GERTRUDE VANDERBILT
Vanderbilt heiress and daughter of Cornelius II and Mrs. Vanderbilt. Against her mother’s wishes she is in love with her childhood friend Esther Hunt while her parents stop at nothing to find her an “appropriate” husband.
CONSUELO VANDERBILT
Gertrude's cousin and Alva Vanderbilt’s daughter. She is engaged to marry the Duke of Marlborough in order for her mother’s position in High Society to surpass that of Mrs. Astor and Mrs. Vanderbilt (Alva’s sister-in-law) while she is secretly in love with the Boston socialite, Winthrop Rutherford. Her engagement to the Duke puts pressure on Mrs. Vanderbilt to marry off her eldest children Gertrude and Neily into aristocratic families.
GRACE WILSON
Neily’s lover and fiancé who had previously been secretly engaged to Neily’s older brother William, who several years earlier had died at Yale. She is viewed by Mrs. Vanderbilt as unsuitable for Neily because of her southern roots and because through her brother Orme’s marriage to Carrie Astor, she is a member of the rival Astor family.
CORNELIUS (NEILY) VANDERBILT
The Eldest living son of Cornelius II and Mrs. Vanderbilt, who is must choose between his fiancé Grace or being disowned by his parents.
Advertisement
ALVA VANDERBILT
Wife, and later ex-wife, of Willie Vanderbilt, Cornelius II brother. She struggles for her position in High Society against her bitter enemy Mrs. Astor by forcing her daughter to marry the Duke of Marlborough.
MRS. (ALICE) VANDERBILT
Wife of Cornelius II, known as “the Mrs. Vanderbilt,” she is a religious woman, a loyal wife, and a strict mother. In High Society her title of Mrs. Vanderbilt sparks great envy in Alva fueling Alva’s stubborn behavior. Mrs. Vanderbilt will stop at nothing to make sure her son Neily does not marry Grace and that her daughter Gertrude is properly married – even if it means bribery.
MRS. ASTOR
MRS. ASTOR Queen of New York Society and the House of Astor who reigned over the elite “Four Hundred Club.” A rival of Alva Vanderbilt.
WARD MCALLISTER
WARD MCCALISTERNew York socialite who, along with Mrs. Astor, controls access to High Society in Newport, and determines who is included in Mrs. Astor’s “Four Hundred Club.”
CHAUNCEY DEPEW
Chief legal representative of the Vanderbilt family.
