Weegee, The Critic, 1943
Marie Hansen, Mrs. George Washington Kavanaugh at Metropolitan Opera intermission, 1944
She is the subject of one of Weegee’s most famous images (The Critic), but who was the woman in the white fur coat? She was Marie Miller Kavanaugh (more popularly known as Mrs. George Washington Kavanaugh), a fixture on the New York society scene during the 1940s who, according to Life‘s December 7, 1942 issue, wasn’t ashamed to wear ermine, a diamond tiara, a diamond and emerald necklace and pendant, diamond earrings, and eleven diamond bracelets to the opening of the Metropolitan Opera season even though World War Two was underway. She died of tuberculosis in 1954 at the age of 87.
I love Mrs. GW Kavanaugh! She is one of my fashion idols.
Did Mrs. Geo Wash Kavanaugh have a large home on the beach in Spring Lake, NJ?
That didn’t come up in my research, but it could be.
Yes- she sure did