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Mercedes de Acosta (1893 - 1968)
Author, poet, screenwriter, and playwright Mercedes de Acosta was born 1 March in New York. Her parents were wealthy Cuban immigrants, though she herself always claimed to have Castilian ancestry. While her screenplays were never produced, her stage plays were critically blasted, and her poems are today unread, she remains famous in GLBT circles today for her many friendships and love affairs, claiming Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas, Malvina Hoffman, Isadora Duncan, Alla Nazimova, Cecil Beaton, Ivor Stravinsky, Auguste Rodin, Edith Wharton, Eleanora Duce, Tamara Karsavina, Elsa Maxwell, Marie Doro, Bessie Marbury, Eva Le Galliene, Noel Coward, Dorothy "Dickie" Fellowes-Gordon, Pola Negri, Prince Felix Yusupov (one of the assassins of Rasputin), Mata Hari (her brother-in-law's mistress), Amy Lowell, Eleanora von Mendlesson, Ona Munson, Adrian, Ram Gopal, Marguerite D'Alvarez, Kathleen Howard, designer Valentina Schlee (who shared her husband with Garbo), and Andy Warhol among her many friends, acquaintances, and lovers. Indeed, when Truman Capote invented his cocktail party "International Daisy Chain" game, a naughty precursor to "Six Degrees" in which one tried to sexually link a given celebrity with everyone else on the planet, Mercedes was the trump card. Mercedes de Acosta had an unconventional nature which manifested itself early in her life. Calling herself "Raphael," and dressing in boy's clothes, she believed herself to be a boy until the age of seven, when the sight of her male playmate's penises shocked her into reality. Even then, she would not admit to being a girl for a long time, even theorizing she might be both male and female. As an adult she continued to question male-female dichotomy, believing it to be a materialist doctrine that limited people to the purely physical, and claimed that homosexuality and bisexuality enabled one to transcend the physical and enter a purer form of love and a more enlightened sense of beauty. To a degree, she echoed Plato, who held similar ideas about male homosexuality. She also referred to gays and bisexuals as "half-tone people," analogizing them to dawn and twilight, which she felt were the most beautiful and magical times of the day. Her ideas on faith and religion were equally outside the norm. A devout Roman Catholic as a child, she would kneel for hours in prayer or walk with nails and rocks in her shoes. She later abandoned Western religion as "too dogmatic," and began exploring Eastern philosophies, eventually converting to the teachings of Krishnamurti. She believed in both astral projection and reincarnation, and claimed that she had known many of her lovers and friends in previous lives and could visit them astrally. She was also a vegetarian, and was horrified if anyone so much as killed a bug in her presence. Mercedes' sister Rita posed for some of the greatest painters of the early twentieth century, and it was through her that Mercedes first met Rodin, Stravinsky, and other notables in the artistic, musical, and literary circles. One, Abram Poole, whom Cecil Beaton later described as "a good man (but) a bad painter," became her husband. An early feminist, Mercedes insisted on keeping her own name, and even refused to be addressed as "Mrs." One of her first lesbian lovers, Isadora Duncan, first impressed Mercedes by eschewing the restrictive women's clothing of the time in favor of free flowing gowns. Mercedes herself wore only black, white, or combinations thereof, and adopted a style reminiscent of an eighteenth-century highwayman, complete with tricorn hat, cape, and silver buckled shoes. Following her affair with Isadora, Mercedes' first serious relationship was with Eva Le Galliene, a stage actress whose father had been a close friend of Oscar Wilde. The relationship was so intense that at one point it caused a rivalry between Eva and Mercedes' husband, Abram. After a brief affair with Gladys Calthrop, one of Noel Coward's set designers, Eva eventually left Mercedes for Alice DeLamar, heir to a Colorado gold mine, who agreed to sponsor Eva's efforts to found a repertory theater. After a period of mourning which she spent traveling through Europe, Mercedes went to Hollywood, a town she later described as not so much depraved as stupid, vulgar, and tasteless, to write a script for Pola Negri. It was there that she met the great love of her life, Greta Garbo. Mercedes first saw Garbo in 1925 in a picture taken of the actress and sent to Mercedes by photographer Arnold Genthe. She was instantly in love with the film star and followed her career avidly. In 1931 she had her first meeting with Garbo while the two were guests at the home of lesbian author Salka Viertel. An instant friendship developed which soon blossomed into love, highlighted by a six week vacation spent together at a cabin on Silver Lake. In 1932 Greta Garbo went on a trip back to her