Tuesday, September 17, 2013

The 1916 Mercury Dime and Audrey Marie Munson.

My cousin Audrey Marie Munson was a beautiful lady. She had a very interesting life and also a very tragic life. She was born in the State of New York in 1891. At 15 she started a career as a model. She modeled for the 1916 Mercury Dime and a half dollar.


She was very successful as a model for statues. There are statues modeled after her all over New York City and other places in America. She was considered to be a woman with a perfect body.








She is sometimes called the girl of Manhattan.

She had a brief film career as a movie actress. Her nude scene in 1915 in the film "Inspiration" was the first nude scene in a standard film. 


Sorry folks. There are no prints left of the film. She made three more. The films are all gone.

Perhaps the notoriety of the films help lead to the end of her career. In 1922 she tried to commit suicide.  In 1931 she was committed to a psychiatric facility. She was there for the next 65 years until she died at the age of 105 in 1996.

What an interesting life! Twenty years as a famous busy model and actress and then 65 years in an institution. Must be a record.





3 comments:

  1. I saw an article about Audrey in the current Thomas Munsoun Foundation newsletter. Interesting lady. I am a Munson descendent from Kansas. Who is your grandfather buried in Kansas? Email me at kansaswx@verizon.net

    Debi Bacon

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. He was Charles Morton Monson. He is buried in Alden which is a few miles from Stirling. You should google Audrey.

      Delete
  2. This was a very interest blog, daddy. Did you see the comments it garnered on Facebook?

    ReplyDelete