Almost as soon as William Harkness kicked the bucket, Rebekah turned into one of the most tasteless, gaudy eccentrics the Western hemisphere had ever seen. On June 10, 1939, Harkness married Dickson W. Pierce, the son of Thomas M. Pierce. Rebekah West Harkness also known as Betty Harkness, was an American composer, sculptor, dance patron, and philanthropist who founded the Harkness Ballet. [3] Harkness would also continue to study dance and piano, and studied ballet with Victoria Cassau, who was a student of Anna Pavlova. It was shaping up to be a white-picket fence brooduntil, that is, Rebekah proved herself to be an utterly horrific mother. Your suggestions can be as general or specific as you like, from Life to Compact Cars and Trucks to A Subspecies of Capybara Called Hydrochoerus Isthmius. Well get our writers on it because we want to create articles on the topics youre interested in. [1] Her grandfather founded the St. Louis Union Trust Company. From the outside, Rebekah and William Harknesss marriage looked immaculate. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. The Harkness Foundation for Dance still exists. Is there a chic way to go? One day, Rebekah would find out that question for herself. Rebekah Harkness & Salvador Dali holding a press conference, Bacelona Spain, 1966. She believed in reincarnation. Want to tell us to write facts on a topic? The train wreck was now chugging along, and it wouldnt stop until Harkness took her last breath. View Rebekah Harkness results including current phone number, address, relatives, background check report, and property record with Whitepages. Images: Harkness Tower Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1653891. People already thought she had betrayed Joffrey, but they now watched in horror as she ran her ballet into the ground. She did this in grand - if occasionally Marie Antoinette-ish -style. Following her death, a memorial was held at the family home before Harkness was cremated, and her ashes were placed in a $250,000 spinning urn designed by Salvador Dal, then placed in the Harkness Mausoleum in Woodlawn Cemetery. Though Kean consulted with multiple US presidents, he also had big-time mafia ties. New York: William Morrow & Company. Swift explains it briefly in a verseHarkness once owned Holiday House, the singers current Watch Hill, Rhode Island, home. The Bliss Balance - Create Success, Peace, and Happiness in Your Life. Rebekah Harkness was born on 17 April 1915 in St Louis, Missouri, USA. For a time in the 1950s, socialite Rebekah Harkness was true American royalty. Nine servants and three cooks kept the place running. But most people dont know the most chilling part. [6] When the Joffrey Ballet refused to rename their company in Harkness' honor, she withdrew funding and hired most of the Joffrey dancers to her new company, the Harkness Ballet. With that, Rebekahs unconditional love evaporated. He appears to have been an embarrassing sort of man; he wrote and privately published a book called ''Totem and Topees,'' which he described as a ''conglomeration of uninteresting misinformation,'' and followed that with a book called ''Ho hum, the Fisherman,'' which, he said, did not ''have the excuse even of literary merit.'' She also studied orchestration with Lee Hoiby and received a Doctor of Fine Arts degree from the Franklin Pierce College in Rindge, New Hampshire, in 1968.[12]. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Wife of Private. When Swift bought the house, a local writer for The Day reminded her of the time a body washed up on the beach under her Watch Hill mansion. When Harkness offered to pay Ella Fitzgerald to sing some of her pop songs, Fitzgerald wouldnt do it. Nonetheless, Harkness actually doted on the babe, and for a time it seemed like she was going to be a better granny than she was a mommy. While at her fancy finishing school, Harkness didnt seem to care that her classmates were people with last names like Roosevelt. Instead, she scrawled in her scrapbook that she wanted to do everything bad. Well, she certainly achieved her goal. [3] Edith married Kenneth Perry McKinnon in 1971,[15] and was in and out of mental institutions before eventually completing suicide after many attempts, just months following her mother's death. Besides despising Rebekahs children, Scevers also hated her disabled granddaughter Angel. . After his brief interlude in the oasis, Mr. Castelli was made the artistic director of the Harkness Ballet. This arrangement effectively kept her from having to see her three children on anything like a regular basis. Catherine of Aragon was King Henry VIIIs first wife and longest-lasting Queen of England. One work, Dreams of Glory, had an insipid story about a little boy who dreams of becoming John F. Kennedy. Thomson Asks States to Sue the U.S.", "Out of Prison, Doctor Hopes to Regenerate His Lost Fame", "Taylor Swift is buying into a rich Watch Hill tradition", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rebekah_Harkness&oldid=1121521087, Short description is different from Wikidata, Pages using infobox person with multiple spouses, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 12 November 2022, at 18:59. She filled a pool with Champagne. Husbands hiding things from wives, mothers from children, and