Guests can experience Gilded Age glamour inside New York City's historic Fifth Avenue Hotel
The Gilded Age was produced by Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes, and the period drama has been a hit with viewers who describe the show as Gossip Girl in corsets.
Fellowes, who's behind Downton Abbey and Belgravia, is now focused on the fight between new and old money Manhattanites in the 1880s. The torrid lives of America's wealthiest dynasties are suddenly a hot topic once again, with dynasties like the Astors, Roosevelts, Vanderbilts, Carnegies and Rockefellers, on full display.
The award-winning show follows fish out of water Marian Brook (played by Meryl Streep 's daughter Louisa Jacobson Gummer) as she moves from Pennsylvania to New York to live with her wealthy aunts Agnes van Rhijn (Christine Baranski) and Ada Brook (Cynthia Nixon). Viewers aren't just taken in by the characters, they're equally invested in the people living the ultra-wealthy lifestyles during that era in Fifth Avenue mansions.
While many of the palatial homes were demolished in the 1920s - later to be replaced with Zara, Nike, and Bergdorf Goodman - some still stand tall.
Now, history buffs and fans of the show, can experience their very own Gilded Age vacation thanks to The Fifth Avenue Hotel, which is housed inside of a 19th century NoMad mansion.
The Fifth Avenue Hotel is just as opulent as the homes featured on the show, from the elegant yet cozy lobby to the perfectly over-the-top, eclectic décor in both the rooms and pink hallways.
The expertly restored property is a member of The Leading Hotels of the World, which is a collection of the most unique independent hotels across the globe, highlighting chic, distinct travel experiences - and this former gilded age mansion certainly stands out.
Visitors are given their very own butler who introduces themselves at the beginning of the trip can help them with anything from pressing clothing to hiring a personal photographer.
The suites not only have colorful chandeliers, they also boast well-stocked complimentary mini-bars and housekeeping twice a day. The concierge experience is just as luxurious, as they offer reservations at the hottest restaurants in town (it's like you're getting access to your very own opera box).
The memorable touches, like bone-inlaid tables and tiger-striped rugs, are thanks to Stockholm-born designer Martin Brudnizki, who's famous for paying tribute to the past and present. The cozy, oversize suites full of colorful, bold designs stand out in a city known for its shoebox size, cookie cutter hotel rooms. Guests might want to take some of the décor home, but it's all one-of-a-kind.
Even the restaurant, Café Carmellini, is majestic, with live trees, stunning chandeliers, Art Deco mirrors and blue velvet seating. Diners can imagine the space as a ballroom with guests dancing down below and gossiping up above. The Italian and French restaurant's chef Andrew Carmellini is also behind downtown hot spots Locanda Verde, Lafayette, and the Dutch.
The hotel also houses The Portrait Bar, which went viral on TikTok as a date night destination. The intimate cocktail lounge is fittingly covered in photos, paintings, and drawings, as diners sip cocktails described with tongue-in cheek descriptors, like 'not a margarita for margarita drinkers.'
The original five-story limestone and brick building was owned by socialite Charlotte Goodridge, who commissioned the original construction in 1856.
Then, in 1907, it was redesigned as a bank by landmark architecture firm McKim, Mead & White, who were also behind the Brooklyn Museum and the original Penn Station and designed many houses in Newport, Rhode Island. In fact, they have been credited with defining the signature look of Gilded Age America.
Hotel founder Alex Ohebshalom's family bought the building in the 1970s and he focused on restoring the landmark and bringing it back to its glory for its opening in 2023.
The hotel is at the intersection of 28th Street and Fifth Avenue, which makes it perfect for tourists eager to visit places like Madison Square Park and the Empire State. It's also walking distance from The Morgan Library & Museum, another must for history devotees. The museum and research library started as the personal library of financier Pierpont Morgan and now houses impressively rare manuscripts.
The hotel is so Gilded Age-coded that members of the cast recently fittingly posed for a New York Times photoshoot inside the lavish rooms, which start at $895 per night.
Mrs. Astor would surely approve.
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When it comes to the unruly world of rock, shocking behaviour is rarely frowned upon. Just the opposite. 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Far from hadn't always insisted the bat was alive when it was thrown towards in 2006, he gave the BBC a take on the story that was subtly, but crucially different."This bat comes on. I thought it was one of them Hallowe'en joke bats 'cos it had some string around its neck," he said."I bite into it, and I look to my left and Sharon [Osbourne, his wife and then manager] was going [gesturing no]."And I'm like, what you talking about? She [says], 'it's a dead real bat'. And I'm... I know now!"So was the unfortunate winged mammal dead or alive?Who better to confirm whether it was bereft of life and had ceased to be, than the person who claims to have actually brought the bat to the concert? Dead or alive? According to the Des Moines Register, that man was Mark was 17 at the time of the concert. And his account of the events leading up to the gory night was this: His younger brother had brought the bat home a fortnight before but, sadly, it hadn't said that, by the time he took it to the concert, it had been dead for it seems that the available evidence about this legendary piece of heavy metal excess, placed at number two in Rolling Stone magazine's list of Rock's Wildest Myths, does point to it being largely agrees that the bat did find its way into Ozzy's mouth, although it seems likely it was no longer alive by that point - something Ozzy himself concurred with. what of an eerily similar incident some nine months before in Los Angeles? Again the details vary, usually depending on who Ozzy was talking basic facts have never been in dispute. Ozzy was due to meet a group of CBS record label executives in Los Angeles, and Sharon had the idea of him bringing three live doves with giving a short speech of thanks, the plan was for Ozzy to throw them into the air, so everyone could watch them flutter away, in a symbolic gesture of alert: That's not what ended up happening. Doves of peace Ozzy had been drinking brandy all morning, and he later told rock biographer Mick Wall that a PR woman at the meeting had been seriously annoying to Wall's book, Black Sabbath: Symptoms of the Universe, Ozzy "pulled out one of these doves and bit its [expletive] head off just to shut her up"."Then I did it again with the next dove," he added, "spitting the head out on the table"."That's when they threw me out. They said I'd never work for CBS again." In version two, recounted some months later, he told Sounds' magazine's Garry Bushell a slightly different story."The scam is the bird was dead. We were planning to release it there, but it died beforehand. So rather than waste it, I bit its head off."You should have seen their faces. They all went white. They were speechless." The ringmaster of rock excess Ozzy, of course, had a reputation to uphold. After all, this was the man who'd been thrown out of Black Sabbath because, even by rock's astronomically lax standards, his drink and drug consumption was considered too while his encounters with bat and dove may not have seemed cricket to many, they - with helpful dollops of exaggeration - added significantly to Ozzy's outrageous undoubtedly gave him even greater publicity and notoriety, helping his solo career to skyrocket like a bat out of even though he might not be guilty of every misdemeanour that was attributed to him over the years, there's little doubt that he reached heights (or depths) that other rock stars never dared to meant that he was seen as the undoubted ringmaster of rock excess - a career defining reputation that stayed with him right to the end.
