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Appendix
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Over the next ten years, Audrey made repeated attempts to resurrect her career as actress and model with little success. In 1921, she reaped some financial reward by having her life as a studio model told in a popular series of 20 “ghost written” articles syndicated in the “Sunday Supplements”of many U.S. newspapers. Later, she achieved a questionable notoriety by announcing she was searching for the “perfect male” who, when found, she would consider marrying. Her detailed specifications were carried by papers throughout the country, and some 209 respondents applied for consideration.
Perhaps as a result of this publicity stunt, in April 1922 the Syracuse Herald announced that Audrey was engaged and would wed in June. The lucky fellow was said to be a “former aviator” by the name of Stevenson hailing from Ann Arbor, Michigan. However, the marriage never took place, and, when Audrey attempted poisoning herself a month after this announcement appeared in the papers, all attempts at locating this fanciful fiance failed. The circumstances surrounding Audrey’s purported engagement and suicide were sufficiently questionable to alienate still further an already disenchanted press corps who were quick to label the entire incident a calculated ruse to generate cheap publicity. After this incident, Audrey’s behavior became increasingly erratic, so much so that the residents of the tiny hamlet of Mexico, New York where she and her mother were residing took to referring to her as “Crazy Audrey”. By 1931, her “nervous disorder” had reduced her mental faculties to such a degree that a local judge ruled that she was suffering from “mental blight” and ordered her into a treatment program. A short time after this decision was rendered, her mother took Audrey to a state run psychiatric facility located a hundred miles from their residence and had her committed. Audrey, who was just 39 years old at the time, would spend the next 65 years of her life at the institution dying in 1996 at the astounding age of 105. Happily, several years before Audrey’s death, her niece, wanting to lift the vail of secrecy which her family had wrapped around the life of her “Aunt Aud”, decided to discover what she could about her life. Early in this investigation, she learned, to her great surprise, that the Aunt she had presumed dead was still alive. Shortly after this discovery a family reunion was arranged at the psychiatric facility where Audrey resided. To their amazement, the family found that the still striking white haired women who stood before them bore none of the ravages one might expect to see in someone who had spent over 55 years in a mental institution. She needed no medication, was quiet and self effacing, showed no sign of bitterness or resentment, and was considered by the staff to be their “resident celebrity”. To learn more about the life of Audrey Munson please refer to Diane Rozas’ and Anita Bourne Gottehrer’s, American Venus, The Extraordinary Life of Audrey Munson Model and Muse from which much of the information in this brief biography was garnered. |
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