Royal historian and author Tracy Borman returns to The Gilded Gentleman following her appearance on Crown & Scepter: The Coronation Show last year.  

Tracy is a noted historian and a frequent guest and commentator on the BBC as well as many documentaries and programs internationally.   Tracy's most recent book "Anne Boleyn and Elizabeth I: The Mother and Daughter That Changed History" serves as the basis for this episode, along with Tracy's insights on the mother daughter relationships in the lives of two modern monarchs - Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth II.  

Mother daughter relationships can be loving, supportive and at times challenging.  In this episode, Tracy Borman discusses several royal mother/daughter relationships that may have changed history.   Elizabeth I was barely three years old when her father Henry VIII ordered her mother's execution for failing to provide a royal male heir.  Tracy's revelatory new research and insight explains just how Elizabeth honored, and even emulated her mother throughout her own long reign and how she continued to dispel myths that had been created by a malicious court. 

Like Elizabeth I, neither Queen Victoria nor Queen Elizabeth II ever thought that they would be queens themselves and Tracy offers additional in-depth insight as to how these women - along with their own mothers influenced the throne. 

Just over a year ago, as Broadway opened a revival of the classic Stephen Sondheim musical Sweeney Todd, The Gilded Gentleman was honored to sit down with one of the stars of the original 1979 Broadway production.

Sarah Rice, who went on to a distinguished career in opera as well as leading roles in musical theatre, originated the role of Johanna playing opposite such Broadway legends as Angela Lansbury and Len Cariou. 

Sarah covered how she got started in theatre, came to New York with two cats and a piano to join the cast of the original The Fantasticks, and then was cast in her career changing role as Broadway's first Johanna.  Perhaps most fascinating in Sarah's chat with Carl were her reminiscences and recollections of being directed and prepared for the role by the great masters Hal Prince and Stephen Sondhiem themselves.  Sarah ultimately became one of today's most important interpreters of Stephen  Sondheim's music.  

Sarah passed away suddenly earlier this winter and her loss is a profound one for those who knew her personally and those who were touched by her beautiful voice and many appearances on stage.   

As a tribute to her memory and her artistry, The Gilded Gentleman is revisiting the interview portion of last Spring's show as a tribute to her memory. 

Join Carl and  British country house historian Curt DiCamillo for a look into the world of the Edwardian country house.  Audiences became fascinated in these houses through the blockbuster Julian Fellowes series "Downton Abbey" and his earlier film "Gosford Park",  with their colliding worlds of upstairs and downstairs and interlocking social dramas. 

Curt discusses this fascinating period in British history and how the country house in Edwardian times brought society closer to a modern age. Curt explains how country houses as estates for the British aristocracy evolved over centuries and how they reached their height in the reign of King Edward VII, who took the throne following the death of his mother, Queen Victoria. 

The country house greatly expanded during this time and some interiors reflected influences from Britain's growing empire.  Grand dinners, shooting parties, and elegant tea parties were all backdrops to great social intrigue and sometimes scandal.  

In this show, Curt shares several examples of great Edwardian country houses (including one current royal estate), what they looked like, how they operated, and how they can be visited today.  The Edwardian period was a glittering one, much like America's Gilded Age, but a short one, which vanished from view as Britain and Western Europe entered a world-changing war.  

Related show with Curt DiCamillo:  The British Crown Jewels: History and Mystery

Fashion historian and author, Dr. Elizabeth L. Block returns to The Gilded Gentleman for a truly "undercover" investigation.  This time, Liz joins Carl to discuss the world of corsets, bustles, straps and stockings, all of which comprised the undergarment engineering that helped make the glorious gowns by Worth and other designers appear as glamorous as they did. 

In addition to the architecture and the food, it is the fashion of the Gilded Age that always elicits comments and sighs at the very beauty and craftsmanship of the great gowns that swept by on ballroom floors.  But the stunning and costly gowns, whether for a ball or for wear during the day, required a complex combination of undergarments to not only make the wearer feel comfortable, but also to give the outer clothing its required shape.  

Dr. Elizabeth Block joins Carl for a discussion that includes insight into not only what garments were required, but also just how they were made and how they were worn.  You may be surprised at just how comfortable and wearable some undergarments actually were.  Liz and Carl's discussion includes a look at such curious accessories as the "lobster bustle" and even a corset for men. 

Related episode:  

• Gilded Age French Fashion: The House of Worth and Beyond  

Links

Elizabeth Block - 

 The small two acre square known since the 1830's as Gramercy Park has also been called "America's Bloomsbury". Taking the reference from London's famous neighborhood once home to many great writers and artists, New York's Gramercy Park has similarly included noted cultural icons from architect Stanford White to actor Edwin Booth to the great politician Samual  Tilden.  

Wandering along the park today it's easy to gain a view back into the past - many of the original Greek Revival brick townhouses and brownstone mansions remain, some still in private hands.

The park in the center is one of the most unique in America - it is a private park, not a city property and it's upkeep has been managed since its inception in the early 19th century by the property owners around the park itself.  Writer and historian Keith Taillon joins Carl for this episode to look back into  this hidden pocket of New York City's past and unlock its history. 

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Carl is joined by noted architect, interior designer and author Phillip James Dodd for an in-depth discussion of the "look" of the Gilded Age  - a style known as American Beaux-Arts.  

Architecture constructed during the height of America's Gilded Age most certainly had a distinctive look.  It was a uniquely American combination of stylistic elements of classical antiquity, the Renaissance palaces of the Medici, as well as the more flamboyant styles of France's Belle Epoque.  

