Rebekah Harkness was born in 1915 to a rich, emotionally frigid St. Louis family. 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. Swift Identifies with Harkness in her last line, There goes the loudest woman this town has ever seen/ I had a marvelous time ruining everything., The music video that accompanies the song features the beach below Holiday House as Rebekah Harkness would have seen it. She would also fill her lavish fish tanks with Scotch, even as living goldfish swam in them. Rebekah Harkness Net Worth. Maybe. That even the rich must die? But Rebekah made the most of it. According to Scevers, It was complete chaoseverybody running around signing wills and trying on different wigs. And when Rebekah actually passed on June 17, 1982, things only got weirder from there. She rang J. D. Salinger's bell dressed as a cleaning lady, having conceived the harebrained scheme that the reclusive writer's short stories be put to music. The train wreck was now chugging along, and it wouldnt stop until Harkness took her last breath. He later said his time in prison was the happiest of his life. Being a patron of the ballet was Rebekahs passion. And when the time came to put Harkness into the Chalice of Life, the plot thickened. 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. He was in prison. Harkness was jealous to an absolute fault, and even to her own detriment. When they criticized her for getting pudgy, she took up skating and dance, practicing with a fierce discipline. She had a newfound freedom to do whatever she wanted with the piles of money in her bank account. You won't want to miss this episode about the muse for Last Great American Dynasty by Taylor Swift. for scholarships, administrative costs and new set designs. She dyed chocolate mousse blue. AboutPressCopyrightContact. The only problem was that the urn was too small. Upon her death in 1982, Rebekah Harkness was called many things in her New York Times obituary. Even the governor of Rhode Island, Gina Raimondo, piled on, proposing a special tax on special homes worth more than a million dollars. She even started a company of her own in 1964: the Harkness Ballet. Taylor Swift By Cosmopolitan UK, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=90905376. She maintains an online podcast that is available on iTunes or online at http://playerplaza.podbean.com . Harrison notes some of the same lighter-hearted factoids about Harkness from Ungers biography: She was allegedly once kicked off a cruise ship for swimming nude, for example. After his brief interlude in the oasis, Mr. Castelli was made the artistic director of the Harkness Ballet. So, how much is Rebekah Harkness worth at the age of 67 years old? In 1957, Harkness keeled over at Holiday House while sitting for a sculpture Rebekah was working on, dead from a heart attack. Her son Allen says the years he spent in prison were the happiest of his life. When Harkness offered to pay Ella Fitzgerald to sing some of her pop songs, Fitzgerald wouldnt do it. ''Blue Blood'' is edifying only insofar as it raises questions about what a biography should be. For example, he liked to vanity-publish nonsensical books that even he admitted were awful. I just hit the ceiling. Yet like so much of Harknesss life, what seemed beautiful on the outside was rotting on the inside. Romance and heartbreak (and revenge) ballads make up the primary focus of most albums; however, her newest album, Folklore, which debuted today, features a song, titled "The Last Great American Dynasty," about a New England philanthropist and patron of the arts, Rebekah West Harkness. She spent a small fortune buying her way into the dance world, surrounding herself with dancers, musicians and choreographers. 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. Instead, she was reared by a series of nanniesand thats not even the worst part. Her daughter Terry gave birth to a severely retarded and disabled child. This had devastating consequences. Before she passed, the socialite spent $250,000 to commission a bedazzled urn from none other than Salvador Dali. Anyone can read what you share. Silver Gelatin. When she was 10 years old, she did. Illustrated. They had a son, Allen, and a daughter, Terry. A philanthropist. Her body had been slowly falling into disrepairthose injections hurt far more than they helpedand she started complaining of a mysterious stomach ailment. An artist (a descriptor she bestowed upon herself). He had a daughter and a granddaughter who became the actress Elizabeth Montgomery. She got thrown off a cruise for swimming nude in the pool and swearing at the crew. It is possible to write an edifying biography about an unedifying life. (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.'' It might also have been interesting to see how a feminist writer would have assimilated the facts of Rebekah Harkness's sorry life. She used much of her inheritance to become a patron of the ballet, as well as to compose music. As the saying goes, well-behaved women seldom make history. And the dysfunction didnt end there. A ltima dinastia de Rebekah Harkness famosa e problemtica socialite que inspirou a faixa 3 de "Folklore", lbum de Taylor Swift | by ana guelere | Hello Band | Medium Write Sign up Sign In. Harkness' obsession with dance began when she first took ballet classes as a teenager. In 1957, Harkness keeled over at Holiday House while sitting for a sculpture Rebekah was working on, dead from a heart attack. [20], Harkness died of stomach cancer in her Manhattan home on June 17, 1982 at the age of 67. She had a marvelous time ruining everything, Swift crooned. See the article in its original context from. For what its worth, Allen called the years he spent in the clinkerand away from his motherthe happiest of his life.. She hoped that the fourth time would be the charm, but the socialite had no such luck. Vogue may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. Swift gave all her friends matching red-white-and-blue onesies. In 1974, Harkness married again, this time to another doctor named Niels H. Lauersen. And then in 2020, the houses owner, Taylor Swift, wrote a song about Rebekah Harkness, called The Last Great American Dynasty. 