"Portrait of Evelyn Nesbit"
(1901) by James Carroll Beckwith
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Note concerning the red
velvet swing:
After ascending two flights of stairs in Stanford White's W. 24th
Street apartment, Stanford White led sixteen-year-old Evelyn Nesbit and
a friend into a forest green room illuminated by concealed
lighting. As Nesbit later described the room, the most
eye-catching feature was "a gorgeous swing with red velvet ropes around
which trailed green smilax, set high in the ceiling at one end of the
studio." White said, "Let's put this little kid in the swing,"
and Evelyn jumped on enthusiastically. White pushed Evelyn until she
swung so high she kicked a hole in a paper parasol that was hanging
near the ceiling. Evelyn would ride the swing again many times,
sometimes clothed, and sometimes not.
In her biography of Evelyn Nesbit, American Eve, Paula Uruburu offers
this description (drawn from Nesbit's memoirs) of one night on the
velvet swing: "At other times,...before having wild sex on one of
the fashionable ferocious-looking tiger or lion rugs, Stanny would
build a fire in the fireplace and throw something into it that sparked
a temporary rainbow of shifting colors amid the rhythmically rising and
falling flames. After his own flare of passion subsided, Stanny
would put a now casually and shamelessly naked Evelyn in the red velvet
swing, perhaps gloating about what a great private joke this was in
light of Saint Anthony Comstock's limited imagination naive public
approval [of his swing]. Stanny would watch excitedly while
Evelyn flew, as if weightless, in the direction of his unlimited supply
of colorful parchment parasols...The red-and-amber lick of the flames
created a warming hypnotic effect as they moved with her and cast
arabesque patterns on the slender arc of her back and the smooth white
crescents pressing on the red velvet seat."
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Poster
for the 1955 movie "The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing."
Synopsis from All Movie
Guide:
Evelyn
Nesbit Thaw, the real-life personality so brilliantly (albeit briefly)
portrayed by Elizabeth McGovern in Ragtime
(1981), is given the full biopic treatment in 20th Century Fox's The
Girl in the Red Velvet Swing. Since the real Mrs. Thaw served as
technical advisor for the film, it isn't surprising that the
controversial Evelyn comes across as being more sinned against that
sinning. Joan Collins stars as Evelyn, the gorgeous chorine and
original "Gibson Girl" who becomes the romantic bone of contention
between ageing architect Stanford White (Ray Milland) and slightly
unbalanced young millionaire Harry K. Thaw. Setting up Evelyn in a
plush apartment, the lecherous White insists that she "perform" for him
on the red velvet swing of the title (allegedly, Evelyn swung naked
above the slavering White, though she's fully clothed in the film).
Eventually, Thaw marries Evelyn, but cannot prevent White from
continuing his romantic overtures. Things come to a head in 1906, on
the roof of Madison Square Garden. As Evelyn sings and dances in a
stage musical, the insanely jealous Thaw walks up to White, pulls out a
pistol, and, in full view of the audience, pumps several bullets into
the older man. Though Thaw manages to avoid the gallows by pleading
insanity (he was eventually released), Evelyn's reputation is
permanently besmirched, leaving her little choice but to capitalize
upon her notoriety on the vaudeville stage (actually, Evelyn pursued a
moderately successful film career before losing all her money to bad
investments in the 1920s). By purifying the character of Evelyn Nesbit
and thoroughly vilifying Stanford White, The Girl in the Red Velvet
Swing is hardly 100 percent accurate; still, the film is immensely
entertaining, thanks to the enthusiastic performances of the three
stars.
~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
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