The Gilded Age: Unveiling the Juicy Secrets of Season 3

Dynamic Real Events and Figures

The Gilded Age has introduced fans to the splendor of one of America's most prosperous and innovative periods, with many more historical events and scandals to draw from as the 20th-century approaches. Now that The Gilded Age season 3 has been confirmed, Julian Fellowes and Co. can mine the late 1890s for a wealth of source material pertaining to the sort of famous historical figures The Gilded Age is based on.

The gilded age filming location at Troy New York Historic District

The Gilded Age begins in 1882, with each season taking place over a year. If it progresses with this formula, certain events and scandals that characterize the era can have ripple effects for both the elite and the working class. While it's too late to focus on the Whiskey Ring of 1874 which saw distillers and officials plotting to defraud the government of a 70 cents-a-gallon tax on alcohol, it can certainly examine the consequences of things like the Tammany Hall corruption. Here are some of the most dynamic real events that could take The Gilded Age season 3 to the next level in pulpy period melodrama.

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1. Alva Vanderbilt's Divorce & Becoming A Suffragette Bertha Russell Could Have An Interesting Journey Like the Russells in The Gilded Age, the Vanderbilts had a marriage that was both powerful and besieged by scandal. William Vanderbilt cheated on his wife, and while most of society's elite women were expected to turn a blind eye, Alva eventually divorced him in 1895 in the biggest divorce America had ever known. While no fan wants the power couple of Bertha and George to split up, Alva eventually went on to marry a wealthy politician named Olivier Hazard Perry Beaumont and become a prominent figure in the suffragette movement, helping to lead the National Women’s Party, which would be an intriguing direction for Bertha's journey to take.

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2. Alva Vanderbilt Marrying Her Daughter To The Duke Bertha Has Promised Gladys To The Duke Of Buckingham Bertha and George Russell are based on Alva and William Vanderbilt, and their marriage provides a blueprint for many of the events currently happening in The Gilded Age. Alva married her daughter Consuelo Vanderbilt to the Duke of Marlborough, an impoverished British royal who had a title and vast estates but not funds with which to support his name. Bertha trying to get Gladys to marry the duke would not only create a great deal of dramatic tension, particularly since George already told Gladys she should marry for love, but also afford Gladys the opportunity to have more of a storyline than she's currently received.

The Duke of Buckingham talking to Bertha in The Gilded Age

Murder, Scandal, and Intrigue

3. Ellis Island Opening The Famous Landmark In New York City If the series makes it to December 1900 then it can examine the effects of the new Main Building of Ellis Island opening. With the floodgates swung wide on global immigration, the whole of New York City was transformed when 2,251 immigrants passed through that day. So far, The Gilded Age has failed to properly convey the sheer size and scope of the population of a city that was growing exponentially all the time, so focusing on Ellis Island would be one way to at least mention the impact thousands of immigrants had on the Industrial Revolution not to mention the racial and class tensions in the city.

Gladys, Bertha, and George Russell dressed in finery and standing on a balcony together in The Gilded Age season 2

4. Tammany Hall Corruption Political Corruption Was Rampant In New York City Tammany Hall was the name for the executive committee of New York City's Democratic Party, which historically exercised an incredible amount of political control through an amalgamation of patronage, charity, and eventually, unbridled corruption. Elected Grand Sachem, 'Boss' William M. Tweed dominated the Hall in 1868, and he eventually plundered New York City out of more than 200 million dollars. After Richard Croker took over in 1886, reforming the Hall's image was paramount, and district leaders helped poor families in distressful tenement houses, a portion of New York City The Gilded Age rarely commits to showcasing.

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5. Establishing The White Rose Mission & Industrial Association In New York City Organizations That Helped Black Women Get A Fresh Start While Ida B. Wells was on her antilynching crusade, Victoria Earle Matthews established the White Rose Mission as well as the Industrial Association in New York City in 1897. They assisted new Black women into the city and into its society because according to one of Chicago's formidable Black elite, Fannie Barrier Williams, told the World's Congress of Representative Women in 1893, 'Our women have the same spirit and mettle that characterize the best of American women.' The Black elite storylines so far have only focused on Peggy Scott and Mr. Fortune, but there are many more to use as inspiration for engaging episodes.

Sarah Garnet in the gilded age

Intriguing Personal Stories and Betrayals

6. Ward MacAllister Falling From Grace For His Tell-All Book He Burned His Friends In Elite Society Ward MacAllister is one of the few real historical figures in The Gilded Age, and his dramatic potential hasn't been maximized. Known for his famous '400 list' filled with those individuals he considered the most elite in all New York society, he was not above taking cash (up to $250,000) in order to help wannabe socialites gain access to fancy parties. Eventually, he would write a tell-all book entitled 'Society as I Have Found It' to burn the aristocrats who embraced him. After all of his subterfuge between his patron Mrs. Astor and his new friend Bertha Russell, MacAllister getting a taste of his own medicine would be delicious.

Mrs. Russell and Ward McAllister standing together outside in The Gilded Age.

7. Murder Of The Washington Square Arch Architect For Sleeping With Another Man's Wife Gilded Age architect Stanford White's creations like the Washington Square Arch, the Players Club, and the Judson Memorial Church define the period, as did his murder in 1906 which shocked New York society. After drugging and sexually assaulting Evelyn Nesbit, the 21-year-old wife of railroad tycoon Harry Kendall Thaw, Thaw shot White shot him in the face after the musical 'Mam'Zelle Champagne' ended early. For fans who have been complaining that The Gilded Age isn't exciting, dynamic, or gritty enough, the 'Trial of the Century' is exactly the kind of fodder that would make for titillating television.

Bertha Russell holding George Russell's arm in The Gilded Age.

8. Ida B. Wells Anti-lynching Crusade A Black Journalist Led The Charge Through The 20th Century From the year that The Gilded Age began until 1899, a record-breaking 2,500 Black men and women were lynched. At the time, Ida B. Wells, a renowned Black journalist highlighted this vile spread of 'lynching fever' in 1892 and was run out of Memphis for doing so while her newspaper office burnt to the ground. Given Peggy Scott's history with The Globe and her eye-opening experience in Tuskegee, it seems like the sort of altruistic crusade she would use her journalistic sensibilities to undertake and expose, becoming world-famous in the process.

Denee Benton as Peggy Scott in the Gilded Age