The Big Spenders
The Epic Story of the Rich Rich, the Grandees of America and the Magnificoes, and How They Spent Their Fortunes
Author: Lucius Beebe
ISBN: 978-1-60419-006-9
Lucius Beebe vividly captures the extravagant and theatrical spending of the Gilded Age, highlighting its excesses with wit and flair rather than judgment. Through colorful stories of lavish parties, outrageous purchases, and unforgettable spectacles, Beebe invites readers to revel in the opulence and drama of a bygone era.
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The Big Spenders was Lucius Beebe’s last and many think his best book. In it he describes the lavish spending of the Gilded Age, not from a puritanical perspective, but rather as a theater critic might. One spending spree might be called excessive and tasteless; another might have been excessive, but it was amusing, or a grand spectacle, and tastefully done.
Beebe enjoys it all immensely, and so do his readers. Whether it is James Gordon Bennett buying a Monte Carlo restaurant because he was refused a seat by the window, Boni de Castellane spending $12 million of robber baron Jay Gould’s money in record time, Spencer Penrose leaving a bedside memo reminding himself not to spend more than $1 million the next day, or a legion of high-fliers brushing their teeth in vintage champagne after dining on a gold table service on board an immense yacht.
Overview
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Acknowledgement.
Foreword
1: Patroons and Parvenus
2: Golden Times, Golden Gate
3: Pets of the Lobster Palaces
4: The Benevolent Blackmailer
5: Three Parties that Made Headlines
6: Magnifico of Maxim’s
7: How You Traveled Was Who You Were
8: How to Move Stylishly
9: Good Times in the Money Mountains
10: The Men
11: The Plutocrats of Pittsburgh
12: Bonanza Bazaar
13: Misfortune’s Darling
14: Game Preserve for the Rich
15: Fun with Real Estate
Biography
Index
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ISBN-13: 9781604190069
Publication date: 02/16/2009
Pages: 510
Edition Description: Reprint
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.50(d)
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[In]…this gossipy and amusing book…Beebe writes of vast sums expended by Vanderbilts, Goulds and Morgans on yachts, castellated mansions, cotillions, fine libraries and blooded horses.”
Time Magazine
Reviews
“For better or worse, the things he writes about — no matter in how exaggerated a fashion — did happen and they are entertaining.”
He knew the dirt and was not affraid to share. A wonderful book.
James M. | Amazon Review (December 2, 2012)
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About the Author
Lucius Beebe
Lucius Beebe (1902-1966) was born into a wealthy family in Massachusetts, was expelled from Yale, but graduated from Harvard. In 1933, in the midst of the Depression, he began a newspaper column called “This New York” which chronicled the doings of high and café society. A 1939 Life Magazine cover described him as “Mr. New York.”
He was also very interested in railroads and the West, which led him to move to Nevada in 1950 and also to a new column for the San Francisco Chronicle called “This Wild West.” A self-styled snob, gossip, dandy, and hedonist, Beebe remarked that, “All I want is the best of everything.” He did seem to be enjoying himself, and his wit and non-conformist attitudes were widely appreciated even in the high period of American conformism, the 1950s.