Includes bibliographical references (pages 277-278).

"In this gossipy, name-filled and lavishly illustrated volume, Allen Churchill chronicles the families, fads, and fortunes that made New York, New York what it was. From the days of the English governors--one of whom used to wear his wife's dresses to underscore his resemblance to Queen Anne--New York's High Society has been an inexhaustible fount of glamour and fascination. Included in this impertinent potpourri are the mansions of Millionaire's Row (one, on the corner of Fifty-second Street, cost three million [1880s] dollars); the "Bouncers" and "Shoddies" who assaulted Gotham Society with cash as their sole weapon; the origin of "The Four Hundred", how Manhattan reacted to two Princes of Wales; The Bradley Martin Ball, which nearly started a riot; the Vanderbilt-Marlborough wedding which was denounced by the press, and much, much more. In every era, Churchill examines the awesome and often eccentric personalities that made Manhattan's blood run blue: James Cordon Bennett, who was horsewhipped by his fiancée's brother and had to leave the country; "Commodore" Vanderbilt, the first of the great dynasty founders; Caroline Astor (THE Mrs. Astor); the rapacious Jay Gould; Ward McAllister, whose decline from social grace brought the public's scorn down on an entire era of brittle, gilded life. Finally, Churchill examines the rush for the celebrity-ridden wilds of Café Society that "killed" High Society, and details some of its more astonishing death-throes. But even if Society is dead, this book--always informative, often hilarious, usually indiscreet, and illustrated with over two hundred old prints and photographs--should stand as its definitive epitaph."--Jacket.

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