Welcome to Dun & Dunn. I'm Alicia, your hostess on this journey, All Things, Dominic Dunn.

This week we're going to settle into the Gilded Age for just a little while longer. There are a few more juicy stories to tell within our New York State of Crime series.

And today I've got a little wrap-up to do from last week's episode. A little bit more about Caroline and Ward

and, well, some feuding cousins, which is going to get us to a good place for the remainder of what's

coming in this next block of episodes. I do have a little correction from last week. It is the

mayor of New York that lives in Gracie Mansion, not the governor. And it is

Washington Irving, not the other way around. Oh, week before, Walter Winchell, y'all, sometimes even with

the script, I get caught up with excitement and y'all rock. Your devotion is extraordinary,

and I adore your investigator hearts.

Let's see if today goes a little better.

Because today we've got a few stories that are going to shape up the end of our gilded age in a lot of ways.

We've heard maybe of the Cousins War referred back to the 15th century, but one happened right on the Upper East Side in the 1890s.

It's going to include the founding of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel.

Caroline Shermerhorn Astor is heavily involved along with her son and her nephew.

Ward McAllister is going to come into, there's a lot happening in the 1890s that is going to set the stage for how high society will be shaped

over the next century. That's the front half of our episode. In the second half of the episode,

we're going to get into a little bit more of how that's shaped. We're going to

continue on with the story of John Jacob Astor, the fourth, Jack Astor, Caroline's son, and,

oh my, how does the 1890s shake down in the Upper East Side? Let's investigate.

Music East Side. Let's investigate. So we talked in last week's episode a little bit about Caroline Shermoren-Aster wanting to be known as the only Mrs. Astor.

I mean, the Astors have a lot of family. She's not the only Mrs. Astor.

There are two cousins that we're going to talk about in this episode quite a bit.

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