Florence Evelyn Nesbit (December 25, 1884 – January 17, 1967) was an American model, Broadway actress, writer, sculptor, and silent film star. Widely recognized as the world’s first supermodel, she is best known for her varied career in New York City. (Source: Wikipedia)
There are many people who were the talk of the town before I was born, but right in the middle of the USA’s first 250 years. Evelyn Nesbit was born 108 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence and 92 years before me. She died in 1967, nine years before our paths could have crossed.
Her story is tragic and illustrative of how deep the rot goes when it comes to rich and powerful men coveting youth and beauty. Nesbit married Harry Kendall Thaw, a millionaire, fourteen years her senior. In 1906, a year after their marriage, Thaw killed Stanford White, a prominent architecht of the time who designed homes for the ultra wealthy. Like Thaw, White had been obsessed with Evelyn Nesbitt and is alleged to have criminally abused the girl when she was 16. The murder occurred during a musical performance atop Madison Square Garden in front of the attendees. The resulting court proceedings were labeled The Trial of the Century.
It was a scandal and crime born too early for tv and therefore its impact has been dulled in the public conscious. The murder occurred 120 years ago (longer than the time between her birth and the birth of the country), but reading about the case and the players, it’s hard not ignore its sadness and timeliness at this moment in America.