Hello, I'm Carl Raymond, the host of the Gilded Gentleman History podcast.

It's ball season. At least it was in the Gilded Age. Winter was the time for fancy dress

balls, grand dinners, and even Mrs. Astor's famous annual opera ball. In this encore episode of

having a ball, the Gilded Age's most outrageous parties,

discover just what went into throwing a ball and just what it was like once you got there.

So put on your best silks and satins,

and I'll see you at the ball.

As springtime begins in New York City and the sun begins to warm the frozen ground of Central Park,

the thoughts of Social New York turn to one event and one event only. It's an event that perhaps is the

most exclusive on the Gotham Social Calendar, a mere 600 or so names land on the

coveted invitation list. The final list crafted carefully and strategically by Vogue

editor Anna Wintour and her staff is a who's who of the who's who.

Even the news this year that a friend of a friend that I barely know got to go conjured excitement and days of emerald envy.

The Gala Night, always the first Monday in May,

is covered by the national and international media as stars, star watchers,

stars to be, and stars that were, along with the current gratin of American tastemakers

ascend the grand steps of New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. The annual Met Gala always strikes me in so many ways

as a direct descendant, you could say, of a gilded age ball,

glamour, exclusivity, anticipation,

details flung out to a voracious press,

and then the next day, as staff sweep up fallen rose petals and retrieved

drop napkins, well, it's all over for another year. In this show, I will be taking a look at

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