The Vanderbilt Ball of 1883 and the Dumb Rich People Drama that Caused It
long before rich people use their millions or billions to buy social media platforms and have the biggest most humiliating public meltdown anyone has ever seen rich people instead use their wealth to throw lavish balls where you came dressed up like cars or ate dinner on Horseback or even better had everyone come in costumes that would put all of the Met Galas combined to shame one example of this is the infamous ball of the century from 1951 thrown by silver mining millionaire Don Carlos De best degree at the Palazzo labia in Venice a party that cost over 6 million dollars in today's money but long before that ball was an even more Infamous ball One That Shook New York City's high society to its core Alva Vanderbilt's fancy costume ball of spring 1883. during the Gilded Age High Society was experiencing internal turmoil between the old money families who had long Ruled The Roost and the new money families who had recently made their riches and sought to be seen as equal to everyone else so it went in the world of New York wealth which at the time was lorded over by the prestigious Aster family rising in the ranks was the Nouveau Rich Van built and the aster is very very much did not want to let them into the world of high society and pointedly did not invite the Vanderbilts to their coveted seasonal balls or anything else for that matter enter Alva Vanderbilt who thought what better way to outdo the doer than to throw an even bigger grander ball than the ones you were kept out of well that's one angle of the story The One popularized by the Press at the time anyway but as we'll see there's actually more to all of this than meets the eye come learn with me about some uh rich people drama but first let's hear a quick word from today's sponsor wondershare PDF element as an artist I often need to put together PDF files on an almost weekly basis whether it be putting drafts together for my graphic novel or compiling my comic pages into digital editions for my online storefront or just my everyday research for these videos it's vital to have an easy to use PDF program like PDF element that makes the process as streamlined as possible wondershare PDF element is so fast affordable and easy PDF program to help you manage PDF documents across desktop mobile and web giving you the most flexible way to edit convert annotate organize sign and fill PDF forms and documents at a 50 lower price than other common programs PDF element boasts a wide variety of useful features such as annotate PDF which allows you to highlight text add notes and Corrections which is super useful for when I'm reading essays and articles for videos and there's also protect PDF which lets you put a password lock on PDFs to protect your files and OCR PDF which allows you to scan image files into a PDF file with editable and searchable text a function that was really useful on my mod atoms video because I had an original copy of her Ladies Home Journal autobiography that I really wanted to be able to search digitally PDF element made that process super fast and simple head on down to the link in the description below to get wondershare PDF element at a huge discount while their holiday sale is running it works with Mac windows and iOS so whatever device you use you're good thank you so much to wondershare PDF element for sponsoring this video and now let's get back to learning about the Vanderbilt ball of 1883. it begins of course with the Astor family the kings and queens of New York High Society in particular Mrs Caroline Schermerhorn Astor Mrs Astor along with Ward McAllister was the essential overseer of the famous 400 list which was a carefully curated list of the 400 people who made up New York's High Society you were judged heavily on your bloodline surname respectability and behavior in order to make the list or be excluded from it up and coming in New York Society was a new group of Nouveau riche families who had made their fortunes after the Civil War one of these new tycoons was Railroad and shipping magnate Cornelius Commodore Vanderbilt Cornelius was widely seen as crass and unpleasant which served to exclude him for reasons other than his new money status but this exclusion then trickled down to his son William and William's new wife Alva Erskine Smith and that's where the drama begins Alpha Vanderbilt had Fairly humble beginnings in Mobile Alabama born in 1853. her
ex-confederate family later relocated to New York just before the Civil War and then to Paris where they managed to start rubbing elbows with Parisian socialites Upon returning to New York the family takes their summer holidays in the popular destination of Newport Rhode Island which exposes them to the East Coast High Society even more one thing leads to another and Alva and her sisters all end up marrying rich Alva of course marries into the Vanderbilt family now she wasn't really satisfied with the Vanderbilt status at the time of her marriage she had spent her whole life social climbing and felt that they all could climb higher and so Alva made it her goal to get the Vanderbilt name on Mrs Astor's prestigious 400 list Alva and Mrs Astor had by this point already had a widely publicized rivalry which honestly was made out to be much more catty in the media than it actually was Alpha didn't really hate Mrs Astor as a person and vice versa but she