Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Fascinating Story, January 20, 2004
I have the video from "The American Experience" series and have shown it in my high school history class several times, much to the delight of my students, since many of them can readily identify with the young Evelyn Nesbit. Strangely enough, they seem to show much sympathy for Stanford White rather than for Harry Thaw and their feelings about the case are underscored when, at the end of the documentary, we are informed that on her deathbed Evelyn declared that Stanford White was the only man she had ever loved, understandable since, despite the age difference between the two, he showed her the love which she had lacked in her childhood as well in her subsequent marriage to Thaw, who readily abused her. A sordid but very human tale from a fascinating time period in our history.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sensational Crime, long before O.J., February 7, 2000
Originally aired as an installment of the highly acclaimed PBS series "The American Experience", this is the story of the murder that scandalized New York society at the turn of the century.The documentary tells the story of the beautiful Evelyn Nesbit, famous stage actress and "Gibson Girl", and her role in the murder of New York's leading architect, Stanford White. First White's lover, the social climbing Nesbit eventually married the eccentric heir to a railroad fortune, Harry K. Thaw. Thaw was obsessed by White, hated him, and hated the fact that his wife had one been White's lover. Nesbit played off Thaw's jealousy until it led to murder. The documentary is wonderful, and shows the feeding frenzy of the turn-of-the-century press, on which CNN has nothing.
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11 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The 1906 case that was the TRUE Murder of the Century, December 24, 2001
Today I would not be surprised if most people knew about the murder of Stanford White by Harry K. Thaw from the book/movie/musical "Ragtime." But the murder of the prominent turn-of-the-century architect who gave his name to that college in San Francisco by the husband of showgirl Evelyn Nesbit was considered to be the Murder of the Century (even though it was 1906 and there were 94 more years to go). Thaw was the heir to a Pittsburgh railroad fortune, and when White became enamored with his wife the love triangle turned ugly. Thaw was acquitted by reason of insanity and divorced Evelyn, who went on to be a sensation in vaudeville as "The Girl on the Swing," a reference to the sex games she claimed to have played with White. This sensational murder story had money, power, class, love, rage, lust and revenge. Even though the O.J. Simpson trial had race instead of class, it really did not have as much going for it as did Thaw's trial, escept, of course, for live coverage on cable TV. Thaw's trial was merely reported "to the ends of the civilized globe." Apparently, things did not change all that much during the 20th century when it comes to sensational trials. David Ogden Stiers is the perfect choice to narrate this fascinating documentary from the PBS series "The American Experience." Final note: Supposedly Lucy Maud Montgomery based her description of Anne Shirley in "Anne of Green Gables" on a photograph of Evelyn Nesbit.
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