After the Ball
Gilded Age Secrets, Boardroom Betrayals, and the Party That Ignited the Great Wall Street Scandal of 1905
by Patricia Beard
List Price: $25.95
Pages: 416
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 0060199393
Publisher: HarperCollins
Patricia Beard is the author of six nonfiction books and hundreds of nationally published magazine articles. She has been an editor at Elle, Town & Country, and Mirabella magazines.
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Q: Did you write After the Ball because of the current corporate scandals?
PB: I started my research four years ago, before the big stories had broken. The direction of the book was more influenced by the events of September 11th than by Enron or any corporate scandals. Along with everyone else, I began to think about what America stands for, and I thought of the Gilded Age in the context of growth and creating unparalleled cities and communications networks. There's so much emphasis on wealth and excess, which is only a byproduct of growth, that it's easy to forget how much opportunity there is in America and how much hard work and ingenuity go into starting and running a business.
Q: Why is the Hyde story important today?
PB: We're seeing an unusual crop of stories of overweening greed, which often occur in periods of huge economic growth. That's when the trees seem to bear golden apples, and there are always people who feel entitled to go into the orchard and pluck them, no matter whose field they're taking them from.
Q: Does After the Ball transcend the world of finance?
PB: At the root of the story is the ancient pattern of the powerful father who tries to pass the torch to his son, the ensuing battle between the generations, and the pressures of our hopes for our children and their need to please their parents.
Q: Where did you get the idea to write After the Ball? Do you have any personal connection to the material?
The idea was hatched when James Hyde's granddaughter showed me pictures of him as a young man, and told me about the ball that caused his downfall. It was such a dramatic story, and I wanted to know what really happened. I do have a lot of personal connections to the story; I knew James's only son and his granddaughters, descendants of other members of the Equitable board, and people who were otherwise involved in the scandal. One of my childrens' great-great-grandfathers was on the Equitable board, although he wasn't involved in the scandal.
Q: Are any of the current business scandals similar to the crisis started by the Hyde Ball?
PB: In substance, yes, but most of what happened leading up to 1905 was still legal. The corporate malfeasance we're seeing now involves activities that the perpetuators know is illegal.
Q: Is there a personality under investigation for inappropriate or illegal behavior now who reminds you of James Hyde?
PB: Martha Stewart comes to mind because she represents a modern version of a luxurious and gracious way of living; and also because she and James both appear to have been brought into questionable dealings through others. Some of the extravagant gestures by other corporate CEOs don't have enough style for James Hyde; I think of one executive who charged a $15,000 umbrella stand to his company. Hyde spent his money better than that.
Q: Have you ever gone to a ball like the Hyde Ball?
PB: I have been to some big costume balls. They're often amusing because people dress as someone they'd like to be, and can be more relaxed. But often a really big party is mostly an occasion for show, which isn't much fun.
Q: You write about James Hyde's glamour. What's the difference between glamour now and then?
PB: Glamour has always been associated with wealth, power, and beauty, and often with rumors of slightly racy behavior and eagerness for publicity. At the turn of the last century, the idea of an entire class of millionaires was relatively new, and rich society figures occupied the public imagination. The draw was money, earned, amassed, and spent. Today, it's movie stars, and while money is a still critical ingredient, the cult of personality is stronger.
Q: After the Ball involves an amazing cast of characters: E. H. Harriman, J. P. Morgan, Henry Clay Frick. Which of them is an unsung hero, and who comes out badly?
PB: The surprising hero is Thomas Fortune Ryan, a financier known for secretive dealings, who used political influence to get the contracts for the underground and street transportation in New York, and was a partner of King Leopold of the Belgians in his shocking exploitation of the Congo. Yet Ryan saved the Equitable from possible collapse, which could have wiped out the savings of hundreds of thousands of Americans, and wreaked havoc on Wall Street. When he paid James $2.5 million, worth more than $40 million in today's dollars, it seemed that he was acting more in the public interest rather than selfishly. Maybe he was trying to improve his reputation, but he strikes me as a man who didn't much care what people said about him. As for the bad guys in the story, they all liked to think of themselves as honorable, but when they did behave honorably, it seems that they were driven more by convenience than conviction.
Q: What did you find most exciting about the Gilded Age?
PB: The period between the end of the Civil War and the beginning of the First World War saw an unprecedented accumulation of capital. Men believed they could do anything, and they did; they built railroads and the steel mills, and electrified homes and factories, and improved communications beyond the imagination of most people who were alive before the Civil War.
Q: How does the role of the press in 1905 compare to the power and responsibility of today's media?
PB: There were many more daily newspapers and editions of each paper then, they were widely read, and the press pushed the Equitable story to its outermost limits. Television, the Internet and radio reach many more people, but attention span seems to be shorter, and stories often die faster and are replaced by the "new, new thing."
Q: James Hyde said, "I got too much power when I was young." Is it nearly inevitable that a great inheritance undermines the person who receives it?
PB: I'm not sure that it's the money as much as the difficulty of living up to the person who made it -- in James's case, his father. But I can think of many instances where a legacy has helped more than it has undermined. In the current generation, for example, just to name a few, there is Bill Ford in auto manufacturing, Michael Douglas in acting, and Jamie Wyeth in art. The computerAge -- unlessrnet empires are so new that the most of the people who started them don't have children old enough to be out in the world.
Q: James Hyde was tainted by a false rumor, and never outlived the story that he had charged his ball to the Equitable. Once accused, can anyone clear his or her name?
PB: The theory that "where there's smoke, there's fire" usually trumps the careful recitation of the facts. That's one reason movie stars often don't bother to sue the tabloids, and just live with the nasty rumors.
Q: What was most fun about writing ATB?
PB: Realizing how true it is that if you "follow the money" you're likely to come up with motivation and facts. I also liked reading the story in the newspapers of the period, and watching it unfold as though I were living through it.
Q: What were the great Gilded Age luxuries, and what are their modern equivalents?
PB: Space and staff were the most luxurious aspects of the Gilded Age-unless you were a member of the staff. Today, we take for granted qualities of life that would have been considered extraordinary luxuries a hundred years ago: medical treatment, air conditioning, excellent plumbing, widespread educational opportunities. It would be nice to have linen sheets that are ironed every day, but I'd rather have my own bathroom.
Q: If you had met James Hyde, would you have found him attractive?
PB: Women generally did. Of course, as he got older, he became more self-centered and eccentric. I just learned -- it's not in the book -- that when he traveled, he often took the hotel rooms on either side of his, so he wouldn't be disturbed by the least noise. On the other hand, he was handsome, witty, and cultured, and by all accounts, very sexy.
Excerpted from After the Ball © Copyright 2012 by Patricia Beard. Reprinted with permission by HarperCollins. All rights reserved.
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