This era drama not only has famous ladies, mansions and jewels, but even the carriage is particularly fun| bagua field

Text | Dedee

A while ago, the most anticipated American drama in the spring of 2022, HBO's top money-burning "Gilded Age" finally came to an end.

This period drama written by Julian Fellowes, screenwriter of "Downton Abbey", at first glance seems to be about the X-fight drama between the celebrities of the two major groups of new money and old money competing for dominance in New York's high-end social circle, but in fact, it is about the political past of the new and old forces in New York.

The first season, which just ended, mainly took place from 1882 to 1883. All kinds of accumulation in the United States have grown by leaps and bounds, and a large number of heavy industries, including railroads, factories, and mining, are developing rapidly. Millions of immigrants continue to pour in from Europe, wealth continues to accumulate in the northern and western United States, and the economy of the south remains sluggish...

On September 4, 1883, Edison held a show at the New York Times Building. The moment the electric light illuminates the entire building, everything around it seems to be gilded in gold. The great electric age is coming, the surging torrent of history cannot be stopped, and everyone present is applauding and cheering - "The Gilded Age" came from this.

Like the story of Tang Jiatun'er, the important characters in the Gilded Age have clear archetypes. In particular, mrs. Astor and the upstart Russell family, the representatives of the old New Yorkers in the play.

The former is actually Caroline Astor, the old lady of the Astor family of the "King of New York" and the mother of John Jacob Astor, the founder of the St. Regis Hotel. It is said that it is this old lady who single-handedly created the "400 people list" that makes "new money hurts, old money is fast". The latter contains 213 families and individuals in New York. These people belong to the most typical old New Yorkers, dating back more than three generations and even associated with the Livingston family. The St. Regis Hotel, which was born in the early 20th century, was originally a super clubhouse dedicated to the old lady to open a big ladder.

Let's talk about the Livingston family – a super ancestor that is often heard in the Gilded Age. He was the number one patron of the world's first steamship, the Claremont, from The First Prime Minister of New York State, the Founding Father of the United States, and one of the drafters of the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation, Robert R. Livingston.

This is also why, even though the heroine Marian's legacy has long been squandered by her father, she can only leave home and whimper, but her aunt Agnes has no worries about what livelihood problems the poor niece will have when she comes to New York. After all, compared to our great wronged uncle Liu Huang, Silly White Sweet is destined not to suffer too much because he has a pure Livingston bloodline.

At the height of the Astor family, the entire city of Manhattan almost lost his family name. Although it is different from the past, the Astor family, which owns St. Regis and Waldorf Astoria, is still the top richest man in the United States. Compared to them, the Trump family is the Russell family to the Agnes aunt.

The Russell family, which lives opposite Aunt Agnes's house, is based on the Vanderbilt family of railway and shipping tycoons. And Bertha, who has to fight for everything, is the famous Alva Smith Vanderbilt. He was born in the eyes of ordinary humans and belonged to the kind with a silver spoon, a wealthy family in the American South.

But whether it is the mother-in-law's family or the in-laws' family, the Russell family seems to the old New Yorkers... The high emotional intelligence theory is the representative of the American dream, and the low emotional intelligence theory is the poor upstart who only has money left, and what he does is bare stomach grinding - the rotor circle is humiliating.

In order to ascend to the top of the "400-man list", Alva, in order to kill the old New Yorkers with high eyes, directly resorted to a big killing move - marrying her only daughter Consuelo to Charles Spencer Churchill , the ninth duke of Marlborough (also known as the Duke of Marlboro) in the corrupt country, and his cousin was Winston Churchill.

Yes, half of the prototype of Cora Crowley in Tang Jiatun was the rich woman who was known as the most "rich and beautiful" woman in Manhattan at that time. In the end, her father used the fifty thousand shares of the railway company with a market value of $2.5 million, and her mother used the royal jewelry that she had hidden for half her life and the annual annuity of $100,000 to "tie" Consuelo to church and marry Charles Spencer Churchill, who had the title of duke and the ruined manor.

