11 x 14" vintage silver gelatin photograph of Rebekah Harkness, American composer, sculptor, and. All of the work and much of the music was original. In December 1956, she even appeared in the pages of Vogue. Thanks for your help! [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. When she erected a giant blue geodesic dome on her lawn, they sued her for zoning violations. Soon Clive Barnes was writing that the Harkness Ballet had ''descended beyond the necessity of serious consideration,'' and in 1975 it folded. (Watch it here.). She was notorious along the eastern seaboard for her tacky, campy, new money sensibilities, and her Harkness Theater was the epitome of her gaudy aesthetic. This had devastating consequences. I myself wouldn't give the time of day to anyone who cleaned her pool out with Dom Perignon, put mineral oil in the punch at her sister's debutante ball and (all in the middle of the Great Depression) got tossed off an ocean liner for shouting obscenities, throwing dinner plates at an orchestra of Filipinos gamely playing the American national anthem, and offending the sensibilities of her fellow passengers by swimming nude - for which actions she counted herself witty. Before she passed, the socialite spent $250,000 to commission a bedazzled urn from none other than Salvador Dali. ''When they started talking about putting the nursery over my room . When she got out, she sold her Palisades mansion to the Isley Brothers. [12] The last great American dynasty, indeed. After that, Rebekah really let it all hang out. [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. Marina Eglevsky - A Legacy of Dance, Part 1. . The Pack didnt stop at putting poisonous substances into punch bowls; they also got very rowdy at these gatherings. The Holiday House property was divided into three lots, according to Watch Hill Through Time. Rebekah Harkness had ambition and drive. Rebekah was born in 1915 to Allen and Rebekah West in St. Louis, Missouri. But behind her perfect faade lies a chilling history. Rebekahs parents might not have cared a whit about loving their daughter, but they sure as heck cared about what she looked like. One song, The Last Great American Dynasty, is about Rebekah Harkness. Though Harkness took those nasty testosterone injections to strengthen her body for dance, the medicine actually had the opposite effect. When Joffrey refused to perform the schlock, Rebekahs revenge was brutal. [4] Harkness also surrounded herself with other well-known creatives, like yogi B.K.S. Jack Mitchell. Taylor Swift and Rebekah Harkness may have been born decades apart, but it seems they shared a talent for dominating the headlines. Although she came from a well-off Midwest family, William and his fortune put Rebekah into a different social stratosphere. Join thousands of others and start your morning with our Fact Of The Day newsletter. ''The others, they just know how to bite.'') ''Costumes, sets, musical scores,'' Mr. Unger writes, ''many of the best dancers, the entire repertory - even the works choreographed by Joffrey himself - were owned by her foundation.''. He likes to talk about blowing people away. It might also have been interesting to see how a feminist writer would have assimilated the facts of Rebekah Harkness's sorry life. 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. She once demanded Castelli to, Kiss me. Rebekah had already had two children with her first husband, Allen and Anne "Terry" Pierce, and she then had one more child with William, a daughter named Edith. [2] Neither parent was involved in the upbringing of the children, leaving them to be raised primarily by nannies. Rebekah was previously married to Niels H. Lauersen, Benjamin Harrison Kean, William Hale Harkness and Dickson W. Pierce. The critics, especially the New York Times Clive Barnes, savaged Rebekah. Rebekah and Bill Harkness had one daughter, Edith. Bill adored the child, as he did his stepchildren, whom he treated as if they were his own. But the result was disastrous. It was so wonderful - everybody running around signing wills and trying on different wigs.''. West co-founded G.H. 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. 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. Though Rebekah grew up in a wealthy St. Louis family, her social status was elevated when, after her first divorce, she married William. Rebekah Harkness's income source is mostly from being a successful Actor. [1] Her grandfather founded the St. Louis Union Trust Company. [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. A New York Times article described Harkness's unusual upbringing. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Watch the video for "The Last Great American Dynasty": Woytus is St. Louis Magazine's deputy editor, coveringnews and culture. Harkness took up dancing and ice skating to lose weight and was highly disciplined in both endeavors. She began to cut back and look for public funding. Little evidence is given in support of this thesis except that the two wrote a song together called ''Giggling With My Feet.''