St. Louis, MO 63119 It bought her the services of George Skibine, Marjorie Tallchief, Alvin Ailey, Erik Bruhn and Andy Warhol, but it did not guarantee her success. Do you question the accuracy of a fact you just read? [1] Before their divorce in 1946, they had two children; Allen Pierce (b. It was shaping up to be a white-picket fence brooduntil, that is, Rebekah proved herself to be an utterly horrific mother. [5] Through the Rebekah Harkness Foundation, Harkness sponsored Jerome Robbins and the Joffrey Ballet. As a sad footnote to the story of Rebekah Harkness is the tragedy of her three children. She had a marvelous time ruining everything, Swift crooned. Who is Rebekah Harkness Dating? (No such record could be found, but the famous Surrealist artist did design the $250,000 jewel-studded urn that held herashes. Jean Stein and George Plimpton did that brilliantly in ''Edie,'' the biography of poor Edie Sedgwick. It makes no sense - and no sense is made of it. Silver Gelatin. Before joining the team, she worked as a course lecturer while completing her Ph.D. in English Literature. And yes, diving into Harknesss outrageous, gilded life is indeed a journey through a past era. Rebekah Harkness was born in 1915 to a rich, emotionally frigid St. Louis family. She traveled a lot. Bill adored the child, as he did his stepchildren, whom he treated as if they were his own. It was the second marriage for both of them. Join thousands of others and start your morning with our Fact Of The Day newsletter. Thanks for your time! This story was updated in 2022. [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. Harkness had three husbands. She believed in reincarnation. Not really. 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. The train wreck was now chugging along, and it wouldnt stop until Harkness took her last breath. He likes to talk about blowing people away. William Hale Harkness After his brief interlude in the oasis, Mr. Castelli was made the artistic director of the Harkness Ballet. How should she do it? She wondered. . 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. $ 25.93. $ 18.79. ''So absurd,'' Mr. Scevers pronounced. She developed an addiction to injections of B-vitamins, painkillers and testosterone. As it turned out, this was the beginning of her ignominious end. Dancy Mason is the Editor-in-Chief at Factinate. Madame de Pompadour was the alluring chief mistress of King Louis XV, but few people know her dark historyor the chilling secret shared by her and Louis. 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. As her own biographer put it, The only reason her works were ever played in public was because she subsidized the performances. Harsh, but true. This had devastating consequences. 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. These are facts of which we have already been apprised. By signing up you agree to our User Agreement and Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement. ''Kiss me,'' she commanded. Blue Blood is the incredible story of almost limitless fortunes squandered completely within one extravagant lifetime. I tried to get my ex-wife served with divorce papers. Sadly, the socialites seemingly bottomless cruelty would soon hit even greater lows. William Morrow & Company, $19.95 (0pp) ISBN 978--688-05081-8 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? 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. Unfortunately for Rebekah, the endeavour ended in national embarrassment and disaster. Several hours later, the top of the urn - called the Chalice of Life - was somehow, by unknown agencies, uncovered. Please let us know if a fact weve published is inaccurate (or even if you just suspect its inaccurate) by reaching out to us at contribute@factinate.com. Her children, not so much. . Oh my God, the question here is: What didnt she do? De . The most famous Pack story from around this time is when, during one particularly boring and respectable soiree, the group decided to spike a punch bowl with laxatives. Only his other flaws were far darker than this silly hobby. She didnt help herself with her capriciousness. It donated Harkness Tower at Yale, Harkness Commons at Harvard and Harkness Pavilion at New York Hospital. Upon the albums release, much of the Internet was thrown into a Who Is Rebekah West Harkness? madness. The Harkness Theater opened in 1974, but by then Rebekah had started to run out of money. 1940) and Anne Terry Pierce (b. Friends who knew Rebekah and William said that although the oil tycoon was a bit of an idiot, the new Mrs. Harkness was actually scared of himand for good reason. Watch Hill Harbor By Stephg82988 Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=23370833. While he was under her employ, she would often order him around romantically. Harkness took up dancing and ice skating to lose weight and was highly disciplined in both endeavors. Harkness had to do everything in styleeven when it came to moving on to the next life. We have estimated Rebekah Harkness's net worth , money, salary, income, and assets. 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. Though her children Edith and Terry rushed to her bedside along with her lover Bobby Scevers, the scene was anything but heart-warming. Throughout the . A philanthropist. 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. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Rebekah Semple West was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1915. The best new culture, style, and beauty stories from Vogue, delivered to you daily. Rebekah Harkness. Blue Blood is a story of tragic proportions. (Watch it here.). 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. And she gave Alvin Ailey his first commission. [12] Calling all Swifties and History Nerds! Latest News on Rebekah Harkness . In addition to her marriage, Harkness also became well known for her personal eccentricities, as well as her contributions to the arts. Her daughter Terry hired Roy Cohn in a (failed) attempt to have her will invalidated. Though Rebekah channeled Marie Antoinette, her patronage of the Joffrey brought the company international fame. She used much of her inheritance to become a patron of the ballet, as well as to compose music. The ashes were placed in a $250,000 jeweled urn made by Salvador Dali. She even started a company of her own in 1964: the Harkness Ballet. She married her second husband, Standard Oil heir William Hale Harkness, in 1947. 