Throwback
Thursday and Evelyn Nesbit
She was born
Florence Evelyn Nesbit on Christmas Day in 1884 in Pennsylvania. After her father died, Evelyn Nesbit began
modeling to help support the family. She always posed fully dressed, and worked
for many different artists.
In 1900, she
moved to New York, and her rise to fame began. She became the inspiration for
several art pieces, including George Grey Barnard’s Innocence, and Charles Dana Gibson’s Women: The Eternal Question. Soon she was on the covers of many
magazines like Harper’s Bazaar, and Ladies’ Home Journal. Her likeness is probably the one everyone thinks about when visualizing the fashions of the early 20th century.
In 1901 she
joined the chorus line for the Broadway play Florodora after which she left to accept a speaking role in another
Broadway play, The Wild Rose.
But soon
things began to unravel. She met Stanford White, New York architect and
socialite, but their relationship was short-lived. She then married millionaire
Harry K. Thaw, who was apparently a jealous man. He walked up to White one
night at Madison Square Garden and, at close range, shot and killed him.
It became
the “trial of the century” and Evelyn Nesbit was called as a witness. Due to
the huge amount of publicity, the jury was sequestered- the first time in
American history that this had been done. Thaw received a life sentence to a
hospital for the criminally insane.
Evelyn went
on with her life after the trial. She appeared in silent films and in
vaudeville, and she penned two memoirs. In 1955, a movie was made about her
life called The Girl in the Red Velvet
Swing.
She died on
January 17, 1967 in Santa Monica, California.
From the Big Blue Book of Ballet Secrets
Dance History Factoid #176:
“Evelyn Nesbit was the first supermodel and
chorus girl known for being involved in a murder.”
Link of the Day:
Quote of the Day:
“Nobody can
live in the past or the future without being something of a nut.”
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