The first film shown at the original Roxy Theatre at 153 W. 50th Street, New York City, was Swanson's The Love of Sunya (1927) in March 1927, and she attended the premiere. At its demolition in 1961 she posed in its ruins as a final farewell.
Was engaged to Marshall Neilan for some time in the 1920s.
Was very close friends with actor Dirk Benedict. She introduced him to macrobiotics. Dirk has said that she was like a mother to him. They met working on the play "Butterflies Are Free," where Swanson played Benedict's mother.
When she died, her book collection was sold to the Gotham Book Mart in New York City. All of the books were concerned with health and nutrition.
Wrote her own autobiography in rebuttal to certain claims made by Rose Kennedy in her 1974 memoirs.