Dark History - 61: Who Were the Bozos Before Bezos? When Money Ruins Everything

Episode Date: November 2, 2022

Welcome to the Dark History podcast. Freakin rich people, amiright? I’m not talking about that kid you went to school with that had the parties at his parent’s mansion and gave out the best gift bags. We’re talking bajillionares, like the insanely rich. In today’s episode we’ll dive into the people who paved the way for the Bezos and the Musks of the world. And we’ll also see how and how the  Original Richie Richs spent dolla bills. Spoiler: it was on themselves. Obvi! Episode Advertisers Include: Hello Fresh, ZipRecruiter, Apostrophe

Hi friends how are you today I hope you're having a wonderful day so far my name is Bailey Sarri and I'd like to welcome you to my podcast dark history intro I did it if you're new here hi my name is Bailey and we're gonna talk about that hot, juicy history goss. You know the stuff that we didn't learn about in high school and you're like, why didn't we? That's been my question this whole season and last season. Like, how come I didn't learn this, you know? Anyhow, so let me tell you about today's story.

I'm trying not to block. I'm trying not to block what's your name? I'm trying not to block. I'm trying not to block what's your name? I'm trying not to block Joan because she keeps blending in with my hair. Look now you see or now you don't. All right, a couple of things before we get started. One, if you're watching this on YouTube, I forgot to put on a bra today. So my boobs are going down to like pass my belly button. Two, I took a laxative two days ago, nothing happened.

And I feel like it's kicking in right now. So let's get into today's story a few weeks ago. I thought I was gonna, I thought I was dying. I got COVID. You guys, first of all, first and foremost, this, just because I bring up the word COVID, it's not political. So don't even get me started on that.

But second of all, I would not recommend it. COVID, oh, bitch, girl, let me tell you, I was out. I was aching in places I didn't know I could ache, okay? I couldn't get out of bed, congested. My dog was my nurse, I built a fort. It was so cool, I would a fort. It was so cool. I would recommend that. But sometimes it's actually nice to just kind of lay around and complain.

Right? Don't lie. Sometimes you just need to complain, like, get it out of your system. I would give COVID a one out of five stars because, you know, look, one star because I got the best sleep ever, and I got to watch really great TV. The rest sucked. I would highly recommend you don't get it. Okay, now that that's out of the way,

while I was hanging out in my COVID fort, which I built, I wanted to watch some, just feel good TV. Nothing heavy, could have handled it, right? So I turn on an American classic. Oh, you know that all American classic television on that channel MTV, that show called My Super Suite 16. Uh, remember that? Remember that? Best show out there. Oh my god. The people on that show, I mean, God's gift to the world. There was this one girl. There was this one girl.

There was this one girl in the episode who cried because her daddy didn't buy her like the proper range rover. He bought her something else and she was like, Dad, you're so unbanning me. And on top of this, she didn't even have her license. I don't even think she was 16. It was beautiful.

This show made me feel like absolute garbage when I was a teenager. I mean, I thought I was over here happy with my 86 Toyota Corolla. And then this is the girl over here's crying because she couldn't get like the proper range over that she couldn't even drive yet. So, yeah, I love that shit.

This show was essentially just about flaunting how much money these people had, what kind of parties they could throw. I mean, it was like a, it was a little insight to this world that is so different, right? And it was for me at least, it was so fascinating. Like rich people are just so stupid and wow. I love to hate them. I really do.

So I watched a ton of it. And it was great. I would recommend that. With all that being said, it kind of led me down this other path of like just looking at wealth today. And then that got me thinking about Jeff Bezos. Remember last year when him and like four other people, thinking about Jeff Bezos. Remember last year when him and like four other people, random people, all wearing cowboy hats for some bizarre reason, decided to go to space in a rocket kind of shaped like a dick. What was that about? Welcome to 2022, I guess. When he came back to Earth, he like stepped out, everyone's wearing the cowboy hats. He was just embarrassing. kill boy heads. It was just embarrassing. I think, was that supposed to be cool?

Okay. But again, it was just like another performance of a rich person who's bored and putting on this extravagant show that I was just not impressed with. You know, and, but what do you think about it? This really isn't anything new. Rich people have always been around flaunting their money,

being assholes and putting on a show. Just to show everybody like, And about 100 years ago, where's people who were even more over the top with their millions? Oh yeah. I'm talking about this era called the Guilded Age. You know, maybe you've heard of it.

There's that television program out right now, or it was, I'm not even sure. I didn't check it out. Was it good? Let me know. And now it's theilded Age. Now this spanned over the years of the late 1800s to the early 1900s and let me tell you the powerful people of the Guilded Age set the standard for wealth, opulence and showing the F-O-F. O-F! Flexin' on these peasants.

