KNOCK ON THE DOOR OF OPPORTUNITY

SANTA BARBARA INDEPENDENT ON THE NEW MUSEUM BELLOSGUARDO

INDEPENDENT OCT 2013 - EMPTY MANSION FILLS PROMISE

EXCERPT " With 1,000 feet of ocean frontage and only the quiet folks in the Santa Barbara Cemetery for neighbors, the spectacular mansion on the bluff above East Beach has to be the most conspicuously unoccupied private home in Southern California. Vacant except for a team of caretakers and groundskeepers since the 1950s, Bellosguardo has for many years been kept in Huguette Clark’s preferred state, which is as close as possible to the way it was when her mother, Anna Clark, lived there in the 1930s."

(There's some good photos on this link of the estate and the family.)

ANNA LACHAPELLE : MISTRESS AND WIFE OF W.A. CLARK (HUGUETTE CLARK'S MYSTERIOUS MOM!) : MISTRESS OF THE MONTH

ANNA EUGENIA LACHAPELLE  -  HUGUETTES'S MOM and MYSTERY WOMAN

Huguette's mystery is so vast that it cloaks the mystery of her mother.

 

March 10 1878 Calamut Michigan - October 11 1963 Manhattan New York

 

She had one blue eye and one brown and as a girl she had a "puckish" sense of humor.

 

You may have heard of the odd multi-millionairess Huguette Clark because her estate has this year been in the news with auctions of paintings and jewelry and other sell offs and deals.  Huguette was never a mistress.  She was married once and briefly and never much interested in marriage afterwards, perhaps being naturally asexual. But her mom, Anna Eugenia LaChapelle, was her father's mistress before she was his wife.  

Anna LaChapelle was the very young mistress and then wife of W.A. Clark, for whom Clark County, Nevada, the home of Las Vegas, is named after.  She was born in Michigan to French immigrants who moved from Canada to America.  In youth she lived inhaling the smell of the smoke stacks and smelters in an industrial ghetto. W.C. Clark was about 40 years older than her and a widower.  After meeting Anna in America when she was about fifteen, he sent her to live in France and be educated there. She was described as his "ward" but there are no court papers to prove he took on guardianship. Anna was no orphan. Her parent's were alive. When W.A. wasn't busy with business he went to visit her in France. Much about their relationship is cloaked in mysteries.

Anna LaChapelle is the second known woman to be patronized, supported, or to become a protégé of W.A. Clark after he became a widower.  (The first of his protégé's, a woman who came from a boarding house in Butte, Montana, was Kathlyn Williams, who became a very successful silent screen star, appearing in 170 films.  He paid for her college education and to study opera singing but she openly referred to him but only as a benefactor.)  Both women were younger than his four previous children.

Speculation is that Anna and W.C. backdated their marriage to 1901 to accommodate an otherwise illegitimate birth of a daughter, Eugette's older sister, who then died in her teens. Anna's first child, a daughter, Andree, was born in 1902 in Spain and then Huguette was born in 1906 in Paris.  The family traveled to and lived in Paris quite a bit, going back and forth on the grand steamships of their era.  In 1904, while in the Senate, Clark announced that he had taken a second wife in France three years earlier, and that the couple already had a 2-year-old daughter. At the time of the supposed marriage, he was 62, and Anna was 23.

There is no documentation of the marriage other than William Andrew Clark's word.  The genealogists have failed to find a marriage certificate or church record.  He'd been born in a log cabin in Pennsylvania, went out west to pan for gold, sold eggs to miners, established a bank, became a very early (pre mob) investor in Las Vegas, and became known as "The "Copper Millionaire."    At one point his income from just one copper mine would be about 10 million a month today!  He even became a Senator from Montana.  Those were the days!

Never one to be especially interested in "society", but a lover of fine art and music, Anna was most known for playing the harp and giving small recitals for those closest to her, for keeping company with the business associates that her husband had trusted after his death, as well as their children.  Anna, not born to wealth any more than W.C. Clark had been, certainly acquired the taste of the very rich by living rich.  She was left $250 million when W.C. Clark died.  She was the person who had decorated the New York house and had Bellosguardo built and decorated after she was widowed.

