Audrey Munson - WikiHQ

Audrey Marie Munson (June 8, 1891 – February 20, 1996) was an American artist's model and film actress, considered to be "America's first supermodel." In her time, she was variously known as "Miss Manhattan", the "Panama–Pacific Girl", the "Exposition Girl" and "American Venus." She was the model or inspiration for more than twelve statues in New York City, and many others elsewhere. Munson appeared in four silent films, including unclothed in Inspiration (1915). She was one of the first American actresses to appear nude in a non-pornographic film.

Career

left|thumb|[[Adolph Alexander Weinman's Descending Night, featured on the cover of Sunset magazine (October 1915) Her father was from Mexico, New York, and she later lived there. Her parents divorced when she was eight, and Audrey and her mother moved to Providence, Rhode Island.

In 1909, mother and daughter moved to Washington Heights in New York City, where the 17-year-old Audrey sought a career as an actress and chorus girl. Her first role on Broadway was as a "footman" in The Boy and The Girl at the Aerial Gardens of the New Amsterdam Theatre, which ran from May 31 – June 19, 1909. She also appeared in The Girl and the Wizard, Girlies and La Belle Parée.

By 1915, she was so well-established that she became Alexander Stirling Calder's model of choice when he became Director of Sculpture for the Panama–Pacific International Exposition held in San Francisco that year. Her figure was "ninety times repeated against the sky" on one building alone, atop the colonnades of the Court of the Universe, roughly modeled on St. Peter's Square in the Vatican. In fact, Munson posed for three-fifths of the sculpture created for the event

Film actress

thumb|Audrey Munson in [[Purity (film)|Purity, Liberty Theatre]]

Munson's newfound celebrity helped launch her career in the nascent film industry and she starred in four silent films. In the first, Inspiration (1915), made by the Thanhouser Film Corporation in New Rochelle, New York and directed by George Foster Platt, she appeared fully nude in a story of a sculptor's model. Thanhouser hired a lookalike named Jane Thomas to do Munson's acting scenes, while Munson did the scenes where she posed nude. Although Munson's appearance in Inspiration is sometimes said to be the first occasion of an American actress appearing nude in a non-pornographic film,

Munson's second film, Purity (1916), made by the American Film Company in Santa Barbara, California and directed by Rae Berger, is the only one of her films to survive, being rediscovered in 1993 in a "pornography" collection in France and acquired by the French national cinema archive.

Munson returned to the East Coast by train via Syracuse in December 1916, having been involved with high society in New York and Newport, Rhode Island. There are accounts in which her mother insists she married the son of a "Comstock Lode" silver heir, Hermann Oelrichs Jr., then the richest bachelor in America. There is no record of this. On January 27, 1919, she wrote a rambling letter to the U.S. State Department denouncing Oelrichs as part of a pro-German network that had driven her out of the movie business. She said she planned to abandon the United States to restart her movie career in England.

thumb|left|in [[Heedless Moths (1921)]]

Notoriety

In 1919, Audrey Munson was living with her mother in a boarding house at 164 West 65th Street, Manhattan, owned by Dr. Walter Wilkins. Wilkins fell in love with Munson, and on February 27, murdered his wife, Julia, so he could be available for marriage.

The Wilkins killing may even have marked the end of Munson's modeling career, although she continued to seek regular newspaper coverage. By 1920, Munson could not find work anywhere and was reported as living in Syracuse, New York, supported by her mother, who sold kitchen utensils door-to-door. In November 1920, she was said to be working as a ticket-taker in a dime museum.

thumb|Munson posed for all these [[Panama-Pacific International Exhibition sculptures.]]