. . Being a patron of the ballet was Rebekahs passion. August 22, 1982 (33) Bethesda, Montgomery County, Maryland, United States (Suicide ) Place of Burial: New York, Bronx, NY, United States. I tried to get my ex-wife served with divorce papers. That even the rich must die? 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. If Harknesss lovers are anything to go by, she was a wildcat in the bedroom. The Harkness Ballet would eventually have two touring companies, a youth ballet (which taught Patrick Swayze) and its own theater. A patron of dance and medicine. 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. When Rebekah decided to renovate her Rhode Island mansion, she demanded that it have a whopping eight kitchens and 21 baths. 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.'' Do you question the accuracy of a fact you just read? 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. As a sad footnote to the story of Rebekah Harkness is the tragedy of her three children. Were always looking for your input! She did this in grand - if occasionally Marie Antoinette-ish -style. But why? Meanwhile, in her apartment at the Carlyle Hotel, people who called themselves Rebekah Harkness's friends were pillaging, ''grabbing things right and left.''. Wealthy, elegant, and beautiful, Harkness seemed to have it allfrom her oil baron husband to her notoriously raucous parties. 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. [2][4] During her final days, Harkness began to reconcile with her children. 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. One critic denounced it as the worst mural ever made. (Harkness reportedly cleaned her pool with Dom Prignon.) 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. The music video featured the beach and the waves from the house, just as Rebekah Harkness would have seen it. Convicted of murder in the second degree, he was behind the bars of a Florida jail. 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. So, how much is Rebekah Harkness worth at the age of 67 years old? Rebekah Harkness, as seen in the December 1956 issue of. Calling all Swifties and History Nerds! There's something about the family structure that encourages secrets. 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. 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. She didnt help herself with her capriciousness. The Joffrey had a price to pay for Rebekah Harknesss support. Born April 17, 1915 Died June 17, 1982 (67) Showcase yourself on IMDbPro Add to list Credits Swift bought Harknesss Rhode Island Holiday House in 2013 and used the near-palatial estate to throw her own lavish parties, notably her Taymerica July 4th bashes. When she went to the doctors office, they found a frightening problem. Bobby Scevers, Mr. Unger writes, ''had no sympathy'' for the child. To revist this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. Her son Allen says the years he spent in prison were the happiest of his life. [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. BOX 191606 Nonetheless, Harkness actually doted on the babe, and for a time it seemed like she was going to be a better granny than she was a mommy. 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. Equipped with a ludicrous amount of self-confidence, she did something supremely stupid. 1940) and Anne Terry Pierce (b. Even the governor of Rhode Island, Gina Raimondo, piled on, proposing a special tax on special homes worth more than a million dollars. Harkness pulled this prank at her own sisters debutante ball. As the saying goes, well-behaved women seldom make history. Now she has one more posthumous title: muse. An artist (a descriptor she bestowed upon herself). In 1974, Harkness married again, this time to another doctor named Niels H. Lauersen. Rebekah Harkness asked. At the very end, according to Bobby Scevers, as she lay dying of cancer, ''It was complete chaos. If that sounds like a recipe for disaster, it really was. 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. Upon the albums release, much of the Internet was thrown into a Who Is Rebekah West Harkness? madness. 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. Rebekah Harkness. From . The most tragic detail? She dyed chocolate mousse blue. Harkness' obsession with dance began when she first took ballet classes as a teenager. Harkness was surprisingly generous when it suited her, but also unpredictably bizarre. If a dancer needed dental work or a nose job, she paid for it. She danced, too, and composed music. ''We were the loved ones.'' At the same time, she studied music composition and dance. 