Astor, finding herself neatly trapped, first called at Mrs. The Astors realized that without this invitation, they faced social irrelevance. Astor had never left so much as a pasteboard at her gates, the inclusion of her daughter at the gala was most regrettably, inconceivable,” Crowninshield wrote. Vanderbilt, hearing what was brewing, was quick to point out that since Mrs. The assumption got back to the Vanderbilts. Astor’s daughter, Caroline, assuming she too was on the list, was said by Crowninshield to have been eagerly practicing her quadrille dance. (That would be in the millions today, adjusting for inflation.) Even the most loyal Astor allies accepted their invitations. A news report from the New York World estimated the party cost $240,000-with $11,000 of them on flowers alone.
That was the year that Alva Vanderbilt decided to throw a “great fancy-dress ball” in honor of her daughter, according to a 1941 Frank Crowninshield piece in Vogue.
“The wealth of the Vanderbilt family had become so powerful in New York, so many enterprises depended on financial support from the Vanderbilts, the fortunes of so many of the old families were subject to injury of promotion through the enmity of favor of the Vanderbilts, that the oldest Knickerbocker families were gradually forced to surrender,” The New York Times reported.Įxcept for one: The Astors, who refused to budge. So they kept amassing mountains of it until they became impossible to ignore by the old guard.
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