Anne Moen Bullitt
Anne Moen Bullitt (February 24, 1924 – August 18, 2007) was an American socialite, philanthropist, and horsebreeder.[1][2] In her youth she was regarded as a great beauty, and was known for assembling a wardrobe of rare and valuable classic haute couture items.[3] She traveled widely and was married four times.
Anne Moen Bullitt | |
|---|---|
| Born | February 24, 1924 Philadelphia, United States |
| Died | August 18, 2007 (aged 83) Republic of Ireland |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | horsebreeder |
She bought a 700-acre estate in County Kildare, Ireland, where she became one of Ireland's first female horsebreeders.[4]
Early life
Bullitt's mother was Louise Bryant, best known for writing, as a witness to the founding of the Soviet Union, where she had traveled with her second husband, John Silas Reed. Her father was an independently wealthy diplomat, William C. Bullitt Jr., who had also been in Russia, at the time of the founding of the Soviet Union, as an unofficial observer for President Woodrow Wilson. The pair married in 1924, four years after Reed died of Typhus in the Soviet Union, just weeks before Anne Moen's birth.
Bullitt had almost no contact with her mother, as her father had divorced her when Anne was an infant, claiming she was an alcoholic and unfit mother. Accounts said young Anne followed her father everywhere, including on his diplomatic missions, and that he allowed her to hide, and listen, when he had meetings with other VIPs.
Legacy
Fashion legacy
According to Decades magazine she was a great beauty, with a figure like that of retro-vaudeville proponent Dita von Teese.[3] Decades magazine said she had an 18-inch waist, paired with a generous bosom. When her estate auctioned her extensive wardrobe of high-fashion items, at Christie's, in 2009, the Irish Independent reported she had a 20-inch waist, and an hourglass figure.[2] According to Decades magazine, she had an eye for fashion, and her wealth enabled her to buy items that became classic examples of the high-fashion of her period.
Parents' papers
Bullitt, and her advisors, donated the papers of her famous parents to her father's alma mater, Yale University, and she helped clarify some aspects of their lives.[1][5] Her father was an early friend and supporter of pioneering psychotherapist Sigmund Freud, and published a controversial book analyzing Woodrow Wilson, entitled Thomas Woodrow Wilson – A Psychological Study.[4] According to the New York Daily News, after Freud heard Bullitt declare she was so devoted to her father, she looked upon him as her god, he replied: "You know, I have developed a theory that male children's first love is their mother, and females', the father. But this is the first time a child has confirmed my theory."[6]
Palmerston House and Stud
Bullitt's health failed in her old age. Her vision deteriorated to the point that she lived in just three rooms of her stately Irish home. In 2000, after she agreed to sell her estate to Jim Mansfield, surprising her financial advisors, who had recommended a different buyer. In 2000 they had her declared a ward of court.[4]
In 2009 Bullitt's estate sued firms owned by Mansfield.[4] They claimed that a deposit he promised for the property that was supposed to be held in trust, and paid when the sale was completed, had been deposited with a company he owned, and had never been paid. In addition her estate claimed that personal possession of Bullitt were improperly in the possession of Mansfield, including valuable works of art by Pablo Picasso, and pistols once owned by George Washington.
References
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"Anne Moen Bullitt: A daughter of political aristocracy, she had class and culture second to none". Irish Independent. 2007-08-26. Retrieved 2017-01-05.
She was a famous beauty who had what Jane McDonald of The Glass magazine described as, "an amazing collection" of vintage clothes from all the famous Parisian designers from the golden era of haute couture.
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"Horse breeder's wardrobe for sale". Irish Independent. 2009-11-29. Retrieved 2017-01-05.
Pat Frost, head of the sale, said Ms Bullitt epitomised the perfect 1950s hourglass figure, which was set off by a tiny waist of just 20 inches.
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"Bullitt Point". Decades magazine. 2012-07-24. Retrieved 2017-01-05.
Bullitt was a famous collector of clothing and amassed a formidable collection of Balenciaga, Sybil Connolly, Lanvin, and Yves Saint Laurent.
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"Dispute over ownership of part of Bullitt estate settled". Irish Times. 2009-02-21. Retrieved 2017-01-05.
In the proceedings, US attorney Robert M Pennoyer, the personal representative of the estate of Ms Bullitt, who became a ward of court in 2000 and died in 2007, sought a declaration that the contents of Palmerstown House and Stud, set on 700 acres in Naas were her property. He also sought an order directing Mr Mansfield's company to make a full inventory of the contents, which allegedly include works of art including a Picasso, a Ming vase, a Japanese screen and the two pistols.
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"Socialite Anne Bullit Necklace to be Sold at Bonhams". Auction Publicity. 2007-11-17. Retrieved 2017-01-05.
But perhaps her greatest legacy was her meticulously catalogued collection of her famous parents' writings, which have subsequently been presented to Yale University. Amongst these papers are unpublished poems by Eugene O'Neill, Louise Bryant's notes for unpublished articles, her address books with numbers and addresses for Lenin, Trotsky, Marcel Duchamp, Anita Loos, Brancusi and Helen Keller, to name but a few, and manuscripts by Sigmund Freud – a friend of Bill Bullitt's, by whom he was psychoanalysed in the 1920s.
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"Brad Pitt, 43, laments growing old and ugly". New York Daily News. 2007-09-05. Retrieved 2017-01-05.
Anne Bullitt became Ireland's first female breeder of thoroughbred horses and had four husbands, including Nicholas Duke Biddle and U.S. Sen. Daniel B. Brewster, but her first love was her diplomat father. In fact, she once told his pal Sigmund Freud, 'My father is God.'