Although the couple never fell in love, Consuelo did soon put 400 old New Yorkers under the feet – the new duchess not only attended the coronation of Queen Victoria's daughter-in-law, Queen Alexandra, but also became one of four guests holding tents, making the old money in Europe and the United States instantly want to settle in northern Anhui.

At that time, there were many rich American women who had similar experiences with Consuelo. They are collectively known as Buccaneer Brides (Buccaneer also means opportunistic) or Dollar Princesses.

Far away, far away. It is understood that in order to surpass the story of Tang Jiatun'er in an all-round way, plus the infinite fit of the background age, the degree of study in the service of huadao can be described as "heartbreaking", it is said that the average amount of money burned is more than 100 million US dollars per episode.

For example, in this season alone, "The Gilded Age" produced nearly 5,000 costumes.

Not to mention the Victorian Bassle dress that can be seen throughout the play. The unique skirt support shape makes the buttocks of the noble women particularly high, and even can put a teacup steadily... The high EQ statement is to look noble and delicate, and the low EQ statement is like a snail shell on the ass. The noble ladies dragged the heavy shells, step by step upwards... Go, and show the unique classical beauty of that era to the fullest.

Well, it feels like Kardashian's huge hips are modeled after this dress.

Not only the costumes, but the crew also deliberately went to the former home of the Vanderbilt family to shoot, such as the Tingtao Villa in Newport, Rhode Island, on the east coast of the United States, and the marble villa built of countless marbles in Newport. The latter was also the filming location for the 1972 edition of The Marvelous Gatsby.

Of course, the most bullish filming is the new Russell mansion. Looking at the photos, and the French classical style mansion built by Alva Vanderbilt for 3 million US dollars, it is almost a one-to-one restoration, and it is no wonder that the aunt of the door stands at the window in pajamas and looks directly, completely forgetting the word "reserved".

In addition to the above obvious places, there is also a detail that is also studied everywhere, that is, the means of transportation, especially the large and small carriages in the play, the degree of elegance is not lost to clothing and jewelry, which is very interesting.

The first is the Barouche, the most flattering of the noblewomen.

In the play, many old and new money ladies and ladies often ride a large carriage, which is also one of the most expensive carriages.

Barouche, which literally translates to a four-wheeled four-seat convertible carriage, was extremely popular in Europe and the United States in the 19th century, and was the standard for noble ladies to visit the garden, and there was a foldable canopy in the rear seat. When riding in such carriages, they usually wear a small umbrella to protect themselves from the sun and make it easier for them to look at others in their own way, gracefully and quietly.

In the book The Dance of the Swans: The Duchess of Proust and Paris at the End of the Century, it is a detailed account of how idle the French ladies of the Second Empire were. They used to assemble at the Forest Park of Brunne at five o'clock every afternoon, led by Queen Orgni, followed by noble ladies and ladies, circling around the lake of the forest park, wearing all kinds of gorgeous dresses, and sitting on Barrouche determined not to get off.

In Europe and the United States in the mid-to-late 19th century, the average price of "raising" a carriage + two horses + a coachman every year was 200-300 pounds. The carriages of the houses of the rich are generally equipped with two models as standard. One is convertible, suitable for daytime outings, similar to the Barrouche, while the other is fully enclosed for going out to work for formal events, targeting night or rainy days (which will be introduced next).

Moreover, in "The Gilded Age", it is also possible to distinguish at a glance which carriages are the private cars of the rich and the old, and which are the street mobile rental carriages - just look at the uniforms of the drivers. The costume of the rental coachman is a black, and the work clothes of the private coachmen, the old money is black and white, the new upstart is blue tile, at first glance it looks like the Napoleonic military uniform, it is no wonder that it costs so much money to raise a carriage.

This was followed by another of the most common carriages in the Gilded Age, the old man of today's two-door sedan, Coupe.

