Season 4 of “The Gilded Age” began tonight on HBO.
Lots of spoilers, but we won’t give them away. Suffice to say, a lot happens that sets up the next seven episodes.
The series hasn’t been renewed yet, so I guess HBO is waiting to see how this season does before greenlighting another.
One ‘spoiler’ I alluded to:
After the big van Rijn wedding in tonight’s episode, Oscar recommends that Marian come ‘downtown’ for a fun celebration with young people.
We only learn when the guests are exiting that they’ve been to Webster Hall, on East 11th St.
Indeed, Webster Hall stands there now. And in 1886 it was called Webster Hall.
But from the late 70s to the mid 1980s, the venue was known as The Ritz. It was a premiere club for every punk and new wave act. I saw REM debut there (Michael Stipe had curly red hair), not to mention Sting’s debut as a solo act, a Public Image show that went awry, the B52s, Prince, Rockpile (I distinctly recall being pushed up on the lip of the stage), and so many more. It’s where I saw Sam & Dave in 1980 not knowing that one day Sam Moore would star in a documentary I would make.
I also saw the Pretenders, Kid Creole and the Coconuts, Carly Simon, and my beloved XTC (I think I also them at Hurrah), The (English) Beat, The Psychedelic Furs, and it was so exciting. Those were the days! And they went on for a while. (I only had afternoon classes at NYU.)
Webster Hall was built in 1886, and according to Wikipedia, “was nicknamed the “Devil’s Playhouse” by the socialist magazine The Masses, Webster Hall became particularly known for the wilder and more risque events of the time; Marcel Duchamp, Joseph Stella, Man Ray, Francis Picabia, Charles Demuth, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Langston Hughes, Bob Brown, and many other notables regularly attended events there during this time.”
It was where people went to wet their beaks during Prohibition.
I was there in May 1980, when the building was renamed The Ritz. It was where we went to see Tina Turner when she was first making her return, before “What’s Love Got to Do With It.” The fun lasted until 1989, when the owners changed the name back to the original.
In tonight’s episode, Larry and Marian leave Webster Hall and find a hotel called the St. Denis. According to Google, there was indeed a hotel with that name around the corner on 11th and Broadway. It was far larger than the one in tonight’s show. But as with all Julian Fellowes’ shows, the fact checking was excellent.
I only wished when I saw the episode that I could have told Marian, Larry, and Oscar about the crazy nights to come at Webster Hall aka The Ritz. They would have loved it!
