Brenda Frazier

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Brenda Diana Duff Frazier (June 9, 1921 - May 3, 1982), was an American debutante popular during the Depression era. Her December 1938 coming-out party was so heavily publicized worldwide she eventually appeared on the cover of Life magazine for that reason alone.

Brenda's father, Frank Frazier, came from a wealthy Boston family. Her mother, also named Brenda, was the daughter of Lady Jane Williams-Taylor and Sir Frederick Williams-Taylor, the president of the Bank of Montreal. Both parents drank heavily, caroused separately and eventually divorced, causing little Brenda to spend much time with her social-climbing maternal grandmother.

[edit] Fame

Young Brenda completed her education at Miss Chapin's School for Girls and finishing school at Miss Porter's. Sent to almost every social obligation she was invited to, Little Brenda made great inroads in securing her picture everywhere. She had invented the famous “white-face” look. Powdered skin made a startling contrast to her very red painted lips combined with dark, dark – almost blue-black – hair perfectly coifed. Brenda often developed a stiff neck, as she feared moving her head lest a hair fall out of place. She sported strapless gowns and made a sensation with that trend as well. During the year of her debut Brenda was at the beck and call of press agents worldwide. She was most often written about by columnist Walter Winchell. Occasionally, she did stop to think about where all this was coming from. In "The Story of Brenda Frazier" by Gioia Diliberto, Frazier's daughter Victoria remembered her saying, “I’m not a celebrity,” she said, “I don’t deserve all this. I haven’t done anything at all. I’m just a debutante.” ^{[citation needed]}

The press, both awestruck and vindictive, constantly wrote of “Poor Little Rich Girls” – such as Brenda, Gloria Vanderbilt, Doris Duke and Barbara Hutton. As so many in Society lost their fortunes during the Depression, lineage was no longer the sole common denominator. “Publi-ciety” – a combination of money, social standing and news coverage also entered the Winchell lexicon. And then there were the “Glamour Girls.” In 1938 Brenda Frazier was dubbed Glamour Girl #1.

Leading the pack, she had become a cottage industry. She posed in ads for Woodbury soap and Studebaker cars (even though she couldn’t drive) among others. In November she achieved the opus of fame – her face on the cover of Life magazine. The article inside gave hardly a mention of Brenda but from it she secured international wattage.

The morning of her debut her face was puffy with fever and was suffering from painful edema in her legs. All in all, however, the debut was a success carried on the front page of newspapers around the world.

Brenda married athlete and record-holding pole-sitter "Shipwreck" Kelly in New York in 1941. She gave birth to a daughter, Victoria, in 1945 and attempted a typical suburban marriage, however, the excessive nightlife caught up with her. She experienced several nervous breakdowns, suffered from anorexia and bulimia and during the 1950s she and Kelly divorced.

After several tempestuous relationships, Brenda and daughter moved to a small town near Cape Cod where she married once more, to distant relation Robert Chatfield-Taylor. This marriage also ended in divorce.

In 1966, photographer Diane Arbus took a now-famous picture for Esquire magazine. Propped up in bed, a cigarette nearby, her face was haggard and worn. Arbus nakedly revealed the real Brenda Frazier - exhausted, the parade having passed her by.

Victimized by her own consumption of too much living, Brenda retreated from the outside world and practically became a hermit. Still not forgotten however, she was mentioned in the Stephen Sondheim song, “I’m Still Here” while living in relative obscurity until her death from bone cancer in Boston, Massachusetts, aged 60.