432 pp. 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. The best revenge might be living well, but that doesn't mean we can always turn the other cheek. Though Kean consulted with multiple US presidents, he also had big-time mafia ties. 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. Immediate Family: Daughter of Bill Harkness and Rebekah Semple Harkness. In 1939 she married Dickson Pierce because, she said, she didnt have anything better to do. 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. Walker & Co. with George Herbert Walker, grandfather and great-grandfather of the Bush presidents. Suddenly, Rebekah was a rich widowone of the wealthiest women in America, in fact. Her reason was chilling. 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. All Rights Reserved. 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. The couple divorced in 1977but Rebekahs life was about to take a much darker turn. Rebekah Harkness' antics annoyed her neighbors, while Jesus' antics got him murdered by the state and by some religious leaders. Rebekah Harkness, as seen in the December 1956 issue of. She stole a neighbors dog and dyed it key lime green. Oh my God, the question here is: What didnt she do? The critics, especially the New York Times Clive Barnes, savaged Rebekah. To zero peoples surprise, the Harkness family was utterly dysfunctional. The children were visiting Bill's family and Alfonso had left . Is there a chic way to go? One day, Rebekah would find out that question for herself. Money cant buy sense, and apparently Harknesss designer urn was far too small for her actual remains. One could almost feel sorry for her. In 2020, Swift then penned the song the last great american dynasty, which tells Harknesss twisted story for the world. Reviewers agreed he was one of the companys only shining lights. Its estimated she spent the 2020 equivalent of $86 million on the endeavor. Harkness pulled this prank at her own sisters debutante ball. Without any real studio space, her dancers often practiced on her front lawn. Eolia was one of their seven homes and reputed . [2][4] During her final days, Harkness began to reconcile with her children. Lets just, The Truth Always Comes Out: Dark Family Secrets Exposed, Entrancing Facts About Madame de Pompadour, France's Most Powerful Mistress, Fortunate Facts About Nepo Babies, The Stars Of The Silver Spoon, Flamboyant Facts About Bugsy Siegel, The Wiseguy Who Built Vegas, Licentious Facts About Marie-Louise OMurphy, King Louis XVs Little Mistress, Explosive Facts About Aaron Carter, The Doomed Child Star. She filled her fish tank with goldfish and Scotch. During the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, Swift wrote and recorded a new album called Folklore. This week, Taylor Swift showed the world what shes been working on during quarantine: a new album, Folklore, which the singer-songwriter released late Thursday evening. And yes, diving into Harknesss outrageous, gilded life is indeed a journey through a past era. Reportedly, she wanted these updates so that she could see as little of her children as possible. 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. Rebekah Harkness and her Harkness Ballet Company photographed at her estate in Watch Hill, R.I., 1964. 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. Then she stole most of the Joffrey dancers for her own ballet company the Harkness. Rebekah Harkness. $ 25.93. According to one story, Harknesss adoration for her grandchild vanished almost overnight. 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 . Blue Blood: How Rebekah Harkness, One of the Richest Women in the World, Destroyed a Great American Family Craig Unger. Aerial view the former Holiday House. But why? 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. ''Oh, my God,'' said a witness. 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. 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]. 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. Craig Unger tries to stipulate that Rebekah, who died in 1982 at the age of 67, was an interesting person. Born April 17, 1915 Died June 17, 1982 (67) Showcase yourself on IMDbPro Add to list Credits Rebekah West Harkness (April 17, 1915 June 17, 1982) also known as Betty Harkness, was an American composer, sculptor, dance patron, and philanthropist who founded the Harkness Ballet. Rebekah Harkness, composer, sculptor, dance patron, and philanthropist who founded the Harkness Ballet, photographed in her office in 1964. 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. She was born April 17, 1915 to a wealthy St. Louis stockbroker Allen Tarwater West and his trophy wife Rebekah. Wife of Private. Rebekah died on 17 June 1982 in Manhattan, New York, USA. Harkness' passions for dance and music followed her into adulthood. 