despised the way that the system prevented her family from the social status that she believed they were owed so she began concocting plans to prove the Vanderbilt name to all of New York this was a mission she had competition in competition from her sister-in-law Alice Vanderbilt specifically but as recalled by Anderson Cooper yes CNN Anderson Cooper who himself is a Vanderbilt descendant Alice was so snobbish and removed that later in her life people would say she'd rather be driven around the city for hours then condescend to speak to her chauffeur to give him the exact address for where she was headed Alva by contrast was brilliant witty cunning and utterly ruthless and uh no kidding because Alva was an awful person she openly admitted to enjoying abusing the children that her family enslaved for instance and she was horrible to her husband and daughter she was a huge piece of but that means that she didn't care what she had to do to get what she wanted and she always did first they completed construction on their new 660 Fifth Avenue house which they called Petite Chateau which I'll be honest I don't think I should be calling it a house because it was literally a castle like look at this Alva invited the media in there to take pictures so she could show it off but good Lord I will say though I am a huge fan of turrets and spiers so it was designed by famous architect Richard Morris hunt and what do you do when you move into a new house you have a housewarming party of course but Alpha didn't want just any housewarming party she wanted a ball like no one had ever seen before she sent off hundreds of servants dressed in uniform to deliver invitations to guests and the game was on the New York Times reported amid the rush and excitement of business men have found their minds haunted by uncontrollable thoughts as to whether they should appear as Robert ladyabla Cardinal richelow author the Barbarian or The Count of Monte Cristo while the ladies have been driven to the verge of Destruction in the effort to settle the comparative advantages of ancient medieval and modern costumes the Fantastical costume element of this party wasn't something new in fact it was an increasing factor of society balls in the post-civil War era Emilia Mueller writes High Society cherished costume balls because of their playful requirements and every detail was thoroughly calculated especially the designs of fanciful gowns at fancy dress balls the guests had the chance to transform themselves through their costumes and character they were not in real life thus playing with their appearances and identities as they wished at least for one night however these had to be respectable private entertainments and followed certain rules in an established order only a chosen group of people were invited America's rich and privileged and the costumes had to be fashionable and never too creative other guests had to always discern what those fantastically clad bodies were impersonating these fancy costume balls were an opportunity for the rich too in a strange way actually Escape their normal personas for one night but the fact that most of these guests would impersonate old European monarchs is no coincidence it was a direct symptom of America's newly budding social monarchy impersonating its foreign predecessors symbolically staking a claim on that Prestige amid America's rise as a world power foreign ball would in total cost around 250 thousand dollars which is somewhere between six to eight million dollars in today's money with a champagne catering and cigar budget of sixty five thousand dollars and eleven thousand dollars on flowers four thousand dollars on carriages and the costumes themselves ended up totaling over a hundred fifty five thousand dollars the party was scheduled to begin on Monday March 26 at 11 30 PM which was keeping with European tradition but crowds started gathering on the street as early as eight o'clock to see what was going on the rooms were filled with pure gold baskets carrying roses the ceiling was covered with Japanese lanterns and Cuban Vines the doors masked with Lily of the Valley and roses and popular plants like palms and ferns towered over the guests there was no set theme for the ball's costume so the guests were free to run wild with their Concepts and run wild they did most of them stuck with a general old European Splendor Vibe but other arrived dressed as witches or Egyptian princesses or most famously a goddess of electric light the dinner menu featuring food prepared by the popular restaurant Del monicos was controversial fried oysters chicken croquettes Maryland style Terrapin salmonella Rothschild truffled bone fowl jellied beef ham and chicken shofwa of red birds foie gras chicken celery salad lettuce and lobster Mayo Windsor sandwiches laundry roulette Baba al-ram and Ice desserts all of this was served after the quadriel dancing at 2 am in all about 1500 people were invited to the party but one person was notably left out Carrie asked her the daughter of Mrs Astor Carrie had assumed that she would be invited and had already been preparing for the ball for weeks so as you can imagine this was a devastating blow Frank Crone and shield wrote in Vogue in 1941 one of its diverting episodes was that before the invitations had been issued Mrs William Astor's daughter Caroline under the illusion that she would be one of Mrs Vanderbilt's guests had