Although this carriage is small, it is born from the luxurious Berlin line of four wheels and four seats and four horses that is specially used for long-distance running. The original meaning of the word Coupe actually refers to "equal parts". So, dividing the two rows of four-seat sealed vans of the Berlin Four Horses into two is the single row of two sealed vans of two horses.

Tear it off and say a word. Berline was the top of the European and American carriages, not only needing four horses to move, but also leaving a place for servants to stand and serve at the back of the carriage.

It is said that St. Balzac, who was in love, bought a Berrine and coaxed his lover, Madame Hanska, a countess of Poland, to go on a long trip to Vienna. Who knew that the ba da writer was so bad at mathematics that he forgot to calculate the cost of changing horses when buying a car - others were changing horses one by one, and he was from four horses. Directly after the two arrived at the hotel in Vienna, he did not even want to give the waiter a tip. The first thing I did when I returned to France was to sell TheBerline immediately.

Although the Coupe is half as small as horses, seats and volume, the luxury inside has not been degraded. Especially in terms of height, both men and women do not need to take off their hats when they sit in the car, so in the 19th century, this hard-top four-wheeled carriage was also the standard of countless large households in Europe and the United States, and it was a common style of rental carriage.

The first episode of The Gilded Age also flashed past a very interesting two-wheeled carriage. At that time, people liked to call it Bankrupt carts, which literally translates to "bankruptcy car".

This kind of carriage was common in some of the new rich in the 19th century, who were neither old money nor upstarts, could not afford to buy carriages such as Barrouche or Coupe, could not ride horses and wanted to stand out from the crowd, so there was this two-wheeled carriage with passengers and drivers.

The average selling price of this carriage at the end of the 19th century was $80. However, this is only the purchase fee, and the cost of later carriage maintenance, horse feeding, training and carriage storage is not included. It is understood that at that time, the horse's annual feed money was 110 US dollars, not to mention the annual salary of the coachman.

At that time, the new rich belonged to the toad looking for frogs to look ugly, and only wanted a carriage to show off, and did not consider whether they would drive, whether they had money to maintain, whether they had money to raise horses, and a series of subsequent operations - so many families were born bankrupt by this $80 carriage.

By the way, this carriage looks a bit like a Curricle at first glance. The Curricle is also an open carriage, two-wheeled, which looks very lightweight and can only accommodate two people, the passenger is the driver.

However, Curricle is generally pulled by two big horses, and generally driven by young and fashionable unmarried men, most of them are really rich or expensive, all day long there is nothing to do to find excitement, so there is a curricle such a carriage. It was second only to the Pyaton, the most eye-catching and wild four-wheeled carriage of the 18th and 19th centuries.

There are also small carriages like Hansomcab in the play.

It only had two wheels and one horse, and the price was much cheaper than the four-wheeled two-horse carriage at that time. The design of the carriage is extremely compact, the driver sits directly at the back of the carriage to direct the horses, and the front carriage is not sealed on three sides and has a hard roof. The front is open for easy viewing or breathing.

In addition, the creator of this carriage was the famous 19th-century architect Joseph Hansom of the Corrupt Country, whose representative works include Plymouth Cathedral and St George's Roman Catholic Church in Yorkshire. Hansom directly hit the pain points and blockages of the carriage design - at that time, the stability of other rental carriages was not bad, running faster or turning sharper would overturn, and his design of Hansomcab can make the carriage safer while reducing spare parts, which shows that the designer is hanging a pot on the ass, which has a certain level.

Third, a small trapdoor opened at the top of Hansomcab's carriage. Passengers and motorists can communicate by simply pushing open the small door, one looking up and one bowing their head. In addition, the rental wagon is also equipped with a mechanical meter, striving for a more transparent and fair transaction.

As a result, it is the most important means of public transport in Europe and the United States in the 19th century, the modern taxi trading model, which is derived from the Hansomcab's small carriage.

