The Commodore’s Strange Gift

HOW TWO MEN OF GOD,

TWO SHADY SISTERS,

AND A WOMAN NAMED FRANK

INFLUENCED THE WORLD’S RICHEST MAN

TO FOUND UNIVERSITY.

By MICHAEL MCGERR

he founding of is an extraordinary story, T an unexpectedly salacious tale worthy of a primetime soap opera. Sex plays a leading role; so does sanctity—enough for a contemporary presidential campaign. And there are spirits: Ghosts flit in and out of the founding of a Methodist university in Nashville in 1873. Then there is the founder himself: , the grasp- ing, hard-driving Commodore, richest man on earth, and one of the

This page, clockwise from least likely benefactors of higher education. The Commodore’s found- top: Holland McTyeire, ing donation to his namesake university was truly a strange, fortunate Charles Force Deems, Victoria Woodhull, Frank gift—a reminder of the complexity of the human mind and heart and, Crawford Vanderbilt, Tennessee Claflin ultimately, the best investment this great speculator ever made.

V anderbilt Magazine 47 Cornelius Vanderbilt was born in the right tatious charitable gifts. Like most wealthy Sophia gone, with his old friends dying off, and messages from the dead to ease his mind. Fortune Tellers and place at the right time—on a men of the day, the Commodore believed the new widower was lonely. He had little inter- Vanderbilt’s longing for contact with the Fortune Hunters farm in 1794, across the bay from what would charity sapped the morals of its supposed est in spending much time with his children. departed was hardly unusual in post-Civil piritualism had a further appeal for become the leading city of the United States beneficiaries. His gift to the public was the But Vanderbilt was still “wonderfully well pre- War America. Like the Commodore, mil- SVanderbilt, who remained, as a reporter on the leading edge of the industrial revo- ships he launched, the trains he sped, the cargo served,”a reporter noted in the summer of lions of his countrymen mourned the death delicately observed, “much of a ladies lution. Starting as a teenager with a simple he carried, the jobs he created. 1869.“He steps as light as a shadow, and looks of family members on the nation’s battle- man”: The movement was largely dominated one-masted periauger, Vanderbilt built a That was an increasingly controversial posi- more fresh than some man of fifty.”With- fields. Told by their ministers that the dead by women. Séances usually took place in the fleet of sailing vessels and then an armada tion. In “An Open Letter to Com.Vanderbilt” out a wife, the Commodore had more free- were near at hand, many people wanted to woman’s sphere, the home, because 19th- of steamboats and steamships. By the 1850s in 1869, Mark Twain sarcastically abused the dom than ever to pursue his fancies and his believe those spirits could communicate with century Americans typically died there, rather his ships cruised as far west as California and millionaire. “Go, now, please go, and do one appetites. The result was a period of instabil- the living through mysterious rappings and than in hospitals. In Victorian eyes, women— as far east as England; the title “Commodore,” worthy act,”the writer begged. “Go, boldly, ity and experimentation. Ouija boards. seemingly so passive, so spiritual, so angelic once a sarcastic putdown, had become an grandly, nobly, and give four dollars to some Sophia’s death intensified the Commodore’s Vanderbilt was a bit skeptical about the themselves—were ideal vessels for com- awed tribute to this capitalist worth more The Commodore’s great public charity. It will break your heart, interest in the spirit world, the place where spirits. He enjoyed the spiritual physicians’ munications from the dead. Some women than $10 million. no doubt; but no matter, you have but a little his mother, Phebe, and his one beloved son, ministrations without having to trust their found service as spiritual physicians and Typically, that wasn’t enough for Cornelius willingness to drive while to live, and it is better to die suddenly George, a victim of the Civil War, already communications from the dead. The Com- mediums attractive because it was a rare Vanderbilt. Getting out of the ship business, and nobly than live a century longer the same dwelled. More than ever the widower con- modore sometimes asked his mother and chance to cast off their seeming passivity and he transferred his energies to railroads, the competitors to the wall Vanderbilt you are now.” sulted “spiritual physicians,”who used the his wife for advice about the children. seek careers, influence and power. newest edge of the industrial revolution. By The stubborn railroad king never would magnetic power of their hands to ease his body Not long after Sophia’s death, the Com- the late 1860s, well into his 70s, the Com- was frightening. have said it out loud, but he had already begun modore had become a “railroad king,”ruler to come to the same conclusion. At an age of an iron empire stretching from Manhat- He had little time for when men hardly ever changed, the Com- tan across New York State towards Chicago. modore had begun one last effort to remake His pride and joy, the New York Central Rail- his eight daughters and himself. Without knowing it, he had already road, helped make him fabulously rich. At set out on the route to Vanderbilt University. some point in the 1870s, his fortune reached little patience with two In the summer of 1868, the Commodore $90 million to $100 million, the largest in and Sophia had gone their separate ways as America and most likely the world. of his three sons. so often before. He had headed north for his annual stay at fashionable Saratoga, with its A Hard Man in Love When his wife balked at round of horse races and card games; she, feel- with His Own Name ing unwell, had traveled to the quiet waters of hen and now, the Commodore was a moving to , Lebanon Springs at the eastern edge of the Tdifficult man to like. Pursuing profit state. There were waters in Saratoga, too, remorselessly, he reveled in risk and he put her in an asylum but by then the Vanderbilts had been married loved economic combat. His willingness to for nearly 55 years. drive competitors to the wall was frighten- until she changed her mind. The waters didn’t help, so the 73-year-old ing. He was no more lovable at home. A stern Sophia journeyed back to New York where father and a misogynist, he had little time for she suffered a stroke. Racing back on his spe- his eight daughters and little patience with drove himself hard, even in old age. Self-con- cial train at the unheard-of speed of nearly two of his three sons. When his wife, Sophia, trolled, he lived fairly plainly; his only extrav- a mile a minute, the Commodore stayed with balked at moving to Manhattan, he put her agance was his speedy trotting horses. his wife until a second, unexpected attack in an asylum until she changed her mind. His obsession, especially in old age, was killed her on Aug. 17. But, as I’ve found in researching a history keeping the name Vanderbilt alive. The Com- However strained their relationship, mar- of the Vanderbilt family, the Commodore was modore had a peculiar fascination with his riage had helped structure Cornelius Vander- also a compelling figure, frequently misunder- own blood; his wife, Sophia, was his first cousin bilt’s life for more than half a century. With stood. In an age of unregulated economic com- not once but twice over, the blood relative of petition, he had an essential integrity. Rather both the Commodore’s father and mother. An 1870 cartoon depicts the Commodore stand- old-fashioned, he offered no sanctimonious Obsessed with his name, Cornelius Van- ing astride two railroads competing with indus- MPI/GETTY IMAGES platitudes about the virtues of capitalism. derbilt had not done the obvious thing to trialist James Fisk (1835–1872) for control of Strong, courageous and incisive, Vanderbilt memorialize it: He hadn’t made large, osten- the Erie Railroad.