generation from generation. Send Woytus anemail at awoytus@stlmag.com. Yet its also impossible to avoid drawing parallels between Swift and Harkness. In October 1948, Harkness gave birth to her first child with her second husband, a daughter Edith. At the very end, according to Bobby Scevers, as she lay dying of cancer, ''It was complete chaos. TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. Calling all Swifties and History Nerds! Her parents packed Rebekah off to finishing school. If I report on the demise of the multimillionaire patron of the dance dry-eyed, it is because I am confident in the belief that nothing we say about the dead can prejudice the Defense or tip the Scales of Judgment. ''We were the favorites,'' says a dancer. If that sounds like a recipe for disaster, it really was. (''She walked,'' an acquaintance said, ''like Frankenstein.'') Marina Eglevsky - A Legacy of Dance, Part 1. . Rebekah Harkness Rebekah Harkness (1915-1982) Rebekah Harkness, born Rebekah Semple West, was one of the foremost American patrons of dance. She married her second husband, Standard Oil heir William Hale Harkness, in 1947. Harkness had to do everything in styleeven when it came to moving on to the next life. In 1957, Harkness keeled over at Holiday House while sitting for a sculpture Rebekah was working on, dead from a heart attack. The Joffrey dancers who spent the summer at Holiday House loved it. She went to Fermata, a South Carolina finishing school that had sheltered Roosevelts, Biddles and Auchinclosses. Was she power or pawn? See the article in its original context from. ''Money can buy anything.'' [7] In addition to founding the Harkness Ballet, Harkness launched a ballet school and home for the company called Harkness House,[8] as well as a refurbished 1,250-seat theater, which presented the Harkness Ballet and other dance companies to New York audiences. Rebekah Harkness Photo: Jack Mitchell/Getty Images. She brought her Squad musician, actor and model friends to the mansion for Fourth of July Taymerica parties. One song, The Last Great American Dynasty, is about Rebekah Harkness. In 2020, Swift then penned the song the last great american dynasty, which tells Harknesss twisted story for the world. $ 25.93. She gave the dancers everything they needed and then some. (You can see a video clip of Salvador Dali and Rebekah Harkness here.). Taylor Swift and Rebekah Harkness may have been born decades apart, but it seems they shared a talent for dominating the headlines. Guests would find needles in her bathrooms, their walls spattered with blood. . The answer is more complicated than Swifts song reveals. Just after 1966, Harkness became a grandmother when her daughter Terry gave birth to a little girl. He was in prison. Rebekah Harkness was a 1900s socialite and it is a crazy story that includes the entire Harkness family from her ancestors to her four husbands to her children. Rebekah rode up on the afternoon train, it was sunny / Her saltbox house on the coasttookher mind offSt. Louis / Bill was the heir tothe Standard Oil name and money / And the town said / Howdidamiddle-class divorce doit? / The wedding wascharming, if a little gauche / Theres only so far new money goes / They picked out a home and called it Holiday House / Their parties were tasteful, if a little loud / The doctor had told him to settle down / It must have been her fault his heart gave out, And they said / There goes the last great American dynasty / Who knows, if she never showed up, what couldve been / There goes the maddest woman this town has ever seen / She had a marvelous time ruining everything. It might also have been interesting to see how a feminist writer would have assimilated the facts of Rebekah Harkness's sorry life. Upon the albums release, much of the Internet was thrown into a Who Is Rebekah West Harkness? madness. She danced, too, and composed music. Babe Paley, one of Truman Capotes swans. Harkness only left death in her wake wherever she went. Her son Allen says the years he spent in prison were the happiest of his life. Or, at least, a leg, half of . In 1972, she bought an old theater near Lincoln Center and refurbished it on a grand scale as the first theater devoted exclusively to ballet. After two years, Rebekah Harkness suddenly cut her ties to the Joffrey when Robert Joffrey, its founder and choreographer, wouldnt rename his company for her. $19.95. Before his death in August 1954, they had one child together; Edith Hale Harkness (19481982). Taylor Swift bought the former Holiday House in 2013 for a reported $17.75 million in cash. Love and Empowerment. Scevers, as it turned out, was a self-identified gay man, and couldnt have been in the relationship for romance. Rebekah rode up on the afternoon train / It was sunny, Taylor Swift croons in her new song The Last Great American Dynasty. In 3 minutes 51 seconds, Swift tells the story of Harknesss legacy through lyrics. Or, at least, a leg, half of her. Want to share other feedback? The best revenge might be living well, but that doesn't mean we can always turn the other cheek. Blue Blood is a story of tragic proportions. But it is clear that as a spoiled young woman growing up in St. Louis between the wars,. She once demanded Castelli to, Kiss me. They didn't fit: ''Just a leg is in