Brenda Frazier

American celebrity and socialite

Brenda Diana Duff Frazier (June 9, 1921 – May 3, 1982) was an American socialite popular during the Depression era. Her December 1938 debutante ball was so heavily publicized worldwide, she eventually appeared on the cover of Life magazine for that reason alone. She was known and dubbed a "Poor Little Rich Girl" by the media, along with other famous socialites and debutantes Barbara Hutton, Gloria Vanderbilt, and Doris Duke.

Brenda Diana Duff Frazier was born on June 9, 1921, in Quebec, Canada. Her father, Frank Duff Frazier, came from a prosperous Boston family. Her mother, the former Brenda Germaine Henshaw Williams Taylor, was the only daughter of Sir Frederick Williams Taylor (a general manager of the Bank of Montreal who was knighted in 1910 and combined his middle name and birth surname into a new hyphenated surname) and his wife, the former Jane Fayrer Henshaw. Frazier's parents were married in December 1916. Both of Frazier's parents drank heavily. At the time of her birth, Frazier's father went on an alcoholic bender and did not return home for months. After public fights and infidelity on both sides, the couple divorced in January 1926. In March 1926, Frazier's mother married Frederick N. Watriss, with whom she had been having an affair. Over the next eight years, Frazier's parents fought over custody of Brenda. Both attempted to gain sole custody by accusing the other of immoral behavior, alcoholism, and being an unfit parent. Frazier had a strained relationship with food and eating from her early years, overeating being a main issue. Brenda was described as being “chubby” up until 13 years of age, the year her mother began pressuring her to slim down in concern that her weight would have a detrimental impact on her social life. She found dieting difficult, especially since her mother was overweight and kept a cache of sweets in the home. Frazier’s friends have told stories about her eating huge lunches at restaurants and then going into the ladies' room to make herself purge so she could remain thin even if she failed the diets her mother wanted her on. Prior to shedding the pounds, her schoolmates described her as “a little fat” with a “plump face” and “big legs”. However, classmates recalled Frazier as being “absolutely beautiful” at age 14. Although Frazier had shown promise in music and art, she later lamented that she had never been given a chance to let those talents develop or to complete her education. The year before her 1938 debut, she was attending a finishing school in Munich. She had begged her mother to let her stay there and continue to study, but her mother refused, and thus her formal education ended at the age of 17.

With her mother's blessing, Frazier began appearing at café society functions and was regularly photographed and featured in the society pages of magazines and newspapers at the age of 12. By the time she was a teenager, the press and public had begun taking a keen interest in wealthy members of high society who had not lost their fortunes due to the Wall Street Crash of 1929. Readers living through the Great Depression were eager to read about the lives of wealthy and glamorous "Poor Little Rich Girls" such as Frazier, Gloria Vanderbilt, Doris Duke, and Barbara Hutton, who consequently were frequently written about and photographed. The press eventually began calling them "Glamour Girls". Frazier gained attention as a teenager after columnist Walter Winchell began writing about her; he reportedly coined the portmanteau "celebutante" in her honor. In 1936, two years before her society debut, society journalist Maury Henry Biddle Paul (known as Cholly Knickerbocker) wrote "It may seem a bit early, but I – here and now – predict Brenda Frazier will be one of the belles if not the Belle of her season." Cholly Knickerbocker's prediction boosted Frazier's profile and her upcoming debutante ball became one of the most anticipated social events of 1938. Frazier was routinely photographed and popularized the famous "white face" look: powdered white skin contrasted with red painted lips, combined with perfectly coiffed dark hair. (She later said she suffered from neck problems because she rarely moved her head for fear of mussing her hair.) The publicity and constant attention got to the point where she found it “devastating”, turning her into an attraction and robbed her of her own identity. Concurrently, Frazier developed anorexia and bulimia to keep her weight down; she once quipped that she had "invented" anorexia. Both of her eating disorders would plague her for the remainder of her life. In 1938, the year of her debut, Frazier was dubbed "the #1 Glamour Girl" and was considered to be “the best advertisement for just about everything.” The title character in the long running comic strip Brenda Starr, Reporter was named after her. In November, her photograph appeared on the cover of Life magazine, securing her international fame. A perfume, “Sarong” was created in her honor, department stores borrowed her likeness for fashion illustrations, and Frazier would go on to pose for Woodbury soap and Studebaker car ads (even though she could not drive), among others. Frazier's debutante party was held on December 27, 1938, at the Ritz Carlton in New York City with 2,000 people in attendance. Despite having the flu and swollen feet, Frazier danced with Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and other celebrities until 6:30 am. At the age of 21, Frazier inherited a total of Sources conflict on what portion of that inheritance was actually available for her use. Frazier contended that the entire sum was sequestered in a trust fund, distributable only to her children upon her death (or to Yale University if she remained childless). "Everybody thought my mother and I were swimming in wealth at the time of my debut," she wrote. "Actually we had only a little money, which the surrogate court gave us out of the trust fund income, to live on." She added, "One reason I went to the Stork Club so often was that Sherman Billingsley, to attract debutantes, served us lunch for just a dollar apiece."

Frazier married football star Shipwreck Kelly at her mother's apartment at the Ritz Carlton in New York City on June 30, 1941. She gave birth to a daughter, Brenda Victoria, in 1945. Frazier and Kelly divorced in 1956. After several tempestuous relationships, including ones with cartoonist Peter Arno and Howard Hughes, Frazier and her daughter moved to a small town near Cape Cod. Frazier later told friends that she regretted marrying Chatfield Taylor right away. They divorced in 1962.