48 Summer 2006 V anderbilt Magazine 49 modore met two of the most attractive spir- skipped town to avoid the trial, so she was ford was the widow of a well-respected mer- Tecumseh Hotel in London, Ontario, mid- kers” early in 1870. Supposedly the world’s itualists of them all—Mrs. Victoria Wood- never convicted.) chant and federal marshal from Mobile, Ala. way between Niagara Falls and Detroit. There first women stockbrokers,“Woodhull, Claflin hull and her unmarried sister, Tennessee When Vickie had a vision to head for New Martha’s 30-year-old daughter, Frank Arm- a Methodist clergyman married him—not & Co.”caused an immediate sensation. Thou- Claflin. Vickie and Tennie were the extraor- York City in 1868, Tennie went along. By strong Crawford, had been divorced before to Tennie Claflin, not to Martha Crawford, sands flocked to get a look at “The Bewitch- dinary daughters of Roxanna “Roxy” Claflin, October, less than two months after Sophia the Civil War, her marriage the victim of but to Frank Crawford. ing Brokers.” a religious fanatic and mesmerist, and her Vanderbilt’s death, the sisters had opened interference from her own family. Like many Woodhull, Claflin & Co. made much of its brutal husband, Reuben “Buck” Claflin, a their “Magnetic Healing Institute and Con- Southerners, these husbandless Crawfords The Commodore and apparent connection to Cornelius Vanderbilt. notorious horse thief, blackmailer and servatory of Metaphysical, Mental and Spir- had seen their resources dwindle with the the Virtuous Woman A prominently displayed portrait of the Com- swindler. Shady and shiftless, the Claflins itual Science.” fortunes of the defeated Confederacy. Frank he wedding of America’s richest man modore reassured customers. Rumors spread had roamed about Ohio before the war. Vickie They were feminists; they were frauds; had taught music to help support the family. Tto a woman 45 years his junior pro- quickly that Vanderbilt was “the aider and and Tennie, beaten and starved by their cruel they were unique. And one day, not long after Mother and daughter were attractive women, voked wonder and amazement. The abettor, if not the full partner, of the firm.” father, found solace and a kind of power in their arrival in , Victoria Wood- but nothing like the exotic Vickie and Tennie. press chuckled over the railroad king’s lat- The press eagerly presented the sisters as “Van- the spirit world. The intense, erratic Vickie hull and Tennessee Claflin turned up at Cor- Nevertheless, the Crawfords had some- est “speculation,”his “last and most notable The second Mrs. Vanderbilt derbilt’s protégés.” easily fell into deep trances; the ebullient nelius Vanderbilt’s house in Washington thing those free-love advocates lacked—a consolidation,”and clapped its forehead in Vickie and Tennie’s venture became an Tennie, eight years younger, specialized in Place. The Commodore admired the “clas- good bit of the Commodore’s genetic code. amused disbelief at the relative ages of the implored this most eminent embarrassment for the Commodore. The fortune-telling, premonitions and visions. sic-countenanced”Victoria, but he was even Like Vanderbilt and his wife, Sophia, Martha bride and groom. idea of female stockbrokers was controver- In 1853, at the age of 15, Vickie escaped more attracted to the voluptuous, 22-year- and Frank were direct descendants of the sea It was Frank who made the marriage of American “swearists” sial.“In short,”a reporter declared,“the spec- by eloping with her physician, Canning Wood- old Tennie, who, as a reporter once remarked, captain Samuel Hand and his wife, Phebe. acceptable. The new Mrs. Vanderbilt was an tacle of these Broad street brokers is a disgusting hull, who turned out to be a philandering, “displayed in the most aggravating way a Accordingly, the Crawfords had a special fas- unusual woman, an elegant enigma. She had to clean up his language. and unnatural one.”Vickie and Tennie’s career heartless drunk. Bearing two children, Vickie wondrous shirt front.” cination for Cornelius Vanderbilt, the man a man’s name—her father’s tribute to his as magnetic physicians and clairvoyants came supported her family by becoming an actress, Soon the Commodore began giving them who had married his first cousin and now revered business partner, Frank Armstrong. She got him to cut down on out in the papers. Tennie told the press that a prostitute, and a “clairvoyant medium and stock tips and apparently accepted $10,000 yearned to commune with her spirit. Martha But the Commodore’s tall wife was grace- she had expected to marry the Commodore. magnetic healer.”She also became a