Her daughter Huguette, as an adult, lived reclusively in a world of her own making in one of those old piles of a home in Millionaires Row New York's on Fifth Avenue in New York City that had been built in the Gilded Age and had been her parent's house where she grew up.  Then, for many more years, she lived in a drastically smaller hospital room with no view until she died at the age of 104 in 2011.  She hadn't always been so reclusive but, the theories go, first her sister died as a child and then her aged father and then her mother, Anna, leaving her isolated and unable to relate to most other people.  She got the genes for a long life from her parents.  She also inherited incredible wealth when Anna died, more than she could ever spend, even as she maintained her ultra-expensive hobbies such as Japanese doll collecting and custom designed doll houses.  From afar she oversaw the estate, including homes which were well maintained by staff, in case she ever showed up. But she didn't show up. She oversaw all this for many years, from that hospital room, fully capable but in no hurry to leave.  Her relatives thought she was still living in the house on Fifth Avenue!  After she died, a number of her younger relatives came together to fight her will for a share but it seems she knew what she was doing to the end.  She had remained unmarried and childless and had no heirs and had not well remembered them.  Huguette's legacy is thus Anna's.

Huguette inherited Anna's Bellosguardo, which will become a museum of art.  It had been built in French style, Anna designed the interiors as French as well, and Huguette wanted it preserved exactly like it had been when Anna died in 1963. That was about the last time she visited the estate.  It was maintained as if she might visit any time for the rest of her life.

 

A SELF PORTRAIT BY EUGETTE CLARK

She and her mother Anna were art patrons to individuals, artistic themselves. 

Anna played the harp and Eugette studied painting. I see the resemblance.

 

 

C 2014 Mistress Manifesto/ Missy Rapport All Rights Reserved including International and Internet Rights.  Pictures on this post from Google Images and remain the property of their original owners.

  

 

I read this book, which is heavily focused on Eugette Clark, Anna's only living daughter and heir, cover to cover. It is the primary reference for this month's posts.

 

 

ANNA LACHAPELLE : HUGUETTE'S MOM : MISTRESS AND WIFE OF W.A. CLARK FOUNDER OF LAS VEGAS

ANNA EUGENIA LACHAPELLE  -  HUGUETTES'S MOM and MYSTERY WOMAN

Huguette's mystery is so vast that it cloaks the mystery of her mother.

Anna Eugenia LaChapelle Clark

 

March 10 1878 Calamut Michigan - October 11 1963 Manhattan New York

 

She had one blue eye and one brown and as a girl she had a "puckish" sense of humor.

 

You may have heard of the odd multi-millionairess Huguette Clark because her estate has this year been in the news with auctions of paintings and jewelry and other sell offs and deals.  Huguette was never a mistress.  She was married once and briefly and never much interested in marriage afterwards, perhaps being naturally asexual. But her mom, Anna Eugenia LaChapelle, was her father's mistress before she was his wife.  

Anna LaChapelle was the very young mistress and then wife of W.A. Clark, for whom Clark County, Nevada, the home of Las Vegas, is named after.  She was born in Michigan to French immigrants who moved from Canada to America.  In youth she lived inhaling the smell of the smoke stacks and smelters in an industrial ghetto. W.C. Clark was about 40 years older than her and a widower.  After meeting Anna in America when she was about fifteen, he sent her to live in France and be educated there. She was described as his "ward" but there are no court papers to prove he took on guardianship. Anna was no orphan. Her parent's were alive. When W.A. wasn't busy with business he went to visit her in France. Much about their relationship is cloaked in mysteries.

Anna LaChapelle is the second known woman to be patronized, supported, or to become a protégé of W.A. Clark after he became a widower.  (The first of his protégé's, a woman who came from a boarding house in Butte, Montana, was Kathlyn Williams, who became a very successful silent screen star, appearing in 170 films.  He paid for her college education and to study opera singing but she openly referred to him but only as a benefactor.)  Both women were younger than his four previous children.