native Sweden, and soon after Mercedes was fired from her screenwriter job at MGM when she refused to include a purely fictional scene in the script for Rasputin and the Empress. Depressed by both the loss of her job and the absence of her love, she accepted an invitation from Cecil Beaton to attend a dance performance, where she met and began a second love affair with Marlene Dietrich, who Mercedes nicknamed her "Golden One." Marlene comforted Mercedes during this time, and even helped her out financially. She also had flowers sent almost daily to Mercedes' house, filling the home with roses and carnations. Apparently, Dietrich and Garbo were both aware of each other's presence in Mercedes' life, but there were no signs of jealousy between them. Both followed Mercedes' suggestion and began appearing in public in trousers, starting a new fashion trend among women. In 1933 Mercedes was in a car crash in which she was thrown from the car and landed on her head, suffering head injuries which may have contributed to her need for brain surgery nearly thirty years later. By then, her relationships with Garbo and Dietrich had cooled, though they remained in touch with her and continued to help her from time to time. Two years later, at her own suggestion, Abram Poole divorced Mercedes to marry one of his models. Some time in the early forties, Mercedes accidentally got cleaning fluid in one eye and lost sight in it, after which she began stylishly sporting an eye patch. In 1948 Mercedes had her last long term relationship with Poppy Kirk, a fashion model whose arrival in her life Mercedes believed she had foreseen in a dream. Poppy left her husband, a diplomat, to live with Mercedes in Paris, but by 1953 she returned to him and the love affair was ended. Mercedes returned to New York, where her life took increasing turns for the worse. Here Lies the Heart, Mercedes' memoir of her life and loves, appeared in 1960. While Marlene Dietrich, Cecil Beaton, and Alice B. Toklas gave positive critiques to Mercedes, many others attacked the book, and Greta Garbo completely disowned her. Mercedes' mercurial temperament and passions had earned her as many enemies as allies, including Tallulah Bankhead, who had bequeathed Mercedes with the epithet, "Countess Dracula." The appearance of Here Lies the Heart only made their attacks even more vicious. To make matters worse, the book was not well received by critics, and did not sell well on its initial run. Brain surgery had to performed on Mercedes de Acosta in 1961, and she had to sell her jewelry to pay the bill. Offered thousands to sell her letters from Garbo, she instead consigned them to the Rosenbach Museum, on the condition that they not be revealed to the public until ten years after Garbo's death. That same year, Abram Poole died and Mercedes began a brief relationship with a struggling young British actress which brought little comfort. In 1963, another operation was required for her leg, and an infectious fever set in. By then, Mercedes was dependent on money from Rosenbach curator William McCarthy and Malvina Hoffman, which continued until McCarthy's 1965 suicide and Hoffman's death in 1966, after which assistance from other sources became necessary. Mercedes befriended and helped get initial exposure for Andy Warhol, and author and playwright Kieran Tunney also befriended Mercedes before her clinging, demanding nature and occasional fits of bad temper drove him away. Finally, Mercedes de Acosta died penniless and alone on 9 May, 1968. When commenting on the death of his old friend, Cecil Beaton wrote, "I am relieved that her long drawn out unhappiness has at last come to an end." A little over a year after her death, the gay rights movement emerged with the Stonewall riots, and a new interest in gay history and culture had arisen, coinciding with a nostalgia for the golden years of Hollywood. A mid-seventies reprint of Here Lies the Heart proved far more successful then the original 1960 run, and Mercedes de Acosta became one of the best known names in lesbian history. The increasing mystique surrounding Dietrich and especially Garbo only added to people's interest in Mercedes. In 2000, ten years after Garbo's death, her letters were opened and placed on public view by the Rosenbach Museum, despite protests from the Garbo estate, which feared the letters would detail the relationship and prove Garbo's lesbianism. However, the letters contained only gossip exchanged between the two women, with no hint of romance or sex. After keeping first Garbo and then her executors on pins for nearly forty years, Mercedes had the last laugh. Hugo Vicker's Loving Garbo (New York: Random House, 1994), was the main source used for this article and is highly recommended. Portrait of Mercedes de Acosta by Abram Poole Celebrity Page by Laurence Frommer Garbo's love letters to woman poet to go on exhibit - CBC Infoculture Excerpt from Here Lies the Heart
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