Gladys Russell from 'The Gilded Age' is based on a real life socialite. Here's her story

USA Today

17 hours ago

One of the real life grand dames of Palm Beach, Florida is the inspiration for a key character in HBO's "The Gilded Age" Season 3 — a character whose story is about to take a major turn.
Show creator Julian Fellowes, also the mind behind the hit series "Downton Abbey", has said that the fictional Russell family is inspired by the Vanderbilt family, and that central character Gladys Russell (Taissa Farmiga) is based on Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan, the real-life socialite daughter of suffragette Alva Erskine Belmont and railroad tycoon William Vanderbilt.
In season three of "The Gilded Age" (Sundays, 9 ET/PT), is being forced by her parents to marry the Duke of Buckingham (Ben Lamb). Similarly, Balsan was forced by her parents in 1895 to marry the Duke of Marlborough, in a ceremony reported to be one of the most anticipated events of the era.
While it's yet to be seen if Gladys will follow in Consuelo's footsteps and go through with the wedding, a look back at the real woman offers hints at what the series may have planned.
Who was Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan?
Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan lived from 1877 to 1964. She was known as the famously reluctant bride of the Gilded Age who, despite her nuptials being the media event of a generation, did not go gently into matrimony.
The New York Times assigned six reporters to cover every facet of the St. Thomas More Church ceremony (one writer's sole assignment was to report on the bridesmaids). Balsan's mother, desperate for the prestige her daughter's marriage into the peerage would bring, brokered the engagement with the aristocratic but ill-humored Sunny Marlborough. She then held her daughter prisoner to keep her from eloping with her true love.
After bearing two sons, spending a goodly chunk of her fortune to rescue Blenheim Palace from ruin, and giving her mother the social armor she desired, Balsan decided to find her own happiness — and divorced the duke in 1921.
Shortly afterward, she married French adventurer Jacques Balsan and spent the remaining half of her life blissfully married. After France fell to the Nazis, the couple moved to the United States.
Where did Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan live?
As Duchess, she lived in Blenheim Palace. Later, as Madame Balsan, she had homes in Paris, Monte Carlo, New York, Southampton, Manalapan and Palm Beach.
In Manalapan, Florida, the Balsans lived on a nearly 7-acre estate in a mansion built in 1935 and designed by noted society architect Maurice Fatio. They named the mansion Casa Alva, for her mother.
The former Duchess of Marlborough also bought Lakeview House in Palm Beach in the late 1950s shortly after her husband's death. Lakeview House was built in 1940 by developer Clarence Mack. It was purchased in 2012 for a recorded $5.2 million by longtime Palm Beach resident Virginia "Gina" Mortara.
Once free of the Marlboroughs, Balsan happily threw herself into charity work and entertaining, hosting such high-profile guests as Winston and Clementine Churchill, the Duke of Connaught, Charlie Chaplin, the Maharajah de Kapurthala and Grace Moore.
"Mme. Balsan is a top-notch hostess and another of the rare ones who are liked for themselves alone: She needed neither title nor Vanderbilt money to win her social laurels," Elsa Maxwell, a gossip columnist, wrote at the time. "Nowadays she is at her best as hostess to a few, preferring small parties to large: No doubt she had her fill of the pomp-and-ceremony school of hospitality during her years as mistress of Blenheim Palace."
Did Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan write her own book?
In a bit of a literary twist, Balsan's memoir "The Glitter and the Gold" topped the bestseller list for 20 weeks.
When it was published in 1952, the book caused an uproar, raking in both positive and negative reviews.
While The Palm Beach Post, now part of the USA TODAY NETWORK, reported at the time that it was the talk of that social season, one newspaper columnist wrote, "Several members of the Vanderbilt clan have been bitterly critical of Mme. Jacques (Consuelo Vanderbilt) Balsan for the publication of her autobiography …They believe that such indiscretions are not befitting a Vanderbilt."
For the memoir to come from Balsan, "a lady of extreme regal bearing and behavior, it was a shocker," the columnist added.
Past reporting from Palm Beach Daily News Real Estate Editor Darrell Hofheinz and contributor M.M. Cloutier was used in this article.