Scandalous Newport Rhode Island

Newport, Rhode Island, is renowned for its stunning cliff-side vistas and the luxurious summer homes of the Gilded Age elite. Yet the opulent facades of the City by the Sea concealed the scintillating scandals, eccentric characters and unsolved mysteries of its wealthiest families. Learn how Cornelius Vanderbilt III was cut out of the family's fortune for his unapproved marriage to Grace Wilson and how John F. Kennedy's marriage to a Newport debutante helped to secure his presidency. Travel to the White Horse Tavern, where a vengeful specter still waits for his supposed murderer to return to the scene, and discover the mysterious voyage of the "Sea Bird" and its missing crew. Historian Larry Stanford searches the dark corners of Newport's past to expose these scandalous tales and more.

Thomas Sheridan and Amy Newbold, the secondary couple from WALTZ WITH A STRANGER, get their own story! Newly engaged, the artist and the heiress travel to Newport, Rhode Island for what remains of the summer season. For Thomas, it’s a fascinating excursion into the world that shaped his bride-to-be. For Amy, it’s a chance to spend time with the man she loves, in one of her favorite places. But a sinister secret lurks beneath the resort’s gilded surface . . . Bonus Epilogue included!

Thomas Sheridan and Amy Newbold, the secondary couple from Waltz with a Stranger, get their own story!Newly engaged, the artist and the heiress travel to Newport, Rhode Island for what remains of the summer season. For Thomas, it’s a fascinating excursion into the world that shaped his bride-to-be. For Amy, it’s a chance to spend time with the man she loves, in one of her favorite places. But a sinister secret lurks beneath the resort’s gilded surface…

Founded by a small band of religious freedom seekers in 1639, Newport, Rhode Island, subsequently became a bustling colonial seaport teeming with artists, sailors, prosperous merchants and, perhaps most distinctively, the ultra-rich families of the Gilded Age. Clinging to the lavish coattails of these newly minted millionaires and robber barons was a stream of con artists and hangers-on who attempted to leech off their well-to-do neighbors. From the Vanderbilts to the Dukes, the Astors to the Kennedys, the City by the Sea has served as a sanctuary for the elite, and a hotbed of corruption. Local historian Larry Stanford pulls back the curtain on over 350 years of history, uncovering the real stories behind many of Newport's most enduring mysteries, controversial characters and scintillating scandals.

Determined to secure entry into the elite social circles of late nineteenth-century Rhode Island, Sam Driver enlists the help of a pair of social gadflies but finds his efforts complicated by his daughter's romance with an impoverished young Irishman.

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "An engrossing and sumptuous tale, this novel is a fantastic spring read." — Good Morning America From the New York Times bestselling team of Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, and Karen White—a novel of money and secrets set among the famous summer mansions of Newport, Rhode Island, spanning over a century from the Gilded Age to the present day. “Three stories elegantly intertwine in this clever and stylish tale of murder and family lies…This crackerjack novel offers three mysteries for the price of one.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) 2019: Andie Figuero has just landed her dream job as a producer of Mansion Makeover, a popular reality show about restoring America’s most lavish historic houses. Andie has high hopes for her latest project: the once glorious but gently crumbling Sprague Hall in Newport, Rhode Island, summer resort of America’s gilded class—famous for the lavish “summer cottages” of Vanderbilts and Belmonts. But Andie runs into trouble: the reclusive heiress who still lives in the mansion, Lucia “Lucky” Sprague, will only allow the show to go forward on two conditions: One, nobody speaks to her. Two, nobody touches the mansion’s ruined boathouse. 1899: Ellen Daniels has been hired to give singing lessons to Miss Maybelle Sprague, a naive young Colorado mining heiress whose stepbrother John has poured their new money into buying a place among Newport’s elite. John is determined to see Maybelle married off to a fortune-hunting Italian prince, and Ellen is supposed to polish up the girl for her launch into society. But the deceptively demure Ellen has her own checkered past, and she’s hiding in plain sight at Sprague Hall. 1958: Lucia “Lucky” Sprague has always felt like an outsider at Sprague Hall. When she and her grandmother—the American-born Princess di Conti—fled Mussolini’s Italy, it seemed natural to go back to the imposing Newport house Nana owned but hadn’t seen since her marriage in 1899. Over the years, Lucky's lost her Italian accent and found a place for herself among the yachting set by marrying Stuyvesant Sprague, the alcoholic scion of her Sprague stepfamily. But one fateful night in the mansion’s old boathouse will uncover a devastating truth...and change everything she thought she knew about her past. As the cameras roll on Mansion Makeover, the house begins to yield up the dark secrets the Spragues thought would stay hidden forever….

From the driver's seat, author and guide Edward Morris provides a diverse collection of biographical sketches that reveal the outrageous and opulent lives of some of America's leading entrepreneurs. Newport, Rhode Island, was the summer playground of the Gilded Age for the Astors, Belmonts and Vanderbilts. They built lavish villas designed by the best Beaux Arts-style architects of the time, including Richard Morris Hunt, Charles McKim and Robert Swain Peabody. America's elite delighted in referring to these grand retreats as "summer cottages," where they would play tennis and polo and sail their yachts along the shores of the Ocean State. The coachman had an important role as the discreet outdoor butler for Gilded Age gentlemen--not only was he in charge of the horses, but he also acted as a travel advisor and connoisseur of entertainment venues.

A MUST-BUY BOOK for everyone interested in history and the scandalous behaviour of politicians across the world. Andy Hughes' fascinating book guides us through centuries of political abuse - and just plain stupidity. The Profumo Affair is still shocking to modern voters, possibly because the MP actually stepped down after being caught out after sharing his mistress with a Russian spy. This Pocket Guide will expose the secret side of politics, including which politicians risked or ruined their own careers for personal gain. This gripping book includes stories include the MP who liked to party hard and be whipped even harder, the Prime Minister and his hookers, expenses claims for manure and the US President who called for all gay men to be castrated. There is definitely no shortage of scandalous behaviour. In fact, politicians have mixed scandal with eggs, adult movies, helicopters, drugs, shoes, beef burgers, public toilets, mobile phones, rape, turkeys, orgies and even ice cream. You name it and politicians have been mixed up in it somehow. It is not just today's politicians who are embroiled with scandal, as this explosive Pocket Guide to Political Scandals reveals the questionable behaviour of politicians of yesteryear and from around the world; the corruption, dishonesty and like of morals and judgement all come out in the stories in the book. As featured on BBC Three Counties Radio