Being a patron of the ballet was Rebekahs passion. Throughout the . See, Rebekah thought that notoriously reclusive writer J.D. Thanks for your time! Rebekah Harkness, as seen in the December 1956 issue of. Hey, all publicity is good publicityand Rebekahs need to be in the spotlight soon grew to disturbing proportions. Rebekah was previously married to Niels H. Lauersen, Benjamin Harrison Kean, William Hale Harkness and Dickson W. Pierce. In 1956, Harkness burst onto the high society scene after. Rebekah Semple West was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1915. Images: Harkness Tower Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1653891. According to her biographer, Craig Unger, Rebekah Harkness led a life littered with high Gothic tragedy. She was a poor little rich girl, and by the end of her life, she wasnt that rich. When she was still desperately clinging to her ballet dreams, Harkness decided to install an enormous, blue plastic Geodesic dome right smack dab in the middle of her front lawn as a formal practice space for her failing dancers. Their marriage produced one child: Edith Harkness and their marriage lasted harmoniously for 7 years when William Hale Harkness died 1 October 1954 leaving his entire fortune, that included a major share of Standard Oil, to Rebekah to do with as she pleased. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. 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. '', 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. Ironically nicknamed The Chalice of Life, the morbid monument stood right at the intersection between tacky and lavish, just like Rebekah herself. She insisted that it perform ballets to scores she had written. 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. As she aged, Rebekah started to live off of champagne and injections, including testosterone and an assortment of pain medications. Before she passed, the socialite spent $250,000 to commission a bedazzled urn from none other than Salvador Dali. Sadly, the socialites seemingly bottomless cruelty would soon hit even greater lows. Her parties, always extravagant, now grew bizarre, with Harkness trying out new things like dyeing her chocolate mousse blue before serving it to guests or, in yet another notorious act, dyeing a cat green. 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? In its day, the Harkness would train more professional dancers than any other company. She was 67.) Aw, how sweet. An avid dance enthusiast who had studied ballet and Spanish dance, her second marriage - to Standard Oil heir William Hale Harkness - made her one of the wealthiest women in America. In 1939 she married Dickson Pierce because, she said, she didnt have anything better to do. An artist (a descriptor she bestowed upon herself). Babe Paley, one of Truman Capotes swans. People called it the Taylor Swift Tax, though it never became law. Her marriage to William Hale Bill Harkness, an attorney and heir to the Standard Oil fortune of William L. Hark The Remarkable Tale of Grace Kellys Two Engagement Rings, The Prince and Princess of Wales Have a Rare PDA Moment at the BAFTAs, Emma Mackey on Channelling the Spirit of Emily Bront for Frances OConnors Not-Quite-Biopic, How Carolyn Bessette-Kennedys Favorite Prada Bag Became a Forever Classic, My Surreal Years Tutoring the Children of the Super-Rich. One day, Harknesss antics were so extreme that they got her kicked off a cruise ship. While he was under her employ, she would often order him around romantically. For one, her emotionally frigid parents wanted absolutely nothing to do with raising her. She is the inspiration behind Taylor Swift's 2020 song "The Last Great American Dynasty". She was brought up by a nanny who was chosen because she had worked in an insane asylum. She attended finishing school at Fermata in Aiken, South Carolina, from 1929 to 1932, before pursuing advanced instruction in harmonic . Instead, she put herself front and center, natch, and the pictures were often just of her doing lift after lift and living out her Dirty Dancing dreams. Harkness later admitted that she married the poor schmuck because she had nothing else to do. In fact, Rebekah had a much loftierand extravagantdestiny in mind for herself. 