Since its birth in 1834, Hansomcab has quickly become the first choice of many car rental companies and consumers by virtue of its three advantages of high cost performance, fast running and strong mobility, and is often seen in various literary works. Even in Conan Doyle's pen, it was Holmes's favorite means of transportation.

In the Gilded Age, there are also two-wheeled open-top ponies like the Jaunting car.

However, the Jaunting car in the play does not carry people, but carries Russell's chair (really rich). Similar to the Previously mentioned Hansomcab, it is also a one-horse and two-wheeled structure, but it is an open-top type, which is quite common in European and American countryside.

Jaunting car is said to have originated in Ireland. Even today, in parts of Ireland, such ponies can still be seen.

Oh, and public carriages like omnibus.

The Omnibus, which had a fixed line, was officially introduced to New York in 1831 and generally required two horses and could accommodate up to 16 passengers in the carriages.

Omnibus has always been popular in New York, and by the 1850s there were about 120,000 people riding the public carriage every day, an average of 0.25 rides per person per day. While the main passengers of the bus carriage at the time were the relatively affluent emerging middle class, the average person could afford it occasionally — the average daily wage for an average worker was 50 cents, and the average fare for omnibus was 12.5 cents.

Omnibus in the play should have two lines.

One of them, along Fifth Avenue, ends and starts at Central Park, sits for 5 cents at a time, much lower than in the 1930s, and can be used for as long as you pay for it, regardless of origin or skin color— unlike a rental carriage, whose drivers can justifiably reject blacks.

Of course, Omnibus also has obvious drawbacks, that is, the speed is too slow and too slow. The two horses had to drag a large carriage containing a dozen people, which was much more physically difficult than the horses that ran the rental. More importantly, Omnibus allows pick-up and drop-off passengers in the middle of the way, so many working-class people would rather sit on their legs than choose to take the bus carriage if they encounter an emergency. After all, the average radius of large cities at that time was less than 5 kilometers, and they could basically reach it on their legs.

But! Many people prefer to slow down rather than legs on the road - in "The Gilded Age", it can be seen that the urban roads at that time were mostly paved with loess or even silt, and horses could solve the call of nature very loosely. Inevitably, this also causes the trouser legs of the walkers to be mostly not clean.

And for some single men, a clean leg is more important than anything else!

It is said that at that time, many unmarried girls looked at their aunts, and the first step was to look at each other's pants legs first, no matter how bright the upper body of the person was, the pants legs were not clean, which was equivalent to a scumbag who could not even sit in the carriage and tried to drill into the upper class and the strength was not good.

Omnibus developed to the point where two "variants" appeared, neither of which appeared in the Gilded Age.

One is a two-tier carriage, which is a bit like the "long-distance monster" Diligence that had three carriages in front, middle and back. This kind of double-decker carriage can generally sit 20 people, but what remains unchanged is the number of horses, still two... It's no wonder that in 1880, the city of New York removed 15,000 dead horses from its streets, an average of 41 a day.

The other is the Horsesecar (Rail Carriage), which generally costs 10 cents. The laying of the tracks made the horses much more comfortable, but also increased the stability of the carriage and the speed of the vehicle. According to some data, the Horsesecar that appeared at the end of the 19th century was generally two horses, but the speed and passenger capacity were twice that of omnibus, and the operating distance was greater than the latter. At the same time, the accident rate is only one-eighth of that of bus carriages.

Finally, let's talk about the stagecoach that flashed by, a stagecoa that serves mail/travelers between cities.

In fact, in the corrupt country, Stagecoach is mainly used to transport mail, which is the initial form of the Hackney carriage, which is also the prototype of the modern taxi.

Since the Stagecoach is really a very large one, it is generally dragged by four horses. In addition to mail, the carriage can generally accommodate four passengers, and more passengers can be seated outside and on the roof of the car and carry an e-mail box. However, because Stagecoach's first priority is to send mail, it will generally be much faster than other carriages, and it will not consider the stability of the chassis, which is basically incompatible with comfort.

So there's usually nothing that no one would choose to take the Stagecoach.