there, or maybe half of her head, and an arm,'' said one of Rebekah's friends. But the result was disastrous. St. Louis, MO 63119 In 1961, Harkness decided she wanted to become the next great ballet master, so she sponsored actual master Robert Joffreys artisanal ballet troupe. Yet like so much of Harknesss life, what seemed beautiful on the outside was rotting on the inside. Born Rebekah Semple West on April 17, 1915, in St. Louis, Missouri; died on June 17, 1982, in New York City, second daughter and one of three children of Allen Tarwater (a stockbroker) and Rebekah Cook (Semple) West; attended Rossman and John Burroughs schools in St. Louis; graduated from Fermata, a finishing school in Aiken, South Carolina, Blue Blood: How Rebekah Harkness, One of the Richest Women in the World, Destroyed a Great American Family Craig Unger. He was not convinced. In 1956, Harkness burst onto the high society scene after. She developed an addiction to injections of B-vitamins, painkillers and testosterone. .more Get A Copy (Allegedly, it was a cat if it matters.). She attended the Rossman School and John Burroughs School in St. Louis, and then the Fermata School for Girls in Aiken, South Carolina, which she graduated from in 1932. Rebekah Harkness keeps his personal and love life private. All Rights Reserved. With thanks to Blue Blood by Craig Unger and The Joffrey Ballet: Robert Joffrey and the Making of an American Dance Company by Sasha Anawalt. September 30, 2013 by knelson. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. Latest News on Rebekah Harkness . (Perhaps this is a tale that inspired the Swift lyric, She had a marvelous time ruining everything.) Fittingly, she and her finishing school friends dubbed themselves the Bitch Pack. Reportedly, she wanted these updates so that she could see as little of her children as possible. When I first saw someone bring up Blue Blood (The story of Rebekah Harkness and how one of the richest families in America descended into drugs, madness, suicide and violence), I was lurking in a Taylor Swift Facebook group. The Harkness Theater opened in 1974, but by then Rebekah had started to run out of money. We are told by Mr. Unger - who is an uncomfortable stranger in the world of the rich, unused to deciphering nuances of caste - that the Harknesses' seven-year marriage was a happy one. https://www.nytimes.com/1988/05/22/books/is-there-a-chic-way-to-go.html. Iyengar[4] and Salvador Dal, who would design her urn upon her death. Her passion, such as it was, burned itself out quickly, coincidentally with the baby's pulling a ribbon out of her hair. The St. Louisborn socialite is the subject of the singer-songwriter's "The Last Great American Dynasty.". Rebekah had already had two children with her first husband, Allen and Anne Terry Pierce, and she then had one more child with William, a daughter named Edith. Her daughter Terry gave birth to a severely retarded and disabled child. ''How should she do it?'' He received a prison sentence of 15 years, but didnt bother to get in touch with his mother. The music video featured the beach and the waves from the house, just as Rebekah Harkness would have seen it. Born April 17, 1915 Died June 17, 1982 (67) Showcase yourself on IMDbPro Add to list Credits Harkness other daughter, Edith, died of suicide after many attempts. Harkness pulled this prank at her own sisters debutante ball. Donning a black chiffon Mainbocher dress with a white silk back-tied apron, she flashed a wry smile at the camera. Little evidence is given in support of this thesis except that the two wrote a song together called ''Giggling With My Feet.''. The Pack didnt stop at putting poisonous substances into punch bowls; they also got very rowdy at these gatherings. She maintains an online podcast that is available on iTunes or online at http://playerplaza.podbean.com . The others, they just know how to bite. Wow, Im getting the sense that these two really liked dirty talk. Her daughter Terry gave birth to a child who died at age 10. 1940) and Anne Terry Pierce (b. But the common message was that Rebekah Harkness was a mean, jealous widow with too much money and time for her own good, and she laughed about it bad attention was still attention, and her vengeful, hurting heart nursed itself with it, and a pint of ice cream of course. [5] Through the Rebekah Harkness Foundation, Harkness sponsored Jerome Robbins and the Joffrey Ballet. ''So absurd,'' Mr. Scevers pronounced. Rebekah Harkness's Net Worth: $1-5 Million Age, Height & Body Measurements Rebekah Harkness has been died on 17 June 1982. The family spent summers at Watch Hill, then an old money, old Hollywood enclave overlooking Block Island Sound. Taylor Swift has once . She loved to pour Dom Perignon into her pool and let guests swim around in the bubbly. She poured money into Harkness House, a dance studio meant to mimic the grandeur of European ballet schools, outfitting it with a marble staircase, silk shades, and a crystal chandelier. She even started a company of her own in 1964: the Harkness Ballet. After she was widowed, Mrs. Harkness renovated her Rhode Island house; she installed 8 kitchens and 21 baths. An awning saved her life. We want our readers to trust us. Tag Archives: Rebekah Harkness. At the end of the song, she suggests