As part of their March 24, 2014 “Encyclopedia of New York Pop Music,” New York Magazine features Eva Tanguay, the subject of the Cornell University Press book Queen of Vaudeville: The Story of Eva Tanguay by Andrew L. Erdman:

“Five decades before the phrase was coined, a Ziegfeld Follies girl with a mediocre voice embodied the spirit of rock and roll. One of her many lovers, the mystic Aleister Crowley, memorably captured her appeal: ‘She is like the hashish dream of a hermit who is possessed of the devil. She cannot sing, as others sing; or dance, as others dance. She simply keeps on vibrating, both limbs and vocal cords without rhythm, tone, melody, or purpose … I feel as if I were poisoned by strychnine … I jerk, I writhe, I twist, I find no ease … She is perpetual irritation without possibility of satisfaction, an Avatar of sex-insomnia. Solitude of the Soul, the Worm that dieth not; ah, me!'”

See Tanguay’s photo, and the rest of the slideshow, here.