It's ball season! Time to call the carriage for your visit to the Gilded Age's greatest parties.

Balls were the most lavish entertainment one could attend in the Gilded Age -- from Mrs. Astor's annual Opera Ball for around 400 guests to smaller affairs for only 200 or 300 hundred. 

But that ball was far more than an elegant night out. Being invited signaled that you were "in" society. Who you saw there often determined how you navigated society, and whom you could introduce your daughter to indicated possible prospects for the marriage market. Your every move was being watched, cataloged, and judged.  

Venture back to the Gilded Age to revisit ball season in this classic Gilded Gentleman episode - find out what you had to wear, how you had to behave, what you had to eat, and even how to interpret the secret language of a lady's fan. 

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