From January to May 1921, a series of twenty serialized articles ran in Hearst's Sunday Magazine in dozens of Sunday newspaper supplements,

In the summer of 1921, Munson conducted a nationwide search, carried by the United Press, for the perfect man to marry. She ended the search in August claiming she didn't want to get married anyway. On October 3, 1921, she was arrested at the Royal Theater (later the Towne Theater) in St. Louis on a morals charge related to her personal appearance with the film Innocence (the reissue title of Purity), in which she had a leading role. She and her manager, independent film producer Ben Judell, were both acquitted. Weeks later, she was still appearing in St. Louis, along with screenings of Innocence, enacting "a series of new poses from famous paintings".

On May 27, 1922, Munson attempted suicide by swallowing a solution of bichloride of mercury.

Later life and death

On June 8, 1931, Munson's mother petitioned a judge to commit her to a mental asylum. The Oswego County judge ordered Munson be admitted into a psychiatric facility for treatment on her 40th birthday.

In the mid-1950s, Munson was still famous enough to serve as the subject of an anecdote in a memoir that P.G. Wodehouse and Guy Bolton wrote of their years on Broadway, Bring on the Girls! (1953), though that memoir is considered more fiction than fact by Wodehouse's biographer.

Munson had no visitors at the asylum for over 25 years after her mother died in 1958, until her half-niece, Darlene Bradley, rediscovered her in 1984, when Munson was 93. Shortly after her 100th birthday, Munson broke a hip. Munson died on February 20, 1996, at the age of 104. At the time only one local newspaper reported her death. She was buried at New Haven Cemetery in New Haven, New York, and she received a headstone on her grave on June 8, 2016, 20 years after her death and on what would have been her 125th birthday.

Sculptures of Munson

This table is organized by sculptor and date. She posed for most of the sculptors who created architectural and fountain sculptures for the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition, and for other sculptors who exhibited there.

Coverage of Munson's career contained inaccuracies during her lifetime, and errors about the works for which she modeled have been perpetuated. Munson herself was inconsistent about her age and other matters. For example, a June 1915 article listed the 24-year-old Munson's age as 18,

|100px

|1912

|James McMillan Fountain, McMillan Reservoir, Washington, D.C.

|bronze

| (overall)

|100px|rightThe McMillan Fountain was disassembled for the 1941 expansion of McMillan Reservoir. The pieces spent decades in storage, and suffered vandalism. Only the central figures and upper basin remain.

|colspan="1" style="background:#FFDEAD" |Priestess of Culture

|100px

|1913

|tomb of merchandiser Joseph B. Greenhut, Salem Fields Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York City

|bronze

|Stone, Gould & Farrington, architects

|Gates Mausoleum door

|1913

|colspan="1" style="background:#87CEEB" |John Warne Gates Mausoleum, Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx, New York City

|bronze

|Stone, Gould & Farrington, architects Aitken was awarded a PPIE silver medal for his sculpture.

|100px

|1915

|colspan="1" style="background:#87CEEB" |

|The Elements: Air

|100px

|rowspan="2" |1915

|rowspan="2" style="background:#87CEEB" |Flanking stairs to sunken garden, Court of the Universe, Panama-Pacific International Exposition

|rowspan="2" |staff

|rowspan="2" |

|The Elements: Earth

|100px

|Fountain of the Earth

|100px

|1915

|colspan="1" style="background:#87CEEB" |Court of the Universe, Panama-Pacific International Exposition

|staff

|100px|right 100px|rightFountain of the Earth:

|rowspan="7" |Karl Bitter

|colspan="1" style="background:#BEBEBE" |Venus

|colspan="1" style="background:#BEBEBE" |100px

|colspan="1" style="background:#BEBEBE" |1895

|colspan="1" style="background:#BEBEBE" |Library, Biltmore Estate, Asheville, North Carolina

|colspan="1" style="background:#BEBEBE" |steel

|colspan="1" style="background:#BEBEBE" |

|colspan="1" style="background:#BEBEBE" |Bitter's andiron figure of Venus for Biltmore was completed in 1895, when Munson was 4 years old. A life-sided Venus Coming from the Bath was photographed in Bitter's studio in 1901, when Munson was 10 years old.

