The narrative is mostly focused on the lavish spending, celebrity lifestyle, and penchant for scandal of the Vanderbilts in the Gilded Age and thereafter.
"He partied his way through Yale, got kicked out but was allowed to graduate, and enjoyed fast horses and fast cars. Reggie was fortunate to live at a time when rich kids could mow down pedestrians in the street with their automobiles and get away with an apology, as he killed at least two. He once ran over a seven-year-old boy, who fortunately survived. The papers suggested it was the little boy's fault for getting in Reggie's way."
On Reggie Vanderbilt, great-grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt, maternal grandfather of the co-author of Vanderbilt, Anderson Cooper.