Speculation is that Anna and W.C. backdated their marriage to 1901 to accommodate an otherwise illegitimate birth of a daughter, Eugette's older sister, who then died in her teens. Anna's first child, a daughter, Andree, was born in 1902 in Spain and then Huguette was born in 1906 in Paris.  The family traveled to and lived in Paris quite a bit, going back and forth on the grand steamships of their era.  In 1904, while in the Senate, Clark announced that he had taken a second wife in France three years earlier, and that the couple already had a 2-year-old daughter. At the time of the supposed marriage, he was 62, and Anna was 23.

There is no documentation of the marriage other than William Andrew Clark's word.  The genealogists have failed to find a marriage certificate or church record.  He'd been born in a log cabin in Pennsylvania, went out west to pan for gold, sold eggs to miners, established a bank, became a very early (pre mob) investor in Las Vegas, and became known as "The "Copper Millionaire."    At one point his income from just one copper mine would be about 10 million a month today!  He even became a Senator from Montana.  Those were the days!

Never one to be especially interested in "society", but a lover of fine art and music, Anna was most known for playing the harp and giving small recitals for those closest to her, for keeping company with the business associates that her husband had trusted after his death, as well as their children.  Anna, not born to wealth any more than W.C. Clark had been, certainly acquired the taste of the very rich by living rich.  She was left $250 million when W.C. Clark died.  She was the person who had decorated the New York house and had Bellosguardo built and decorated after she was widowed.

Her daughter Huguette, as an adult, lived reclusively in a world of her own making in one of those old piles of a home in Millionaires Row New York's on Fifth Avenue in New York City that had been built in the Gilded Age and had been her parent's house where she grew up.  Then, for many more years, she lived in a drastically smaller hospital room with no view until she died at the age of 104 in 2011.  She hadn't always been so reclusive but, the theories go, first her sister died as a child and then her aged father and then her mother, Anna, leaving her isolated and unable to relate to most other people.  She got the genes for a long life from her parents.  She also inherited incredible wealth when Anna died, more than she could ever spend, even as she maintained her ultra-expensive hobbies such as Japanese doll collecting and custom designed doll houses.  From afar she oversaw the estate, including homes which were well maintained by staff, in case she ever showed up. But she didn't show up. She oversaw all this for many years, from that hospital room, fully capable but in no hurry to leave.  Her relatives thought she was still living in the house on Fifth Avenue!  After she died, a number of her younger relatives came together to fight her will for a share but it seems she knew what she was doing to the end.  She had remained unmarried and childless and had no heirs and had not well remembered them.  Huguette's legacy is thus Anna's.

Huguette inherited Anna's Bellosguardo, which will become a museum of art.  It had been built in French style, Anna designed the interiors as French as well, and Huguette wanted it preserved exactly like it had been when Anna died in 1963. That was about the last time she visited the estate.  It was maintained as if she might visit any time for the rest of her life.

 

A SELF PORTRAIT BY EUGETTE CLARK

She and her mother Anna were art patrons to individuals, artistic themselves. 

Anna played the harp and Eugette studied painting. I see the resemblance.

 

 

C 2014 Mistress Manifesto/ Missy Rapport All Rights Reserved including International and Internet Rights.  Pictures on this post from Google Images and remain the property of their original owners.

  

 

I read this book, which is heavily focused on Eugette Clark, Anna's only living daughter and heir, cover to cover. It is the primary reference for this month's posts.

 

 

THE FLOWERS II

SHOULD SHE TURN TO WOMEN SINCE MEN HAVE BEEN SO MEAN TO HER? MISSY ANSWERS!

SHOULD SHE TURN TO WOMEN SINCE MEN HAVE BEEN SO MEAN TO HER?

