CLIMB EV'RY SOCIAL LADDER : ALVA VANDERBILT'S RISE TO SOCIAL PROMINENCE

 

In the battle for Opera House supremacy the challenger was a noveau riche upstart with a penchant for throwing glitzy parties and building fancy houses.  She defined see and be seen culture.  What she saw around her was snobbery of the highest order and what people saw in her was a P.T. Barnum level of showmanship in showing off her wealth. Alva's family had the most money and her daughter was the prettiest American Princess so she should hold the title of New York society queen.  But after years of social climbing, divorce, and losing her great love, Alva Vanderbilt found happiness in a renewed relationship with her daughter.  Using the tenacity that got her onto the social register she campaigned for Women's Suffrage. Alva Vanderbilt was a champion fighter.

Alva Erskine Smith was born in 1853 in Mobile, Alabama to a wealthy plantation family. Sensing the rumblings of war the Smith family decamped to New York City, but felt unwelcome amongst the yanks. The Smiths further fled to Europe and Alva and her sisters were educated in the court of Napoleon III and Empress Eugenie. In 1870 the Smith family returned to a much changed post Civil War America. The coffers dried up and Alva's mother died just as Alva should have been making her debut into society. And that debut was crucial, as Alva needed to marry well to keep her family from poverty.

Alva was childhood friends with Consuelo Yznaga, herself not quite a society girl, given her Cuban sugar baron father's new money. Consuelo introduced Alva to William Kissam - Willie K Vanderbilt, grandson of Cornelius "The Commodore" Vanderbilt, who basically created America's railway system and died the richest man in America. Willie K had no career ambitions and liked horses, yachts, and pretty girls - possibly in that exact order. Alva was not a pretty girl but Willie proposed anyway and they married in April of 1875.

Alva Vanderbilt, at just 22 years old, was now responsible for her own house and helping to maintain the bare modicum of social respectability of afforded to the Vanderbilts. She gave birth to her daughter Consuelo, determined to make her daughter the ultimate debutante and winner of the social lottery by marrying Consuelo into the British Aristocracy. Alva said her passions were building mansions and building children. Alva commissioned architect Richard Morris Hunt to design La Petit chateau, her grand 5th Avenue mansion. Everything was French : fireplaces, art, paneling were taken from French estates ; Alva purchased furniture that once belonged to Marie Antoinette. Alva threw a ball to show off the house to the public. The ball was gossiped about in the newspaper a month ahead thanks to Alva's anonymous tips. The 750 invitees had ample time to commission their costumes of figures from history. Carrie Astor, daughter of Mrs. Astor, wanted to perform a quadrille at the ball. Alva told her no, a genius strategy that rivaled any general's battle plans. Mrs. Astor refused to call an Alva, therefore it would be improper for Carrie to participate. Mama Caroline presented a calling card to Alva's footman and said footman delivered to Carrie and Mrs. Astor an invitation to the ball. That would not be their last battle.

The next Mrs Astor - Alva Vanderbilt blow up came when Alva wanted a box at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. The academy only held 18 boxes and sponsors refused to build more. The opera denying boxes to new members was one more way of keeping the climbers on the bottom rung of the social ladder. Alva rounded up the swells (the new money faction like herself) and pooling their vast sums of money, they commissioned the Metropolitan Opera House. Two years after the Metropolitan opened, the Brooklyn Academy of Music closed. Alva had bested Mrs Astor again.

Alva's ultimate triumph came November 6th 1895 when Consuelo wed the Duke of Marlborough. Dukes were rare and sought after in the Penny Princess trade. Alva again used the press to leak details of the ceremony.  Alva needed a splashy event to deflect from her divorce. She and Willie K were never a love match, but why care when he yachted and did not object to her spending his millions? Her VBFF Consuelo Yznaga confessed to cheating with Willie K. Alva and Willie K divorced in 1895. Alva owned Marble House, their Newport home, but walked away from Petite Chateau, the home she labored over. Perhaps she was growing weary of a society that let her barely enter its threshold. A $10 million settlement from Willie K gave her financial security and freedom. Alva and Oliver Belmont, a friend of Willie K, had fallen in love over many years. Alva and Oliver married January 11th 1896. They lived happily together for 12 years until Oliver's sudden death in 1908.

Alva then spent her money and her time assisting poor women and needy children, just like her daughter Consuelo. Alva donated great sums of money to Women's Suffrage and spoke at voting rallies. Once women achieved the right to vote Alva moved to France and spent time as a grandmother to grandsons John and Ivor, and finally as a mother to Consuelo.  Petite Chateau was demolished in 1927. Alva barely mentioned that fact in her memoir. Alva suffered a stroke that left her partially paralyzed and died January 26th 1933. Her casket was carried by a team of women pallbearers. Alva Vanderbilt wanted to belong to society so badly she let that desire blind her but eventually she saw that women did not need to adhere to society's conventions to be happy.

SOURCES :

Alva Vanderbilt. Wikipedia.

Cooper, Anderson / Howe, Katherine ~ Vanderbilt : The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty .

Raymond, Carl, host. "Social Climber : The Iron Will and Determined Rise of Alva Vanderbilt." The Gilded Gentleman, Episode 12, Bowery Boys Media, 14 March 2022. 

FURTHER MEDIA :

BOOKS : 

A Well-Behaved Woman : A Novel of the Vanderbilts ~ Therese Anne Fowler

American Duchess : A Novel of Consuelo Vanderbilt ~ Karen Harper

The Social Graces ~ Renee Rosen

Consuelo and Alva Vanderbilt : The Story of a Daughter and a Mother In the Gilded Age ~ Amanda Mackenzie Stuart

FURTHER INTEREST : 

Le Petit Chateau. Wikipedia.

Marble House