The Gilded Gentleman

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 even more popular ad Puccini operas, he was responsible for launching the careers of Maude Adams (the first Peter Pan), Mary Pickford and Barbara Stanwyck. He was known for often wearing the robes and clerical collar of a Catholic priest, despite his Jewish heritage and thus began to call himself  "The Bishop of Broadway". Belasco owned and operated today's Belasco Theatre on 44th St which continues to bear his name. The theatre, built in 1907, is home to current Broadway hits and still contains the once lavish apartment now abandoned in which he lived on the theatre's top floor.   It's said that perhaps Belasco has never quite left his eponymous theatre and reports have persisted over the years of sightings and strange occurrences that indicate his possible presence even today. 

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-depth look at examples of the ghost story from both Henry James and Edith Wharton. Carl and Emily delve into James'  techniques of horror and suspense in his masterpiece "The Turn of the Screw" and how Wharton explored the ambiguities and challenges of marriage and abandonment in several of her stories including "The Lady's Maid's Bell", "Afterward", "Pomegranate Seed" and perhaps her own masterpiece -- "All Souls". Orlando was also featured in the Gilded Gentleman episode -- Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence 

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 the episode "Invisible Magicians: Domestic Servants in Gilded Age New York" with writings by actual servants, Esther has uncovered documents written in children's own voices that capture their world and reality. From a 12 year old boy in Gilded Age Harlem to a teenage girl on what would become Manhattan's Upper East Side, we can finally meet children who are both seen and heard. 

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 death, Elizabeth wrote what we would perhaps today call a "tell all" memoir -- King Lehr and the Gilded Age -- recounting the challenges of her marriage but also the frivolity and froth of the Gilded Age from her own observances as an up-close participant. Her observances are some of the most acute and incisive we have on the period. Visit the Gilded Gentleman website for more information and episodesThis episode was edted by Kieran Gannon