Stylist and California Men's Stylist. In December buys apartment house at 1868 Greenfield Avenue, Los Angeles.
• 1942 - 1944 : Accepts position as first woman managing editor in the engineering department of Douglas Aircraft Company. In order to understand the material she was editing, attends UCLA's Aviation Ground School and works for four months as assembler. Attends Santa Monica Technical School studying aircraft power plant assembly. Begins teaching aircraft mechanics.
• 1945 - 1948 : Mother in poor health, in and out of Southern California rest homes.
• 1948: Sells Greenfield Avenue property; buys cottage at 434 Veteran Avenue, Los Angeles.
• 1949: Becomes licensed real estate agent. Mother dies. Begins research on father, Douglas Tilden.
• 1951: Sells property on Veterans Avenue; purchases house at 10404 Ruthven Lane in the Westwood area of Los Angeles.
• 1953 - 1954 : Advertising and office management for Paul J. Howard's California Flowerland. Handles rentals for two real estate firms: Cowen & Carls and Philip Norton, Inc.
• 1954: Sublets Ruthven Lane; rents apartment on Wellworth Avenue. Edna Woolman Chase's book, Always in Vogue, published.
• 1955 - 1956 : Begins work for Richard Neutra, architect, managing office and editing manuscripts.
• 1956 - 1957 : Begins work for the UCLA Atomic Energy Project editing manuscripts for publication.
• 1957: Joins research staff of Veterans Administration Hospital, Los Angeles, as an editor. Begins genealogical research.
• 1958: Returns to Berkeley and resides in Hotel Durant.
• 1959 - 1961 : Moves to Sacramento and begins work for the California Youth Authority, Division of Research. Begins serious research in 1961 on Eliza Woodson Farnham, first female matron of Sing Sing Prison, and early feminist.
• 1962 - 1969 : Employed by California Public Utilities Commission, first in Los Angeles office, returning to San Francisco office in 1963. Rents apartment in Berkeley in 1963. Retires from state employment in March of 1969.
• 1973: Meets Mildred Albronda, docent for M. H. De Young Memorial Museum specializing in tours for the hearing impaired, who proposes a brief biographical work on Douglas Tilden.
• 1975: Picks up her own research on Douglas Tilden, languishing since about 1954.
• 1988: Suffering from Alzheimer's disease and unable to care for herself, becomes a ward of Alameda County. Supervision of her affairs assumed by the District Attorney's office.

From the guide to the Gladys Tilden Papers, 1875-1982, (The Bancroft Library.)