I mean, today's billionaires learned everything they know from millionaires back in the Gilded Age. And wait till I tell you about how the elite in America partied a hundred years ago, because it's nothing like Super Suite 16. It's better. Way better. So to start off this story, we are in the year 1870. Now the Civil War,

it had been over for a few years at this point, enslaved people are technically free, but this is America. So not really, the country was kind of turning into a direction where it's going to be building a lot because the industrial revolution has coming to town after a few decades. And boy, does that pop off. Now, you're probably like, I remember hearing the industrial revolution in school. I do. I remember hearing that word. But what the fuck is that? You know, like, what? So the industrial revolution is when steam-powered engines are being introduced and replacing

horse power, like literal horses and their power. Machines are now being invented and made and being brought into factories, which are able to pretty much make everything faster than ever before. Now this, as you can imagine, is a time of big change for America. Opportunities are endless in people's minds. You don't have to rely on a horse and carriage. Come on, groundbreaking. This brings us right up to the Gilded Age,

which for sure, a great name, love it, I think. But I learned while researching for the story that it got its name from someone you may, you may have heard of. Mark Twain, yeah. Mark Twain, if you don't know, maybe you don't. Maybe you're at home like, hill, don't know her. Well, Mark Twain was a famous author

and a very big name author, okay? And he's the one who actually coined the phrase, the Gilded Age. Oh yeah, he called this time period, the Gilded Age. Oh yeah. He called this time period the Guilded Age because, quote, it was an era of serious social problems messed by a thin gold gilding end quote. I think the translation, he's trying to say

that the outside is pretty, but once you look on the inside, it looks like shit, you know? You could put glitter on a piece of shit, but at the end of the day, it's still shit, you know? You could put glitter on a piece of shit, but at the end of the day, it's still shit, you know? Not all that glitters is gold. You get it, do I need more metaphors? So the Guilrd Age happened in America over the course of 30 years between 1870 to the 1900s.

Because the country was so new, now there weren't a lot of rules yet, so you gotta think of America as free-ballin' it. America's free-ballin' it. There were no food and drug laws, so you know, they were finding shit out as they go. Like, hey, don't eat that, eat this. To the same with when you would go to the pharmacy

and get a maybe a medication or something from your doctor. There were no laws to protect anything or... You just never... It was everything was a risk, really. This was a time where there were some incredible inventions happening. Oh yeah, I'm talking typewriters, the telephone, the light bulb, hey Thomas Edison. We remember the Kodak camera skyscrapers.

Yeah, the iconic skylines in New York City and Chicago happened during the Guil d'Age. So yeah, this was America's glow up the makeover. She was, she was going through puberty. That's a good way to think of it. America's going through puberty. She's, it's a little awkward, it's a little weird. She's figuring things out, unsure, lots of acne, right?

But she's growing, she's gonna turn to something beautiful. That was so special, wasn't it, Joan? Okay, great. With all this growth and opportunity, certain people took advantage and just started raking in the money. Because guess what, this is my favorite part, income taxes. You know about income taxes?

Remember when you got your first paycheck? And you're like, oh my God, it's gonna be like $300 because I worked so hard. And you look at it, and you see how much you actually get to take home. I was like, I called my mom, mom, come pick me up. I'm never working again. I don't think that's income taxes, is it?

Yeah, whatever, taxes, fuck them, they're a bitch. And they hurt. And it's like, what am I paying for? Huh? The least they could do, let me just say this before I continue. The least they could do is send me a breakdown every year of where my tax dollars went.

Did I pay for a stop sign or something? What are you doing with my money? That is all. Well, luckily for the people of the Guilrd Age, almost all of their money got to stay in everyone's pockets because they didn't have income taxes. At least not like we know it. It was literally illegal to have income taxes, at least not like we know it. It was literally illegal to have income taxes.

I know, incredible, they're so, do you know all the yachts we could probably own? For the everyday, come on. We could be on a yacht right now. Anyway, so for the everyday person, it was great. It was like cool, I could get another loaf of bread for the millionaires. Oh, they're just pocketing so much money. And they're like, I could get another six marble bath tubs

and eight golden brick history. John D. Rockefeller, you know him? You know that guy? He's got all that dirty oil money or whatever. He's like rolls and oil and like gets naked and just rolls around in it and just takes money and sticks it to his body. In my mind, that's what wealthy people do.

