Meet The New Ward McAllister.

If you know anything about me – and this includes not knowing me in real life, but reading this blog – you most likely know that I am in love with celebrities and socialites. I can’t help it, they fascinate me. (Boyfriend thinks I am crazy.) And as fascinated as I am with today’s celebrity culture, I love the tales of the New York old money set & actual royalty (I pretty much consider myself an avid royal watcher) even more. 

But I espeeeecially love the original group of socialites – the Astors & Vanderbilts, for example. Recently, I started reading up on the Four Hundred and Ward McAllister. And during this time of faux-research (I really, really like to know lots about certain subjects for no reason) I decided that Andy Cohen, from Bravo TV (which you have probably also noticed that I am obsessed with) is probably the new Ward McAllister.

{Note: Boyfriend asked what I am doing. I told him I was writing a blog. Explained quickly what it was about. When I said “back in the early 1800’s” he rolled his eyes. He definitely thinks I am even more crazy now.}

If you don’t know who Ward McAllister is – and you were too lazy to click the excellent Wikipedia link I provided you – I’ll explain quickly.

During the “gilded age,” when New York society was ruled by the old money families (Astors, Vanderbilts, etc.) McAllister was the unofficial socialite social director. He was BFF with Mrs. Astor, and together they pretty much decided the who’s who in NY society. He also pretended to be a little Miss Manners type, dictating what was proper in society and what wasn’t. 

At one point he stated that there were only 400 important people in society, and if you weren’t one of those 400 people then you were essentially a nobody. Eventually, he provided his list of “The Four Hundred” to a newspaper  – there wasn’t actually 400 people on the list, and it turned out that the number 400 was decided on because that was the maximum capacity of Mrs. Astor’s ballroom (imagine having a ballroom that fits 400 people… ::sigh::)

Sooo – how is Andy Cohen, the Executive Vice President of Original Programming and Development at Bravo, similar to Ward McAllister, “self-appointed arbiter of New York Society”? 

Well. Andy Cohen heads up the Real Housewives franchise, and hosts his hit show Watch What Happens: Live, which is essentially used to interview members of the casts of Housewives and comment on the behavior of their counterparts/peers. During his show, you can see him baiting the housewives to say mean things about each other, silently mocking them (and sometimes outwardly mocking them, which is kind of risky since if they fail to sign on for more seasons that could definitely negatively affect his job) and making general commentary on their lives. 

While Cohen isn’t doing exactly what McAllister did, which was essentially proclaiming the proper standards and protocol to abide by during the time, and the people that were worthy of being noticed, he is making the “who’s who” of today’s wealthy set. In the mid-late 1800’s everyone knew the New York social set. Parties and outings were covered in the newspapers, and the participants were known to most around the city.

Cohen is making a group of wealthy women into the new social elite. Their ongoings and exploits are now common gossip column fodder, whereas a few years ago people would have said “Camille Grammer who?”* He’s taking women who live an extravagant but under-the-radar lifestyle and turning them into the standard (whether it’s the standard to live up to, or the standard to avoid, it depends on the housewife, I suppose), similarly to what McAllister did when he built up the debutantes of the 1800s and when he informed women of how not to act in society.

Although Cohen’s mission isn’t necessarily to set the bar for society, and determine what is and isn’t the way things should be – his TV franchise has certainly has made an impact. In some instances, the women in the series have turned into more of a “how not to act”, but regardless, he and the Housewives franchise are making an impact.