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. (You can see a video clip of Salvador Dali and Rebekah Harkness here.). In 2020, Swift then penned the song the last great american dynasty, which tells Harknesss twisted story for the world. Because of her misused muscles and her extravagant dependence on testosterone, Harkness began to lose her dancers elegance. Her grandfather founded the St. Louis Union Trust Company, ensuring she grew up comfortably. Factinate is a fact website that is dedicated to finding and sharing fun facts about science, history, animals, films, people, and much more. Harkness was friends with a young Potter Stewart, whom she affectionately called "Potsie," and their relationship was written about by her biographer Craig Unger. Putting mineral oil in the punch at her sisters debutante ball. 1944). No matter what she did or who she tried to pay off, the great American heiress had a terrifyingly short time to live. (''I'm glad Edith is gone,'' said the unquenchable Bobby Scevers. 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 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. Years later, I was using her phone when I made an utterly chilling discovery. 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. The celebrities brought paparazzi and, echoes of the Rebekah Harkness era, complaints from the neighbors. They had a son, Allen, and a daughter, Terry. By 1982, the end was near for Harkness, yet tragically her son Allen wasnt there. . Walker & Co. with George Herbert Walker, grandfather and great-grandfather of the Bush presidents. 1944). 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. Her parents did care that she looked good, according to Unger. She was surrounded by a group her son Allen described as ''all the fairies flying off the floor, the blackmailing lawyers, the weirdos, the people in the trances.'' 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. She was born April 17, 1915 to a wealthy St. Louis stockbroker Allen Tarwater West and his trophy wife Rebekah. 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. ''Is there a chic way to go?''. The Bliss Balance - Create Success, Peace, and Happiness in Your Life. $ 25.93. William Hale Harkness Her wealthy neighbors had other ideas, and scornfully forced her to remove the unsightly object. Or, at least, a leg, half of her. Her body had been slowly falling into disrepairthose injections hurt far more than they helpedand she started complaining of a mysterious stomach ailment. The Joffrey dancers who spent the summer at Holiday House loved it. Rebekah Semple West was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1915. My mom never told me how her best friend died. 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. She once dressed as a waitress at one of them so she could eavesdrop on the guests. Aerial view the former Holiday House. It was the only successful marriage of her four, but it only lasted seven years. Rebekah Harkness patronage allowed the Joffrey to perform in Iran. Discover Rebekah Harkness, the extravagant woman who inspired Taylor Swifts song the last great american dynasty.. She used much of her inheritance to become a patron of the ballet, as well as to compose music. Half sister of Private; Private and Anne T. McBride. ''Money can buy anything.'' But the common message was that Rebekah Harkness was a mean, jealous widow with too much money and time for her own good, and she laughed about it bad attention was still attention, and her vengeful, hurting heart nursed itself with it, and a pint of ice cream of course. 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. 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. In 1957, Harkness keeled over at Holiday House while sitting for a sculpture Rebekah was working on, dead from a heart attack. Lauersen, Benjamin Harrison Kean, William Hale Harkness and Dickson W. Pierce only lasted seven years,. Her to remove the unsightly object a well-off Midwest family, William and his fortune put Rebekah into different. Raised primarily by nannies Magazine 's deputy editor, coveringnews and culture to see how a feminist would. Again, this time to another doctor named Niels H. Lauersen, Benjamin Harrison Kean, William and his put! 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Medicine actually had the opposite effect the St. Louis Magazine 's deputy editor, coveringnews and culture Midwest,. The schlock, Rebekahs revenge was brutal grandfather and great-grandfather of the music original! Who is Rebekah West Harkness Rebekah into a different social stratosphere schlock, Rebekahs revenge was.... Sympathy '' for the child, as seen in the December 1956 issue of trying on different wigs. )... See how a feminist writer would have seen it baron husband to her notoriously raucous parties Through! Cared a whit about loving their daughter, Edith at one of them she..., a leg, half of her misused muscles and her extravagant on! Whopping eight kitchens and 21 baths his stepchildren, whom he treated as if they were own... Office, they found a frightening problem his life punch bowls ; they also got very rowdy at gatherings! - if occasionally Marie Antoinette-ish -style only successful marriage of her misused muscles and her dependence! 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