|colspan="1" style="background:#FFDEAD" |Venus de Milo (with arms)

|by 1921

|Noordeinde Palace, The Hague, Netherlands

|marble

|Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands commissioned a Venus de Milo (with arms) from Bitter. Munson wrote that Bitter experimented with different arrangements of the arms, modeled the sculpture in clay, and carved it in marble himself.

|colspan="1" style="background:#BEBEBE" |Peace

|colspan="1" style="background:#BEBEBE" |100px

|colspan="1" style="background:#BEBEBE" |1896–1900

|colspan="1" style="background:#BEBEBE" |Appellate Division Courthouse of New York State, 35 East 25th Street, Manhattan, New York City

|colspan="1" style="background:#BEBEBE" |

|colspan="1" style="background:#BEBEBE" |Bitter completed his work on the Appellate Courthouse in June 1899, about the time Munson turned 8 years old.

|colspan="1" style="background:#FFDEAD" |Peace

|100px

|by 1921

|Munson wrote that she posed for Bitter for a sculpture of Peace (pictured), but it was not the Appellate Courthouse work.

|100px

|1906–1910

|East Pediment, Wisconsin State Capitol Madison, Wisconsin

|Bethel Vermont granite

|100px|rightEast Pediment:

|colspan="1" style="background:#FFDEAD" |Bas relief: Diana This is four years prior to the earliest known Munson claim.

|colspan="1" style="background:#FFDEAD" |Pomona or Abundance

|100px

|plaster 1898, 1915 bronze 1916 (by Konti)

|Pulitzer Fountain, Grand Army Plaza, Manhattan, New York City

|bronze

|plaster bronze

|100px|rightPomona was a plaster maquette at the time of Bitter's April 9, 1915, death. Doris Doscher also claimed to have been the model for Pomona, telling The New York Times in 1931, "I worked with Carl [sic] Bitter as the original model for the measurements and modeling of the body... Audrey modeled a few days just for the head." (Bitter may have used more than one model, or Konti may have used a different model.)

|rowspan="9" |Alexander Stirling Calder

|Star Maiden

|alt=Star, for the "Colonnade of Stars," Court of the Universe building, 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco|100px

|1915

|colspan="1" style="background:#87CEEB" |Panama-Pacific International Exposition Oakland Museum Oakland, California

|bronze

|100px|right 100px|rightStar Maiden was repeated ninety-five times as a roof balustrade figure surrounding the Court of the Universe and the Colonnade of Stars:

|Flower Girl

|70px

|1915

|colspan="1" style="background:#87CEEB" |Court of Flowers, Panama-Pacific International Exposition

|staff

|100px|rightFlower Girl was repeated in niches above the colonnade of the Court of Flowers. Edgar Walter's Beauty and the Beast Fountain is in the foreground.

|Enterprise Crowning figure

|100px

|rowspan="2" |1915

|rowspan="2" colspan="1" style="background:#87CEEB" |The Nations of the West, atop Arch of the Setting Sun, Panama-Pacific International Exposition

|rowspan="2" |staff

|rowspan="2" |100px|right The Nations of the West100px|right Arch of the Setting Sun:

|The Mother of Tomorrow Central figure

|85px

|Eastern Hemisphere (reclining female nude with the head of a lioness, east side of the globe)

|100px

|rowspan="4" |1915

|rowspan="4" colspan="1" style="background:#87CEEB" |Fountain of Energy, Panama-Pacific International Exposition

|rowspan="4" |staff

|The Atlantic Ocean (F. G. R. Roth modeled the dolphin)

|100px

|The Pacific Ocean (F. G. R. Roth modeled the manatee) No. 2 and No. 3 (F. G. R. Roth modeled the dolphins) (John Bateman assisted on this work)

|100px

|rowspan="3" |1915

|colspan="1" style="background:#87CEEB" |exterior of Rotunda dome, Palace of Fine Arts, Panama-Pacific International Exposition

|rowspan="3" |staff

|100px|right 100px|right A pair of standing figures, Contemplation (male) and Wonderment (female), flank the relief panels on each face of the Rotunda's dome. The figures were recast in cast stone by Spero Anargyros in 1969.