a certain satisfaction regardless of the answer: There goes the loudest woman this town has ever seen / I had a marvelous time ruining everything.. In the 1960s, Harkness took Bobby Scevers, a dancer who was 25 years her junior, as her lover. Copyright 2022 SLM Media Group. She began to cut back and look for public funding. Copyright 2023 by Factinate.com. But why? . Swift bought Harknesss Rhode Island Holiday House in 2013 and used the near-palatial estate to throw her own lavish parties, notably her Taymerica July 4th bashes. According to Blue Blood, a book by Craig Unger, Harkness wrote in her scrapbook that at Fermata, she set out do everything bad. An example of her mischievousness? Were always looking for your input! After Rebekah Harkness died in 1982, her daughter Terry took her mother's remains home in a Gristede's shopping bag, according to a story in the New York Times. She dyed a cat green. ''Blue Blood'' is edifying only insofar as it raises questions about what a biography should be. The ashes were placed in a $250,000 jeweled urn made by Salvador Dali. '', This post-mortem mischief was going on at Harkness House, the East 75th Street town house headquarters of the Harkness Ballet Foundation, which Mrs. Harkness had modeled on the St. Petersburg Ballet School. Press photo of Rebekah Harkness in 1966 with two o her Harkness dancers. While he was under her employ, she would often order him around romantically. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions. Not only did her ballet collapse, her whole family did as well. She had a salon of sorts. Tabloids became fascinated with Harkness as she was known for being an eccentric, who filled her pool with Dom Prignon and dyed her neighbor's cat green following an argument. They complained she cared more about the dancers than she cared about them. Swift put up No Trespassing signs that they didnt like either. '', After her divorce from W. Dickson Pierce, an upper-class advertising photographer, she chose for her second husband the Standard Oil heir William Hale Harkness, who enjoyed a lofty social status, as her own family did not. Craig Unger, a former editor at New York magazine, appears to be dazzled by all this, although it is sometimes hard to tell whether his breathlessness arises from approval, disapproval, sadness, awe or simple bewilderment. After that, Rebekah really let it all hang out. One critic denounced it as the worst mural ever made. Well, Rebekah Harkness was not to be outdone by anyone, and she commissioned her own Harkness Blue, which she used to upholster the velvet Louis XIV-style chairs she had placed in her dance studio. Aerial view the former Holiday House. The building, according to Craig Unger, the author of this rich-man/eye-of-the-needle biography, was in a state of putrefaction, ''crumbling like Tara after the Civil War.'' Jack Mitchell. When Joffrey refused to perform the schlock, Rebekahs revenge was brutal. Rebekah Harkness Net Worth. All rights reserved. Let the little creature die!'' It was the second marriage for both of them. Half sister of Private; Private and Anne T. McBride. The children were visiting Bill's family and Alfonso had left . Harkness had quite the life according to The New York Times (opens in new tab) . These are facts of which we have already been apprised. She retaliated by dying a neighbors cat green. She once dressed as a waitress at one of them so she could eavesdrop on the guests. She supported the arts in general, ballet in particular, and she had the wealth with which to do it. Its estimated she spent the 2020 equivalent of $86 million on the endeavor. Might Mrs. Harkness be seen as a casualty of her own doomed and defiled expectations? The 16-track album, Swifts eighth, features a song titled The Last Great American Dynasty, about the late St. Louisbornsocialite Rebekah West Harkness, whom Swift paints as an eccentric. She would also fill her lavish fish tanks with Scotch, even as living goldfish swam in them. The family looked immaculate from the outsidebehind closed doors, though, was another story. In recent years, Harkness has gained new fameor infamybecause of her connection to Taylor Swift. Themes of sexual repression, homoerotic love, tribalism and even the aftermath of rape were explored by some of the most famous choreographers of the time. 44 Rebekah Harkness Pictures Photos and Premium High Res Pictures - Getty Images FILTERS CREATIVE EDITORIAL VIDEO 44 Rebekah Harkness Pictures Premium High Res Photos Browse 44 rebekah harkness pictures stock photos and images available, or start a new search to explore more stock photos and images. Christians have a tendency to do two things when exploring Jesus' death: downplay the role of the state, and interpret Jesus' feud with the Pharisees, in very anti-Semitic terms. [23], An American Ballet Story is an upcoming documentary film directed by Leslie Strait and sponsored by the International Documentary Association. All of the work and much of the music was original. Rebekah Harkness. She once served them a cake with $10 bills baked into it. To zero peoples surprise, the Harkness family was utterly dysfunctional. The two purchased a mansion in Watch Hill, Rhode Island, which they nicknamed Holiday House.

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