The divine Mamie Fish , the eagle-eyed, sharp tongued social arbiter that regularly appears in the HBO series The Gilded Age, was indeed a real Gilded Age socialite,known for her incisive wit and no-nonsense comments on the glittering world around her. In this encore episode, Carl sits down with actor Ashlie Atkinson who plays Mamie in the series and listener favorite historian Keith Taillon to talk about the real Mamie Fish and both what the real and fictional Mamie are really like. Visit the w...
Jul 22, 2025•53 min
During the late 19th century, nearly 200 wealthy young American women were caught up in marriages with members of British and European nobility. The goal was to secure aristocratic titles that would create a solid social position for the American family wishing to climb through the snobbery of Gilded Age society. The European gentlemen, meanwhile, wanted the American funds to shore up crumbling wealth and in some cases quite literally repair the ancestral estate. But many of these forced marriag...
Jul 15, 2025•50 min•Ep. 90
Are you as bewitched and bedazzled with this season of HBO's The Gilded Age as we are? And have you been curious about how all the magic we see unfold in front of the camera actually happens? Creative Producer Luke Harlan joins Carl for a look from the other side of the camera to explore how The Gilded Age is actually shaped, filmed and edited. How is the script developed? How is a typical scene filmed? What is it like shooting scenes in those Newport mansions? How do actors prepare for their ro...
Jul 08, 2025•53 min
The Gilded Gentleman looks at one of the most legendary figures of the Gilded Age – Caroline Astor , or the Mrs Astor, the ruler and creator of New York’s high society in the early 1870s. Is she anything like the depiction on HBO's The Gilded Age ? In collaboration with Southern social climber Ward McAllister, Mrs. Astor essentially created the rules for who was ‘acceptable’ in New York social circles. But she’s also known for her battles with family members — most notably with her nephew (and n...
Jul 01, 2025•36 min•Ep. 89
The Gilded Age was by no means simply an East Coast phenomenon. Wealth, position and social structure evolved across the country as railroads and improved technology pushed the country west. Denver, Colorado, grew from a "tavern town" at the foothills of the Rockies to an important Western center for commerce and society. Social Denver was largely ruled by the Southern-born Louise Sneed Hill whose very different and modern vision for how society could work paved a path for much more -- including...
Jun 24, 2025•1 hr 6 min
The life of Frederick Douglass , the great 19th century statesman, orator, writer and abolitionist, is a triumphantly American story. He was born into slavery in the early years of the 19th century and died at the very height of the Gilded Age. His tremendous talents as a leader brought him out of slavery and into the heart of the Gilded Age as a player in the political worlds of Lincoln, Grant and Hayes. Joining Carl on this episode is scholar and author Connor Williams who traces Douglass's li...
Jun 10, 2025•1 hr 1 min
Metropolitan Museum of Art curator Stephanie Herdrich joins Carl for an in-depth look at how the career and personal life of Gilded Age artist John Singer Sargent evolved over his ten-year period in Paris from the 1870's to the mid 1880's. Sargent is the subject of a major new exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art that focuses on this period beginning in his late adolescent years and leading up to the creation of his masterpiece - the grand, imposing and scandalous portrait of Virginie Ga...
May 27, 2025•1 hr 2 min
The Irish-born Augustus Saint-Gaudens came to this country as a small child and over the course of his career and life, reaching into the early years of the 20th century, became an artist that truly defined a look for America in sculpture. His extraordinary natural talent grew into a master artist who was able to create lifelike depictions in marble and bronze that brought a realism never before seen in American sculpture. Saint-Gauden's style combines realistic imagery, allegory and architectur...
May 13, 2025•1 hr 4 min
With the Metropolitan Museum of Art ' s annual Gala on the first Monday of May and the new exhibition on John Singer Sargent and Paris , there is most definitely fashion in the air. In this ENCORE episode with listener favorite Dr. Elizabeth L. Block we delve into the stories of some of the most important designers and couture houses of Belle Epoque Paris. This episode was based on Liz's first book, "Dressing Up: How American Women Influenced French Fashion". Don't miss LIz's news book "Beyond V...
May 06, 2025•52 min•Ep. 88
During the 19th century and culminating in America's Gilded Age, the public's deep fascination for all things Egypt led to "Egyptomania," a craze which affected design, style and cultural and social thought. As a result of wave of exploration and discovery, predominantly by French, English and American parties, the world gained a view into one of the world's most ancient cultures. Architecture, fashion and interior design were all influenced by the passion for this emerging ancient culture. In t...
