Categories
Newspapers and Newsies Podcasts True Crime

The Gossip Game: The Man Who Blackmailed The Gilded Age

All the dirt that’s (un)fit to print — the tale of the Gilded Age scandal sheet Town Topics and its duplicitous publisher William D’Alton Mann.

Before the era of the tabloid, New Yorkers got their gossip fix from a publication known as Town Topics, where the shocking secrets of the Gilded Age were revealed. But its publisher, William D’Alton Mann, was into more than just a bit of sleaze; he used these scandalous revelations to blackmail members of New York’s high society.

In this very special presentation of the Gilded Gentleman podcast, Carl Raymond and his special guest, Vanity Fair writer Joe Pompeo, introduce you to this forgotten scheme which threatened to tear apart the morals and polite mannerisms of Gilded Age society. 

And for more adventures through Gilded Age New York, check out the Gilded Gentleman podcast, wherever you get your podcasts.

This show was produced and edited by Kieran Gannon

William D’Alton Mann

For more thrilling tales of scandal from American history, check out these episodes of the Gilded Gentleman and the Bowery Boys: