Actors - Evelyn Nesbit

Home > Listing Index > Actors > Evelyn Nesbit

	Actors - Evelyn Nesbit

Evelyn Nesbit (December 25, 1884 – January 17, 1967) was an artists' model and chorus girl, noted for her entanglement in the murder of her ex-lover, architect Stanford White, by her first husband, Harry K. Thaw.

Birth

Born Florence Evelyn Nesbit in Tarentum, Pennsylvania, her family was left destitute when her father, a lawyer named Winfield Scott Nesbit, died in 1893 leaving substantial debts. For years Evelyn, her mother and younger brother lived in poverty, sometimes going without food, but fortunately by the time she reached adolescence Evelyn's beauty came to the attention of local artists, including John Storm, for whom she posed as a artists' model.

In 1901, at the age 16, she and her mother moved to New York City where she continued to work as an artists' model, posing for [[Frederick Church and photographer Rudolf Eickemeyer and becoming the sole support of her family. Charles Dana Gibson reportedly used Evelyn as the inspiration for his illustrations of the "Gibson Girl."

Stanford White

As a Florodora chorus girl on Broadway, Nesbit caught the attention of acclaimed architect Stanford White, then 47 to her 16. The fact that he was married and made a hobby of "befriending" young women was overlooked by Evelyn's mother, who encouraged White's patronage. In his lavish tower apartment at Madison Square Garden, (which he designed), he had installed a red velvet swing from which he derived sexual pleasure by watching countless young women - including Evelyn - swing (Evelyn would later be sensationalized in the 1955 movie "The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing"). White allegedly took her virginity there, after getting her to try on a yellow kimino and plying her with champagne -- a claim she repeated to her first husband, although at the end of her life she claimed that the charismatic "Stanny" was the only man she had ever loved. White arranged to have her educated for a year at a New Jersey boarding school run by the mother of film director Cecil B. DeMille.

John Barrymore

At the time of her affair with White, Evelyn was courted by the young John Barrymore, by whom she became pregnant. She turned down his marriage proposal, however, due to her continued emotional involvement with White (in addition to her mother's dim view of the 22-year-old Barrymore's financial prospects), and White arranged to send her away to have an abortion (or, possibly, the baby) under cover of being treated for "appendicitis".

Harry Kendall Thaw

White and Barrymore were subsequently supplanted in her life by Harry Kendall Thaw (1871-1947) of Pittsburgh, the son of a coal and railroad baron. Thaw was extremely possessive of Nesbit (he reportedly carried a pistol), and was especially obsessive about the details of her relationship with White (whom he referred to as "The Beast.") Addicted to cocaine, Thaw was also a sexual sadist who subjected women -- including Evelyn -- to severe whippings. However, following a trip to Europe, Evelyn finally accepted one of Thaw's repeated marriage proposals and they were wed on April 4, 1905.

Murder of Stanford White

On June 25, 1906 Evelyn and Harry saw White at the restaurant Cafè Martin and ran into him again in the audience of the Madison Square Garden's roof theatre at a performance of Mamzelle Champagne. During the song, "I Could Love A Million Girls", Thaw fired three shots at close range into White's face, killing him instantly and reportedly exclaiming, "You will never see that woman again!"

Child

Evelyn had one child, Russell William Thaw, who was born on October 25, 1910 (he died in 1984). A noted pilot of World War II, as a child he appeared in the Hollywood films of his mother. The identity of his father, however, remains in doubt. While Harry Thaw swore he was not the child's father (he was born during Thaw's confinement), Evelyn testified that he was.

Trial

Following the death of Stanford White, there were two murder trials. At the first, the jury was deadlocked; at the second, (in which Evelyn testified on his behalf) Thaw pled temporary insanity (this was the first time the insanity defense was used). Thaw's mother (usually referred to as "Mother Thaw") promised Evelyn that if she would testify that Stanford White had raped her and that Harry had only tried to avenge her honor, she would receive a quiet divorce and a one million dollar divorce settlement. Evelyn got the divorce -- but not the money, and was cut off financially by Thaw's mother.

Thaw was incarcerated at the Asylum for the Criminally Insane at Matawan, New Jersey, but enjoyed nearly complete freedom. In 1913 he walked out of the asylum and was driven over the Canadian border into Sherbrooke, Quebec. He was extradited back to the U.S. but in 1915 was released from custody after being judged sane.

Late career

In the years following the second trial, Evelyn Nesbit Thaw's career as a vaudeville performer, silent film actress and cafe manager was only modestly successful, her life marred by suicide attempts. In 1916 she married her dancing partner, Jack Clifford (1880-1956, born Virgil James Montani). He left her in 1918, and she divorced him in 1933.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Evelyn Nesbit ]

This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article Evelyn Nesbit; it is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL.