Not that people out there are keeping score, but in case you scroll back through our posts you’ll see that we haven’t said anything about our book or the research we’re doing on it for a while. Life threw us some curve balls right around the time we went to the Met Opera (still a top 10 life experience, highly recommend). And then some fast balls, and then some change ups, knuckleballs, whatever the right way to convey that life has been pretty tumultuous since then.
We remain undaunted; we continue work on our fun novel. We have it completely mapped out and can’t wait to finish it, once we get a pitch right over the plate or something. We look forward to sharing it with you then.
To get us back into the spirit of things, James gave Megan a special treat for her birthday this summer: tickets to do a Gilded Age tour at the Newport Mansions. Yes, we spent 4+ hours touring 4 of the mansions where principal filming occurred for HBO’s The Gilded Age, including The Elms, The Breakers, Marble House, and Chateau-sur-Mer. There our delightful guide, Raymond — who happens to be the senior tour guide and tour trainer at the Mansions — shared tidbits about the production of the show along with a detail-rich history of the mansions themselves and most especially how that history maps to the fictional characters in the series. Spoiler alert: For those who don’t know, the show’s central family, the Russells, is based on one of the Vanderbilt families, specifically Alva Vanderbilt, the original owner of Marble House, then the most expensive home in the USA. This “research” is important to our book because one of our story’s lovers is from a family that has the biggest, most audacious mansion in Newport in 1899, so we had to get the skinny on all the culture and history of the place at the time.
Best things about the tour:
Getting “behind the ropes” access to a few places that regular guests didn’t get to visit. Amazing.
Raymond’s intense knowledge not just of the mansions but the show, including his spot-on impersonation of Nathan Lane’s Ward McAllister character, (favorites include: “My dear, how did you know my size?”).
Raymond’s behind-the-scenes experience with the actors and filming on set, including sharing the fact that Kelley Curran, who plays Miss Turner, now Mrs. Winterton, happens to be the kindest, most enjoyable person on the set, constantly singing and bringing smiles to all. Precisely not the character she plays. It’s called acting for a reason, folks! Oh, and we did get to see the bedroom and four-poster bed where Turner tried to seduce her boss in season one. All 12 of us on the tour were hissing at the mention of that scene (we were in good company with our fellow Gilded Age fans).
Raymond’s hints that he knows key plot details about the upcoming Season 4 which just finished filming a few weeks ago that he did not, I swear, divulge to us, but kept us guessing. Let’s just say we know what rooms they used for filming and that leads to some very specific thoughts about which characters story arcs will evolve. Can’t wait for season 4 (release date not yet announced but promised “in the Fall”)!
But honestly the best part of the tour was spending the whole day together, enjoying the depth of love and companionship that we have built over our nearly four decades of life together. The very love that motivates our characters in our book. Oh, and the fact that we did the whole tour dressed like this:
A huge thank you to the wonderful people at the Newport Mansions, especially Raymond and our driver Ariel. And to 10 fellow fans who tried not to trip on Megan’s dress and who walked around with us not minding that we drew so much attention to our touring group. As Raymond told us at the end, “I’m going to hear all about this tomorrow when I come in to work.”
I hope so, Raymond! Thank you.
You should visit some of the historic mansions in New York, specifically the Vanderbilt homes in New York.