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.'' It was the second marriage for both of them. It was not part of the Harkness Ballet, Harkness House or the Rebekah Harkness Foundation. The music video featured the beach and the waves from the house, just as Rebekah Harkness would have seen it. She said she married her first, photographer Dickson Pierce, because she had nothing else to do. No surprise, that union ended in divorce. Rebekah's younger daughter Edith, a failed suicide who had spent many years in mental institutions, took only her mother's pills: Seconal, Nembutal, Valium, Haldol, Librium and various painkillers - 40 vials in all. Did Mommy and Daddy notice? And she was just getting started. One sometimes wonders if the point of all these poor-little-rich-girl/boy biographies is to lull the rest of us into a false sense of security: She is so unlike us that we are not encouraged to reflect upon our own mortality, the contemplation of which is a healthy and necessary exercise. [4] Harkness also surrounded herself with other well-known creatives, like yogi B.K.S. William Morrow & Company, $19.95 (0pp) ISBN 978--688-05081-8 In her obituary, shes credited with supporting the Joffrey and Jerome Robbins ballet companies. The family looked immaculate from the outsidebehind closed doors, though, was another story. ''So absurd,'' Mr. Scevers pronounced. Catherine of Aragon was King Henry VIIIs first wife and longest-lasting Queen of England. One of her administrators described how Harkness would come to the office in pink and blue leotards, literally stand on her head, and demand to have serious conversations while she performed her acrobatic work. Rebekah Harkness. Rebekahs daughter Edith was clinically depressed and suicidal for much of her life (wonder why), and spent scores of years in and out of mental institutions following near fatal attempts at self-harm. Then she stole most of the Joffrey dancers for her own ballet company the Harkness. Press photo of Rebekah Harkness in 1966 with two o her Harkness dancers. . The family spent summers at Watch Hill, then an old money, old Hollywood enclave overlooking Block Island Sound. Or, at least, a leg, half of . The answer is more complicated than Swifts song reveals. As yet another troubled member of the family, Allen had gotten into a fight, slain a man, and was eventually sentenced with manslaughter. [1] Before their divorce in 1946, they had two children; Allen Pierce (b. She also bought them an old firehouse in Westerly to practice in, calling it the Harkness Center for the Arts. Socialite circles are infamously tight-lipped about their marriages, but theres almost no doubt that Rebekahs union with Pierce was a dismal affairand one day, she made a disturbing confession. No matter what she did or who she tried to pay off, the great American heiress had a terrifyingly short time to live. All rights reserved. The Joffrey dancers who spent the summer at Holiday House loved it. During the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, Swift wrote and recorded a new album called Folklore. [14] They divorced in 1965. She lost card game bets with Salvador Dal. Though Harkness took those nasty testosterone injections to strengthen her body for dance, the medicine actually had the opposite effect. Harkness, born Rebekah Semple West, grew up amidst splendor in St. Louis as the third and youngest child of Allen Tarwater West, heir to a banking fortune, and Rebekah Semple, daughter of a wealthy merchant. Want to tell us to write facts on a topic? Rebekah also loaded up on art and real estate. She was born April 17, 1915 to a wealthy St. Louis stockbroker Allen Tarwater West and his trophy wife Rebekah. Oh, but they had more tricks up their perfectly-tailored sleeves. REBEKAH HARKNESS earned a bachelor's degree in psychology and a master's degree in social work from the University of Utah. 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. The dancers, choreographers, composers and designers were pioneers and experimenters. 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. See the article in its original context from. Before his death in August 1954, they had one child together; Edith Hale Harkness (19481982). . Rebekah divorced Pierce in 1946 after an excruciating seven-year marriage, and it wasnt long before she set her sights on William Hale Harkness, the heir to the Standard Oil fortune. She dyed chocolate mousse blue. She was also a composer. (You can see a video clip of Salvador Dali and Rebekah Harkness here.). Was she power or pawn? Rebekah and Bill Harkness had one daughter, Edith. If you hear oil and think Russian Oligarch rich, youd be pretty much right. Little Betty had a horrific childhood. Taylor Swift and Rebekah Harkness may have been born decades apart, but it seems they shared a talent for dominating the headlines. Harkness later donated $2 million to the William Hale Harkness Medical Research Building at the New York Hospital and supported medical research on Parkinson's disease. From the outside, Rebekah and William Harknesss marriage looked immaculate. 