The "Ten Thousand Dollar Beauty"-the final chapter?

[Sam Clements]

George,

This is the earliest cite I can find on ancestry, searching from 1870-

(It concerns the lady to whom I referred in a previous message.  I quote
this latest one in its entirety, as it may help a researcher.

>From The Atlanta  Constitution, October 15, 1881, page 7, c. 2..


        Miss Louise Montague, the prettiest woman in the world, passed
through Atlanta yesterday in route to her home in Louisville.  Miss Montague
has for some time past been travelling with Forepaugh's circus, and has been
known as "Forepaugh's ten thousand dollar beauty."  She is said to be the
prettiest woman in the world, and was the feature of the street parades,
where she assumed the character of Lalla Rookh.  Miss Montague made a brief
sojourn in Atlanta yesterday, and dined at the Kimball.  Her "autograph" was
transferred to the register by Ned Callaway who asserts that the dreamy
eyes, pearly teeth and rosy cheeks captivated him in an instant.  Ned has
been singing "dreamy eyes that haunt me still" all evening.

I"ve got a fiver that SHE  is THE origin of the phrase.