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Evelyn Nesbit
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Evelyn Nesbit was a beautiful teenage model at the turn of the twentieth century. She supported herself and her widowed mother by posing for various artists and photographers. Her good looks won her a job as a Broadway chorus girl. This photo of her was taken in 1901 when Evelyn was 16. That same year she caught the eye of renowned architect and womanizer Stanford White--who was 47. White was married, but he often 'befriended' attractive teenage girls.
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Much like Marilyn Monroe later in the century, Evelyn Nesbit was an icon of her age, created and consumed by the public's insatiable appetite for private sin and public scandal. She was America's first bona-fide sex-goddess.
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Born on Christmas day in 1884, Evelyn Nesbit had a difficult childhood, as her father died when she was eight years old, leaving the family in poverty. When Evelyn Nesbit reached adolescence, she began to support her mother and younger brother by working as an artist's model. She moved to New York City with her mother at the age of 16 and secured more prestigious modeling jobs and work on Broadway as a chorus girl.
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Evelyn Nesbit literally attracted attention from the time she was born with her stunning beauty. Shortly after her father died, she was able to turn that beauty into income in her early teens, posing for portrait artists and photographers to support her struggling family. It was this exposure that brought the young red-haired beauty to the attention of Charles Dana Gibson, creator of the images of the much-vaunted Gibson Girls, of which Evelyn soon joined the ranks. It was in Gibson's employ that Nesbit met Stanford White, then at the height of his fame in Manhattan for designs such as the splendid Fifth Avenue mansions and his entertainment venue, Madison Square Garden, complete with a private apartment and a rooftop restaurant with a stage. White was known for his dalliances with young women, whom he adored, promoted, and took good care of. In 1902 when they met, Evelyn was quickly hustled into the show Floradora appearing on White's Garden stage.
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Living to be eighty-two, Evelyn Nesbit proved to be a survivor, as any true femme fatale should be. She did a turn on the vaudeville circuit, put on display by impresarios who hired notable personalities of the time to appear on stage. Hellen Keller and Carrie Nation were two other ladies of the time who had vaudeville appearances. Evelyn said little during her vaudeville shows, the audiences being happy to view at first hand the beautiful and notorious woman at the center of a sex scandal. She struggled through as a dancer in show business, married and divorced a fellow performer, earned a large fee from the filming of The Girl in The Red Velvet Swing in 1955. In an interview given in the 1950s, she expressed her regrets: “The world didn’t see what I remember best, myself on the stand trying to save a husband I didn’t love from going to the chair for killing the man I did love.”
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Barbara Chiofalo (Evelyn Nesbit) is thrilled to return to her Performance Riverside family, this time "swinging" into the role of Evelyn. You may recognize Barbara from two previous shows this season, Hodel in Fiddler on the Roof, and Luisa in The Fantastics, both of which she holds very close to her heart. Most recently Barbara finished playing Lucy in You're a Good Man Charlie Brown. Barbara has her BA in Acting from UCLA, and is ... a voice teacher in the Inland Empire area. Other LA/Regional credits include: Young Heidi in Follies (Reprise!), Amy/Woman #1 in Songs for a New World (Adult Contemporary Theatre - ITL award), Maria in West Side Story (Theatre Royale - ITL award), Susan and u.s. April in Company (UCLA and Reprise!) Jenny Pickalo in Happy Days the Musical (The Falcon) and many more. Barbara would like to thank Paul, Don, Carolyn and all the PR Staff for another wonderful opportunity, her supportive family, and most of all her loving husband Jim.
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Evelyn Nesbit