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Real-life scandals of NYC’s ‘Gilded Age’ more shocking than any HBO show

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nypost.com

The Gilded Age,” premiering Monday at 9 p.m. EST, chronicles the lifestyles of the rich and famous in Manhattan during the late 1800s — with ostentatious displays of wealth, ridiculous parties and heaps of tabloid-worthy gossip and scandal.Created by Julian Fellowes, the man behind “Downton Abbey,” the series also highlights the deep-rooted rivalries and prejudices among NYC high society (and the social climbers desperate to get a leg up).Here, The Post looks at some of the wildest stories of the real Gilded Age.To this day, the creations of Gilded Age architect Stanford White define New York City: the Washington Square Arch, Judson Memorial Church and the Players Club, among many other wonders.But it was his 1906 murder, and the shocking reason behind it, that really rocked the city.White, 52, had attended the premiere of the musical “Mam’Zelle Champagne” at the original Madison Square Garden, which he also designed.

But the show was a flop and theatergoers left early. Among them were Harry Kendall Thaw — 35-year-old heir to the Pennsylvania Railroad fortune — and his 21-year-old wife, Evelyn Nesbit.When bullets hit White in the face and he fell to the floor, the crowd first thought it was part of the show.

But he had ben shot dead by Thaw. “I did it,” Thaw said while being escorted from the theater, “because he ruined my wife.”Five years earlier, Nesbit was a teenage model and chorus girl who was seduced by the married architect to visit his secret lair on 24th Street — complete with a red velvet swing and a bed topped by a light-up, mirrored canopy.Nesbit later testified that she drank champagne, blacked out and woke up naked with White next to her.

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