Sounds fun. Okay, so John D Rockefeller, he had this like big ol' fancy house with this big ol' golf course, just live in the white man's dream. But one day he's playing golf and he sees a bunch of smoke rising in the white man's dream. But one day he's playing golf, and he sees a bunch of smoke rising in the air. He's like, what's that?

I like that. Well, it turns out his golf course was right next to a railroad, and the train was, you know, spitting up smoke as trains do. Now normally, people would be like, oh man, that sucks. Man, boomer. But the rich people, Nene,

if you've got money, you can solve problems differently, okay? So Rockefeller was like, you know what? I could probably move, so I don't have to see the steam, but why do that? I'm comfortable. I'm just gonna relocate and move that train track. Because of course, that makes a lot of sense, right? He could do that.

So Rockefeller's like, you know what, this is a great idea. I'm gonna move that train. Kinda like that show. Remember that show? Move that bus. It's like that, but move that train. So he's like, how can I do this?

Hmm, he's trying to come up with a plan. What could I do? He finds out that he can relocate the train, but there was something in the way. It was a village of people. Okay, so this village is in the way of the only place that the train could be moved. And Rockefeller's like, you know what?

Fuck that village. Rockefeller decides to buy the whole village. No questions, no hesitation. I bought that shit. He goes to everyone in the village and it's like everyone, you need a leaf out of my way. You're out. You got to relocate. This is my village now. So everyone leaves. No idea what happened to them because history doesn't focus on their side of the story, but okay. So they all leave. The village ends up getting demolished and a new train track is built in the place. Ha!

Rockefeller just gets what he wants. He buys that whole village, builds the whole tracks. Guess what? Now when he's outside playing golf, no more smoke. Come on, that's insane. That's insanity. No, not what? I didn't even know there was an option.

Move that bus, what? You know, like come on, that's a very, if you haven't noticed here in America, maybe the world I don't know, at least since I've been doing murder mystery makeup, I noticed that if you have money, I'm talking about a lot of money, you can do whatever you want. You really live on a different planet. Like it's, you can relocate a whole steam engine. Like that makes no sense.

But that's just what they did. And they were like, fuck all those other people, right? Like, what is that? I don't know. So he did that great. And I think it was cool. I don't know. I'm gonna assume it was probably something to brag about. I moved a whole steam engine, you know? But nothing really showed off to your friends and maybe even like the ones that you secretly hated. Just how much money you had. Like, hosting an over- over the top extravagant money fields party. Oh, yeah, they like to party. This is a good way to show people how much money you had. And that's what you want to do in this life. Because that's all that matters is money and wealth.

Fun. Okay, so they would have these extravagant parties. Now, getting invited to these parties is everything. If you got invited, that means you're in. That means you're cool. That means you are a part of this rich people circle jerk, okay? Kinda like the Met Ball or the Oscars. These parties of the Gilded Age are exclusive and the only way to get into the party

is again to know a guy. And in the guillotine, the guy that you wanted to know, this is the guy that you wanted, and this is unwanted to know. Ward, mechalister. Ward. I don't like the name Ward, because it's a little too close to Ward. You know, and who likes a Ward? Besides a Toad.

Am I right? Pound it. Okay, great. So wart, his family rich. So rich, so rich. Okay, I guess they made their money during the gold rush. And we'll have to do an episode on that because I don't know nothing about the gold rush to you.

Okay, great. Oh, I'm sorry, Paul, I forgot you were there. You're so quiet. Sorry, Paul. I bet you know about the gold rush. You were there. Okay, sorry. So something that's very important to wealthy people is that the wealth stays with the wealth. So he married into even more money. He married an ares, she was loaded. Yeah. So money on money, on money, on money. This ward guy had spent a few years in Europe,

and he was studying wine, food, party etiquette. He was basically becoming or trying to become the Guilded Ages Martha Stewart, you know? And because ward was so well-cultured, he was known within the wealthy people for his good, I'm gonna use quotes here, good taste or his expensive taste, because he'd have traveled around the world.

He knows his shit. So they would always look to Ward for like, I don't know. Like, what kind of wine do I get ward? I don't know, and he would be like, oh, back in front, so I had the, you know that asshole? That's word, great. He famously said that there were only about, quote,

400 people in fashionable New York society, end quote, which translation, only about 400 people, wealthy people, really mattered in the city. Within the wealthy people, you know, they all talk, and they just all talk shit. And this war guy would tell people like, oh, you have a million dollars.

That's like respectable poverty. You know, like, in other words, like $1 million ain't shit. I'll take it if you don't want it. You know? Anyway, so they're just all talking shit. They hate poor people, okay? And they think they're better than everybody else.

