The Bradley- Martin Ball of 1897
-Chrissie
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The Gilded Age is marked by the great gap between the rich and the poor, which was made more obvious by the ostentatiousness of the super-rich. By its end, even those who had participated in the excesses of the previous decades were disgusted with the opulence of their cohort. The end of the period is marked by two dinner parties, the Bradley-Martin Ball in 1897 and the Horseback Dinner in 1903. The former was a dinner party not terribly out of the norm within the Gilded Age society, but laid bare the lack of concern for anyone outside their society circle. The latter was simply a conspicuous expenditure that was seen as ridiculous even at the time. Today, we’re talking about the Bradley-Martin Ball and we’ll cover the Horseback Dinner in our next episode.
Gilded Age dinner parties were often all-night affairs, beginning around 11 pm, often after an evening at an opera or concert. A sumptuous buffet would be set out for a formal supper between one and two am, followed by dancing, with the ball ending in an informal breakfast. They were conducted either in one’s own home or in a hotel, depending on the hostess and the occasion. And, it was always conducted by a hostess; women ruled the capital-S Society of the era, the men were told when and where to appear and in what type of clothes. Invitations were generally sent about a month ahead of time, and careful consideration was made within the community so that each hostess would have at least one week marked for her annual ball. On an unclaimed week, one might hold an “impromptu” party, sending out invitations as little as a week ahead of the gathering. These were power plays by the hostesses, making a bet that they had greater social power than any other events which might have already been planned.
These were always formal occasions and people dressed accordingly. Even those identified as informal would see a great deal of expensive and fashionable dress, though a woman might be able to get away with wearing a gown from last season. Costume parties were the one exception: formality was less important than having the most impressive or seemingly accurate costume. Even these, however, saw thousands of dollars spent in order to make the best impression.
The Bradley-Martin Ball was one such event. Held at the Waldorf Hotel (not yet the Waldorf-Astoria) on 10 February 1897, guests were asked to appear in the guise of a person who lived in the sixteenth, seventeenth, or eighteenth century. The opulence was poorly timed, as New York City and the rest of the United States were still recovering from the Panic of 1893, which had caused an economic depression. The Bradley-Martins were conscious of the potential for bad press, and so tried to spin it as a means to stimulate the city’s economy. The invitations were sent out late, so that the attendees would not have time to order their garments from Europe, meaning they would have to purchase from local dressmakers and tailors, creating “an impetus to trade that nothing else will.”[1]
The preparations for the event were covered in the New York Times, and many other papers, and drew a great deal of criticism from seemingly all quarters. Threats of various authenticity were made to the Bradley-Martins and the members of society who had been invited, prompting a guard of nearly 400 New York City police around the hotel that night, for fear that the party would be attacked. The Bradley-Martins and some of their guests also hired private detectives and security to work inside the party, appearing as guests or servants. In an irony that the hostess does not seem to have realized, the Waldorf ballrooms rented for the evening were meticulously transformed into a replica of the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles, much as it had looked before the French Revolution.
The guests spent an average of $11,000 (approximately $400,000 in 2022 dollars) each on their costumes. This does not include anything that was part of a person’s costume which they already owned; for example, Caroline Astor jewels for the evening were worth $200,000 (approximately $6.7 million in 2022 dollars). Most of the attendees did not wear their costumes into the party, but instead took advantage of the fifteen dressing rooms provided by the Bradley-Martins, equipped with makeup artists and hairdressers who could style both real hair and wigs. The span of centuries given for the costumes prompted a variety of dress ranging across the period: Native Americans, both generic and famous, Japanese Samurai, European knights in full plate armor, icons of the American Revolution, and many, many kings and queens. Mrs. Bradley-Martin was dressed as Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots. Her gown was reported to have cost $60,000 (approximately $2.2 million in 2022) and included ornaments that were said to have come from Marie Antoinette’s crown jewels. The dinner consisted of 28 dishes and was accompanied by approximately 4,000 bottles of wine and champagne. All in all, the Bradley-Martins spent about $370,000 (about $12.5 million in 2022). If one includes all of the money spent by both hosts and guests, this is one of, if not the most, expensive ball of the Gilded Age. And this expense did not go unnoticed: extensive criticism was directed at the hosts and the party-goers both in person and in print, and the city raised the property taxes of the Bradley-Martins and many of the more conspicuous attendees.
[1] Frederick Townsend Martin, Things I Remember, quoted in Greg King, A Season of Splendor, p.383 epub edition.