It has become a sport to identify real historical facts and people that may have inspired the series The Gilded Age. There are obvious parallels with The Vanderbilts as the basis for The Russells, especially Consuelo as Agnes (Tassia Farmiga) and Alva as Bertha (Carrie Coon ), or Ida B. Jones is in some way a reference to Peggy (Denée Benton). Confusion is added when real people cross paths with fictional ones: Mrs. Caroline Astor (Donna Murphy), and Ward McAllister (Nathan Lane), among others. However, this alternative can open the door to leaving the dances led by women and entering the sordid misogynistic, sexist, and abusive universe of men at that time, precisely through the sweet Larry Russell (Harry Richardson) whose career as an architect links him to the famous and controversial Stanford White, after all, as we saw in the first episode, White is the architect of the Russells’ house and is who Larry will be working within the second season!

So far, everything is fine with the series praising Stanford White because he was one of the most notorious and beloved American architects, a partner in the architectural firm McKim, Mead & White, considered one of the most important Beaux-Arts firms, and who designed buildings Still classics in New York today. However, the feat was destroyed with his tragic death – murdered! – will certainly pass at some point in the plot.

Although until now shown as a docile and friendly man, Stanford was the typical predatory man of The Gilded Age: austere in appearance, wanton behind four walls. His relationships with virgin minors, the famous red velvet swing, and cake pop-ups are some of the moments in which he is the protagonist, and they generate a lot of drama. As Larry is the opposite of all of this, it will be curious to see how Julian Fellowes will insert some of the most famous scandals of the period into the plot.

One of the first, which predates Stanford’s murder years later, is a male “habit” of society at the turn of the nineteenth century known as the “erotic cake dance”, which made young Susie Johnson the curiosity and obsession of Americans about the lives of the rich and powerful. Sudie was the first woman to become famous for “coming out of the cake” half-naked, dancing for men (perverts) as if she were merchandise. A preface to the tragedy that would mark the end of the era of opulence decades later.

Susan: a teenager who was immortalized with abuse

Since it was the newspapers that revealed the party, we know that it took place on May 20, 1895. Susie Jones, just 16 years old and wearing nothing more than a transparent black gauze, surrounded by a flock of live canaries, broke through the crust of a giant pie to the delight and surprise of the men present. The party was for polo player John Ellliot Cowdin’s 10th wedding anniversary, but no wife was present. With a luxurious 16-course dinner and lots of champagne, the guests were “attracted” by two models dancing and serving drinks, with Susie being the big show of the night led by Stanford White.

If today women turn their stomachs at the thought that it was a “usual” and acceptable party among the male public, the celebration was typical of a New York squandering fortunes coming from shipyards, freight trains, and factories. Young women from all over the country came to Manhattan with dreams of finding rich husbands or lovers, of shining on the Broadway stage. The alternative of working as a model for the magazines and print advertising industry that was flourishing was an attractive option, it was that or be in the queues of the choir, the factories, or even the sex workers on the streets. And Susie was one of those girls.

It was Joseph Pulitzer’s “yellow” newspaper, the New York World, that profiled Susie, which represents so much of the proletarian society of that period. She grew up in a working-class family on the West Side, began recently posing as a portrait model, but was soon being paid to take off her clothes. Quick support was a necessity for many, mistaken as something “women wanted” rather than highlighting the lack of options.

At Cowdin’s wedding anniversary party, Susie performed in “Four and Twenty Blackbirds” for New York’s most famous and “respected” playboys, who included inventor Nicola Tesla. According to the report from The New York World, having the young woman “coming out of the cake” was a suggestion from White, even though it was not created by him. It was so common in medieval Europe to fill pies with birds, which flew when the pie was sliced, that there is an English children’s song, “Sing a Song of Sixpence”, referring to the habit. It is said that in 1626, the Duke and Duchess of Buckingham (from the Mary & George series) presented King Charles I with a pie containing a living Sir Jeffrey Hudson, a famous dwarf who served at court.

Isn’t it shocking that the habit continued until the end of the 19th century? Even more so in a social circle known for puritanism. The hypocrisy that confused so many women, where virtue and public adultery were as common as private adultery. In this scenario, Susie became the “Pie-Girl”, or “The ‘Girl in the Pie” and famous nationally when her image surrounded by men illustrated her as “a Venus in a cake”. The cover story of The New World highlighted the abuse, highlighting that the party cost more than 2,300 times the minimum wage at the time. A scandal of all proportions.

Although she was underage and a victim of circumstances, Susie was cast as wanton, delusional, and guilty. The men paraded her in their arms around the table and, according to the report, she posed “under electric lights” in an artist’s studio, which was a euphemism for sex work. In the newspaper illustration, architect Stanford White stands to Susie Johnson’s left, wielding a large kitchen knife as if he is about to cut her. From that time on, the “pop-up cake” was always associated with moral decadence and having an attractive young woman as a “surprise”.

The custom of The Gilded Age

Parties like this were famous and common in Gilded Age New York, described as “playgrounds for single and married men”, usually taking place in restaurants like the Lobster Palace, or, more often, in Greenwich Village and Broadway theaters. There was no shortage of women as entertainment. Stanford White was one of the best-known followers, even though he was “happily married”. He was one of the city’s most sought-after architects, having designed many of New York’s most celebrated buildings, including the Roman Arch of Washington Square, Madison Square Garden II, and the mansions in Newport, among others. More than architecture perhaps, his obsession with teenage virgins was equally famous. Unsurprisingly, his death was billed as the “Trial of the Century,” but it was the “Pie Girl Dinner” that signaled moral decay and will certainly find its way into The Gilded Age series at some point. After all, the architect – in the series – is already connected to the Russells and now that we know his profile, it’s scary that he was interested in Marian Brook (Louisa Jacobson) in the first episode…

Historians point to the “male parties” as a counterpoint to the luxurious boredom of the “400” balls. Shocking and splashing was something men could do and enjoyed until The New World article exposed them to the world. The newspaper described the dinner in painful detail: half-naked waitresses “serving” the dinner guests, mentioned by name in the text, and of course, the naked girl – Susie Jones – who emerged from the large pie. Stanford White’s reputation was slightly tarnished by the party, but it took another ten years for him to “pay” for his habit. His reputation as a pervert has never been erased. To give you an idea, it was nothing different from what Harvey Weinstein was doing in Hollywood in the 21st century.

If New York remained a “singles’ playground,” Stanford White’s tragic end served in part as a warning that there were limits to respectability. But that’s for another post.

And the fate of Susie Jones?

As always, the woman was quickly forgotten. Shortly after the fact, Susie disappeared from New York. After the unwanted “fame” and notoriety of the incident, the young woman practically ‘ran away’. Unfortunately, thanks to her, women dancing and getting out of cakes became popular erotic projects, as we saw in Singing in the Rain and Mad Men. Susie, however, changed her name and there is little documentation of her life after the party. A 1907 story reported that she eventually married, but when her husband discovered she was the pie girl, he left her. Susie died young and poor. Of course, this is the version that sold newspapers, but it is possibly true. A drama that would make perfect sense to be explored in detail, hopefully, the HBO Max series doesn’t ignore it!

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