That's essentially what I'm getting at. And this warred guy, he wanted to create some kind of society within New York that would only be for these cool, snobby, wealthy people. And they would all hold like parties together and keep the wealth within this group. They don't need to be mingling with poor peasants, okay? So Ward was in charge of putting on the events.

He was like the original event bitch at the office, you know? Like, he's like a party I got you. And everyone looked to him because he was well cultured, traveled all over the place, knew his food, knew his wine, like, it made sense. So if you were wealthy at this time, you wanted to be on Ward's dick.

You wanted in, he was gonna get you in. So Ward is in charge of the events and stuff and he decides that he's gonna start hosting these super exclusive parties. If you were included, I mean, that was like the biggest compliment. I mean, you were a hot shit. This was the part that was kind of giving me sweet 16 vibes because Miguel Astor, Ward, Miguel Astor, the guy, he was in charge of the events and stuff.

I would host these super extravagant parties and he would go and give people invites, right? Now, if you got an invite, you were like, oh my God, I'm so special. Like, the invite was more flattering than the party it seemed like. Because this word guy, I guess he was a petty bitch. So if you weren't invited by him,

people would be like crying. And personally offended. I'm sure you can relate this to something. When you're in the office or a group of friends and they don't invite you somewhere and you're like, what the fuck? I thought we were cool. This was to like the humiliance degree.

Because when money's involved, they're so mean. They're so ugly. Now, if you got invited, the first thing you would do is go tell your friend, right? You'd be like, oh my god, I just got invited to Ward's party. Did you, blah, blah, blah, and you'd be talking about it? And then if you didn't get invited, you'd start getting fomo, so it was just creating a lot of tension, gossip.

It was just you wanted to be at this party or his parties. McAllister takes it a step further by creating something else called the Society of Patriarchs, Sounds creepy, sounds like you might get raped there, watch out Paul. It was just literally a boys club of like 25 of Ward's favorite wealthy buddies, and these people would get together and do the party playing together, but really it was just like Ward and his friends were deciding who was going to be invited and who wasn't. Ward inspired other wealthy heirs and eras to do the same thing.

Before you know it, the New York Elite are basically in a constant contest to see who can throw the biggest, most over the top party. There was one socialite who became like best friends with Ward. Her name was Caroline Astor from the very famous Astor family, which they come from old old old money, whatever that means. Her line took her party throwing very seriously. In 1906, Miss Astor goes off and plans the craziest W. Chaunt ball you can think of. I guess these types of balls. Ha, that's funny. We're all the rage during this time.

Ha, ha, ha, ha. Am I 12 years old? Okay, these balls, they were all the rage. I love that. The whole point of these balls, this was like a time to present young teen girls to society and be like, here, she's fertile, she's flirty, she's rich, wife or up boys. Fun fact, she's flirty, she's rich. Wife her up boys.

Fun fact, they still happen today, but back then they were the place to be and be seen. It was your official introduction into high society. Your outfit needed to be on point, your hair needed to be flawless, you needed to have tits out, you needed to throw some glitter on them legs. I don't know, you just need to claim attention and claim the room.

It's aster thrived when it came to hosting these parties since she was the socialite queen at the time. So let's say maybe you got invited to one of these parties, right? It's the big day. Oh, I couldn't imagine. Three people have to help you get into like your, cause back then they had to wear these big dresses

and like 14 layers, right? And it's puffy. And you gotta put on the corset, blah, blah, blah. So you gotta have like people helping you get ready, right? You do the finishing touches to your hair, you're ready. So then, you know, you're dressed up, you get to the party, you're excited to see everybody, right? See all the, your snooty friends

and see the cute little W-tons. The second you walk in, there's like a butler there who's gonna hand you a big flute of champagne. And you're like, look at, these parties were filled with very powerful people, the powerful politicians, whoever else is in charge,

people with money and oil money and someone on your shopping list. So you can do this party. Caroline Astor will approach you. Welcome to the event and says like just wait. Just wait until the big reveal. I have a big special reveal sweetie. Just wait. And you're like oh my god I love every veil. She clings to her glass and she's like thank you everyone for coming. I know my parties are great and I'm rich and I just like appreciate you for being here. Everyone, I have a surprise for you.

I have a surprise. And she's like, everyone, look at the ceiling. Look at the ceiling, everyone. So she's like, what, let me go to the ceiling. So they look at the ceiling and then like a rope is pulled and it opened up a net, a net, not a net, a net. And you see what happened was there was a bunch of butterflies in there.

