TOM LOVE! later I may take a crosstown bus to the gasp westside.

Do people outside of the south still hold debutante stuff?

Yes.

I don't know. I brushed shoulders with millionaires for years, and none of it rubbed off. No one married me, no one bought me more than dinner (admittedly lovely dinner), I didn't reap anything other than the occasional nice vacation, being able to drive lovely cars every now and again, and a fair amount of disdain or inconvenience because I wasn't able to even remotely pay my own way.

This. Except add to that list some pretty nifty parties. And one of my friends dated a guy from one of the wealthy families, but there was no hint she would be able to marry in.

So I must disagree with your disagreement. I think we now agree...

No we don't. See above. Perhaps these were millionaires without enough money to be an entree, but I saw people try and whore (physically and/or business-wise) themselves out to the same group, and it never worked.

I know more people who made mad loot by hard "honest" work than by association.

Direct digital (PPV) has a lower overhead.

Not according to the rate card next to my desk.

Do people outside of the south still hold debutante stuff?

Yes.

Damn. I hoped feminism had killed the poufy white dress. And the "Hey, my daughter's for sale! Come look!"

I've heard locally of quinceaneras, and bar/bat mitzvahs, but not deb balls.

I was thinking more along the lines of dating/marrying

See comment about whoring -- if there was anyone in the group I actually wanted to date or marry, sure I would have. But dating or marrying with an eye to profit = whoring in my book.

or putting your MBA to use.

Never had one of those, myself.

Do people outside of the south still hold debutante stuff?

Yeah, I knew a bunch of people in high school who did that. It was more of a big deal to their parents, though, I suspect.

The Astors were fur traders. The Vanderbilts were railroad men. Cornelius made his money in the 1860s. [link] John Jacob Astor made his money in the early 1800s. [link]

As a side note, when I take visitors to see the mansions in Newport, the two I show them are the Breakers, built by Cornelius Vanderbilt, and Mrs. Astor's Beechwood. The Breakers is humongous and terribly opulent. The great room is 50' x 50' x 50'. Beechwood, by comparison, is much more understated, as befits older money, I suppose.

The other neat thing about Beechwood is that the tour guides are all reenactors, and the show changes with the season. When msbelle and I visited last February, the only folks there were the winter staff, as everyone else was at the main house in NYC for the winter.

The people who really care about social status still read the society pages. That includes people who not a part of it. But no, it is not as pervasive in our culture as it once was - what with the tv and mass media constant entertainment at our finger tips. our culture is much more micro-topic hyper-sensitive (if that makes sense). For example, people swarming here and going apeshit when Joss posts and then a much larger portion of the population not giving a rat's ass who he even is.