Want to create an interactive transcript for this episode?
Podcast: Today In History with The Retrospectors
Episode: The Playboy, the Architect and the Showgirl
Description: Architect Stanford White was shot three times at close range by millionaire Harry Kendall Thaw during a performance of Broadway comedy ‘Mamzelle Champagne’ on 25th June, 1906. At first, the stunned audience thought it was part of the show.
Thaw claimed White had “ruined” his wife, showgirl Evelyn Nesbit - often called America’s first ‘It Girl’ - who at just 16 had been lured into White’s orbit and ‘seduced’ by White - though a reading of Nesbit’s diary makes it sound a lot more like rape.
But sadistic playboy Thaw was no knight in shining armour himself...