December 12, 2007
Memorializing Audrey Munson
Last year WNBC got up close and personal with the Civic Fame statue atop the Municipal Building, and this week The NY Times looks at the woman who modeled for that statue, and many others -- Audrey Munson, "a long-forgotten New York celebrity whose face and figure continue to grace the contours of statues all around Manhattan."
It was Ms. Munson’s eyes that stared stoically from the marble forms of the Firemen’s Memorial on Riverside Drive, Ms. Munson’s strong body that seemed ready to burst from the granite archway at the foot of the Manhattan Bridge. Altogether, Ms. Munson served as the inspiration for more than 15 statues around the city.Munson began her career as a model at the age of 15, and later was in a number of films (including Inspiration, which featured the first female nude scene). Once her youth was in the past, she moved out of the city, and "America's Venus" was rarely heard from again, save for the 20 weeks worth of articles she wrote in 1921 for the American Weekly. Just 10 years later Munson was in St. Lawrence State Hospital for the Insane, where she was admitted on June 8th, 1931 and where she died in 1996 at the age of 105.
She was buried in an unmarked grave, something that Andrea Geyer (a New York-based, German-born artist) is trying to amend. Last year Geyer published a book about Ms. Munson, titled Queen of the Artists' Studio -- something she began after locking eyes with Civic Fame while working in the Woolworth Building. Art in General, along with Geyer, are raising money for a monument for the gravesite, which is located in upstate New York. More info on how to donate, here. The two have also joined forces to create a New York map highlighting all of the locations of Ms. Munson's statues.
Photo of "Memory" in Straus Park, 107th and Broadway via Joe Schumacher.
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Think you've got it backwads, kiddo.
The NY Times wrote the original.
WNBC printed it on an HP LaserJet, pasted it to various BlackBerries and out came the cameras.
Another easily stolen story.
[ report this ]
Think you've got it backwads, kiddo.
The NY Times wrote the original.
WNBC printed it on an HP LaserJet, pasted it to various BlackBerries and out came the cameras.
Another easily stolen story.
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Wow, she was in the hospital for 65 years? Incredibly sad. I need to get Geyer's book.
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I love that sculpture in Straus Park. I believe it is in memory of two sisters who died on the Titanic?
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it's not sad. she was crazy already. it's only sad if she were sane.
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Monster Mash, the statue in Straus park is in memory of husband and wife Isador and Ida Straus who died on the Titanic. They were immortalized when Ida refused to leave Isador on board when they wouldn't let the men in the lifeboats. A tragic story and very sweet memorial to them both. I believe it's located there because they lived across the street from where the park is today.
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Isidor Straus also has a memorial plaque in Macy's - he was a co-owner.
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65 years in a psychiatric hospital for what was probably a mild case of schizophrenia. She essentially outlived almost all her relatives that knew she had been institutionalized.
I learned about Munson several years ago while visiting the Oswego County Fair with my father. She lived in my hometown and the local history people were very excited to learn that a semi-famous person came from there. Even better, her fame was semi-salacious. Posing nude!
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Yes, it would be sad if she were a Nobel Prize winning scientist but as the pinup model of her day...?
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....and a well-known whore as well?
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No one remembers the April 14, 1996 article in the New York Times, the first article about Audrey Munson in 60 years? The person who rediscovered Audrey Munson was me, Barry Popik.
I immediately sent my detailed Audrey Munson research to every organization in town, starting with the Manhattan Borough Historian in the Manhattan Borough President's Office. No one helped me at all, but my work was totally plagiarized in a 1999 book.
Yeah, it's miserable being a scholar! Let me tell you, Rodney Dangerfield ("No Respect") had it easy!
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Barry,
How much do you know about Audrey Munson's entry into movies? I am using her as a case study in a dissertation on early film. Just before she made her first movie Munson signed a contract with the Palace Theatre (I think it was in Brooklyn) to appear in a show called Fashion. She then demanded a huge salary increase and walked when it was refused. BUT she then tried to sue the BF Keith Theatre Co. for illegal use of her image. I cannot find any record of the outcome of that suit. Don't you have anything on this?
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Norman, I'm also researching Munson's movie career, though I don't know the outcome of the suit you mention. Are you
still out there, following this thread?