Apr 29, 2025•52 min
This week The Frick Collection will reopen its doors to the public after a renovation and restoration of nearly five years and a cost of $220 million dollars. Visitors will again see the elegant Beaux Arts mansion once occupied by Gilded Age industrialist Henry Clay Frick and his wife and daughter. They will also see the priceless collection of masterworks of art from the Renaissance through the 19th century, much of acquired by Frick himself. In this episode, a companion show to the Bowery Boys...
Apr 15, 2025•1 hr 9 min
Between the late 1890s and early 1920s, over 2 million Jews from Eastern Europe made the long, arduous and unsettling journey to America to escape persecution and violence in their native countries. Many of these Jews were fleeing Russia, where a state sanctioned antisemitism forced many to escape for their lives. This mass immigration was, in large part, the result of the efforts of three entrepreneurial men whose efforts insured escape for tens of thousands. -- Albert Ballin , the director of ...
Apr 01, 2025•56 min
New York's NoHo neighborhood, wedged between Greenwich Village and the East Village , holds the stories of many people and places that then went on to become deeply associated with the Gilded Age. The Astor family began their dynasty here in both investment and real estate as did the well known Dutch-American merchant family the Schermerhorns. Caroline Schermerhone who went on to become the famed Mrs. Astor grew up right here on Bond St along with many members of her family. NoHo today still con...
Mar 18, 2025•59 min
Belle da Costa Greene is a truly unique historical figure. As the librarian of Gilded Age financier J.P Morgan' s extraordinary personal collection of rare books, manuscripts and historical objects, Greene was one of the most visible and formidable players in the art world of the early 20th century. She sourced precious objects from major galleries and at auction not only in New York, but also throughout Europe with her deep expertise and drive. As Belle competed regularly against other major co...
Mar 04, 2025•1 hr 1 min
Edith Minturn was a Gilded Age society beauty. Isaac Newton Phelps Stokes was a New York architect passionate about preserving the city's past. When John Singer Sargent accepted the commission to paint their portrait as a wedding present, he perhaps didn't realize how difficult it would prove to be. Capturing Edith Minturn Stokes' strong personality as one of the era's "new woman" resulted in a portrait that in some ways was as scandalous as his famous " Madame X " . Author and Historian Jean Zi...
Feb 18, 2025•59 min
Of all the balls and parties thrown during the Gilded Age, the extravagant evening hosted by Bradley and Cornela Martin at the Waldorf in 1897 was perhaps the most legendary, but also the most filled with misconceptions. February 10, 2025 was the 128th anniversary of this grand ball that topped them during New York's opulent Gilded Age. To celebrate, we are offering an ENCORE presentation of the episode on the ball with historian and author Rick Hutto whose family is descended from the Bardley M...
Feb 11, 2025•45 min•Ep. 87
Who doesn't like to get a valentine -- perhaps even from a mysterious admirer? The practice of sending valentines goes back centuries, and these well-designed romantic messages could have many meanings -- highly spiritual, an expression of friendship and love, or even a proposal of marriage. In this episode Carl is joined by historian and collector Nancy Rosin whose own collection of over 12,000 valentines from the past 400 years has recently been archived at the Huntington Library . Nancy takes...
Feb 04, 2025•55 min
Historian Dr. Elizabeth L. Block , author of "Beyond Vanity: The History and Power of Hairdressing," returns to the show for an insightful and fascinating look at hair and hairdressing in the Gilded Age. Hairstyles and the methods of hairdressing evolved dramatically over the 19th century from an "at home" activity shared by sisters and female relatives to salons opening often with female entrepreneurs which gave women significant agency and power. In addition to making a social statement throug...
Jan 21, 2025•49 min
To ring in the new year, join Carl and listener favorite guest Don Spiro for an encore presentation of the history of champagne. Don, vintage beverage specialist and former professional bartender, looks at just how champagne first came to be, how its style evolved over time and just what contemporary champagne makers are offering today. So pop a cork and enjoy the fizz as Don and Carl go back in time and trace the bubbling, effervescent history of champagne. Make sure to listen to Don's previous...
Jan 07, 2025•50 min
Grace Church , a soaring neo-Gothic church built in 1846, still sits today at the famous bend in Broadway at 11th Street. Throughout the 19th century it was the most fashionable church for old New York society, even when the elite moved up the island of Manhattan. Grace represented the early world of the Astors, the Schermerhorns and other families who had their beginnings in the neighborhood around Lafayette Place. The church which has a vibrant congregation today was the scene over its history...