begun regularly rehearsing a court quadriel designed especially for that much heralded Revel but Mrs Vanderbilt hearing what was brewing was quick to point out that since Mrs Astor had never left so much as a pace board at her Gates the inclusion of her daughter at the gala was most regrettably inconceivable and that was how Mrs Astor finding herself neatly trapped first called at Mrs Vanderbilt's Chateau thereby establishing something like Amity between the montagues and the capulets well almost the Rivalry between Mrs Astor and Alva Vanderbilt was heated yes but more of a simmer than the rolling boil that the media made it out to be High Society of the Gilded Age had long established its own insular complicated rules that they didn't find easy to change and Mrs Astor felt a lot of pressure with these decisions as Society changed with the arrival of the Nouveau riche during the Industrial Revolution and especially following the Civil War she face pressure from many Avenues and it wasn't a personal beef with Alva actually the Vanderbilt ball kind of solved this problem for both parties in the most amicable possible way it proved the new money's worth to Old society and showing that they can play their game just as well and it gave the Asters an easy solution by providing them with an option so much more worse than just accepting the Vanderbilts it risked making them unfashionable and nigh obsolete no one now could possibly blame Mrs Astor for changing the system she had no choice and Alva had also crafted a careful excuse to protect her own image she said she couldn't send Kerry Astron invitation because Mrs Astor had never called upon the Vanderbilts to formally introduce herself so Alva didn't have the address to send their invitation after Mrs Astor finally arrived at Petit Chateau to leave her calling card an invitation for Carrie was delivered the next day after all according to the rules of polite Society the first call must be made from the older higher status woman so Alva couldn't have just shown up to the Asters herself first Mrs Astor was by her own world's rules forced to make that first move of course 1500 guests wouldn't cover every socialite in New York City many were left out and attempted to gain entrance into the ball disguised as the maids and footmen of invited guests only to find out that no domestics were allowed inside and they were ordered to wait out in the cold in the carriages the New York Sun published this completely unreadable joke column apparently interviewing a nearby German Barber who had a lot to say about the ball chimney hooky thankfully my friend Wilder decided to translate this for me thank you so much Wilder the Sun newspaper quipped the Vanderbilt ball was a very expensive entertainment given to people who are just as much tired and worn out by entertaining as by being entertained apart from that the idea of the ball was conceived and carried out by three or four of the most Charming accomplished and Rich Young Ladies of this country it is therefore needless to say that everything was tasteful and delightful but there is a reverse to every medal old sober-minded men ask themselves whether it is advisable to make such a display of wealth and luxurious living at a time when the working classes are in a state of serious fermentation all over the world the needy American working men and working woman do not make a scent by the importation of worst dresses the purchase of new diamonds at Tiffany's or the resetting of old Family Jewels so yeah the verdict on whether the ball was good or bad was mixed in the public much like today when people watch events where rich people get dressed up some people enjoy the spectacle and others Grimace at the gross displays of wealth while the poor suffer some other papers compared the ball to PT Barnum circus which had an event happening as well that maxed out its audience they figured yeah the Vanderbilt ball was cool but PT Barnum has elephants so but in the end Alva had won the battle even better Mrs Astor herself had attended in costume okay so I thought it would be fun to actually make a tier list of just a few of the costumes from the Vanderbilt ball so luckily the Museum of the city of New York does actually have a archived photo album that includes some of the portraits of the guests taken at the ball they had a number of photo opportunities around because obviously people spent so much money on these costumes that they wanted to get nice pictures of them so and some of the newspapers even reported that for hours and hours and hours after the ball ended people were still lining up to get pictures so let's see what kind of costumes people were wearing to the Vanderbilt ball I've got five tiers here just the typical sabcd but I've made it s for simply marvelous a for amazing B for ballworthy c for could be better and D for dastardly Duds I also have not done any in-depth research on any of these people there are a couple of them that I I know who they are a little bit and a little bit of background behind the costume itself but I have not not gone through pains to try and find out who the people are wearing these costumes because I don't want it to influence my decision for what tier they go in because I know that if I know that like some of these people are like particularly huge pieces of I'm going to want to put them in the d section and I just want to judge it based off of the