Brenda Frazier

Powdered skin made a startling contrast to her very red painted lips combined with dark, dark hair, perfectly coiffed (Frazier's hair has often been described as "blue-black"; in fact, it was naturally a very dark brown; under low nightclub lighting and in black-and-white press photographs it appeared much darker). 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 Debutante: The Story of Brenda Frazier by Gioia Diliberto, Frazier's daughter, Victoria Kelly, 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.” Her family was equally dumbfounded. "I fear Brenda's being spoiled," said a great-aunt at the time of her great-niece's debut. "I bemoan all this spectacular notoriety."

The press, both awestruck and vindictive, constantly wrote of “Poor Little Rich Girls”—such as Frazier, 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”. Read Less