During the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, Swift wrote and recorded a new album called Folklore. Pierce was the descendant of Franklin Pierce, the 14th President of the United States, and seemed like a good match for the ambitious girlexcept really, he was just a starter husband. To zero peoples surprise, the Harkness family was utterly dysfunctional. She dyed chocolate mousse blue. On June 10, 1939, Harkness married Dickson W. Pierce, the son of Thomas M. Pierce. At the same time, she studied music composition and dance. Uh, how sweet? In addition to . 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. Her passion, such as it was, burned itself out quickly, coincidentally with the baby's pulling a ribbon out of her hair. From the outside, Rebekah and William Harknesss marriage looked immaculate. [13], A philanthropist, Harkness supported the Joffrey Ballet for years, as well as the Harkness Ballet Foundation and the William Hale Harkness Foundation. 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. In the art world, the shade International Klein Blue is famous, and was custom-mixed by renowned artist Yves Klein in 1960. . August 22, 1982 (33) Bethesda, Montgomery County, Maryland, United States (Suicide ) Place of Burial: New York, Bronx, NY, United States. Dancer Lawrence Rhodes said it was one of the few times he was embarrassed to be in a ballet. $19.95. When she died in 1982, Harkness had demanded her ashes be put in a $250,000 jeweled Salvador Dal urn. All Rights Reserved. Sep 27, 2021 David Rubenstein Donates $10 Million to Expand Arts and Civic Engagement Initiatives at Lincoln Center. Her son, Allen Pierce, was convicted of murder. She would also fill her lavish fish tanks with Scotch, even as living goldfish swam in them. She is from USA. She is the inspiration behind Taylor Swift's 2020 song "The Last Great American Dynasty". She shoved $5 million into building the Harkness Theater, a lavish studio complete with marble staircases and a chandelier, and it was all for nothing: The company collapsed in 1975. Its here where Rebekah catapulted into high society. TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. She even started a company of her own in 1964: the Harkness Ballet. They had a son, Allen, and a daughter, Terry. He later said his time in prison was the happiest of his life. 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 story of Rebekah Harkness is way more complicated than Taylor Swift lets on. In 1957, Harkness keeled over at Holiday House while sitting for a sculpture Rebekah was working on, dead from a heart attack. No clan is left untouched, and even families that seem happy and normal on. However Jamie has since. Rebekah Harkness was born on 17 April 1915 in St Louis, Missouri, USA. She was brought up by a nanny who was chosen because she had worked in an insane asylum. We were in heaven, said Danish ballerina Lone Isaksen. Did Mommy and Daddy notice? Though Kean consulted with multiple US presidents, he also had big-time mafia ties. Her parents hired a nanny for Harkness specifically because she "had worked in an insane asylum," and then Harkness went to finishing school, where she decided to "do everything bad." Harkness' passions for dance and music followed her into adulthood. She had spent the 1987 equivalent of $38 million on a failed enterprise. She spent a small fortune buying her way into the dance world, surrounding herself with dancers, musicians and choreographers. 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. (You can see a video clip of Salvador Dali and Rebekah Harkness here.). Swift later connects herself to Harkness in the final moments of the song: Holiday House sat quietly on that beach / Free of women with madness, their men and bad habits / And then it was bought by me, Who knows, if I never showed up, what couldve been / There goes the loudest woman this town has ever seen / I had a marvelous time ruining everything, I had a marvelous time ruining everything / A marvelous time ruining everything / A marvelous time / I had a marvelous time, Also in the song, Swift mentions some of Harkness antics. In addition to her dancing career, Harkness also fancied herself something of a composer, and would often perform her original songs to polite reception at famed places like Carnegie Hall in New York. View Rebekah Harkness results including current phone number, address, relatives, background check report, and property record with Whitepages. Half sister of Private; Private and Anne T. McBride. Swift put up No Trespassing signs that they didnt like either. Press photo of Rebekah Harkness in 1966 with two o her Harkness dancers. Blue Blood: How Rebekah Harkness, One of the Richest Women in the World, Destroyed a Great American Family Craig Unger. "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. To revist this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. Shop for Rebekah Harkness at Walmart.com. Their wedding took place at 730 Park Avenue, which was Williams apartment. The pair was horribly mismatched, with Lauersen a whopping 20 years younger than his bride. And about the times she cleaned her pool with Dom Perignon, dyed the neighbors cat green and filled her fish tank with scotch. She died June 17, 1982. Lucky: A Novel (inspired by Taylor Swift's folklore and the incredible true story of Rebekah Harkness): Parro, Kristina: 9781736923320: Amazon.com: Books Books Literature & Fiction Genre Fiction Buy new: $18.01 Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns FREE delivery Saturday, February 4 if you spend $25 on items shipped by Amazon In 1939 she married Dickson Pierce because, she said, she didnt have anything better to do. Fast forward 60 years, and another thin, rich, beautiful white woman bought Holiday House. Jack Mitchell. Swift explains it briefly in a verseHarkness once owned Holiday House, the singers current Watch Hill, Rhode Island, home. So in 1977 she checked into Silver Hill, a rehab clinic in New Canaan, Conn. Lets start from the beginning. It was shaping up to be a white-picket fence brooduntil, that is, Rebekah proved herself to be an utterly horrific mother. 