Nina Goldbin - About the Women

Nina Goldbin, Rags-to-Riches

Nina Goldbin is a relatively recent find in my hunt for ancestors and like most of my discoveries, it was completely unexpected. Lately, I have been searching for any new information (new to me), which has allowed me to update, add to, and generally refresh my older posts. There is always new information available and this round of inquiry was very fruitful. When I found Nina, I was intrigued and the more I looked into her story, the more interesting it became. The rags-to-riches title may be a bit of an exaggeration but I think it is safe to say that Nina rose from very humble beginnings to something completely unexpected.

Nina, circa 1922

Nina was the second or third born child of Henry Goldbin (b.1871, d.1945) and Elizabeth Ostenberg (b.1875, d.1938), born on January 17, 1898, in the Town of Blooming Grove, Dane County, Wisconsin. You can find more information on the Ostenberg family here. She was a first cousin to my great-grandmother. One source noted that her name may have been Ada Louise but at the age of six, she was already listed as Nina in the 1905 Wisconsin state census. Her father, Henry, was born in Wisconsin to Norwegian immigrants (Nels and Mary), and he grew up on the family farm in the Town of Vermont in Dane County. Also born in Wisconsin, her mother, Elizabeth, was the daughter of German immigrants (Frederick and Elizabeth), and she grew up on the family farm in the Town of Blue Mounds, also in Dane County. Henry is listed in various census records as a carpenter and farmer and living in Blooming Grove until at least 1930. He outlived Elizabeth and may have spent his last years in California, as he was noted to have died in Orange County but is buried next to his wife at Union Cemetery in Mount Horeb, Wisconsin.

We can surmise that Nina's childhood was not much different from that of other children living in rural Dane County; most were first or second-generation sons and daughters of immigrants, and a great many were from Germany and Norway. So, how did Nina 'escape' that very ordinary life and end up living in Newport, Rhode Island and the Bel-Air neighborhood of Los Angeles? How that started is a mystery but it is known that she obtained a passport in March of 1922, with the intent to sail off to England and France. Her passport application lists her as a hairdresser, living in Chicago. A man named Edward Coulson, also noted as a hairdresser, was listed as a witness on her passport application. He was over twice her age, and it might be assumed that she worked for him. They are both listed as passengers on a ship that arrived back in New York in 1925.

The description of Nina Goldbin from her passport application.

There are records of at least three voyages between 1925 and 1929. Ship manifests indicate her address at 565 Fifth Avenue, New York (or maybe that was a work address?). Sometime between the late teens and early 1920s, Nina went from a farm girl to a world traveler with a New York address. During that time, she has been credited with bringing the 'Permanent Wave' hairstyle (some say she popularized it) from Paris to America. The next phase in her life would be marriage. 

On July 20, 1929, she married Raymond John Anderton (b.1881, d.1939) in Chicago. Raymond's first wife had died in 1928. Raymond's father, John, was one of the owners of the Union Cooperage company of Pawtucket, Rhode Island and tragically died cleaning out debris after a fire at the business when Raymond was just 16 years old. Raymond's various occupations included: the fishing business in New York (1920s), the textile milling business in Massachusetts (1930s), possibly with his brother George, and as a Trader (stocks). He became very wealthy and the couple lived for a time in Newport and also had a residence in Bel-Air. Their home in Newport at 77 Catherine Street, which survives, is a 5,500 sf, 14-room, 5-bedroom house on extensively landscaped 1-1/3 acres. Their home in Bel-Air at 778 Sarbonne Road is gone.  

Nina and Raymond's Newport, Rhode Island home.

Nina Goldbin and Raymond Anderton, about 1931.

Nina and Raymond were only married for about 10 years when he died of a heart attack at their Bel-Air home. After Raymond's death, she would carry on and stay active in his businesses. In 1943, she married Arthur Westermark (b.1892, d.1960). The marriage took place in her home in Los Angeles. Nina and Arthur had met years before when she was studying in Paris but she rejected his marriage proposal at that time. The marriage didn't last and they were divorced in 1944. Her third marriage was to Thomas Winans (b.1904, d.1958). They were married in 1946 in a place called "The Little Church Around the Corner" in New York City. This marriage would also not last but it is unclear how long they were married. He was noted to have remarried in 1955 and died in 1958.

The entrance to Nina's Bel-Air home. The house has
been razed and there is new construction on the site.

After this, Nina would not remarry and concentrate her efforts on the Los Angeles social scene and philanthropy. The Los Angeles Times noted: "Ten to 20 persons always sat down at the table when Nina G. Anderton gave an intimate dinner. For her annual party, though, no fewer than 300 showed up for cocktails, a buffet and dancing. For the opening of the desert season every year, she would invite several hundred persons to the El Miramar in Palm Springs to take part in her program to raise money for charity. Her picture often appeared in newspaper society sections. Usually she was shown with some entertainer like Hugh O'Brien, Jeanette MacDonald or Rhonda Fleming, arranging some charity affair."

In 1952, she commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright to design a retail complex on Rodeo Drive, which would be called Anderton Court Shops. The three-story complex features a central spire, large windows and an encircling ramp and stands out among its more mundane retail neighbors. It was noted that there was some friction between the client and the architect as the project was over budget and suffered from delays. In 2024, the shops underwent a significant restoration and is now the West Coast headquarters of Givenchy.

Anderton Court Shops on Rodeo Drive, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

Nina (right) with actress Deborah Kerr and former Dutch
Diplomat Henri Jan Van Oosten, at UCLA Medical Center in 1956.

Nina was also the victim of a number of thefts of jewelry and property. In one incident, she was attacked and beaten in her garage in Newport in the course of the robbery. These incidents were the topic of a number of newspaper articles and information on these crimes floats around the internet to this day. She had an astonishing amount of loss from these thefts, losing nearly $500,000 in jewelry and furs in four separate incidents. She once remarked (about LA), "If I can't even sit down for a quiet dinner with friends without this sort of thing happening, what's the use in staying in such a city?"

Sometime after 1967, she moved from her house in Bel-Air to a high-rise apartment in Westwood and would live out her days there. The Los Angeles Times noted that she gave her last big party in May of 1979 and would die in November at the age of 81. She is buried in the Anderton family plot at Swan Point Cemetery in Providence, Rhode Island.

Again, from the Los Angeles Times (at the time of her death), "Mrs. Anderton always did things in the grand manner, her friends said. They described her as a gracious lady who, although she lived a luxurious life, always had a place in her heart for spastic children, orphans and the patients at the City of Hope Medical Center. For 40 years she was a tireless worker for such charitable events as the Ruby Ball and the horse show benefiting the City of Hope."

Nina, circa 1960s

Even today, her legacy lives on. The Nina Anderton Laboratory for Electron Microscopy is named for her at the University of California at Berkeley. More recently in 2020, an auction at Sothebys listed a diamond necklace from the Collection of Nina Goldbin Anderton, with an estimated value of $10,000, and even more impressive, a diamond brooch with an estimated value of $80,000 - $120,000 (both circa 1955 and she is wearing them in the photo above). Nina Goldbin came from humble beginnings but rose to become a strong, successful, and independent woman. She lived, what might be considered, a glamours life in the Hollywood Hills of the 1940s, 50s and 60s. I am glad I found her and could tell her story.

Additional Information:
You can find links to stories about other Women here . . . (coming soon)

Research Notes: Information for this post was found at Family Search, Find-a-Grave, the United States Census and other web-based sources.

This is one of the 'Women's Series,' of short biographies, specifically dedicated to writing about the Women in my ancestry. These will be undertaken, from time to time, when enough information becomes available about an individual.