passion- of their money to manage on their behalf. and Frank were both his and Sophia’s blood fully feminine, her black hair and blue eyes card games and séances. The sisters’ notoriety increased when they ate advocate of women’s rights and sexual Vickie became his “magnetic doctress.” relatives—first cousins once and twice removed, lending her a quiet, winning dignity. She began publishing Woodhull and Claflin’s freedom. According to the sisters, Tennie became Van- respectively, of the Vanderbilts. The Craw- sang, she dressed well, and above all, she Most of all, she went to work Weekly, a forum for their outspoken views Tennie, meanwhile, had remained her derbilt’s “housekeeper” and ministered to a fords had visited their New York cousins the loved God. Frank was, a religious paper on women’s rights and free love. Vickie won father’s little meal ticket. From town to town variety of his needs. There were unsubstan- year before Sophia’s death. Now the Com- noted, “an accomplished Christian lady, a on his soul. still more notoriety by launching a well-pub- the Claflins hawked “Miss Tennessee’s Mag- tiated rumors of a sexual relationship between modore got to know mother and daughter worthy member of the Methodist Church, licized campaign for president of a nation netic Life Elixir,”a supposed cure for cancer the Commodore and the “ample” young red- even better, and soon the rumor began to cir- and an active worker in Church and Sab- that denied women the vote. and other ailments. In Illinois in 1863, Ten- head he called his “little sparrow.” culate that the railroad king would marry bath School work.”No one doubted Frank a church. The Commodore certainly knew If Frank felt anger or embarrassment over nie was charged with manslaughter when In the meantime, the Commodore was the widow Crawford. Vanderbilt’s faith. Normally, divorce per- what he was getting in Frank. He surely could the Commodore’s involvement with Vickie this hideous, burning salve killed a woman socializing with another pair of women. On the morning of Aug. 21, 1869, the manently clouded a woman’s reputation in have found a less devout helpmate such as and Tennie, she shared her feelings only in suffering from breast cancer. (The Claflins Forty-nine-year-old Martha Everitt Craw- Commodore turned up in the parlor of the America; but Frank, clothed in the “ample” Tennie Claflin. But the Com- private. As the saga of the “bewitching bro- her dignity and her piety, seemed eminently modore, in a sign of some inner change, had kers” unfolded, Frank quietly intensified her respectable. Somehow no one, at least in chosen Frank. campaign to reform the Commodore and public, questioned her motives in marry- The second Mrs. Vanderbilt quickly set save his soul. An astute judge of her aging They were feminists; they were frauds; ing the Commodore. to reforming her new husband. Frank firmly husband, the second Mrs. Vanderbilt skill- Frank’s piety legitimated the union implored this most eminent of American fully pushed him towards something he had they were unique. The Commodore but raised an interesting question about “swearists” to clean up his language. She per- always disdained—a sizeable act of charity. Cornelius Vanderbilt. As a religious writer suaded him to buy new clothes and new car- Soon after arriving in New York, Frank and admired Victoria, but he was more gently put it, the Commodore “had been a pets. She got him to cut down on card games her mother had begun attending an unusual very worldly and even profane man.”Thanks and séances. Most of all, she went to work fledgling church devoted to newcomers to the attracted to voluptuous Tennie, to his mother, he believed in the existence of on his soul. city. The pastor, Dr. Charles Deems, was a God and the authenticity of the Bible. With Frank had some unexpected help in her Southern Methodist, but his “Church of the who, as a reporter remarked, his stern demeanor, his sharp blue eyes and reform crusade. Despite his marriage, the Strangers” was nondenominational. The con- his white cravat, the railroad king was often Commodore did not sever all his ties to Vic- gregation of this “free, independent church “displayed in the most aggravating way mistaken for a minister or a bishop. Still, toria Woodhull and Tennessee Claflin. There of Jesus Christ” met in rented rooms, up three Cornelius Vanderbilt had never shown any was no more magnetic doctoring, but the sis- difficult flights of stairs at New York Univer- a wondrous shirt front.” interest in organized religion, much less joined ters opened up shop as “bankers and bro- sity, not far from the Commodore’s house.

