King Lehr and the Gilded Age Quotes

“James Hazen Hyde began telling us about his costume ball which was to eclipse in splendour any entertainment that had ever been given in New York.”
― Elizabeth Drexel Lehr, "King Lehr" and the Gilded Age

“six thousand dollars a year to sell my champagne...So Mrs. Oelrichs and Mrs. William Astor and many another great hostess stocked her cellars with champagne she did not particularly want merely for the pleasure of having Harry Lehr at her parties. No need to worry over ready money!”
― Elizabeth Drexel Lehr, "King Lehr" and the Gilded Age

“for the Illinois Central, Mrs. Gould and Mrs. Vanderbilt obtained similar concessions from their”
― Elizabeth Drexel Lehr, "King Lehr" and the Gilded Age

“His beautiful rooms over Sherry’s cost him nothing, for they were part of Tom Wanamaker’s permanent apartment there, and Tom was only too pleased to loan them to anyone as amusing as Harry. His meals were supplied free whenever he chose to take them there, and in the restaurant downstairs he could entertain as many guests as he chose, for the management was perfectly aware that no better advertisement could exist than Harry Lehr’s patronage.”
― Elizabeth Drexel Lehr, "King Lehr" and the Gilded Age

“It is quite easy to do it once you become the fashion.”
― Elizabeth Drexel Lehr, "King Lehr" and the Gilded Age

“I never pay for one single thing I wear, not even a tie or a handkerchief,” he concluded....“Now you are probably thinking that clothes are only a small part of a man’s yearly expenditure, and that other things must cost far more.”
― Elizabeth Drexel Lehr, "King Lehr" and the Gilded Age

“Wetzel made all his clothes free....“He has an idea, which I naturally encourage, that it is a privilege to dress the man who according to newspapers ‘sets the fashion for American manhood,’” Harry explained. “He never even suggests anything so vulgar as payment for his suits....Kaskel and Kaskel supplied him with the latest designs in shirt and pyjamas on the same understanding, only asking him as a favour to let it be discreetly known where his underwear came from. Black, Starr and Frost lent him jewels, an unending supply, for they were always renewing them. How had I supposed he had been able to”
― Elizabeth Drexel Lehr, "King Lehr" and the Gilded Age