Taylor Swift and Rebekah Harkness may have been born decades apart, but it seems they shared a talent for dominating the headlines. Little evidence is given in support of this thesis except that the two wrote a song together called ''Giggling With My Feet.''. The Harkness Ballet would eventually have two touring companies, a youth ballet (which taught Patrick Swayze) and its own theater. I just hit the ceiling. 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. 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. Little Betty had a horrific childhood. Equipped with a ludicrous amount of self-confidence, she did something supremely stupid. Rebekah and Bill Harkness had one daughter, Edith. But according to An American Ballet Story. [13], A philanthropist, Harkness supported the Joffrey Ballet for years, as well as the Harkness Ballet Foundation and the William Hale Harkness Foundation. There's something about the family structure that encourages secrets. 314-918-3000. These are facts of which we have already been apprised. 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. $ 12.19. She filled her fish tank with goldfish and Scotch. Or, at least, a leg, half of . Taylor Swift By Cosmopolitan UK, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=90905376. When Harkness planned to put Angels nursery over top of his room, Scevers snapped, Let the little creature die! Unfortunately, he was one of the few people still by Harknesss side when the end came. In addition to her marriage, Harkness also became well known for her personal eccentricities, as well as her contributions to the arts. She all but fired him from his own company, then twisted the knife by taking most of his dancers with her to form her new, solo Harkness Ballet. 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. The family spent summers at Watch Hill, then an old money, old Hollywood enclave overlooking Block Island Sound. She once served them a cake with $10 bills baked into it. Her body had been slowly falling into disrepairthose injections hurt far more than they helpedand she started complaining of a mysterious stomach ailment. This had devastating consequences. 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. 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. The Joffrey dancers who spent the summer at Holiday House loved it. I want to look away, but I just cant. Aerial view the former Holiday House. Rocky Finds His Heart. The story of Rebekah Harkness is way more complicated than Taylor Swift lets on. (Allegedly, it was a cat if it matters.). [14] They divorced in 1965. ''Money can buy anything.'' Harkness other daughter, Edith, died of suicide after many attempts. One critic denounced it as the worst mural ever made. Madame de Pompadour didn't just share King Louis XV's bed, she also shared his power. Her parents packed Rebekah off to finishing school. Watch Hill Harbor By Stephg82988 Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=23370833. 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. A week after her death on June 17, 1982, the mortal remains of Rebekah Harkness were toted home by her older daughter Terry in a Gristede's shopping bag. By 1982, the end was near for Harkness, yet tragically her son Allen wasnt there. [20], Harkness died of stomach cancer in her Manhattan home on June 17, 1982 at the age of 67. When publicizing her ballet, Harkness became notorious for refusing to showcase any of her talented dancers in the promotional photographs. She got thrown off a cruise for swimming nude in the pool and swearing at the crew. If you hear oil and think Russian Oligarch rich, youd be pretty much right. . [19] They divorced in 1977. However, despite our best efforts, we sometimes miss the mark. 1944). Suddenly, Rebekah was a rich widowone of the wealthiest women in America, in fact. She attended finishing school at Fermata in Aiken, South Carolina, from 1929 to 1932, before pursuing advanced instruction in harmonic . 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. ''The others, they just know how to bite.'') Rebekah Semple West was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1915. Salinger had the perfect stories for her music, so one day she disguised herself as a cleaning lady, knocked on his door, then tried to convince him to let her use his fiction. An awning saved her life. In 1947, she married William Hale "Bill" Harkness, an attorney and heir to the Standard Oil fortune of William L. Harkness, which made her one of the wealthiest women in America. By signing up you agree to our User Agreement and Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement. Harkness, fittingly, belonged to an American dynasty. The latest fashion news, beauty coverage, celebrity style, fashion week updates, culture reviews, and videos on Vogue.com. Or, at least, a leg, half of her. Discover Rebekah Harkness, the extravagant woman who inspired Taylor Swifts song the last great american dynasty.. West co-founded G.H. The ashes were placed in a $250,000 jeweled urn made by Salvador Dali. The Harknesses were married for a brief periodjust seven years. In 1947, she married William Hale "Bill" Harkness, an attorney and heir to the Standard Oil fortune of William L. Harkness, which made her one of the wealthiest women in America. All Rights Reserved. [2], After graduating in 1932, she and a group of female friends formed the Bitch Pack, a sub-culture of local debutantes who enjoyed subverting society events, including lacing punchbowls with mineral oil and performing stripteases on banquet tables. Illustrated. No matter what she did or who she tried to pay off, the great American heiress had a terrifyingly short time to live. 