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. Or, at least, a leg, half of her. She even hosted a ballet workshop there for 20 dancers from the Robert Joffrey Company (now known as the Joffrey Ballet) in 1965. 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. But the book also states Harkness was "brought up by a nanny who was chosen because she had worked in an insane asylum." Rebekah Harkness was born on 17 April 1915 in St Louis, Missouri, USA. And about the times she cleaned her pool with Dom Perignon, dyed the neighbors cat green and filled her fish tank with scotch. Her grandfather founded the St. Louis Union Trust Company. OthersJerome Robbins and George Balanchine flatly refused to choreograph her musical compositions. The ashes were placed in a $250,000 jeweled urn made by Salvador Dali. She brought her Squad musician, actor and model friends to the mansion for Fourth of July Taymerica parties. . Heiress, Socialite, Model, Edith was the only child of William Hale Harkness and Rebekah West. [9][14] Following the divorce, Harkness gained custody of both children. 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. The last great American dynasty, indeed. Her voice grew husky and her muscles calcified. 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. Calling all Swifties and History Nerds! Unfit for mothering, unfit for ordinary love, unfit - untrained - to be the caretaker of a great fortune, was she altogether silly or altogether bad? Want to share other feedback? The socialite was born in 1915 to a wealthy family in St. Louis, Missouri. Hey, all publicity is good publicityand Rebekahs need to be in the spotlight soon grew to disturbing proportions. Not long after Rebekahs passing, her daughter Edith finally managed to succeed in her attempts. It makes no sense - and no sense is made of it. [12] Pierce. When Joffrey refused to perform the schlock, Rebekahs revenge was brutal. They bought Eolia from Mary's sister and her brother-in-law, Jessie Stillman and William Taylor in 1907. (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. She blew through her fortune on the boys and the ballet. (Harkness was an avid patron of the arts and founded her own company, Harkness Ballet. Category 1960s Pop Art Black and White Photography. Well, Harkness couldnt bear to be upstaged, so she unceremoniously fired Rhodes and doomed her own precious ballet company in the process. Ugh. She traveled a lot. For all her money, Harkness did not have good taste. It was the second marriage for both of them. Rebekah Harkness had ambition and drive. [21], Harkness' "Holiday House" in Watch Hill, Rhode Island was acquired in 2013 by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift. This is where Rebekah really started getting a tarnished reputation, and things got so bad that no amount of money could fix her downfall. Franklin Pierces three children died before reaching adulthood. Where Harkness had her Bitch Pack, Swifts group of friends had a much-scrutinized squad. Unfortunately for Rebekah, the endeavour ended in national embarrassment and disaster. She insisted that it perform ballets to scores she had written. In her obituary, shes credited with supporting the Joffrey and Jerome Robbins ballet companies. Half sister of Private; Private and Anne T. McBride. A philanthropist. REBEKAH HARKNESS earned a bachelor's degree in psychology and a master's degree in social work from the University of Utah. So what did she do? Live better [5] Through the Rebekah Harkness Foundation, Harkness sponsored Jerome Robbins and the Joffrey Ballet. But according to An American Ballet Story. rebekah harkness children. Just after 1966, Harkness became a grandmother when her daughter Terry gave birth to a little girl. Wealthy, elegant, and beautiful, Harkness seemed to have it allfrom her oil baron husband to her notoriously raucous parties. 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. This arrangement effectively kept her from having to see her three children on anything like a regular basis, theNew York Timescommented. That marriage lasted three years. So in 1977 she checked into Silver Hill, a rehab clinic in New Canaan, Conn. The answer is more complicated than Swifts song reveals. This introduction developed into a deep love for the art form and created a desire to impact the dance community in several different facets. Ironically nicknamed The Chalice of Life, the morbid monument stood right at the intersection between tacky and lavish, just like Rebekah herself. Even Harkness, who had been a somewhat disinterested mother, began spending time with the children. (Allegedly, it was a cat if it matters.). It donated Harkness Tower at Yale, Harkness Commons at Harvard and Harkness Pavilion at New York Hospital. On June 10, 1939, Harkness married Dickson W. Pierce, the son of Thomas M. Pierce. Dancy Mason is the Editor-in-Chief at Factinate. 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. For a time, Rebekah Harkness appeared to be enamored of the passive child, called Angel. She soon became the owner of a vast number of properties, and indulged in many luxuries. These are facts of which we have already been apprised. They dubbed themselves the [W]itch Pack and, after graduating in 1932, set about trying to wreak havoc on the socialite scene, one gala at a time. Rebekahs son Allen once confessed how truly disturbing and sycophantic his mothers social circle was, describing the blackmailing lawyers, the weirdos, the people in the trances. Harkness also knew how to keep all of her adoring public in competition with each other, with each one of her lackies vying to become the favorite. Before her passing, she picked up her most dedicatedand most heartlessfan yet. I want to look away, but I just cant. It was shaping up to be a white-picket fence brooduntil, that is, Rebekah proved herself to be an utterly horrific mother. 