And when they opened it, all these butterflies, there was like 10,000 butterflies. Well, they died up there because they were in a net. So all these butterflies, 10,000 butterflies, dead, fall from the ceiling. Okay, people freak. People are freaking out because there's dead bugs dropping into their champagne glasses

and then they're hair and like, what the fuck is that? You know, like, is that, like just dropping bugs on us? That's a surprise. Miss Aster, you had this amazing idea to have butterflies flying around her party. Could you imagine like fluttering around? It would be iconic.

No one would be able to talk about anything but her butterfly bash for months to come. So Mary was like, I'm gonna buy 10,000 exotic butterflies. Have them shipped from Brazil to my mansion for this party. Oh yeah, Mary bought 10,000 butterflies from Brazil. That's a flux. So they're shipped over to the house, whatever. She had like a net attached to her ceiling

and then that's where all the butterflies were. And when the net was open, the butterflies would fly out and it was just like, it would be beautiful. What like twinkling forest fairies love that. But the one thing she didn't have a friend to tell her about was that there's some hot-ass uh lights in the ceiling and direct heat doesn't really work that well on butterflies. So yeah, not a great combo, the butterflies cooked. The butterflies, like I mentioned, dead, all dead, they ended up burning to death, RIP. And the ball was ruined. I'm laughing because she probably

thought she was a shit, right? She's like, wait till they see these butterflies. They aren't gonna fucking lose it. And then they pull it and they're all dead. Ah, beautiful. That brings me joy. To know that her ball was ruined. Come on. That's great.

Okay, but listen, it gets even better. Miss Astor. And McAllister was so picky with who they invited. They pissed off some people. So meet Alva Vanderbilt. When I say this woman was swimming in money, it was more like drowning in it.

Mm-hmm. So her whole family owned an entire block in New York City, and this block was referred to as Millionaire's Row, which, you know, wow, her whole family lived there, all next to each other, which is kind of cute, but it was just a whole block of money like them. Even though she was ballin', no one cared.

So she needed to do something major. So when Alva's Fifth Avenue mansion was finally done, she saw her chance to throw the biggest fancyest greatest party anyone on the East Coast had seen in their lives. So Alva decides to hold her very own ball where she invites over 1,000 people and she decided that this wasn't going to be just any type of ball. This was going to be a masquerade ball. Everybody loves a costume party. So she wanted everyone to come in with the most ridiculous costumes ever.

Just really go all out. So Alva invites a shit ton of people, like 1200 people. She includes new money, she includes old money, she includes people who have money, but like, it's kind of like, oh, why'd you invite that person, you know, within the group? And like this was completely unheard of.

If you're a wealthy person, you do not associate yourself with someone of lesser value, you know, anyways. So a lot of people were like, wow, this is very bold of her. Alva's goal with this party was to throw the party of the century. Months leading up to this party, a lot of the people were going all out, just trying to make the craziest costumes.

They were hitting up different jewelers, getting like very rare expensive stones to add to their dresses or their masks. Everyone was going all out, okay? I just think of them in the middle finger. They just want to be like, fuck yeah, I got money. And on the night of the event, the costumes did not disappoint. Rumor has it. I wasn't there, but like it did not disappoint. Rumor has it. I wasn't there, but it did not disappoint. Some people came in the cute costumes. Like one person did the little bopie. We have a Joan of Arc over here.

We got a clown, hey clown. One of the Vanderbilt's showed up in an electric costume. And she had this little button in her pocket. in an electric costume, okay? And she had this little button in her pocket. And whenever people looked at her, she'd be like, boop and press the button and just totally light up. I mean, that's cool now. But back then, electricity was like brand new thing. And this woman, she's wearing electricity.

Could you imagine? You'd be like, what the fuck, right? You'd probably your head would explode. Another woman walks in, one of Alice's sister in laws. She shows up in a bee costume. First of all, I love a bee. I love a bee.

Who doesn't love a bee? I love a bee. Remember my bees? Say the bees. And she had this big bee hive head dress. Remember my bees? Say the bees. And she had like this big bee hive headdress. She's Amy Winehouse in it. And the bee hive was 100% made of diamonds. Honestly, I'm not that impressed. I would be more impressed if it was an actual bee hive. Like had bees swarming in it. Oh bitch. I would lose my shit. But, okay, 100% diamond. So people were like, oh my God, wow.

Yeah, I hit rich people, I fucking hate them. And then there was this other girl, this was socialite. Her name was Puss. Yeah, great name. Puss, as you can imagine, was obsessed with cats. So in order to match your personality and her name, she decided she's gonna, you know, she needed to costume that match shirt.

So she went ahead and took a stuffed dead cat and wore it on her head. Pond, I'm gonna Google that. What was her name? Puss. Oh my God. Oh my God. She's got a dead cat on her head.