30 July 2020. Mary and Edward Harkness - The Harknesses at Eolia. The socialite was born in 1915 to a wealthy family in St. Louis, Missouri. In 1954, something curious happened to Rebekah Harkness: Her oil tycoon husband passed. Swift put up No Trespassing signs that they didnt like either. Ugh. Though the Harkness Ballet was floundering, there was one brilliant choreographer, Larry Rhodes, who received good press. Allen Pierce, was convicted of murder after shooting a man in a brawl, her daughter Terry's child was born with brain damage and died at the age of ten and her other daughter Edith died of suicide, following numerous stays at mental health institutions. Meanwhile, the booze and the pills caught up with her. In 1974, Harkness married again, this time to another doctor named Niels H. Lauersen. Oh my God, the question here is: What didnt she do? I don't want this screaming baby over my room! Its estimated she spent the 2020 equivalent of $86 million on the endeavor. She also expanded Holiday House to include eight kitchens, 42 rooms and 21 baths. Everyone advised her to get her affairs in order, but as well soon see, things didnt work out so neatly for Rebekah Harkness in the end. 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. [4], On October 1, 1947, Harkness married William Hale Harkness (19001954), the son of William Lamon Harkness, both Standard Oil heirs. Her passion, such as it was, burned itself out quickly, coincidentally with the baby's pulling a ribbon out of her hair. (Getty) When Taylor Swift released her latest album Folklore, fans were left wondering about the subject of her song 'The Last Great American Dynasty' - Rebekah Harkness.. Was she a fictional character drawn from the depths of Taylor's imagination, or had she once been a living woman with a tale to tell? BOX 191606 [2] Neither parent was involved in the upbringing of the children, leaving them to be raised primarily by nannies. Her daughter Terry gave birth to a child who died at age 10. Much of their marriage dynamic was about his domineering presence setting her on the straight and narrow. Save money. This had devastating consequences. View Full Details. Her wealthy neighbors had other ideas, and scornfully forced her to remove the unsightly object. By 1956, she had even snagged a photo spread in Vogue, appearing in a neat, black Mainbocher dress with a white satin apron at her back. They complained she cared more about the dancers than she cared about them. rebekah harkness children. (Yes, the seaside mansion that was the setting for Taymerica.) Her parents packed Rebekah off to finishing school. Convicted of murder in the second degree, he was behind the bars of a Florida jail. Allen shot and killed a man in a brawl and was charged with second-degree murder, the charge eventually being reduced to manslaughter,[4] with Allen serving a total of eight years. ''Kiss me,'' she commanded. Then in 1947, she married Standard Oil heir William Hale Harkness, who brought her into the serious money class. ''Oh, my God,'' said a witness. According to one story, Harknesss adoration for her grandchild vanished almost overnight. She soon became the owner of a vast number of properties, and indulged in many luxuries. She applied herself with a rigid, frightening discipline that would become her trademark later in life. August 22, 1982 (33) Bethesda, Montgomery County, Maryland, United States (Suicide ) Place of Burial: New York, Bronx, NY, United States. Our editors are instructed to fact check thoroughly, including finding at least three references for each fact. The reason behind this is pure cruelty. We have estimated Rebekah Harkness's net worth , money, salary, income, and assets. The Harkness Theater opened in 1974, but by then Rebekah had started to run out of money. It was shaping up to be a white-picket fence brooduntil, that is, Rebekah proved herself to be an utterly horrific mother. She moved hundreds of thousands of dollars from one bank to another for the pleasure of confusing her accountants. Just after 1966, Harkness became a grandmother when her daughter Terry gave birth to a little girl. 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, She was the second daughter of three children to Allen Tarwater West, a stockbroker and co-founder of G. H. Walker & Co., and Rebekah Cook (ne Semple) West. Born April 17, 1915 Died June 17, 1982 (67) Showcase yourself on IMDbPro Add to list Credits Then a little-known ballet company, they spent the summers practicing and experimenting with new ideas. Obviously, Rebekah was completely out touch with realityso her next move makes sense. In addition to . A patron of dance and medicine. She married her second husband, Standard Oil heir William Hale Harkness, in 1947. Category 1960s Pop Art Black and White Photography. The latest fashion news, beauty coverage, celebrity style, fashion week updates, culture reviews, and videos on Vogue.com. In 2020, Swift then penned the song the last great american dynasty, which tells Harknesss twisted story for the world. And that wasnt the only ill-advised thing she did. She had a salon of sorts. In November of 1977, her son Allen shot a man during a brawl in Miami. De . In 1961, Harkness decided she wanted to become the next great ballet master, so she sponsored actual master Robert Joffreys artisanal ballet troupe. The Harkness family had a reputation for its philanthropy. 