costumes themselves so when I say in this part that I did this section A long time ago like I filmed the main Talking part of this video like today and the ranking part before I did all of my research because I wanted to just judge the outfits based off of just the outfits and not the people I don't know anything about these people I really really mean it alvo Vanderbilt was a huge piece of and I didn't know that when I filmed this part so keep that in mind I'm just judging this based off of her dress just her dress just her dress so let's get into it so the first one we have here is a Mr Allen Thorndike rice now um it looks like he's wearing like a kind of medieval inspired outfit there's like an Arthurian sort of element I'm really into whatever belt he's got going on but uh I think we'll put Mr Allen let's do beat here this next person is Mrs Buchanan Winthrop or Sarah Helen Townsend now a lot of the women who went to the Vanderbilt ball it kind of seemed like they were trying to channel like a little bit of like old provincial folkware type of situation um which kind of reminds me of how Marie Antoinette used to like sort of LARP being a peasant girl it's kind of the vibe that some of these costumes are giving off I gotta say her veil is gorgeous how interesting do I think this is you know what but it's also kind of giving Little Bo Peep I feel like it could be better I'm gonna go see tier so Mr James Otis over here fantastic mustache I will say he's going for a sort of military look that's interesting I do respect a thigh high boot I really do you know I'm actually I'm a little bummed I'm not entirely sure how common thigh high boots were in this era but I'll have to look into that because I'm a little obsessed could be better like it's it's just not like wowing me ooh Mr William J okay now this is right up my alley see I'm loving the like Squire element to this I love the shoes I love that first of all this dude has great legs and he is not afraid to show them off he's got a nice Hood he's got the like asymmetrical belt I am obsessed with this he's got a sword too he's got a sword you guys he's got a sword I mean I can't not put him in simply marvelous I can't say no to that thank you William okay Mr Pierre Marie another great mustache unfortunately the photos in these are a little blurry you know he's he's looking good I mean it's more than the other like 18th century French inspired one that we saw before he is giving like ball energy here so I'm going to put him in ball worthy ooh we have a couple Miss Agnes binsa and Mr Reginald fracklin he is looking fantastic though look at his hair you know I'll put them in ballworthy okay Miss Amy Townsend okay I love when historical outfits have like a very high contrast in them so look at the like contrast details in this outfit I love pointed uh sleeves this really it reminds me a lot of like um the women in those pre-raphaelite uh paintings who would be like swooning over the nights you know what I mean I'll put some examples up on the screen but like that's kind of the vibe that this is giving me this is apps own the Puffs the puffed elbow on the sleeve oh I'm gonna put this in amazing Mrs William Douglas wow look at her oh is that like a staff does she have a staff it's very like almost Court jestery oh that's fun I'm gonna put her under amazing so Mrs Arthur Paget or Mary Perron Stevens this is what's really upsetting to me about a few of the costumes from this ball some of them were not made with culturally sensitive Direction and it's really sad because you can tell that a lot of beautiful craftsmanship went into this piece the problem is I know this woman was not Egyptian as I talked about a lot in my video on ancient artifacts this was the time period the 1880s this was when egyptomania started really ramping up this is when imperialism was really starting to take a toll on Egypt and Egyptian tourism was steadily On The Rise so people really did see Egypt and its culture as well as its history as something they could consume a lot of rich people saw it as an opportunity to compare themselves to the great pharaohs and basically cosplay what they um assumed they might have looked like or just like drawing inspiration from them I'm gonna call this a dud just because the cultural historic weight behind it makes this a very ominous costume okay Mrs Arthur eepter so I can't can't see her whole outfits I feel bad judging her just on like a bust portrait but like it's pretty basic so I'm gonna put her under dastardly Duds Mr Perry Belmont ooh this is a guy you can tell he has confidence look at his pose okay he's also another fantastic mustache I know the 1880s was kind of like a golden age of mustaches but this like this guy and he has a sword I'm so predictable but his costume really does look fantastic I'm gonna put him under amazing Mr Charles Ross oh my God I wonder if he showed up with the other guy like the other medieval guy now this one isn't as like bombastic but he has a sword it's still just like slightly too basic I'm gonna put um because of the sword I'm gonna put him under amazing lady Mandeville or Consuelo is Naga okay another one where it's just a bust so I I don't know what the rest of her outfit looked like unfortunately however she does have a lot going on up top so um I love the pearls around her neck she's got kind of like a pseudo 18th century hair situation going on we've got a