When she was five years old, Audrey’s mother took her to a fortune teller, who said, “You shall be beloved and famous. But when you think that happiness is yours, its Dead Sea fruit shall turn to ashes in your mouth. You, who shall throw away thousands of dollars as a caprice, shall want for a penny. You, who shall mock at love, shall seek love without finding. Seven men shall love you.

Seven times you shall be led by the man who loves you to the steps of the altar, but never shall you wed.” Audrey Marie Munson was an American model and film actress, today considered as “America’s First Supermodel”.

Audrey’s career began at the tender age of 17, when she was offered a short role in her first movie; after that she witnessed the love and acceptance that she never had imagined for herself. Throughout her modelling career she achieved sky high respect and awe from people around. She became an inspiration for thousands of 12- year-olds, dying to have a career like hers. Her statues were built and inaugurated in many museums and public places. People all over New York used to refer to her as ‘Mis Manhattan’.

Audrey Munson had money and fame. Her father was always complaining about how she ‘spent money like water’. Then came a destructive point in her life, that further was catastrophic for her fame.

Her landlord became obsessed with her and killed his own wife just to be with her. Audrey left New York before that happened and this appeared to be very fishy to all.

This publicity ruined her career. Finding no work after that, she and her mother had to stoop down to selling utensils door to door. This fact was unacceptable to Audrey and she attempted suicide. The sudden fall from fame, money, love and acceptance to hard rock concrete, was not well received by her. The fame has made her arrogant and she had forgotten any respect towards others. Her frequent attempts to suicide, at times to die and at times to gain attention; freaked everyone around her. Her mother committed her to a mental asylum, losing any hope that she ever had. Decades passed and no one ever came to meet her. For the first time in forever, she felt alone and loathed. She always thought of the limelight and the money to be a forever thing and when it no longer was, she lost hope. She was all alone for decades in the four walled mental asylum, bearing with negativity every day, dying a little every day.

She fell down as quick as she had risen. She was no longer known or recognized. She spent the rest of her life in the asylum and was buried under an unmarked grave. She died with no one to care about, no one to look up to, no one knowing her. Her fame and success thudded her hard and she never could rise above that. Audrey Munson- the pretty poster model; who disappeared.

VANI DHAKA