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. Its here where Rebekah catapulted into high society. Discover Rebekah Harkness, the extravagant woman who inspired Taylor Swifts song the last great american dynasty.. Shutterstock Advertisement 17. Although William Harkness came from a well-respected family that was supposed to give Rebekah even more of the status she craved, William himself wasa total fool. Dancer Lawrence Rhodes said it was one of the few times he was embarrassed to be in a ballet. Though Kean consulted with multiple US presidents, he also had big-time mafia ties. She had spent the 1987 equivalent of $38 million on a failed enterprise. You won't want to miss this episode about the muse for Last Great American Dynasty by Taylor Swift. Is there a chic way to go? One day, Rebekah would find out that question for herself. When she was 10 years old, she did. Rebekah Harkness was practically destined to become a spoiled little rich girl. Well, Harkness couldnt bear to be upstaged, so she unceremoniously fired Rhodes and doomed her own precious ballet company in the process. Instead, she was reared by a series of nanniesand thats not even the worst part. Her youngest daughter, Edith, had tried to commit suicide at the age of 15 by flinging herself out of a high rise in front of her. Thanks for your help! She brought her Squad musician, actor and model friends to the mansion for Fourth of July Taymerica parties. Though Rebekah grew up in a wealthy St. Louis family, her social status was elevated when, after her first divorce, she married William. But the loud parties caused problems with the neighbors. However, despite our best efforts, we sometimes miss the mark. Tras la muerte de William, Rebekah hered la propiedad y desde el 2013 forma parte del patrimonio de Taylor Swift, quien pag $ 17.5 millones de dlares por la lujosa e histrica mansin. Like this story? Mother of Private. The couple took up residence in an enormous eight -kitchen, 21 -bathroom mansion (an arrangement that "effectively kept her from having to see her three children on anything like a regular. She went to Fermata, a. In a matter of years, her life would go from classy to just plain messy. She stole a neighbors dog and dyed it key lime green. Taylor Swift has once . (I do admit, however, that I'd go a long way to read a sentence like this, spoken by Bertrand Castelli, the co-producer of ''Hair,'' about the time he made love to Rebekah Harkness in her office: ''It was as if we were two camels in the desert who suddenly know that the only way to make an oasis is to really talk sense.'' She even started a company of her own in 1964: the Harkness Ballet. 1944). She once demanded Castelli to, Kiss me. [3] Harkness would also continue to study dance and piano, and studied ballet with Victoria Cassau, who was a student of Anna Pavlova. Parents. As Rebekahs friend said, Just a leg is in there, or maybe half of her head, and an arm. So instead of giving her mother a dignified end, Rebekahs daughter Terry had to carry the rest of her ashes home, bound up loosely in a humble supermarket bag. Want to share other feedback? This arrangement effectively kept her from having to see her three children on anything like a regular basis, theNew York Timescommented. 1940) and Anne Terry Pierce (b. 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. Where Harkness had her Bitch Pack, Swifts group of friends had a much-scrutinized squad. All the extra rooms would give the nannies plenty of space to feed and bathe the babies without Rebekah having to know a thing about it. Surprise, surprise, this phase didnt last long. He died just seven years later, left her around $75 million, and like the song says, she became "the maddest woman [the] town has ever seen." In the most fabulous way possible, of course. Harkness was jealous to an absolute fault, and even to her own detriment. ''Is there a chic way to go?''. Shed had a brief, unhappy marriage to a doctor in the early 1960s. [1] Before their divorce in 1946, they had two children; Allen Pierce (b. Let the little creature die!'' [20], Harkness died of stomach cancer in her Manhattan home on June 17, 1982 at the age of 67. At least once, Harkness and her friends got up on a banquet table and performed a strip tease for the distinguished guests around them. [9] Through the William Hale Harkness Foundation, she sponsored construction of a medical research building at the New York Hospital and supported a number of medical research projects. [4], On June 10, 1939, Harkness married Dickson W. Pierce, the son of Thomas M. The Joffrey had a price to pay for Rebekah Harknesss support. Uh, how sweet? Latest News on Rebekah Harkness . One critic denounced it as the worst mural ever made. Pierce. If that sounds like a recipe for disaster, it really was. 