Marion Barbara ‘Joe’ Carstairs (1900-1993) was one of the most famous socialites of the 20th century. Her hobbies included: racing power boats, owning a women-led garage, and collecting rare dolls on her private islands.
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A previous version of this episode was corrected. It incorrectly stated the century in which Marion Barbara ‘Joe’ Carstairs' lived.
Hello, from Wonder Media Network, I’m Jenny Kaplan and this is Encyclopedia Womannica.
Today, we’re talking about one of the most famous socialites of the 20th century. Her hobbies included: racing power boats, owning a women-led garage, and collecting rare dolls on her private islands. Please welcome the one, the only, Joe Carstairs.
Joe was born Marion Barbara Carstairs in London in 1900. She was the daughter of Fannie Evelyn Bostwick, American heiress to the Standard Oil fortune. Her father was Captain Albert Carstairs, a Scottish Army Officer. Joe was barely born before Albert and Fannie divorced, and some biographers have doubted whether Albert was Joe’s biological father.
Throughout Joe’s childhood, she and her mother lived tumultuous-- and often conflicting-- lives. Fannie was an alcoholic and a drug addict, and remarried four times. Her last marriage was to a surgeon famous for his… unique rejuvenation practices which involved transplanting monkey testicle tissue into humans.
Meanwhile, Joe grew up bucking every gender norm she encountered, especially those behaviors deemed suitable for a young oil heiress like herself. Joe would later claim she “came out of the womb queer.” By age 11, she had taken to wearing men’s clothes, rejected more feminine practices, and traded her given name “Marion” for the more masculine, “Joe.”
Before Joe could enter secondary school, her mother shipped her off to a Connecticut charm school in hopes Joe would pick up high society customs. . But by the time she turned 16, Joe broke out of boarding school and enlisted as an ambulance driver in World War I. Displeased with her daughter’s behavior, Fannie threatened to cut Joe off financially unless she straightened up and got married.
So, Joe did. In 1918, Joe married a French aristocrat and childhood friend. Three years later, Fannie died. Joe took her money, annulled her marriage, and was back to living under the Carstairs name as a liberated heiress.
Joe used her money to start a women-only car service. She called it “X-Garage.” It consisted entirely of women drivers and mechanics and functioned as a car-hire service. Customers included veterans and widowers of war as well as London's elite. Joe lived above the garage, sometimes accompanied by friends and lovers.
Cars proved too tame for Joe. In 1925, she funneled at least half a million dollars into speedboats and yachts, determined to become a motorboat champion. She won her first trophy with her first speedboat, named “Gwen” after a former girlfriend. She also went on to win the competitive Duke of York’s trophy. Her attempts to win the Harmsworth Trophy-- the most prestigious motorboat prize in the world-- proved less fruitful. Despite multiple races and multiple custom-made boats, Joe never won. She did, however, earn a nickname for her dedication to the sport: Fans knew her as “The Fastest Woman on Water.”
Joe’s personal life was a hot topic in tabloids. She was well-known around town for her tattooed arms and masculine fashion. She became even more well-known for the group of on-again, off-again lovers she amassed. It included the likes of Tallulah Bankhead, Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, and Dolly Wilde, Oscar Wilde’s niece.
One of Joe’s most famous eccentricities was a gift from a former girlfriend: A 12-inch-tall doll she named Lord Tod Wadley. She became so attached to the doll, she had custom luxury clothes made for it and added its name to her front door plaque.
In 1934, Joe bought herself a private island in the Bahamas for $40,000. On the island, she built Whale Cay, a resort hideaway for her famous array of sometimes-friends sometimes-lovers. She set up a power plant, a radio station, a schoolhouse, and even a personal museum on the island. Eventually, she purchased an additional four islands.
Joe’s relationship with Whale Cay fell somewhere between owning land and, as Joe herself would later put it, “running a country.” She gave several friends and staff on the island stipends for life. Most of them were Bahamians who lived there prior to Joe’s arrival. And while reports of Joe’s exploits stressed her financial generosity and focus on local agriculture, her approach was also deemed “paternalistic.”
In 1975, Joe sold Whale Cay and moved to Florida. In her later years, she recorded monologues of herself on tape so someone could someday write a biography of her life. She died at the age of 93 in Naples, Florida. She requested to be cremated-- and, in proper Joe Carstairs fashion, she took Lord Tod Wadley with her.
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