She was born in Rochester, New York. Her parents divorced when she was young and she and her mother moved to New York City. In 1906, when Audrey was fifteen years old, she was spotted in the street by photographer Ralph Draper, who in turn introduced her to his friend, sculptor Isador Konti. Konti persuaded the young woman to model for him and her career was off, along with all of her clothes. For the next decade Munson became the model of choice for a host of sculptors and painters in New York City. By 1915 she was so well established that she was chosen by Alexander Stirling Calder as the model of choice for the Panama-Pacific International Exposition [PPIE]. She posed for three quarters of the sculpture at that event as well as for numerous paintings and murals.
In 1916, probably as a result of her exposure in California at the PPIE, Munson moved to California and entered the movies. In all Munson starred in four silent films. The first of these, Inspiration, the story of a sculptor’s model, featured the first time that a woman took off all her clothes on film. Recreating scenes from classic paintings, the censors were reluctant to ban the film fearing they would also have to ban Renaissance art. The films were a box office success, with audiences eager to expand their new found interest in art. The reviews, however, were very polarized. Unfortunately, no prints of any of her movies havesurvived.
1919 found Munson back in NYC, living with her mother in a boarding house owned by Dr. Walter Wilkins. Wilkins fell in love with Audrey and in an attempt to make himself eligible for her, murdered his wife, Julia. Although Audrey and her mother had left NYC prior to the murder the police still wished to question them and this resulted in a nationwide personhunt for them. They finally were questioned in Toronto, Canada, where they testified that they had moved out because Mrs. Wilkins had requested it. This satisfied the police, but the negative publicity generated by the case effectively ended Munson’s career as a model and actress. Dr. Wilkins was tried and found guilty. Although sentenced to the electric chair he hanged himself in his prison cell before the sentenced could be carried out.
By 1920 Munson, unable to find work anywhere, returned with her mother to Syracuse, New York. Thereafter Munson began showing signs of possible mental unbalance and paranoia and in 1931 a judge ordered the 39-year-old Munson into a psychiatric facility for treatment. She was to remain there for the next 65 years, until her death in 1996 at the age of 105.
Sculpture for which Audrey Munson posed
Herbert Adams
Priestess of Culture [PPIE] now in Fine art Museum of SF 1914
Robert Ingersoll Aitken
Earth [PPIE, - Court of Universe] 1915
PPIE medal 1915
Figure on doors of the Greenhut & John W Gates Mausoleums
Conception, Wonderment, and Contemplation, Palace of the Fine Arts
Pacific
Fountain of Flowers
Nations of the World
Filmography
Inspiration [1915] the first known movie in which a woman removed all her clothes
Purity [1916]
Girl O’Dreams [1917]
Heedless Moths [1921]
No prints of any of her movies have survived.
Audrey Munson in Heedless Moths 1921
Audrey Munson in Inspiration, 1915
Audrey Munson in Purity 1916
References
Kvaran, Einar Einarsson, Architectural Sculpture of America unpublished manuscript
Mullgardt, Louis Christian, The Architecture and Landscape Gardening of the Exposition - A Pictorial Survey of the Most Beautiful of the Compositions of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition Paul Elder and Company, San Francisco 1915
Neuhaus, Eugen, The Art of the Exposition - Personal Impressions of the Architecture, Sculpture, Mural Decorations, Color Scheme & Other Aestetic Aspects of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, Paul Elder and Company, San Francisco 1915
Popik, Barry, Research
Rozas, Diane & Anita Bourne Gottehrer, American Venus, Balcony Press, Los Angeles, 1999
Image sources
The preceding images are all taken from:
The Architecture and Landscape Gardening of the Exposition - A Pictorial Survey of the Most Beautiful of the Compositions of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition by Louis Christian Mullgardt
The Art of the Exposition - Personal Impressions of the Architecture, Sculpture, Mural Decorations, Color Scheme & Other Aestetic Aspects of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition by Eugen Neuhau
These books were both published by Paul Elder and Company, San Francisco 1915, and all have an Audrey Munsion modeled figure as the main focus.
