American Eve
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CHAPTER SIXTEEN. A WOMAN’S SACRIFICE
326. “thundering from pulpits” O’Connor, 199.
327. “poured out by the Thaw family” O’Connor, 201. The Thaws’ well-paid publicist, Benjamin Atwell, who helped mastermind the campaign of slander and vilification against White, also wrote The Great Harry Thaw Case, or, A Woman’s Sacrifice, published initially in hardcover, then quickly made available to the eager public as a pulp edition during the first trial.
328. “Who goes to Maine in February” O’Connor, 200.
329. “shot and killed with premeditation” Most of the quotations in this and the following chapter regarding testimony are taken from the original first trial transcript.
349. Le Rat Mort This episode is taken from the first trial transcript, with some details added from Evelyn’s account in Prodigal Days.
EPILOGUE: THE FALLEN IDOL
368. silent film The titles of most of Evelyn’s films indicate the common theme of her notoriety: Threads of Destiny, The Hidden Woman, A Fallen Idol, Thou Shalt Not, Woman, Woman!, I Want to Forget, The Woman Who Gave, Her Mistake, and Redemption.
370. “Frederick Gump debacle” Harry was arrested for whipping a young man, eighteen-year-old Frederick Gump, in a hotel bathtub. Thaw avoided jail by going to the Kirkbride Insane Asylum in Philadelphia for eight years, longer than the time spent in Mattewan for killing White.
370. He hanged himself Although it remained “the love that dare not speak its name” where Howard was concerned, all the signs pointed to Evelyn’s brother’s being gay. He had clearly developed a relationship with White’s secretary, Charles Hartnett, ten years his senior, which lasted through the second trial. But a closeted Howard inevitably married and lived a number of years in an apparently affectionate but sham marriage until he killed himself in despair.
371. Joan Collins in the title role In one of the letters she wrote in her later years, Evelyn lamented the casting of Joan Collins to portray her in The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing. She felt Collins was “too bosomy” and “too British” to play her. She wrote (perhaps tongue in cheek) that she would have preferred Marilyn Monroe.
FURTHER READING
Atwell, Benjamin. The Great Harry Thaw Case. Laird and Lee, 1907.
Baker, Paul. Stanny: The Gilded Life of Stanford White. The Free Press, 1989.
Banta, Martha. Imaging American Women. Columbia University Press, 1987.
Brownlow, Kevin. Behind the Mask of Innocence. University of California Press, 1990.
Collins, Frederick L. Glamorous Sinners. Ray Long and Richard R. Smith, 1932.
Gustaitis, Joseph. "The Statue That Offended New York.” American History Magazine, June 1999, pp. 44-50.
Lessard, Suzannah. The Architect of Desire. Dial, 1996.
Mackenzie, F. A. The Trial of Harry Thaw. Geoffrey Bles, 1928.
Maeder, Jay, ed. Big Town Biography. New York Daily News, 2000.
Michaels, Barbara. Gertrude Käsebier. Harry N. Abrams, 1992.
O’Connor, Richard. Courtroom Warrior. Little, Brown, 1963.
Petersen, James. The Century of Sex. Grove, 1999.
Showalter, Elaine. Sexual Anarchy. Penguin, 1990.