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. One of Harknesss final acts in her role as ballet maestro was also her most embarrassing. Why? The Harkness Ballet would eventually have two touring companies, a youth ballet (which taught Patrick Swayze) and its own theater. Now, a grown woman can do whatever she wants in her own bed, but this was a strange choiceand not because of the age gap. 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. All the essentials: top fashion stories, editors picks, and celebrity style. Soon Clive Barnes was writing that the Harkness Ballet had ''descended beyond the necessity of serious consideration,'' and in 1975 it folded. A New York Times article described Harkness's unusual upbringing. . The Harkness Foundation for Dance still exists. [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. She retaliated by dying a neighbors cat green. At the very end, according to Bobby Scevers, as she lay dying of cancer, ''It was complete chaos. I knew of two other Harkness children and supposed that they belonged to the first marriage but now I know they were Rebekah's children by Allen . The music video featured the beach and the waves from the house, just as Rebekah Harkness would have seen it. ''So absurd,'' Mr. Scevers pronounced. ''Kiss me,'' she commanded. Mary and Edward Harkness - The Harknesses at Eolia. 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. People called it the Taylor Swift Tax, though it never became law. Rebekah Semple West was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1915. Perhaps most tragically, Rebekahs little granddaughter Angel had passed just before Rebekah herself; she was just 10 years old. 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. Like this story? He left her $75 million (about $720 million in todays money), and she blew through it with a vengeance. Then in 1947, she married Standard Oil heir William Hale Harkness, who brought her into the serious money class. Image courtesy Holiday House, Courtesy Google, Maxar Technologies. [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. Fast forward 60 years, and another thin, rich, beautiful white woman bought Holiday House. She hired Salvador Dali to design sets. Reportedly, the rest of her remains were placed in a Gristedes bag. In its day, the Harkness would train more professional dancers than any other company. Though her children Edith and Terry rushed to her bedside along with her lover Bobby Scevers, the scene was anything but heart-warming. 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. New York: William Morrow & Company. Mary took a portion of the estate to start Camp Harkness in 1920 for children with polio. Watch Hill Harbor By Stephg82988 Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=23370833. Was she power or pawn? Her net worth has been growing significantly in 2021-2022. Rebekahs parents hired one nanny specifically because the woman had worked in an insane asylum before. She gave them weekends off and charge accounts to the shops in town. 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. Our editors are instructed to fact check thoroughly, including finding at least three references for each fact. 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A deep love for the art form and created a desire to impact the dance community in different!, well-behaved women seldom make history into disrepairthose injections hurt far more they... For last Great American Dynasty by Taylor Swift by Cosmopolitan UK, CC by,... Updates so that she could see as little of her 9 ] [ 14 ] the! Charge accounts to the mansion for Fourth of July Taymerica parties is, Rebekah Harkness would have the... Money in her role as ballet maestro was also her most embarrassing Harkness offered to pay Ella to. Harkness Pavilion at New York Times Clive Barnes, savaged Rebekah fancy finishing school friends themselves! Director of the passive child, called Angel from products that are purchased through our site as of... Son, Allen, and indulged in many luxuries into Silver Hill, a,... Of money in her bank account her front lawn Tower at Yale, Harkness died of stomach cancer her. Courtesy Google, Maxar Technologies Rebekahs passion i want to miss this episode about the Times she cleaned her with... What didnt she do what a biography should be what seemed beautiful on ballet. Cancer in her New York Times obituary horrific mother born on 17 April in... Revenge was brutal he had a son, Allen, and it wouldnt stop until Harkness took last... Harkness didnt seem to care that her classmates were people with last names like Roosevelt and Jerome ballet! On different wigs she gave them weekends off and charge accounts to the mansion for Fourth of Taymerica... Ballet companies own in 1964 //commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php? curid=23370833 supporting the Joffrey dancers for grandchild... He later said his time in prison was the second marriage for both of them getting pudgy she... Companies, a rehab clinic in New Canaan, Conn the dance world Destroyed! $ 720 million in todays money ), and indulged in many luxuries for the world, a...