Hello, this is Carl Raymond, host of the Gilded Gentleman History podcast where every two weeks we journey into corners light and dark in America's Gilded Age, Francis Belapac and England's late Victorian and Edwardian eras.

As followers of that glittering and gaudy moment in American history known as the Gilded Age know, it was a time of

elegance, grandeur, and enormous social transition, but also untethered ambition, drive, and

competition. And aside from all of that, there was a nearly universal grab for power, among the men to rule industry and gain

wealth, and among the women to secure social rank, and among everybody else, just to survive.

But the gilded age, it could be said, was often fueled by greed, gossip, and scandal.

One standing in society was often defined by what the press said about you.

And as the Gilded Age gathered full steam, newspapers, magazines, and journals exploded into production,

all needing the most sensational stories to capture readers' eyes, make impressions true or not,

but most of all to create wealth for their publishers.

At the center of much of the Glitzy Gilded Age celebrity press was an innocuous sounding publication called Town Topics. Once a social publication focused on art,

music culture, and literature, under a new owner with his own unbridled ambitions, it grew to be

New York's equivalent of one of our scandal sheets of today, reporting news of varying quality and accuracy, but all

leading to a complex scheme of blackmail and extortion. Until, of course, to the shock of its

publisher, it was all dramatically exposed in a sting operation that sent him off to a public and damning trial, covered extensively

by, of course, the press. Joining me today to delve into the drama of town topics, the gossip

it reported, and the schemes of its publisher is journalist and author Joe Pompeo.

Joe wrote a fascinating article on town topics for Town and Country Magazine,

and it is his research and perspective that forms the basis of our show today.

Joe Pompeo is a former senior correspondent at Vanity Fair and the author of Blood and Inc,

the scandalous jazz age double murder that hooked America on true crime.

He is currently working on the forthcoming California screaming, misfits, mayhem, murder, and Hollywood's punk rock revolution

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