The cat kind of looks a little scared. I won't, but the cat's dead. That's, yeah. Okay, so that's what she looks like. Honestly, I love the choker that says pus. I wouldn't mind getting a mug. Good for her. She's like, fuck your cat's on my head.

Not only did she have the cat on her head, but she also sewed 17 real cat tails to her dress. So I mean, like these people were just ready to party. They didn't fuck around. So they would party for hours, and they would drink $65,000 worth of champagne. I mean, dinner wasn't even served until 2 in the morning. After all was said and done, Alva spent about $250,000 on this party alone. And today's money that would be equivalent

to a $6 million dollar party, and a $6 million dollar middle finger to his astor, who at first wasn't invited. The last minute Alva gave her an invite because Alva warned her to sweat. And this event started a brand new trend in America, one that we still continue this day. Seemed rocket money.com slash dark history. During the Guilded Age, there were all sorts of balls. Harry balls, soft balls, loose balls, servant balls. That's what we're gonna be talking about

because something called a servant ball. Now first, you're probably thinking, because I thought the same thing. I was like, oh, they threw parties for their servants. That's nice. But then you keep reading. And no, of course, come on. At this party, a bunch of rich people showed up dressed as the servant. I guess they thought it was fun to be poor for a night. Oh, what is that like? Let's have a party and figure it out. Should we play Twister? The servant ball was literally a place

where rich people got to pretend to be a servant for the night. Yeah. So for this themed party, the servant party, they would go to their dress makers and have them make the nicest servant costumes they could make out of the nicest fabrics. It was like, look at me, I'm a servant,

but like, I can't learn a hot one, a rich one. And then while at the party, like the party games are to pretend to do things like servants would. I'm not kidding. This is a real party. Yeah, they would cook for themselves, mind blown. But the only thing they knew how to do was make fried eggs.

And then at dinner, they would use wooden boxes for chairs and use old newspapers as napkins. At the end of the night, the family's actual servants had to clean up after them. So yeah, there were servants, present at this party, where rich people pretended to be servants. Wonder how they felt about this. Before we leave the party section, I need to tell you what happened to that New York

snob, Ward McAllister. Okay, so as we learned earlier, he loved being at the top of society's food chain, and he loved this because at the end of the day, he craved attention, and he wanted to be the center of it all. Well one day, he went a little too far. To stay relevant, he wrote a juicy tell-all book and published it. It was called Society, as I have found it.

And in this book, he was just being pompous and talking about how to live the high life. But people did care about his instructions on high society. People lost their minds over the hot boiling tea because you see, in a couple of chapters, he aired the secret dirty laundry of the same millionaire he called friends, shhick. He wasn't calling people out by name,

but he essentially was, like if you knew, you knew. He would be using people's actual initials like, so Miss BS definitely sees male prostitute, and I get it, have you seen her husband? Oh, people with wealth loved their privacy. So when this came out, they were fucking pissed. And his social calendar suddenly wasn't so packed. Society had turned against him, and to make matters worse for McAllister, the elites found out he had been selling tickets to their

exclusive, swanky events, for $250,000. I mean, I guess you can buy your way in. That's a lot of money. I mean, I guess you can buy your way in. It's a lot of money. For a ticket. Hmm. I guess one day in 1895, Ward McAllister, he was at a restaurant all by himself, which is totally fine, love that. But he like just kneeled over and died.

I don't know. He died alone in public. How humiliating. Ha-ha. Of course, there was a funeral. And you figure he loved parties, so this is going to be a big affair with those 400 people he loved. He was going to go out with a bank. Well, 9-A.

Because he was on the shit list of all those wealthy elites. Less than 20 of the 400 showed up. And listen to this, his best friend, Miss Astor. Yeah, she didn't even go. She was like, R-I-P. And now, she ended up having a dinner party the same night as his funeral. Yeah, talk about shady.

I kind of love this part. Like the drama of it all, they're so petty. I guess when you got money, you got the time to be this petty. That's what it comes down to. So yeah, with these elites just coming up with insane ideas and using money to make them come true, it seemed like there was an end-to-supply

of cash just laying around. And I'm nosy as hell, so I'm wondering where the hell did they get all this money? While wealthy families, you know, they're kind of running the country and they created the golden age of capitalism. These people were called robber barons, which when I first heard this,

this word is gonna fuck me up and I already know it and it might fuck you up at home because it sounds like robber baron, like a person, robber baron. That sounds like a person's name, right? Okay, it's not. So robber baron, robber as in stealing shit, baron as in powerful man.

