HBO's The Gilded Age | The True Life Story of Carrie Astor

welcome to the fabulous fierce and feisty women in history don't forget to subscribe and please be sure to give us likes and yes we even want your comments too it's all greatly appreciated and helps our channel to grow now on to today's video the true life story of carrie astor in episode 6 we get to see how carrie astor played by amy forsythe is just as much under her mother's thumb as gladys the fact is i have a very difficult mother carrie astor is a nickname for caroline astor but since that was her mother's name as well we will stick to calling her carrie to avoid confusion so far in the show we haven't seen much of carrie who is 21 years old in the gilded ages 1882 time frame carrie was first seen in episode 1 during a picnic party held by mamie fish which also included larry russell and oscar van reine the gilded age episode 2 was the second time we saw carrie after mrs astor watched an excessive display of george russell's wealth at a charity fair in this scene carrie wondered if the russells were worth formal befriending but her mother disregarded the idea like the other young people in the show carrie does not hold to the idea that the new money family should be excluded from the old money society of which carrie is a part we don't know this yet but carrie has more than one reason to want the new money families to be accepted in episode six we are starting to get more of a sense of carry and her life and shall we say a gilded cage when we come upon her crying at another of mimi fish's parties in the scene where larry and gladys russell approached carrie as she wipes away tears from her face in conversation with gladys carey reveals that her tears are over a man but the man's name is not spoken one thing we can be sure of at this point is that carrie's love interest is not larry russell as some fans had hoped if he were the man kerry spoke of then he would linger longer by her side rather than go off to meet other friends at the party instead carrie and gladys commiserate with one another over the fact that they both have domineering mothers whose plans for their daughters have nothing to do with what their daughters may feel or want now we can look into history and get a glimpse of what is ahead in carrie astor's storyline if the tv production follows history accurately then carrie will marry the man she is crying over but not just yet it will take a couple of years before carrie astor would marry a man who would be from a new money family a man her mother is entirely against because he is the son of a southerner and civil war profiteer whose reputation was as tainted as all the other robber barons of that era his name was marshall orm wilson and they married on november 18th 1884 at the astor mansion but not without some effort on carrie's part to get her mother's approval in the book john jacob astor america's first multi-millionaire by axel madsen it is said that carrie starved herself into bulimia until her mother gave in and agreed to the marriage another account of mrs astor's attempts to stop carrie from marrying new money said that carrie begged and begged her mother so mrs astor came up with what she thought was a devious plan she said okay you can get married if the wilsons can match your 500 000 dory mrs astor was sure that would never happen since the wilson family patriarch was said to have lost a great portion of his original fortune what was once a multi-million dollar empire was reduced to around a million dollars when mrs astor made her conditions known so who were these wilsons of new york's gilded age at the time of carrie's growing love interest in marshall wilson he was a banker in his father's firm of r t wilson and company which would seem on the surface respectable enough to warrant entry into old new york society rt wilson the patriarch of the nouveau rich wilson family was the son of a scottish tanner before he made his riches rt was born in georgia and spent time as a traveling salesman until the civil war brought him the opportunity to strike it rich first serving on the staff of the commissary general of the confederate states of america wilson was later sent to london by the confederate government to dispose of the cotton crop at the end of the war he was said to have returned to america five hundred thousand dollars richer after the war ended wilson began buying up defunct railroads he moved to new york city and purchased a mansion at 511 fifth avenue that placed him squarely in the sphere of old new york society wilson then opened the banking firm of wilson galloway and company which would later become our t wilson and company which brings us to our t wilson son marshall orm wilson marshall wilson graduated from columbia university in 1882 before joining his father's firm as a banker two years later after his marriage to kerry the couple moved into a new home at 414 fifth avenue purchased and furnished by her father for them as a wedding present after that carrie and marshall built a mansion that was completed in 1903 at 3 east 64th street on the upper east side of manhattan in new york city so if the hbo show the gilded age follows history we can expect that carrie will indeed marry the man she loves sooner or later from history we know that carrie married marshall orm wilson in the astor mansion on the afternoon of november 18 1884 the new york times called it the principal social event of the season and reported that the ceremony was witnessed by hundreds in the art gallery ballroom and nearly a thousand more at the reception the times article spent copious column space describing room after room of floral decorations including such detail as the chandeliers being covered in masses of large pink roses rose foliage and japanese ferns it was reported that carrie's gown was bedecked with diamonds and orange blossoms accompanied by a seventy-five thousand dollar necklace draped across the bride's bodice every opulent gift was on display for everyone to admire and not a prominent name was missing from the assembled guests in the fall of 1906 carrie's mother showed signs of a nervous breakdown soon after her condition continued to decline and she was rarely seen in public caroline skirmerhorn astor died at 7 30 that evening with carrie as the only family member at her side the reign of the old money was ending the turn of the century brought changes even though the matrons of high society did their best to hold on but as far as carrie was concerned she was not interested unlike her mother carey's lavish entertainments were used in the service of charitable causes in the new mansion that she and her husband had built at 3 east 64th street in manhattan kerry would hold creative and elaborate functions such as the one in january 1913 the event was for the support of a district nurse in the baby's ward of the new york post graduate medical school and hospital on that day kerry presented entertainment from recruited wealthy socialites and their children who posed as reproductions of paintings by famous masters when world war one broke out carrie turned her focus to war causes including an event for the benefit of a group of students and their families attending the national school of fine arts in paris a stage was constructed in the wilson's ballroom the first part of the program was a concert and in the second part there was a theater presentation of a one-act comedy in january 1919 carrie had some of her friends over on a thursday afternoon to hear a captain of the british army tell of his experiences in german prison camps in which he was confined 14 months after the war kerry became interested in the construction of the cathedral of saint john the divine she brought architect ralph adams crammed to her house to give a lecture talking about the cathedral the construction project became one of carrie wilson's favorite causes and she would host the sewing class of the fresh air association of the cathedral of saint john the divine for years marshall orm wilson died in their house on east 64th street on april 1st 1926. kerry continued to live in the house alone with her staff ultimately resuming her charity teas and entertainments among her later interests was the new york women's league for animals which met regularly in the wilson mansion carrie lived another 22 years after her husband's death and died on september 13th 1948 at the age of 87 at the home of her son richard at one sutton place at the time of her death she was the last surviving child of her parents after a funeral at trinity church she was buried alongside her husband at woodlawn cemetery in the bronx thanks for watching and don't forget to subscribe for more videos on the many fabulous fierce and feisty women in history

Channel: Fabulous, Fierce & Feisty Women In History

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Id: UrkzfJLm6-c

Length: 10min 51sec (651 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 06 2022