50 Summer 2006 V anderbilt Magazine 51 The Church of the Strangers grew quickly, relented and accepted the gift. The Church of Deems, a frequent guest at the Vanderbilt I had twice as much brains as they had maybe, himself publicly dragged back into the saga thanks to Dr. Deems, a short, powerfully built the Strangers bought its new building in July house. One evening the subject of education and yet I had to keep still, and couldn’t say of Vickie and Tennie. Subpoenaed to testify North Carolinian with a gift for simple, direct 1870, two months after the appearance of came up. “I’d give a million dollars today, anything through fear of exposing myself.” in an investor’s suit against the sisters for preaching. Before long, Frank began telling Woodhull and Claflin’s Weekly. Doctor,”Vanderbilt vowed, “if I had your The conversation continued a while before fraud, Vanderbilt declared that he had not the Commodore how hard it was to climb News of the Commodore’s gift stunned education!” Deems wondered whether the Deems, always canny with the Commodore, given them “any authority … to use my name those stairs at New York University. the public.“Commodore Vanderbilt has just Commodore, a multimillionaire with only figured a way to provoke his benefactor.“Let in their business.” As fiercely independent as the Commodore, done a good deed, unsolicited,” marveled a grade-school education, really meant what me tell you,” the minister said accusingly, Against the backdrop of continual reminders Deems himself made no effort to solicit a Harper’s Bazaar. he said. “I’ve been among educated people “that you are one of the greatest hindrances of the Commodore’s folly in taking up with donation from his parishioner’s fabulously Not one to rest on her laurels, Frank con- enough to see its importance,”Vanderbilt to education that I know of.”Surprised, Van- Woodhull and Claflin, Frank and Deems finally wealthy husband. This reticence was surely tinued her quiet work on Cornelius Vander- admitted. “I’ve been to England, and seen derbilt asked what he meant.“Why, don’t you succeeded in bringing the multimillionaire careful strategy; Frank and Deems knew Van- bilt’s soul. Now she had an ally in Charles them lords, and other fellows, and knew that see, if you do nothing to promote education, together with Bishop McTyeire. In March derbilt did not respond well to requests for to prove to the world that you believe in it, 1873, the Vanderbilts hosted the Bishop at 10 charity. But in truth, the minister didn’t much there isn’t a boy in all the land who ever heard McTyeire, like Deems, Washington Place as he convalesced from sur- care for the Commodore. “I regarded him,” Frank, clothed in her of you, but may say, ‘What’s the use of an gery. Once more Frank had proved an astute Deems recalled, “as an unscrupulous gath- education? There’s Commodore Vanderbilt; was just the Commodore’s judge of her husband: McTyeire, like Deems, erer of money, a man who aimed at accumu- dignity and her piety, he never had any, and never wanted any, and was just the Commodore’s sort of man. A lating an immense fortune and had no very yet he became the richest man in America.’” sort of man. A driving, driving, focused leader, the rather introverted pious concern as to the means.” The cleric seemed eminently Vanderbilt, taken aback, wondered what to bishop played his cards close to the vest, just was also, he admitted,“a little afraid” of the do. Deems moved in on his goal: “Suppose focused leader, the rather like Vanderbilt. The Commodore sized up imperious railway king. respectable. No one, at least you take that money and found a university.” McTyeire quickly.