HBO’s The Gilded Age captured viewers’ hearts in 2022, and a renewed fascination with the time period began. Filmed within the luxurious summer cottages of the Astors and Vanderbilts in Newport, Rhode Island, the show fictionally weaves together historical icons such as Caroline Astor, Ward McAllister, and JP Morgan and imagined characters such as Bertha and George Russell, who are loosely based on Alva and William Vanderbilt (Alva is a Southerner herself; she was born in Mobile, Alabama). It’s no wonder, then, that these depictions of America’s famous self-made millionaire families have inspired luxurious modern-day travel where the wealthy elite once walked.
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