bonnet over here I can respect upon it ball worthy all right Mrs EJ woosley Fanny Smither Fanny Smith I think it's Fannie Smith she's hiding from us see that the train is giving it more points for me I was gonna put her under could be better but I love a trained skirt so I'm gonna put her under ball worthy okay Miss May bird ooh her dress isn't the most elaborate I've ever seen maybe not like a ball gown but it's like it's pretty and cute and I love the little like Star things she has in her hair I'm gonna put her in fallworthy Mrs Henry Levitt the fact fact that she's wearing like what like a leopard a cheetah a tiger not a fan of the poaching element I'm gonna put her in Duds the more I think about it the angry I'm getting Mr John Whipple oh John I'm positive this is supposed to be emulating a some kind of culture but I don't know which one it is and that is a failure on my part if you know what he's supposed to be dressed up as please let me know in the comments I feel bad that I can't pick it out I'm gonna put him under could be better because I'm really not sure about that one Mrs Frederick kernishan this is see this is what I've been waiting for oh my God the concept the execution the background matches her whole situation I can tell that that skirt would have been glittery I think she's got a little broom I have nothing to say she is simply marvelous another one oh my God yo amazing outstanding bombastic never been done before show stopping like what this is Miss Frederica Belmont later Mrs SS Howland oh my God I just know this was probably really colorful in real life this is what devastates me about a lot of these costumes is that a lot of them did not survive for some reason they just like weren't preserved um I think one of the few costumes we still have remaining from this ball is the electric light cost stream which we'll get to later I think it's last on this list I would have killed to have seen this in person and her shoes are cute too oh my God honey you're in simply marvelous Mr Frederick Harrison Baldwin I think his wig looks like I'll be honest like you can't even really see it but it looks really bad his mustache is great okay he has a sword but I can't I can't let swords get to me every time like that's not fair that's too easy I'm gonna put him under could be better even though he has a sword I'm so sorry Mr William Bayard Cutting at the bottom of his pants I've got nothing to say he looks simply marvelous Miss mizzier I think she's supposed to be channeling like Spanish folkware here I wish I could get more detail on that skirt though it looks really pretty I'm gonna say she look she looks she looks ball worthy Mr Isaac belt oh my God oh my God oh see I'm really predictable this is really embarrassing you put a little Court Jester in front of me I'm not gonna say no to that Mr Isaac Bell look at his pose I think this video is revealing some things about me Miss Whiting well um I always say this but names are a prophecy you guys already know what I'm gonna say oh here we are the woman herself Mrs William K Vanderbilt or Alva Erskine Smith as the hostess of the party herself she I mean she has to look incredible and she does I mean look she's got the headpiece she's got the doves she's got this beautiful like arm Cape she's got this train I mean okay she looks marvelous Mrs Peters okay fine this lady understood the assignment she was like ball what do I know about balls big hair big jewels maybe a little beauty mark nothing to say about it Mr H Duncan Wood you know what this guy reminds me of um he reminds me of Mr Collins from Pride and Prejudice what marvelous boiled potatoes exemplary vegetable I love the sort of cartooniness of this but here's the thing it's very much reminding me of okay here's a little personal tangent uh when I was in fifth grade in California in fifth grade I don't know if this is the way it is for the rest of the US in fifth grade you learned about the 13 colonies in the American Revolution right so we had a fifth grade play there was some drama involved and I ended up um asking to be switched to this minor part where I literally my whole job in the play was to dress up literally like this and stand there reading off the names of the colonies so that they could say that they're present at the Continental Congress so I literally looked like this guy and I was like Delaware Pennsylvania New York North Carolina Virginia Rhode Island that was my whole role in the play so he's giving me fifth grade flashbacks a little bit not judging him based on that I can't judge him based off of my uh School Year's trauma I love the cartooniness I'm gonna put him in amazing I admire the gumption it takes for somebody with enough money to look better than this to show up looking like a cartoon Mr Thorne I can tell that this was a very opulent like ornate outfit I love puff sleeves he looks simply marvelous Mrs Sam pennyman she's got like five things going on with her hair I don't know she looks amazing I'm gonna put her under amazing Mr William Douglas okay finally somebody shows up almost certainly repping their own culture so I just know this guy is friends with like everybody I just feel like this guy is like the dude who shows up at the ball and everyone's his friend I mean he just kind of gives off that Vibe so you know what amazing Miss ooh that's a name Miss shermerhorn and Mr Thorne oh wait is this this is the same guy from