“The greatest railroad lawyer Finally visiting the Commodore, Deems Artfully, the cleric added the finishing touch: introverted bishop played I ever knew was destroyed,”Vanderbilt told began to change his mind about this “unscrupu- in public, questioned her The new institution could be called the “Van- the bishop,“when you entered the ministry.” lous gatherer of money.”For his part, Van- derbilt University.” his cards close to the vest, Frank, meanwhile, played her part. Dri- derbilt decided he approved of Deems’ religious motives in marrying The Commodore was interested, but ving past the Astor Library with the Com- “orthodoxy,”as well as the minister’s refusal Deems’ notion languished. Following a sug- just like Vanderbilt. modore one day during McTyeire’s visit, she to ask for money. One day, rather abruptly, the Commodore. gestion from Vanderbilt, the minister explored spoke feelingly of “how much had been done the Commodore told Deems to come see him the feasibility of a Moravian school, dedi- for the young men of the North, while the few the next evening. Unintentionally playing cated to the faith of the Commodore’s fore- Finance” and their family turned on their institutions of learning left in the South were hard to get, the minister explained he had bears. But the Moravians lacked the kind of former benefactor in 1871. That spring Ten- struggling under the burden of debt, and the other commitments for the next several strong leader Vanderbilt believed necessary nie and Vickie’s mother, Roxy, set out to vast majority of the young men in that sec- evenings. Vanderbilt wasn’t used to being told to run “so great a work.”Deems turned, then, blackmail the Commodore, along with some tion were denied even such privileges as these to wait, which made him that much more to the idea he and Frank had no doubt had other well known New Yorkers. Then Ten- poorly equipped institutions provided.”When interested in Deems. When they did meet, all along—the longtime dream of a South- nie took the stand to testify in a typically his wife told him she “longed” to help these Vanderbilt quizzed the minister about his ern Methodist university in Nashville. One bizarre Claflin family brawl, Roxie’s lawsuit young Southerners, the Commodore asked plans for a building and then offered to give of the leaders of the movement for this “cen- against one of Vickie’s former husbands. “I how. She replied simply,“A university.” it to him. tral university” was a Southern Methodist … have humbugged a great many rich peo- The Commodore, who had done a great bishop, the Rev. Dr. Holland N. McTyeire, ple, Vanderbilt included,” Tennie proudly deal for two women of the North, now knew A First Great who was a friend of Charles Deems and both announced.“Commodore Vanderbilt knows what he needed to do for this woman of the Act of Charity a kinsman by marriage and former pastor my power.” South. Before McTyeire left New York, Van- his new business of philanthropy of Frank Vanderbilt. But the Commodore Next it was Vickie’s turn to tweak the derbilt gave him a written offer of a $500,000 Twasn’t so easy. To Vanderbilt’s amaze- didn’t take the hint and invite McTyeire to Commodore in public. In a highly publi- endowment to support the Methodist “Cen- ment, Deems suspected some devious come see him. cized address in February 1872, Woodhull tral University” in or near Nashville. Before financial stratagem or a trick to make him a compared the railway king to a thief. Rail- the month was out, the board of trust of kept man, a “chaplain.”The minister angrily Revenge of the ing against “these railroad magnates,” she the projected Central University accepted the turned down the first large act of charity the Bewitching Brokers declared,“It is a crime for a single person to Commodore’s offer and renamed their insti- Commodore had ever attempted.Vanderbilt hen Victoria Woodhull and Tennessee steal a dollar, but a corporation may steal tution “Vanderbilt University.”(A later, sec- made clear he had no use for a chaplain and TClaflin once again provided their spe- millions of dollars, and be canonized as ond donation brought the Commodore’s total wanted Deems to maintain his independ- cial kind of help. No longer associ- saints.” gift to nearly $1 million.) ence. In a comic scene, the minister finally ated with the Commodore, the “Queens of As late as 1875, the Commodore found continued on page 86

