‘The Gilded Age’: Did Ward McAllister Write A Book?

The Gilded Age Season 3 Episode 7 “Ex-Communicated” deals with one of the most scandalous moments in real Gilded Age history. In 1890, Ward McAllister (Nathan Lane) published Society as I Have Found It, a memoir that spilled the secrets of his socialite friends. This week’s episode of HBO‘s The Gilded Age deals with this event and its fallout, albeit in a slightly anachronistic way…

**Spoilers for The Gilded Age Season 3 Episode 7 “Ex-Communicated,” now streaming on HBO MAX**

We first met Ward McAllister on The Gilded Age all the way back in Season 1. Bertha Russell (Carrie Coon) is eager to meet him because he, alongside bestie Caroline Astor (Donna Murphy), ruled New York society. While “Lina” Astor gave the new money set the cold shoulder, the gossip-loving Ward had no issue dining with robber barons like the Russells. Ward becomes something of an ally for Bertha, even if his loyalties lay with Mrs. Astor.

So what could ruin Ward McAllister’s friendship with Lina Astor? Well, a tell-all book that gives anyone access to her most embarrassing secrets!

The Gilded Age Season 3 has also been teasing out the historic scandal surrounding Charlotte Astor’s (Hannah Shealy) divorce. In 1892, Charlotte’s marriage to J. Coleman Drayton was on the rocks and newspapers were reporting that she was having an affair with one Alsop Barrowe. The Gilded Age Season 3 Episode 7 lets this, and the friction between Charlotte and her mother, play out on screen.

The Gilded Age Season 3 has also shown through Aurora’s (Kelli O’Hara) storyline that divorce was considered the kiss of death for the New York elite. Even if a woman’s divorce was not her fault, she was shunned from society. While Mrs. Astor seems dead set on holding this rule, Bertha Russell reveals in this week’s episode of The Gilded Age that she wants to lift the ban on divorced women from society functions. (This echoes what Alma Vanderbilt did in real life around the same time.)

But who exactly was Ward McAllister? What does The Gilded Age get right about his story and what does it get wrong? Here’s everything you need to know about Ward McAllister, Society as I Have Found It, and more…

Who Was Ward McAllister? Is The Gilded Age Season 3 Episode 7 Based on a True Story?

The real Ward McAllister was born Samuel Ward McAllister in Savannah, Georgia in 1827. His father was a prominent judge and his mother had society connections that included, by marriage, the Astors. In 1853, McAllister married Sarah Taintor Gibbons, a wealthy heiress with deep connections to Southern elite in her own right.

After his marriage, McAllister purchased a farm in Rhode Island, which would eventually help turn Newport into a vacation town, and then left for a three-year-long tour of Europe, wherein he soaked up the culture of the international elite. When he returned to the States, he used his wife’s money to establish himself in New York City as the arbiter of taste. He befriended society queen Caroline Astor and invented the idea of “The Four Hundred.” These were the only 400 people in New York who mattered. Coincidentally, that was the exactly number of people who could fit in Mrs. Astor’s ballroom.

In 1890, McAllister published Society as I Have Found It, which precipitated his downfall. He was shunned by Mrs. Astor and infamously died five years later, eating alone at the Union Club.

The Gilded Age gets a couple of things wrong in its depiction of Ward McAllister. The HBO show suggests McAllister exposed society’s secrets as a way to humanize them to the common man, but his subsequent writings don’t exactly match this. He continued to make money advising Chicago hostesses on how to be taken seriously and listed his Four Hundred in print.

The Gilded Age also fudges its own timeline in Season 3. While The Gilded Age Season 2 accurately depicted the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge in 1883, The Gilded Age Season 3, set one year later, tackles events that historically wouldn’t occur until in the 1890s. This season of The Gilded Age is set in 1884, but Charlotte Astor’s divorce scandal didn’t hit papers until 1892 and Ward McAllister’s downfall happened in 1890.

When DECIDER asked The Gilded Age showrunners about the timeline discrepancy, they bluntly said it was a creative choice.

“We just wanted to show how Mrs. Astor dealt with divorce,” Julian Fellowes said.

“It suited us,” Sonja Warfield said. “It suited us to play with the timeline.” 

So, yes, Ward McAllister was a real person, his book really ruined him, and Mrs. Astor’s daughter got a divorce. The only wrinkle is these things happened in the 1890s and not 1884.