So that's how this word got together. So Robert Baron is a powerful man who steals shit. You get it? Great. So these Robert Barons had serious power over major industries like oil, timber, banking, steel, all the stuff that really helped build America. But they screwed a bunch of people over to get there. Think of them as the 1% of their time.

They were like Robin Hood, but backwards where they would rock from the poor and give to the rich, essentially what they still fucking do today, like, hmm. And the term robber Baron was essentially slaying for a specific type of American business owner from the Guilda age who built their wealth to throw those crazy parties by doing some pretty dirty business practices. How dirty? Girl. Well for starters, the idea of minimum wage was not a thing yet. These Robert Barons could pay their workers whatever the hell they felt like it, you know? There's no law. Like it's the end

of the week and you're clocking out and your boss gives you a nickel and a cigarette and says like, oh, see you tomorrow. Pat's you on that. Our history to save $60 today. I'm going to tell you and read you guys a story. Closure eyes going with me on the stringy. People wear desperate for jobs because millions were living in poverty. So they had to take whatever shitty job they could get.

You see at this time, there were essentially zero rules or laws protecting people at their jobs. Like if someone got their leg caught in a machine, it would just kind of be like, yeah, you know, that's what I signed up for. To potentially lose a leg or something. And at this time, there were like people dying on the factory floors every day, over half a million people and just one year were hurt on their jobs. And workpates so little that everyone in the family, including the kids, had to get full time jobs. These people were seen as machines. And if they broke, well, throw them out, get a new one. And if they died, throw them out, get a new one. And at one point during the Gilded Age, an average of 675 people died in work-related accidents

every week. Holy shit, that's a lot of people. And the guys in charge didn't even care. They didn't have to, there were no rules or anything. They could do whatever they want. So these Robert Barons were running the show. And one of these guys in charge was actually related to Old's Alpha Vanderbilt. Yes, let me introduce you to Cornelius Vanderbilt. Now this guy,

ooh, we, his name is a symbol of crazy American wealth and power, and all that power came from his control of the country's railroads. So Cornelius was born in Staten Island in 1794, just 11 years after the American Revolution. Now Cornelius was born to a poor farming family, and it was said that he was a hustler right from the jump. I mean, he quit school when he was only 11 years old to start working. And when he was 16, he bought his first boat

and used it to start his own business. Transporting people from Staten Island to New York City. And by 18, he had all shitton of boats, and from there, he just kept expanding his business. He was doing so well that he eventually started upgrading some of his ships, so they were more luxurious and could appeal to wealthier customers. So this was like a big deal because traveling, you know, using steamboat back then was like taking a city bus, but Cornelius Vanderbilt made his passengers feel like they were on a yacht and people just really like the experience. And you didn't have to be with like other people. There's a whole, you know, yeah, yeah.

All Cornelius' hard work pays off because by 1846 he's a millionaire. Wow. Nowadays a million doesn't, doesn't sound like much. So just know that one million in 1846 would be equivalent to 40 million today. Holy shit. That's a lot. So like dang, he was doing pretty good. I think it's safe to say.

His ships were taking people and cargo, all over the place. But Vanderbilt's accessory transit company was growing too powerful, and it was starting to put other businesses out of work. In fact, his competitors offer to pay Vanderbilt $56,000 a month to stop working, which, hello, a drain job. So again, if we're equaling it to today, to stop working, which hello, a dream job. So again, if we're equaling it to today,

that's $2.3 million a month to do nothing. But Cornelius likes work. He likes making money and he wants more of it. So he's not gonna stop working, but he sees a huge opportunity, okay? The booming railroad business. I think he has a thing for transportation, some kind of weird transportation finish. So Cornelius was

bringing Americans together connecting all of us through his railroad systems. I mean before the railroads everything was done by horse. You want to go see your aunt in Chicago? That's cute. I was gonna take about eight days and it's not gonna go smoothly. But now a trip to Chicago on Vanderbilt's railroad system, it would take one day, plus on top of that, your indoors, your in a train, your safe, and it seems like luxury compared to dying on the Oregon Trail. And if you were trying to travel from coast to coast,

you, good luck trying to do that on a horse and carers. You take like six months. Railroads weren't just changing personal travel. America was rebuilding its cities and towns after the Civil War. And you know, in order to rebuilds, you're going to need some supplies. And if they didn't have the railroad system, they wouldn't be able to get them. They would be able to just take a lot longer and the railroad system made it a lot easier. And not just this, but the United States was expanding west, and they needed houses, buildings, and whole-ass towns to support everyone in search of gold in California.