Dear Missy,

I'm near 40 years old and have been celibate for over a year. In this year I've been thinking a lot about my past relationships with men and I'm so turned off!  For some reason men are mean to me.  I'm a nice person.  I think that and my girlfriends say that and my mother does too.  Why are men so mean?   I've never been married so I have no children.   At my age I see I probably never will.  The last time I had sex with someone that I waited about six months to have sex with it was bad.  I can't even have a fantasy about sex with another man so I'm wondering if I'm gay.  What do you think?  Should I start dating other women?

Nancy
New Rochelle

Missy Answers:

Nancy, it sound like you need TIME OUT.

If you are not having fantasies about having sex with other women you probably aren't gay, just tired and disgusted with men.  I suppose you could go out to wherever lesbians can be found in your area to meet each other and be experimental but I think you should be honest and tell any lesbian woman who is interested in you that you're simply questioning rather than sure. 

I have no idea why you have a collection of mean men in your past.

I was trying to relate your question to one of my women friends who is also a very nice person and has had one stinker after another since high-school including two mean husbands. 

PERHAPS IT IS LIKE THIS.  You have to be able to realize it when someone is being just a little bit mean to you and not let them get away with it.  Allowing it, pretending it isn't so, because you don't want a confrontation, want to make nice, or are too forgiving, probably encourages them to get away with more meanness.  I have a theory that while we women are raised to be "nice" we are also afraid to END A RELATIONSHIP that is no good.  You are probably so nice that people think everything is always OK with you without asking.  You might give the impression that you are happy to just go along for the ride or have no needs.  Maybe it's more that you're PASSIVE than nice.  Just a few thoughts here about meanness because I think the real question is about sexuality.

Some women are always bi-sexual, some women do choose to be lesbian at some point in their life, even after marriage and children with a man.  Women who've been raped often express having no desire for sex with men for some time after that experience.  A bad relationship can effect desire.  If you persist with no sexual interest at all you might want to get some medical tests to see if what's happening is hormonal, related to blood sugar, or some other condition like depression. 

Basically I think you need to HEAL!  Give yourself time and lots of love!

Missy

JAZZ AND PARIS GET ALONG

THE GUERILLA GIRLS MESSAGE : WOMEN ARE UNDER REPRESENTED IN THE ARTS

GUERILLAGIRLS - FEMINIST ACTIVISTS FOR WOMEN IN THE ARTS

FROM THEIR SITE:  "We’re feminist masked avengers in the tradition of anonymous do-gooders like Robin Hood, Wonder Woman and Batman. How do we expose sexism, racism and corruption in politics, art, film and pop culture? With facts, humor and outrageous visuals. We reveal the understory, the subtext, the overlooked, and the downright unfair. Our work has been passed around the world by our tireless supporters. Just in the last several years, we’ve appeared at over 90 universities and museums, as well as The New York Times, Interview, The Washington Post, The New Yorker, Bitch, and Artforum; on NPR, the BBC and CBC; and in many art and feminist texts. We are authors of stickers, billboards, many, many posters and street projects, and several books including The Guerrilla Girls' Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art and Bitches, Bimbos and Ballbreakers: The Guerrilla Girls' Guide to Female Stereotypes. We’re part of Amnesty International’s Stop Violence Against Women Campaign in the UK; we're brainstorming with Greenpeace. We've unveiled anti-film industry billboards in Hollywood just in time for the Oscars, and created a large scale installation for the Venice Biennall, and street projects for Krakow, Istanbul, Mexico City and Montreal. We dissed the Museum of Modern Art at its own Feminist Futures Symposium, examined the museums of Washington DC in a full page in the Washington Post, and exhibited large-scale posters and banners in London, Athens, Bilbao, Montreal, Rotterdam, Sarajevo and Shanghai."

 

*****************************

IF YOU'RE A TALENTED WOMAN ARTIST you do not have the opportunities for employment, agent representation, gallery representation, art sales, or to ever make it into a book or museum.  I saw the Guerilla Girls at a college years ago.  I was impressed.  The masked women said that if their employers knew they were part of this group they would be fired.  I have to wonder, if women artists were experiencing equality, would fewer of them become mistresses?