But just how does one define the eclectic style that came to be known as American Beaux-Arts and who were its most famous and influential practitioners?  In this episode Carl and Phillip James Dodd discuss these concepts in general to arrive at a definition and understanding, but also take a look at major examples, such as the facade and Great Hall or the Metropolitan Museum of Art,  the New York Public Library and the Morgan Library, as well as the architects who created them:  Richard Morris Hunt, Charles Follen McKim, and the architectural team of Carrè re and Hastings.  

After having listened to this unique episode, you'll look at the Gilded Age and New York City with whole new eyes. 

In the previous episode "Dandies: Gentleman of Style from the 19th Century to Today", Carl was joined by cultural historian and maker of fine custom clothing, Nathaniel Lee Adams for a look at this most interesting breed of society's tastemaking men.  In this new episode, Carl and Natty take the discussion further and focus on the early 20th century, when a new brand of dandy was emerging  - one with style perhaps, but also often tinged by scandal. 

Being a "dandy" is generally thought to be more than just being a stylish dresser.  There is attitude, perspective and perhaps even a sense of the revolutionary that ties many of history's so-called dandies together.  In this episode, Carl and Natty start with the world of the dandy immediately following the death of Oscar Wilde and begin with a discussion of the British author and caricaturist Max Beerbohm and the  American self-proclaimed inventor of the tuxedo, Evander Berry Wall.  

They then discuss the fascinating, complex black American boxer Jack Johnson, who in order to fight not only his opponents but the pervasive prejudice of his time,  created a boundary-breaking persona of style laced with scandal.  Returning to Europe the discussion continues Oscar Wilde's own nephew and writer (and also boxer),  Arthur Cravan, the War Poets including Rupert Brooke and Siegfried Sassoon, the minimalist Austrian architect Adolf Loos and finally one of the most polarizing personalities of them all, the flamboyant Italian poet and would be revolutionary, Gabriele D'Anunzio.  

In this episode, journalist and biographer Maria Teresa Cometto joins The Gilded Gentleman for a look into the life of New York-born 19th-century sculptor Emma Stebbins.   Emma Stebbins is most noted for her iconic bronze statue, The Angel of the Waters, which was placed on Central Park's Bethesda Terrace in 1873.  Maria Teresa Cometto is the author of the recently published "Emma and the Angel of Central Park", the first extensive biographical look at Stebbins' life. 

Many locals and visitors may be aware of parts of the story of Emma Stebbins - that her Angel was the first public statue in New York produced by a woman and that her life included a domestic partnership with another woman.  But there is much more in the story.  This is the story of a creative artistic woman whose life, which began in early 19th-century New York, expanded and flourished in a community of fellow artists and sculptors in mid-century Rome.  

This is a very Italian story in many ways, set against the backdrop of the ruins, museums, and palaces of classical Rome.  Emma's story includes love, betrayal, inspiration, tragedy, and even a bit of mystery.  Her most well known creation, the famed Angel of the Waters, while perhaps her most significant work, is indeed only part of the story. 

Mrs. Stuyvesant Fish, known to all as just Mamie, was another of the larger-than-life personalities during the Gilded Age. For this episode, Carl is joined by historian and writer Keith Taillon and actor Ashlie Atkinson, who portrays Mamie Fish in HBO's The Gilded Age, for a look at just who this complicated and fascinating woman really was. 

If you received an invitation to a party at Mamie Fish's - you went.  Mamie Fish, who had an iron clad family pedigree and enough money to compete with other Gilded Age hostesses, was known as a "fun maker".  While at Mrs. Astor's you may have cemented your role in society, at Mamie's, you just had a really good time.  

Her parties bordered on the outrageous, from inviting an elephant as a guest to co-hosting the famous dinner for dogs, some of them adorned with diamond collars.  

But who was Mamie Fish and why do we find her fascinating today?  Historian Keith Taillon and actor Ashlie Atkinson offer deeply insightful perspectives on this woman who perhaps sought to break out of the role prescribed to her and shake up society.  

Mamie Fish, when looked at through a modern lens, was challenging, complicated, conflicted and certainly controversial. But given the Gilded Age's restrictions and gender rules, it's interesting to consider how much she could also be considered a rebel and revolutionary for her time. 

Edith Wharton published The Age of Innocence at a very important moment in her life.  When the novel came out in 1920, she had been living in France full-time for nearly 10 years and had seen the devastating effects of World War I up close.  

Her response was to look back with a sense of nostalgia to the time of her childhood to recreate that staid, restrictive world of New York in the 1870s that, despite its often social cruelty and harsh judgements, seemed to have some kind of moral center.  It was a world in which Wharton as a creative woman, however, could not live and work, and thus, she transferred her life in stages to France.  

In this episode, Dr. Emily Orlando, a noted Wharton scholar, joins Carl to delve into the background of this novel, take a deep dive into the personalities of the major characters, and discuss what Wharton wanted to say in her masterpiece.  

Related Episodes: 

• A Sprig of Witch Hazel:  Edith Wharon's Secret Affair
• Edith Wharton's Paris

It's ball season! Time to call the carriage for your visit to the Gilded Age's greatest parties.

Balls were the most lavish entertainment one could attend in the Gilded Age -- from Mrs. Astor's annual Opera Ball for around 400 guests to smaller affairs for only 200 or 300 hundred. 

But that ball was far more than an elegant night out. Being invited signaled that you were "in" society. Who you saw there often determined how you navigated society, and whom you could introduce your daughter to indicated possible prospects for the marriage market. Your every move was being watched, cataloged, and judged.  

Venture back to the Gilded Age to revisit ball season in this classic Gilded Gentleman episode - find out what you had to wear, how you had to behave, what you had to eat, and even how to interpret the secret language of a lady's fan. 

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