Society Games

America's burgeoning middle class of the early 20th Century were fascinated by the lives - and especially the antics - of what they called "Society" or the people of tremendous wealth, usually inherited. Many of these families were in the Northeastern United States. The most familiar names still ring bells today: Rockefeller, Astor, Gould, Belmont and Vanderbilt. Disparaged as "Swells" the wealthy were seen as frivilous and irresponsible by a public that criticized and then could not get enough information to entertain themselves. Sound familiar? Nothing new certainly.
 
This article focuses on some of the ways the fabulously rich and famous entertained themselves - such as having a pet chimpanzee and seating him with your guests for dinner. Mrs. O.H.P. Belmont was William K. Vanderbilt Jr.'s mother and is one of the several eccentrics featured in the attached article published in the Indianapolis Star on March 29, 1908.