before I can't believe this so I put him in simply marvelous and now here he is again with bird girl I can't not I can't put him in another category and she I would put her if she was by herself I put her simply marvelous because I left the bird on her head Mrs August Belmont a lady with a sword say no more say no more Mr Buchanan Winthrop again could he be of Middle Eastern descent maybe is he though probably not knowing these people I'm gonna put him under could be better because like I don't know but if he isn't Middle Eastern just make a mental note that I actually want him to be under dastardly Duds I was waiting for this lady to pop up Miss Kate fearing strong now she is actually one of the most famous uh costumes from this party I think for obvious reasons and I actually know a little bit about her background you might be able to see on her neck there's a choker that says puss on it um that's because everybody in her life called her puss like that was her nickname her friends called her puss so obviously when she goes to this costume party she's like what am I going to dress up as puss now here's the problem I actually have absolutely no idea how she sourced the real cats that are part of her dress it's a little up these are real cats there's and a lot of her dress has like cat tails like real cat tails on it so I don't know how that was sore snowing it's the 1880s probably not great I do I don't think she had cats murdered for this I mean this is Camp so I can't put it in the bottom tier I just know everybody was talking about this after the ball to go to a ball like this and be the person everybody's talking about that's ball I'll put her in ballworthy now the last one is the famous electric light dress worn by it was worn by Alice Claypool Vanderbilt who was kind of a Infamous figure a little bit she was the sister-in-law of alpha Vanderbilt this is one of the few gowns that actually still exists today so we can see how gorgeous it is of course again surviving over 100 years doesn't um have the same uh look that it would have had when it was originally made so it would have looked even better originally but I mean she looks incredible I would be remiss if I didn't put her in simply marvelous okay so that's all the ones that I could find from this album um plus I already knew about the electric light dress so I included her myself hilariously it's actually like an even downward distribution thanks for coming to my TED Talk cheers the days and weeks after the ball saw a lot of comical stories hit the media one incident involved a Wall Street party on the 27th where the organizers catered it using the leftover food from the Vanderbilt ball another paper mentioned how the cleanup Crews at the Mansion were scouring the floor for rumored drop jewels and gems from guests and one worker found one under a rug he sprinted immediately to a pawn shop to sell it being followed by the police only to find out that it was just a piece of worthless glass but overall Alba's plan had worked she and her family were now accepted on the list which was now no longer only 400 people William and Alva shockingly divorced in 1895. it was a huge scandal in high society and later in 1925 their Chateau s comb was torn down and replaced with a skyscraper if you watch the show The Gilded Age you may remember a key conflict between the Asters and the new money Family the Russells where the daughter Carrie Aster is dropped from Gladys Russell's debutante ball because her mother Mrs Astor refuses to accept the Russells into society the Russells are an obvious stand-in for the Vanderbilts here while the ball in the show isn't remotely close in any way to the Grandeur of the Vanderbilt ball and therefore makes the stakes less realistic to 1880s High Society it's still a nice nod to true history so what do we have to learn from all this I don't really like anybody in this story Alva was a Mrs Astor I I just don't care for her either mostly I just enjoy oogling at the spectacle in fancy costumes anyway so let's move on to something more important me no I'm kidding this is my last video of 2022 so I just wanted to take a quick aside and say thank you all so so so so much for all the love and support this year I hit some really great Milestones I hit 200k subs and I'm about to hit 300K I had a video Hit 1 million views for the first time I finished making my graphic novel about Claude Kahan which will be coming out from Getty pubs next fall so keep an eye out for that and I got to travel and revisit some old friends all great things but if I'm being honest this has also been I think one of the most difficult years of my life my health has never been worse I've never been to the ER before but I went twice this year so that's great my wonderful grandpa passed away in June and it's been really hard I'm doing my best to try and set myself up for a much better year next year but I know most things are out of my control but putting all that aside thank you to you yes you for being here because you all are the reason that I get to have this job that I love doing and sharing knowledge with you all is the best thing that I could ask for so thank you for coming to learn with me I hope you all enjoyed the holiday safely and I'll see you next year for some more Adventures but till then wash thy hands wear thy mask and have a very happy New Year [Music] foreign [Applause] [Music]
2023-01-08 12:27