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. But why? We were in heaven, said Danish ballerina Lone Isaksen. Rebekah Harkness keeps his personal and love life private. ''Oh, my God,'' said a witness. Surprise, surprise, this phase didnt last long. William Hale Harkness Rebekah Harkness was born in 1915 to a rich, emotionally frigid St. Louis family. [10][11], Later in life, she studied in Fontainebleau, France, with Nadia Boulanger, at the Institut Jaques-Dalcroze in Geneva, and the Mannes College of Music, New York. [4], On October 1, 1947, Harkness married William Hale Harkness (19001954), the son of William Lamon Harkness, both Standard Oil heirs. While Bill Harkness was alive, he and Rebekah threw raucous parties every weekend. Husbands hiding things from wives, mothers from children, and generation from generation. The children were visiting Bill's family and Alfonso had left . The caption read: A young woman with a surprising range of interests, Mrs. Harkness is a sculptor, a musician of professional standing (shes a member of ASCAP), a skier (shell soon off to her chalet in Gstaad with her three children for a holiday), and an active supporter of many charities. Below her in the spread? Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. In her obituary, shes credited with supporting the Joffrey and Jerome Robbins ballet companies. The Robert Joffrey Company summer workshop at Rebekah Harkness' Watch Hill estate in Rhode Island, July 1962. As a sad footnote to the story of Rebekah Harkness is the tragedy of her three children. By James Crowley On 7/24/20 at 12:22 PM EDT. A patron of dance and medicine. Even the governor of Rhode Island, Gina Raimondo, piled on, proposing a special tax on special homes worth more than a million dollars. The critics, especially the New York Times Clive Barnes, savaged Rebekah. Rebekah Harkness, who also went by Betty, was the previous owner of Taylor Swift's Rhode Island home and serves as the inspiration for the third track on her latest album. Taylor Swift's, new song titled 'The Last Great American Dynasty' is about Rebekah Harkness, the scandal-ridden socialite who once owned the Watch Hill, Rhode Island mansion Swift purchased in 2013 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. 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]. AboutPressCopyrightContact. Today its pretty much forgotten, despite the tens of millions of dollars she spent on it. The couple divorced in 1977but Rebekahs life was about to take a much darker turn. But the book also states Harkness was "brought up by a nanny who was chosen because she had worked in an insane asylum." On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. That money can't buy happiness? People already thought she had betrayed Joffrey, but they now watched in horror as she ran her ballet into the ground. Mr. Unger tells us that under the direction of the dancer-choreographer Larry Rhodes the company began to garner critical raves - whereupon Mrs. Harkness fired him. It was shaping up to be a white-picket fence brooduntil, that is, Rebekah proved herself to be an utterly horrific mother. She was brought up by a nanny who was chosen because she had worked in an insane asylum. Shutterstock Advertisement 17. She filled a pool with Champagne. Immediate Needs: $1,500. Historys most fascinating stories and darkest secrets, delivered to your inbox daily. However, a 1988 biography of Harkness titled Blue Blood, written by former New York Magazine editor and Vanity Fair contributor Craig Unger, reveals a much sadder, tragic story. . OthersJerome Robbins and George Balanchine flatly refused to choreograph her musical compositions. To zero peoples surprise, the Harkness family was utterly dysfunctional. Her daughter Terry gave birth to a child who died at age 10. Shop for Rebekah Harkness at Walmart.com. She supported the arts in general, ballet in particular, and she had the wealth with which to do it. Harkness started acting out early in her adolescence, and her antics would put any other mean girl to shame. She even hosted a ballet workshop there for 20 dancers from the Robert Joffrey Company (now known as the Joffrey Ballet) in 1965. 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. Jean Stein and George Plimpton did that brilliantly in ''Edie,'' the biography of poor Edie Sedgwick. Ad Choices, Phil Ohs Best Street Style Photos From the Fall 2023 Shows in Paris, 5 Key Signs That Indicate Youre Going Through Menopause, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Have Been Asked to Leave Their U.K. Home. Picking up a pen was my way of escaping into fantasy, history, and memory, Swift says of the inspiration behind her album, Folklore. 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. [5] Through the Rebekah Harkness Foundation, Harkness sponsored Jerome Robbins and the Joffrey Ballet. But beneath the elegant surface lurked a driven woman tormented by personal demons. She was 67.) ''I can't believe it took her this long to succeed.'') And then in 2020, the houses owner, Taylor Swift, wrote a song about Rebekah Harkness, called The Last Great American Dynasty. Donning a black chiffon Mainbocher dress with a white silk back-tied apron, she flashed a wry smile at the camera. The socialite was born in 1915 to a wealthy family in St. Louis, Missouri. For a time, Rebekah Harkness appeared to be enamored of the passive child, called Angel. 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