[1] Before their divorce in 1946, they had two children; Allen Pierce (b. Harkness was jealous to an absolute fault, and even to her own detriment. In 1961, Harkness decided she wanted to become the next great ballet master, so she sponsored actual master Robert Joffreys artisanal ballet troupe. In 1961, Rebekah Harkness became the sponsor of the late Robert Joffrey's small ballet troupe. The gargantuan house itself was partially demolished, then sold to a family that remodeled it and renamed it High Watch. 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. An artist (a descriptor she bestowed upon herself). Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions. Harkness was friends with a young Potter Stewart, whom she affectionately called "Potsie," and their relationship was written about by her biographer Craig Unger. Shutterstock Advertisement 17. When publicizing her ballet, Harkness became notorious for refusing to showcase any of her talented dancers in the promotional photographs. 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." She brought her Squad musician, actor and model friends to the mansion for Fourth of July Taymerica parties. Only his other flaws were far darker than this silly hobby. Before his death in August 1954, they had one child together; Edith Hale Harkness (19481982). From the outside, Rebekah and William Harknesss marriage looked immaculate. 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? Suddenly, Rebekah was a rich widowone of the wealthiest women in America, in fact. She ended up selling the theater at a huge loss, and the Harkness Ballet company folded in 1975. Anne married Anthony McBride in 1966[1] and had a severely brain-damaged baby who died at age 10. 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. 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. Aw, how sweet. Reviewers agreed he was one of the companys only shining lights. View Rebekah Harkness results including current phone number, address, relatives, background check report, and property record with Whitepages. 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. Her marriage to William Hale Bill Harkness, an attorney and heir to the Standard Oil fortune of William L. Hark Factinate is a fact website that is dedicated to finding and sharing fun facts about science, history, animals, films, people, and much more. If that sounds like a recipe for disaster, it really was. She hoped that the fourth time would be the charm, but the socialite had no such luck. 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. ''Is there a chic way to go?''. Dancy Mason is the Editor-in-Chief at Factinate. [2] Neither parent was involved in the upbringing of the children, leaving them to be raised primarily by nannies. Though Rebekah channeled Marie Antoinette, her patronage of the Joffrey brought the company international fame. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. As well see, Rebekahs love only devolved from there. Parents. Her son Allen says the years he spent in prison were the happiest of his life. (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. [5] Through the Rebekah Harkness Foundation, Harkness sponsored Jerome Robbins and the Joffrey Ballet. Yet while there, Harkness gave new meaning to the word prima donna. The socialite, fancying herself a dance expert, started writing her own ballets. The lovely pair only made it four years before divorcing. The most tragic detail? 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. Anyone can read what you share. In addition to the three kids she has with Jamie, Rebekah has two children, Megan and Taylor, from previous relationships. And she gave Alvin Ailey his first commission. Sep 27, 2021 David Rubenstein Donates $10 Million to Expand Arts and Civic Engagement Initiatives at Lincoln Center. A patron of dance and medicine. She believed in reincarnation. Rebekah struggled with drugs and alcohol. With thanks to Blue Blood by Craig Unger and The Joffrey Ballet: Robert Joffrey and the Making of an American Dance Company by Sasha Anawalt. Rebekah Harkness, as seen in the December 1956 issue of. From petty paybacks to insane acts of karma, these bitter people somehow found the most ingenious ways. BOX 191606 You won't want to miss this episode about the muse for Last Great American Dynasty by Taylor Swift. Just after 1966, Harkness became a grandmother when her daughter Terry gave birth to a little girl. Harkness had no problem dropping Joffrey like a hot potato when he wouldnt support her dismal vanity projects. She went to Fermata, a South Carolina finishing school that had sheltered Roosevelts, Biddles and Auchinclosses. Rebekah Harkness was born in 1915 to a rich, emotionally frigid St. Louis family. Rebekah had always been well-off as a childas you might guess from the string of nannies who raised herbut marrying William Harkness thrust her into an entirely different tier of high society. Taylor Swift and Rebekah Harkness may have been born decades apart, but it seems they shared a talent for dominating the headlines. She once dressed as a waitress at one of them so she could eavesdrop on the guests. The book is available for purchase on Amazon for $195, but a May 1988 New York Times review by the late journalist Barbara Grizzuti Harrison clues us into the reported inner world of Harkness as published in the book. $ 18.79. In 1957, Harkness keeled over at Holiday House while sitting for a sculpture Rebekah was working on, dead from a heart attack. A patron of dance and medicine. 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. In 1961, Harkness gave love another shot, marrying the prominent celebrity doctor Benjamin Harrison Kean. 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. She gave the dancers everything they needed and then some. Harkness, fittingly, belonged to an American dynasty. My association with Rebekah Harkness was based on creating a business venture that would make a profit. Her parents packed Rebekah off to finishing school. The New York Times described him as an embarrassing sort of man, and his hobbies completely back this up. [4], On June 10, 1939, Harkness married Dickson W. Pierce, the son of Thomas M. 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. Rebekah Harkness's income source is mostly from being a successful Actor. Wealthy, elegant, and beautiful, Harkness seemed to have it allfrom her oil baron husband to her notoriously raucous parties. (Yes, the seaside mansion that was the setting for Taymerica.) ''We were the loved ones.'' The only problem was that the urn was too small. She and her friends called themselves the Bitch Pack and disrupted debutante parties. 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. She stole a neighbors dog and dyed it key lime green. For example, he liked to vanity-publish nonsensical books that even he admitted were awful. As the most commanding mistress in the French court, she bettered the lives of many and became a beloved figure. She said she married her first, photographer Dickson Pierce, because she had nothing else to do. No surprise, that union ended in divorce. Rebekah Harkness and her Harkness Ballet Company photographed at her estate in Watch Hill, R.I., 1964. She dyed a cat green. Taylor Swift By Cosmopolitan UK, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=90905376. A philanthropist. Rebekah Harkness Photo: Jack Mitchell/Getty Images. Salvador Dali put one touchingand classically narcissisticdetail into The Chalice of Life. The urn spun on its base so that Harkness could always be dancing, even beyond the grave. [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. . ''How should she do it?'' No clan is left untouched, and even families that seem happy and normal on. [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. Her reason was chilling. 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