52 Summer 2006 ALL IMAGES COURTESY VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY SPECIAL COLLECTIONS AND ARCHIVES. V anderbilt Magazine 53 Commodore continued from page 53 Carol. But that was fiction. Could a real cap- No, the aging Commodore, eager to per- Vanderbilt’s gift, one of the largest phil- italist like Cornelius Vanderbilt truly change? petuate his name, wanted it that way. So anthropic donations to that point in Amer- Could he become, like Scrooge, “as good a he and Frank danced a wonderful four-year ican history, commanded great attention. At friend, as good a master, and as good a man marital gavotte that ended in the creation the inauguration of Vanderbilt University in as the good old city knew, or any other good of Vanderbilt University. Nashville in October 1875, Charles Deems old city, town, or borough in the good old It was a far better investment than he read aloud the benefactor’s telegram of good world”? could have expected. Just about all the wishes: “Peace and good-will to all men.” The Commodore would never be some Commodore’s other plans for immortal- Then, “with great tenderness of feeling,” it real-life Scrooge, a dedicated philanthropist. ity came to naught. His beloved New York was reported, the reverend quoted Scripture: His gift to Vanderbilt University resulted Central Railroad no longer exists; his great “Cornelius, thy prayer is heard, and thine from a strange train of circumstances, an family fortune is gone; hardly any male alms are had in remembrance of the sight of almost improbable run of luck. descendants, none of them famous, remain God.”With that blessing the audience broke But Vanderbilt University was not just to carry on the family name. Instead, it is out into cheers. an accident of marriage. Cornelius Vander- the former “Central University,” with one No doubt, more than one of the Com- bilt, flinty, determined and calculating, of the great sports nicknames, the Com- modore’s old antagonists snorted over news- did what he wanted to do. Marrying Frank, modores, that ensures the survival of the paper accounts of the inauguration in the Commodore knew she was different, name Vanderbilt. V Nashville.“Peace and good-will to all men,” knew she cared about religion and good indeed! It was too much like the miraculous deeds. The crafty veteran of so many stock This article is adapted from the inaugural transformation of another hard-hearted manipulations surely realized what Frank Founder’s Day Lecture presented March 16 businessman who had also spent some time was up to as she kept quiet about Woodhull by historian Michael McGerr at Vanderbilt with “spirits”: Ebenezer Scrooge in Charles and Claflin and lamented instead those flights University. Dickens’ enormously popular A Christmas of stairs and the needy men of the South.