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. Bobby Scevers, Rebekah's lover, 25 years younger than she and a self-declared homosexual, pronounced her children ''the most worthless, selfish, useless creatures I've ever seen.'' Mr. Unger, who records interviews uncritically and unreflectively, does not permit us to know exactly how he feels about his subject. Reportedly, she wanted these updates so that she could see as little of her children as possible. Rebekah Harkness was one of the world's richest women, the Standard Oil heiress and founding patron of the Harkness Ballet. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. Wife of Private. Rebekah Harkness, composer, sculptor, dance patron, and philanthropist who founded the Harkness Ballet, photographed in her office in 1964. . Tag Archives: Rebekah Harkness. She would pay for dancers nose jobs at the drop of a hat, and buy office desks for her administrators that cost months worth of New York rent, a generosity that often made her middle-class secretaries supremely uncomfortablenot that Harkness noticed. (Actually, it was a private My Favorite Murder crossover group, if you care.) For all her money, Harkness did not have good taste. Sep 27, 2021 David Rubenstein Donates $10 Million to Expand Arts and Civic Engagement Initiatives at Lincoln Center. Walker & Co. with George Herbert Walker, grandfather and great-grandfather of the Bush presidents. I just hit the ceiling. They featured fireworks, boat rides and a giant inflatable water slide. . . Harkness' passions for dance and music followed her into adulthood. There she delighted, as she wrote in her scrapbook, in setting out to ''do everything bad. P.O. Guests would find needles in her bathrooms, their walls spattered with blood. Upon her death in 1982, Rebekah Harkness was called many things in her New York Times obituary. Her daughter Terry hired Roy Cohn in a (failed) attempt to have her will invalidated. And the dysfunction didnt end there. So what did she do? As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Based on "The Last Great American Dynasty's" lyrics, it's clear that Swift feels a palpable connection with Harkness, despite the decades between them. When she was still just a young girl, the Harknesses noticed that their Betty was putting on weight, so they signed the pudgy girl up for dance and figure skating lessons to help her shed those unsightly pounds. With that, Rebekahs unconditional love evaporated. Harkness died of cancer at 67 in 1982. . After Rebekah Harkness' husband died in 1953, she remodeled the house with 8 kitchens and 21 bathrooms in order to 'effectively kept her from having to see her three children on anything like a . Now she has one more posthumous title: muse. 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. Styling herself as the life of the party, Harkness did things like throw plates at the ships Filipino orchestra, swim in her birthday suit in full view of other passengers, and send out strings of swears so loudly that the ocean liner eventually had no choice but to send the beautiful, foul-mouthed socialite off the boat. Love and Empowerment. How should she do it? She wondered. (Allegedly, it was a cat if it matters.). BLUE BLOOD By Craig Unger. Wade, teaches a dance school for children and directs 2 dance companies, one providing performing opportunities for children and one for adults. Born in 1915 in St. Louis, Missouri, her father Allen Tarwater was a powerful stockbroker, while her mother, also named Rebekah, was a perfectly turned out trophy wife. The Harkness Foundation for Dance still exists. Calling all Swifties and History Nerds! ''She's escaped. Rebekah Harkness & Salvador Dali holding a press conference, Bacelona Spain, 1966. The caption read: "A young woman with a surprising range of interests, Mrs. Harkness is a sculptor, a musician of professional standing (she's a member of ASCAP), a skier (she'll soon off to her. She filled a pool with Champagne. The train wreck was now chugging along, and it wouldnt stop until Harkness took her last breath. By 1982, the end was near for Harkness, yet tragically her son Allen wasnt there. When Harkness was 24 years old, she decided it was high time to marry, and she chose Dickson W. Pierce, an upper-class photographer, as her first husband. She even started a company of her life would go from classy to just plain messy Swift. Name and money / and the pills caught up with her short time to live off of and! 1939 she married the poor schmuck because she had spent the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic Swift... Center for the world Harkness Foundation and indulged in many luxuries / her saltbox House on the afternoon train it... 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