The film relates the fictionalized story of Evelyn Nesbit. Nesbit was a model and actress who became embroiled in the scandal surrounding the June 1906 murder of her paramour, architect Stanford White, by her husband, rail and coal tycoon Harry Kendall Thaw.
Writer Walter Reisch claims the film was his idea; he says 20th Century Fox were enthusiastic in part because producer Charlie Brackett knew Stanford White as a boy. Reisch estimates the film was 70% fact and 30% fictionalised. They tracked down Nesbit to get permission to make the film. Nesbit agreed in exchange for money although she was reluctant to do publicity for the film.[4]
See also
Ragtime, a 1975 novel by E. L. Doctorow and a 1981 film also treating the story of Nesbit, Thaw, and White
References
^Solomon, Aubrey (1989), Twentieth Century Fox: A Corporate and Financial History, The Scarecrow Filmmakers, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, p. 249, ISBN978-0-8108-4244-1
^"The Top Box-Office Hits of 1955", Variety Weekly, January 25, 1956.