And if they didn't find it, they just stayed where they were and built. If you think about it, there might not be a Western United States, if not for Corny Vanderbilt and his network of railroads. And I don't really think that's true. I'm just agreeing with what I'm saying here, but that's OK. Because think about it, Vanderbilt was at the center of it all. His railroads delivered steel across the country, and then those trains returned with people

ready to spend money. Because remember, no tax says hello returned with people ready to spend money. Because remember no taxes. Hello, people are ready to spend money and Vanderbilt is ready to take it. So we know the rich were making their millions by being shady and even though they're throwing million dollar events, it doesn't even make a dent in what they had in the bank. Guys like Cornelius just get more and more powerful to the point where they can't be stopped. I guess with that being said,

it's now time to play Monopoly. Great, bust it out. Oh, we don't have it. So let me tell you, Monopoly is defined in the dictionary as quote, exclusive possession or control over the supply of or trade in a commodity or service. Translation.

One company that controls everything in its industry. Okay, so for example, Cornelius Vanderbilt, King of the Railroads, right? Jeff Bezos, King of online shopping. Okay. Anyways, these guys all had monopolies over their thing. This led to people being bullies like Vanderbilt. If someone tried to build a railroad next to his, he'd be like, hmm, no, not gonna happen.

He'd screw them over and run them out of town. That way, if anyone wanted in on their railroad business, they had to go through him, and there would be a pretty price to pay. The problem with Vanderbilt and his monopoly is that no one could tell him shit. He got all the money in the world, you know? He set the prices, the law couldn't touch him. So really Vanderbilt is like, you could hate me, but you need me.

And all the people are like, fuck, you're right. Kinda like Jeff Bezos. I hate that guy. But like, we've become so dependent on Amazon, right? Like it's disturbing. Huh. Anyways, this is how the Guilty Age became.

It came to be. Just a few people controlled the whole ass shit, which led to ridiculous money that funded all those Guilful Age parties. With all these new rich people in America, they didn't want anything to do with the everyday people. I mean, they look down on them as they sift champagne on Millionaires' Row. The crazy thing is that this whole era is making a comeback, while BilliNair's ride dicks into space wearing a cowboy hat. A lot of people are scraping to get by, and rent's higher, it's ever been, and it's also showing up in pop culture.

Last year's Met Gala theme, it wasn't technically Guilderedage, but it kind of was, which is kind of funny, right? It's not. We should actually be a little worried. And there's a TV show right now called Guildered Age, but like it kind of was. Which is kind of funny, right? It's not. We should actually be a little worried. And there's a TV show right now called Guildered Age. More fucked. We're just repeating history.

All of this is why Mark Twain said this era was covered by a thin gold gilding. It was like a turd covered in glitter. It might look nice, but it still stinks like shit. It was said that the phrase robber baron was invented to be a dig, but we know that behind-of-close doors, like at their eyes wide shut, masquerade balls. These guys were lighting up cigars and laughing about it, wearing it like a badge of honor. I think in conclusion rich people are assholes.

This is why I like to talk about rich people because they fucking suck. They really do. They're some of the shittiest people, right? No, you don't know, not right. But like some of them are. And at the end of the day, like, they're assholes and I can't do anything about it, but they make great entertainment.

So hey, laugh at them. Cause, stuff, that's all you can do. Unless we go and attack. Well, everyone, thank you so much because that's all you can do unless we go in a tack. Well, everyone, thank you so much for learning with me today. Did you learn anything new? I did. Remember, don't be afraid to ask questions to get the whole story because you deserve that. Now, I'd love to hear your reactions to today's story.

So make sure to use the hashtag dark history over on social media so I can follow along and Join me over on my YouTube where you can watch these episodes on Thursday after the podcast errors and while you're there also catch murder mystery and make up. I hope you have a really good day today. You make a choices. Be kind. Don't be an asshole. Well, Fuck it. You know, we're all gonna fucking die anyways. I'm PMS-ing. Fuck everyone.

Right, okay. Make a choices, and I'll be talking to you next week. Goodbye. Jark History is an audio boom original. This podcast is executive produced by Bailey Sarian, Kimberly Jacobs, Jr. McNally, from Three Arts, Kevin Grush, and Claire Turner from Made in Network. Writers, Katie Burris, Allison Filoboz,

Joey Skaluso, and me, Bailey Sarian. Shot and edited by Tafadzwa Nemirundwe, Research provided by Exander Elmore and the Dark History Research Team, Special thanks to our expert, Richard White. And again, I'm your host, Bailey Sarihan. I hope you have a good day today. Oh, wait, I already said that.

What are you still doing here? Goodbye.