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. for scholarships, administrative costs and new set designs. Though Kean consulted with multiple US presidents, he also had big-time mafia ties. In addition to the three kids she has with Jamie, Rebekah has two children, Megan and Taylor, from previous relationships. Rarely does singer and songstress Taylor Swift write songs about someone outside her immediate circle. The lovely pair only made it four years before divorcing. He later said his time in prison was the happiest of his life. 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. In 1961, Rebekah Harkness became the sponsor of the late Robert Joffrey's small ballet troupe. 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 . As the most commanding mistress in the French court, she bettered the lives of many and became a beloved figure. Its here where Rebekah catapulted into high society. Extravagant Facts About Barbara Hutton, The Poor Little Rich Girl, Tragic Facts About Catherine of Aragon, Henry VIIIs First Wife, Wild Facts About Howard Hughes, The Most Eccentric Man In Hollywood, These Cruel Teachers Are The Stuff Of Student Nightmares, These Bad Dates Are Straight Out Of Our Nightmares. "Anne Pierce, 1962 Debutante, Married to Anthony McBride", "Rebekah West Harkness, 67, Patron of Dance and Medicine", "Harkness, Rebekah (19151982) | Encyclopedia.com", "Harkness Ballet Takes the Bid Step to Broadway", "Patrician of the Dance; Rebekah West Harkness", "The Dance: Rebekah Harkness Ballet Goes Dutch; Madrigalesco' Given American Premiere 3 Other Works Offered as Troupe Returns", "Harkness House Opened as Home For Ballet Arts; Lynda Johnson Attends -- City s Medal Given To Woman Donor", "The Humble Beginnings Of an Elegant Mansion", "The story of Rebekah Harkness is way more complicated than Taylor Swift lets on", "Miss Edith H. Harkness Wed To Kenneth Mckinnon, Lawyer", "Benjamin H. Kean, Shah's Physician, Dies at 81", "Notes on People; Gov. She went to Fermata, a. Love and Empowerment. She retaliated by dying a neighbors cat green. (Her reasoning was thus: I hope the beauty of Harkness House will persuade some of these people that ballet need not be dingy and that by their patronage they are contributing to the splendid and glamorous.) Yet disagreements over artistic direction led to the companys disbanding in 1970. So did the ballet dancers practicing on her lawn. Though Rebekah grew up in a wealthy St. Louis family, her social status was elevated when, after her first divorce, she married William. Want to tell us to write facts on a topic? 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. This is where Rebekah really started getting a tarnished reputation, and things got so bad that no amount of money could fix her downfall. For a time, Rebekah Harkness appeared to be enamored of the passive child, called Angel. A philanthropist. Rebekah was born in 1915 to Allen and Rebekah West in St. Louis, Missouri. If you hear oil and think Russian Oligarch rich, youd be pretty much right. Taylor Swift tells the story of "The Last Great American Dynasty" in her Folklore track about one of the wealthiest women in America, Rebekah West Harkness. In 1962 she turned her Rhode Island estate, Holiday House, into a summer dance camp for the entire Joffrey Ballet company. Much of their marriage dynamic was about his domineering presence setting her on the straight and narrow. After that, Rebekah really let it all hang out. Once she pretended to be a cleaning woman and approached the reclusive J.D. She thirsted for acclaim as a composer, a dancer and an arts patron, but her thirst for booze and pills undid her. 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. In 1954, something curious happened to Rebekah Harkness: Her oil tycoon husband passed. Not just going to performances, but sponsoring entire ballet companies, buying up real estate for them and sending them on world tours. I don't want this screaming baby over my room! Because of her misused muscles and her extravagant dependence on testosterone, Harkness began to lose her dancers elegance. Her daughter Terry gave birth to a severely retarded and disabled child. Reportedly, the baby Angel innocently pulled a ribbon from Harknesss perfectly coifed hair. First, a brief biography: Born Rebekah Semple West in St. Louis in 1915, Harkness was a divorce whose second marriage was to Standard Oil heir William Hale Harkness. Rebekah West Harkness (April 17, 1915 - June 17, 1982) also known as Betty Harkness, was an American composer, socialite, sculptor, dance patron, and philanthropist who founded the Harkness Ballet. Instead, she was reared by a series of nanniesand thats not even the worst part. But why? Rebekah Harkness Photo: Jack Mitchell/Getty Images. (You can see a video clip of Salvador Dali and Rebekah Harkness here.). See the article in its original context from. Oh, but they had more tricks up their perfectly-tailored sleeves. Reportedly, she wanted these updates so that she could see as little of her children as possible. Yet while there, Harkness gave new meaning to the word prima donna. The socialite, fancying herself a dance expert, started writing her own ballets. Harkness, fittingly, belonged to an American dynasty. This introduction developed into a deep love for the art form and created a desire to impact the dance community in several different facets. Lets start from the beginning. She applied herself with a rigid, frightening discipline that would become her trademark later in life. She gave them weekends off and charge accounts to the shops in town. $ 12.19. At Factinate, were dedicated to getting things right. Though the Harkness Ballet was floundering, there was one brilliant choreographer, Larry Rhodes, who received good press. Her daughter Edith jumped off roofs, swallowed pills and managed not to kill herself. As well see, Rebekahs love only devolved from there. [9] [14] Following the divorce, Harkness gained custody of both children. However, the connection between the two women, despite being eras apart, may go beyond mere real estate. If Harknesss lovers are anything to go by, she was a wildcat in the bedroom. 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