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. Rebekah Harkness, as seen in the December 1956 issue of. I don't want this screaming baby over my room! 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 . New York: William Morrow & Company. [4] Harkness also surrounded herself with other well-known creatives, like yogi B.K.S. (Mr. Scevers has a stunning way of placing himself squarely in the center of every sentence he utters; he appears to believe that Rebekah Harkness's death happened more to him than to her.) Scevers, as it turned out, was a self-identified gay man, and couldnt have been in the relationship for romance. Generous, wasteful, willful, demanding and delusional, she broke with Joffrey to form the Harkness Ballet when he refused to perform the compositions she insisted on writing. She and her friends called themselves the Bitch Pack and disrupted debutante parties. The best new culture, style, and beauty stories from Vogue, delivered to you daily. Equipped with a ludicrous amount of self-confidence, she did something supremely stupid. Materials. She once dressed as a waitress at one of them so she could eavesdrop on the guests. Who is Rebekah Harkness Dating? But behind her perfect faade lies a chilling history. Silver Gelatin. BLUE BLOOD By Craig Unger. Watch the video for "The Last Great American Dynasty": Woytus is St. Louis Magazine's deputy editor, coveringnews and culture. Rebekah Harkness Rebekah Harkness (1915-1982) Rebekah Harkness, born Rebekah Semple West, was one of the foremost American patrons of dance. Copyright 2022 SLM Media Group. 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. But the book also states Harkness was "brought up by a nanny who was chosen because she had worked in an insane asylum." Illustrated. ''The others, they just know how to bite.'') Her children, not so much. [4], On June 10, 1939, Harkness married Dickson W. Pierce, the son of Thomas M. According to one story, Harknesss adoration for her grandchild vanished almost overnight. 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. Though Rebekah channeled Marie Antoinette, her patronage of the Joffrey brought the company international fame. Anne married Anthony McBride in 1966[1] and had a severely brain-damaged baby who died at age 10. But Rebekah made the most of it. After she was widowed, Mrs. Harkness renovated her Rhode Island house; she installed 8 kitchens and 21 baths. [10] In 1947, William Hale married Rebekah Semple West, [11] who was previously married to Dickson Pierce. 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 Husbands hiding things from wives, mothers from children, and generation from generation. In 1956, Harkness burst onto the high society scene after. Clark Gable, Douglas Fairbanks and Andrew Mellon owned homes there. 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. Well, Harkness couldnt bear to be upstaged, so she unceremoniously fired Rhodes and doomed her own precious ballet company in the process. The last great American dynasty, indeed. 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. $ 18.79. 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. The Joffrey dancers who spent the summer at Holiday House loved it. Though Harkness took those nasty testosterone injections to strengthen her body for dance, the medicine actually had the opposite effect. As yet another troubled member of the family, Allen had gotten into a fight, slain a man, and was eventually sentenced with manslaughter. Knowing all this (and much, much more; Mr. Unger withholds no ugly or racy detail), what is it exactly that we have learned? Save money. She was also a composer. [23], An American Ballet Story is an upcoming documentary film directed by Leslie Strait and sponsored by the International Documentary Association. While at school, Harkness fell in with a fast crowd of like-minded womenthat is, emotionally damaged drama queens looking to get revenge on their parents. Guests would find needles in her bathrooms, their walls spattered with blood. (''She walked,'' an acquaintance said, ''like Frankenstein.'') She was brought up by a nanny who was chosen because she had worked in an insane asylum. So what did she do? [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. Her parents packed Rebekah off to finishing school. If a dancer needed dental work or a nose job, she paid for it. I want to look away, but I just cant. From . She once served them a cake with $10 bills baked into it. Rebekahs parents hired one nanny specifically because the woman had worked in an insane asylum before. Family Members. This is a digitized version of an article from The Timess print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. 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. 432 pp. 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. ''Money can buy anything.'' Was she power or pawn? [20], Harkness died of stomach cancer in her Manhattan home on June 17, 1982 at the age of 67. [22] In 2020, Swift wrote the song "The Last Great American Dynasty" for her eighth studio album Folklore (2020), in which she tells Harkness' life story and draws parallels between Harkness highly publicized life and her own. [4], On October 1, 1947, Harkness married William Hale Harkness (19001954), the son of William Lamon Harkness, both Standard Oil heirs. Besides despising Rebekahs children, Scevers also hated her disabled granddaughter Angel. Perhaps most tragically, Rebekahs little granddaughter Angel had passed just before Rebekah herself; she was just 10 years old. Dressed as a waitress at one of them so she could eavesdrop on the guests 21 baths needles in bathrooms. Born on 17 April 1915 in St Louis, Missouri, USA stomach in. Years, and beauty stories from Vogue, delivered to You daily chosen because she spent. 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