Martha Graham

Martha Graham emerges in the diary as both an artist at work and a familiar center of New York’s cultural social life. Rehearsals, premieres, benefits, and dinners show her commanding attention; quieter observations register fatigue and the visible passage of age. Together, these scenes present her authority not as an abstract reputation but as something repeatedly witnessed in rooms where she speaks, works, and gathers people around her.

Presence and social standing

At a gathering at Mrs. Kaiser’s apartment, Martha Graham was the first person the narrator saw. The room’s striking white-on-white design, its unusually large bedroom, and a floor-to-ceiling window made a strong impression on the narrator, but the account begins with Graham’s presence among the guests. C. Z. Guest was there, as were Marisol, Larry Rivers, Elsa Peretti, Jane Holzer, and others. Polly Bergen and the narrator had recently discussed androgyny on Bergen’s television show. Graham’s appearance in this company places her within a social circle where art, fashion, and public performance readily overlap, while her status is taken for granted rather than explained.

That position is also apparent at a benefit for Graham. Halston staged a fashion show at Bergdorf Goodman, and the narrator attended after leaving the office and changing. Mrs. Kaiser paid for the narrator’s ticket, which cost one hundred dollars, and Graham was the beneficiary around whom the occasion gathered its familiar society audience. The diary records introductions to the store’s owners and notes that Mrs. Kaiser was captivated by Esther Phillips. The details make the benefit feel like a social event with its own network of patrons and performers, but Graham’s name supplies its purpose and organizing focus.

Graham also appears at other people’s occasions without losing that stature. At a gathering where Paulette Goddard described the disappointing sale of her rugs, Graham was among those the narrator spoke with, alongside Rosemary Harris, Cyril Ritchard, Rex Harrison, and Sylvia Porter. The entry is brief, but its placement is telling: Graham belongs to the recurring cast of prominent people the narrator encounters, while the diary remains attentive to the ordinary conversations and disappointments that accompany public distinction.

Rehearsal, performance, and authority

A visit to Graham’s studio with Halston brings the narrator closer to her work. Graham arrived for a rehearsal, and the narrator described her as impressive and strikingly youthful. The entry also notes that a man looked after her, and that she had demanding travel ahead: a command performance in England, followed by engagements in Egypt and Lisbon. A performance in Iran had been cancelled. The itinerary conveys both the scale of her professional commitments and the strain of maintaining them; the narrator wonders how she can manage such travel at her age, while acknowledging how difficult the work is.

Graham’s authority is particularly visible around a performance of Clytemnestra at Lincoln Center. The diary says the dance turned out very well and that Graham was delighted, having worried about it beforehand. Rudolf Nureyev also danced, but the narrator judged his performance harshly and later saw him in the dressing room. The contrast makes the narrator’s response to Graham’s work more than a general expression of affection: the production’s success matters to her, and Graham’s relief and pleasure are specifically noted.

On another evening, the narrator hurried to a Martha Graham event and arrived in time for Graham’s customary hour-long speech. The account records Graham’s wish to be an actress, then turns to Rudolf Nureyev’s dancing, which the narrator again found unsuccessful as modern dance. The juxtaposition gives Graham a voice and a public presence before the performance is even discussed. She is not simply the name attached to a program; she addresses the room at length, and the diary registers her aspirations as well as her artistic standing.

The diary also catches the preparations and rituals surrounding a major appearance. During a stay at The Savoy, Graham arrived with Ron Protas after traveling from Denmark. The narrator describes her as very tired but says they stood talking and that the conversation was enjoyable. Later, at the opening of Graham’s performance at Covent Garden in London, the group assembled in Halston’s room before taking seats in the front row of the balcony. Graham’s opening is embedded in a network of companions and arrangements, yet the scene’s destination remains her performance.

Company, dinners, and influence

Graham’s influence extends beyond the stage into the choices people make about how to socialize. After the performance of Clytemnestra, the group went to Halston’s for a small supper. The narrator and others tried to bring some of the dancers along, but Halston said Graham would not like that, so the gathering remained limited to a smaller circle. The account does not explain Graham’s preference further, but the decision shows that her wishes mattered even when she was not directing the evening herself. The dinner included Bianca Jagger, Liza Minnelli, and others, placing the performance’s aftermath within the same social world that had surrounded its preparation.

At a dinner held for Graham at Halston’s, the diary records another kind of surrounding tension: Steve Rubell was awaiting sentencing, which had been postponed amid a dispute about whether he would testify in court. The entry does not make Graham part of that dispute, but her dinner provides the setting in which the conversation took place. Across these appearances, she is both an honored guest and a stable point around which otherwise separate strands of the narrator’s social life briefly meet.

Photographs preserve the same public network in a more formal arrangement. One caption places Graham in Halston’s Olympic Tower showroom beside Benjamin Liu, Jane Holzer, and Liza Minnelli; another identifies her alone. These small records extend the diary’s portrait beyond remembered encounters. Graham is shown among colleagues and society figures, but also as a subject in her own right, singled out for the camera.

Age, vulnerability, and the limits of the body

The narrator’s admiration does not prevent her from noticing Graham’s physical vulnerability. At the studio, Graham’s upcoming schedule prompts concern about the demands of travel. During the same conversation, cosmetic surgery came up. The narrator recalls hearing that a kind couple had helped Graham when she was down and out by paying for a facelift, after which her career revived. Graham also mentioned the possibility of hand surgery. The diary presents these details as part of a candid conversation about appearance and physical change, not as a complete account of her medical history.

Later, at Halston’s show, the narrator thought Graham looked old for the first time. She immediately qualified the impression: Graham usually wore makeup, and on this occasion she did not. The observation sits beside the earlier description of her as so young and the diary’s reports of her active rehearsals and international engagements. Rather than replacing admiration with a single judgment, the entries hold together the apparent youth of her presence, her demanding work, and the visible signs of age.

A later account, relayed by Halston, connects Graham to a medical episode affecting him. He told the narrator that he and Graham had both received B-12 injections, and that a contaminated syringe had led to a serious complication for him. The narrator believed Halston’s account and noted his relief that the matter had not appeared in the papers. The diary does not describe Graham’s own outcome, so the episode offers no basis for claims about her health; its significance is that her name surfaces in a private story Halston shared, alongside the public life of performances and dinners. Across the entries, Graham remains present in both registers: an artist whose work and wishes shape events, and a person encountered amid travel, fatigue, aging, and the practical vulnerabilities of the body.