A.P.O.V. continued from page 69 ly anyone looks at her history of mental ill- possible that a war was going on within her ver launched his obscenity investigation. Bet- ness—even though it raises questions about own heart? What we’re left with in the movie tie was subpoenaed to testify and sat nerv- just what state of mind she was in from 1950 is the Bettie Cult. And if we were to analyze ously for 16 hours in a Senate witness room, to 1957, when she was supposedly the world’s the tenets of that cult, they would be similar but was never called. The experience shocked most carefree nude model. (During one of to the ones Herman Melville attached to Poly- her, though, and she told Klaw she wasn’t her later episodes, she cried out that she need- nesian beauties in his early novels, to wit: having fun anymore. ed to be punished by God for all her sins. This Bettie’s naked insouciance is sex without If the first chapter in her adult life had alternated with episodes during which she guilt. Bettie’s friendly smirk means she does- been Holly Golightly, the second was more would decide she needed to kill somebody n’t judge herself. Bettie’s luminous blue come- Frances Farmer. She ended up in a second because God told her to do it.) At one point hither eyes mean she doesn’t judge me, either. marriage, to a Miami businessman named in the ’60s, she moved back to Nashville and Bettie’s simple pristine outfits mean she’s Harry Lear, but by this time she’d started to re-enrolled at Peabody, planning to get a mas- the most beautiful woman in the world but show signs of clinical schizophrenia. She ter’s degree in English, but she left after quar- doesn’t know it. Bettie’s willingness to do became fanatically and eccentrically religious reling with a professor about some theological things other models won’t do means she likes (telling her family there were seven gods and point. From then on, all her short educational everybody, even the outcasts. she was their prophet), strict to the point of stints were at Bible colleges. Bettie’s playfulness means she can do any cruelty with her stepchildren, and violent to All of this would be rich material for a crazy thing ever imagined in the realm of the herself and others. Charged with various psychologically complex Bettie Page film. sexual subconscious and it will never be dirty. crimes over a 10-year period—armed assault Unfortunately, Mary Harron’s recently released In fact, if there’s one quality that defines Bet- and attempted murder among them—she The Notorious Bettie Page is not that film. tie Page, it’s that she’s so clean. was hospitalized three times, the last time for Harron ends Bettie’s story in 1957, when she Bettie, in so many ways and to so many 10 years in an institution for the criminally leaves New York, and thereby fails to grapple guys, was and is the perfect woman. Her fans insane. When she was released, she was able with the heart of the matter. Expertly por- might not be able to describe exactly what it to control the disease with medication, and trayed by Gretchen Mol, the Bettie of the was that she had, but we know, don’t we? her symptoms followed the normal course, movie is the same Bettie rediscovered 20 years She was the elusive Peabody Girl, come lessening in intensity after menopause. ago and raised to the status of a cult goddess. to life. One fascinating aspect of the thousands Hers is a war against prudery, economic of articles written about Bettie is that hard- exploitation and faithless men. But isn’t it

86 Summer 2006