|Consolation

|1915

|colspan="1" style="background:#87CEEB" |Palace of Fine Arts, Panama-Pacific International Exposition

|bronze

|Flanagan was awarded a PPIE Medal of Honor for his sculpture.

|100px

|1915

|colspan="1" style="background:#87CEEB" |

|bronze

|100px|rightobverse:

|rowspan="11" |Daniel Chester French

|colspan="1" style="background:#BEBEBE" |Mourning Victory

|colspan="1" style="background:#BEBEBE" |100px

|colspan="1" style="background:#BEBEBE" |1906–1908

|colspan="1" style="background:#BEBEBE" |Melvin Memorial, Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Concord, Massachusetts

|colspan="1" style="background:#BEBEBE" |Tennessee marble

|colspan="1" style="background:#BEBEBE" |

|colspan="1" style="background:#BEBEBE" |100px|rightMemorial to Asa, Samuel and John Melvin, three brothers who fought and died in the American Civil War. Munson was 15 years old when the memorial was completed. The sculpture has since been credited to model Hettie Anderson.

|Mourning Victory (mirror image of the Melvin Memorial)

|100px

|carved 1912–1914

|Metropolitan Museum of Art, Manhattan, New York City

|marble

|100px|rightJames C. Melvin, the only surviving brother, funded the carving of a mirror-image marble version, and donated it to MMA. MMA also owns a bronze cast of Victory's head, but this has again been attributed to Hettie Anderson.

|Memory

|100px

|modeled 1909 carved 1917–1919

|Metropolitan Museum of Art, Manhattan, New York City

|marble

|100px|rightA plaster model is at Chesterwood, French's home and studio in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. (Pictured, center)

Actress Doris Doscher also claimed to have modeled for Memory as early as November 1920 in Physical Culture (Macfadden magazine).

|Jurisprudence

|100px

|1910–1912

|rowspan="2" |Metzenbaum United States Courthouse, Cleveland, Ohio

|marble

|rowspan="2" |100px|rightLocated at street level, near the corners of the Superior Avenue façade.

|Commerce

|100px

|1910–1912

|marble

|Wisconsin

|100px

|1912

|Wisconsin State Capitol, Madison, Wisconsin

|gilded bronze

|100px|rightAtop Wisconsin State Capitol Dome:

|colspan="1" style="background:#FFDEAD" |Evangeline (bas relief figure, 2nd from right)

|100px

|1912–1914

|Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Memorial, Longfellow Park, Cambridge, Massachusetts

|marble

|100px|right In Longfellow Park:

|The Spirit of Life

|100px 100px

|1913–1915

|Spencer Trask Memorial, Congress Park, Saratoga Springs, New York

|bronze

|100px|right In Congress Park 90px|rightEight bronze casts from French's 1914 reduced-size working model are in the collections of: Smithsonian American Art Museum, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Newark Museum, Newark, New Jersey, Brooks Memorial Library, Brattleboro, Vermont, and elsewhere.

New research suggests that Hettie Anderson was at least partially, if not entirely, the basis for this figure. French's home and studio in Stockbridge, Massachusetts:

|Brooklyn

|100px

|1916

|rowspan="2" |Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York City

|granite

|rowspan="2" |The pair were created to adorn the Brooklyn side of the Manhattan Bridge. Relocated to exterior of the Brooklyn Museum, 1963. At least some of the modeling for the Brooklyn figure was done by Rosalie Miller.