Dec 24, 2024•1 hr
The world of Vienna at the end of the 19th century was a world of change. New design, new fashion and new philosophy -- and new music. But amidst sweeping change, the Viennese drank champagne and were swept along by the works of the great Johann Strauss II , known appropriately as the "Waltz King". One of his greatest works is the operetta megahit Die Fledermaus which, beneath its frivolity and popping champagne corks, lies a darker vision and foreshadowing of a very different world to come. In ...
Dec 10, 2024•1 hr
Join Carl and Dr. MIchael Carter, Senior Properties Historian for English Heritage, to celebrate an English country Christmas. Carl and Michael center their discussion on Wrest Park, home to the De Grey family for over 600 years. In the 19th century, the original house was torn down and a French inspired mansion rose in its place, still surrounded by the 18th century gardens which guests can still see today. Michael shares stories of some very special Christmases celebrated at Wrest Park during ...
Nov 26, 2024•47 min
This new Broadway season includes the revival of the classic musical GYPSY: A Musical Fable by Jule Styne, Stephen Sondheim and Arthur Laurents. This new revival stars Audra McDonald as the irrepressible Mama Rose,in this iconic show based on the memoirs of burlesque performer Gypsy Rose Lee . To celebrate the revival and to take us back into the world of vaudeville and burlesque, listen favorite Don Spiro returns to the show to share the history of burlesque -- what it was and wasn't in the Gil...
Nov 12, 2024•49 min
David Belasco -- playwright, producer, impresario, theatre manager, and theatrical visionary -- was one of the most important names in the world of the Gilded Age stage. Beginning his life and career in San Francisco following the Gold Rush years, Belasco moved to New York to revolutionize how theatre was seen and produced in the last years of the 19th and into the 20th century. In addition to writing such hits as plays "Madame Butterfly" and "The Girl of the Golden West" which went on to become...
Oct 29, 2024•52 min
Along with their acclaimed novels and short works of fiction, Henry James and Edith Wharton both extensively explored the genre of the ghost story, enormously popular throughout much of the 19th century. In nearly all of their ghostly tales, James and Wharton explore the inner depths of the human psyche and the all-too-human emotions of fear, abandonment, passion and loss. Carl is joined by returning guest Dr. Emily Orlando , author and professor of English at Fairfield University, for an in-dep...
Oct 15, 2024•53 min
Stories of the Gilded Age so often focus on the world of adults and more often on the highest layer of elite society. Of course, there was much, much more to the story of America's social and economic growth at the end of the 19tth century that involved those of the middle and lower classes - and also included children. Listener favorite Esther Crain, author and creator of Ephemeral New York , joins The Gilded Gentleman for a look at the world of children during the Gilded Age. As she shared in ...
Oct 01, 2024•50 min
Elizabeth Wharton Drexel was a quintessential ingenue of the Gilded Age. Eventual heiress to the Drexel banking fortune, elegant and sophisticated, Elizabeth married but was widowed unexpectedly. But she married again, this time to Harry Symes Lehr, a bon vivant and social playboy. But she soon learned her life was to become a reality far from what she ever expected. This episode tells the story of Elizabeth Drexel and Harry Lehr along with the world in which they lived. In 1935, after Harry's d...
Sep 17, 2024•45 min
Just the name "Tiffany" evokes the glamour and elegance of the Gilded Age. But there is much more to the story than just the eponymous retailer who continues to sell fine jewelry and decorative objects today. Carl is joined by Lindsy R. Parrott , the Executive Director of The Neustadt Collection , one of the country's most important collections of Tiffany glass and archival materials, to discuss the two Tiffanys - Charles Lewis Tiffany who began the original retail silver and jewelry and his son...
Sep 03, 2024•1 hr
It’s nearly the end of the summer but there's still time for one more visit to the seashore and, in particular, one place that was so very popular in the Gilded Age -- Coney Island. Join Carl and guest Esther Crain for an encore presentation of “In the Good Old Summertime: Where the Gilded Age Played.” And coming soon -- Esther will be joining Carl this fall for a brand new episode – “Children of the Gilded Age: Seen and Not Heard (Until Now).” ---- As New York continued its march up the island ...
Aug 20, 2024•47 min
In this special episode created in partnership with English Heritage , Carl is joined by curator Christopher Warleigh-Lack for a look at the once royal residence of Osborne House on England's Isle of Wight. Christopher guides us through inside the grand estate where Queen Victoria and Prince Albert spent summer and Christmas holidays. Following Albert's sudden death, Victoria continued to come to Osborne and even spent her final days here by the sea. A visit to Osborne House today reveals an int...
Aug 06, 2024•47 min
