Newport in the Summer of 1934.

It was the first summer after the end of Prohibition, and Newport, the storied “City by the Sea,” shimmered with renewed indulgence. For six glittering weeks, from July through August, many of the nation’s wealthiest families decamped to its windswept cliffs and grand lawns. Lavish house parties spilled into the night, while yachting regattas glittered on the harbor by day. Tennis tournaments drew society’s finest in crisp whites; the polo grounds became a theater of privilege; and the season closed with the famed horse show, a parade of equestrian elegance. The air was thick with the scent of salt and garden roses, mingled with the pop of Champagne corks and the faint strains of orchestras playing foxtrots under striped pavilions.

Elizabeth Lehr, wife of famed socialite Harry Lehr, famously called Newport “the playground of the great ones of the earth from which all intruders were ruthlessly excluded.” Here, families of railroad, mining, and steel fortunes – the Vanderbilts, Firestones, Astors, and their glittering peers – entertained in their so-called “summer cottages,” which were, in truth, sprawling Gilded Age palaces. Inside, butlers in starched shirts and black tuxedos glided silently through paneled halls, bearing silver trays of cocktails and chilled Champagne in opulent coupes. On these manicured estates, exclusivity was the currency, leisure was the law, and every gathering was staged as though it might live forever in the pages of Town & Country.

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