|Manhattan

|100px

|1916

|granite

|rowspan="8" |Sherry Edmundson Fry

|colspan="1" style="background:#FFDEAD" |70th Street pediment

|1914

|Brookgreen Gardens, Murrells Inlet, South Carolina

|bronze

|Ex collection: Metropolitan Museum of Art

|100px

|colspan="1" style="background:#87CEEB" |Twin figures atop pedestals at base of pylons of Festival Hall,

|1921

|Missouri State Capitol, Jefferson City, Missouri

|bronze

|100px|rightAtop Missouri State Capitol Dome:

|rowspan="2" |Carl Augustus Heber

|Spirit of Commerce

|100px

|1909–1914

|Manhattan Bridge (south pier), Manhattan, New York City

|granite

|Relief tablet over entrance

|100px

|1912

|The Little Theatre (now Helen Hayes Theatre), 238 West 44th Street, Manhattan, New York City

|marble

|100px|rightIn a 1913 photograph:

|rowspan="3" |Albert Jaegers

|Harvest (Nature)

|100px

|rowspan="3" |1915

|colspan="1" style="background:#87CEEB" |atop Half-Dome, Court of the Four Seasons, Panama-Pacific International Exposition

|rowspan="3" |staff

|rowspan="2" |Jaegers was awarded a PPIE bronze medal for his sculpture.

|100px 100px

|colspan="1" style="background:#87CEEB" |Heroic-sized group, repeated twice atop pylons above Forecourt of Ceres, Court of the Four Seasons, Panama-Pacific International Exposition

|100px|rightThe Feast of Sacrifice (at upper corners):

|Augustus Jaegers Attic figures

|60px

|1915

|colspan="1" style="background:#87CEEB" |Court of the Four Seasons, Panama-Pacific International Exposition

|staff

|100px|rightAugustus Jaegers (brother of Albert) modeled the attic and spandrel figures on the arcades in the Court of the Four Seasons. Abundance was repeated sixteen times on the arcades.

|rowspan="6" |Isidore Konti

|colspan="1" style="background:#FFDEAD" |The Three Graces

|100px

|1909

|marble

|100px|rightCreated for the new ballroom of the Hotel Astor, opened September 29, 1909 (second balcony): At the other end of the ballroom, a companion marble group called The Song featured similar figures, possibly also modeled by Munson.

|Three Muses

|100px

|undated

|Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, New York

|plaster

|colspan="1" style="background:#FFDEAD" |Mother and Child: The Bath (Fountain Group)

|1911

|colspan="1" style="background:#87CEEB" |Hudson River Museum, Titanic Memorial

|100px

|1913–1914

|Straus Memorial, Straus Park, West 106th Street (west of Broadway), Manhattan, New York City

|bronze

|100px|rightMemorial to Ida and Isidor Straus, who died in the 1912 sinking of the RMS Titanic. The park and memorial were dedicated on April 15, 1915, the third anniversary of the sinking.

|Frederick MacMonnies

|colspan="1" style="background:#FFDEAD" |Beauty

|100px

|1911–1917

|New York Public Library Main Branch, Fifth Avenue at East 41st Street, Manhattan, New York City

|Carrara marble

|50px|rightLocated just south of the Fifth Avenue entrance. Munson wrote that MacMonnies used her for the legs, and another model for the torso and face.

|rowspan="3" |Allen George Newman

|Mermaid (unlocated)

|100px

|1910

|Music of the Waters Fountain (demolished), Riverside Drive at 156th Street, Manhattan, New York City

|marble

|"Up on Riverside Drive, Allen George Newman's fountain 'Music of the Water' shows another pose of this young woman."

|The Triumph of Peace

|100px

|1911

|Peace Monument, Piedmont Park, Atlanta, Georgia

|bronze

|100px|rightPeace Monument in Piedmont Park:

|colspan="1" style="background:#FFDEAD" |Florida's Tribute to the Women of the Confederacy

|100px

|1914–1915

|Confederate Park, Jacksonville, Florida

|bronze

|seated figure flagbearer

|100px|rightMunson likely posed for the flagbearer atop the monument.