America's most glamorous folk aren't in Beverly Hills, they're in Newport.
They say a TV camera adds 10 pounds (4.5 kilos) but take it from me: retired American talk show star Jay Leno's famously oversized chin looks much bigger in real life.
He's making a guest appearance at a public event I'm at on the lawns of one of America's largest mansions. The Breakers, a 70-room castle on five hectares right beside the harbour in Newport, was built by one of America's richest families in the 19th century, the Vanderbilts. It took 2000 men three years to build and it's so big you could fit the average American home in its dining room. If you watched last year's hit TV series, The Gilded Age, you've already seen it; much of the footage of America's most glamorous era (1870s to 1900) was filmed inside, and at other mansions along this 16-kilometre Ocean Drive.
Dubbed Seafair, Leno's "castle" (believe me, on this street, they're castles, not mansions) - located a little further down Ocean Drive - is a far humbler affair. He picked it up for $19.18 ($US13.5) million in 2013. It sits on four hectares of prime waterfront land and has only 12 bedrooms, and 13 bathrooms. "I have to laugh every time I go to the house and the gate opens because I feel like I'm in the opening of Downton Abbey," he told US magazine Forbes. "It probably costs about $50,000 a month to maintain."
To truly understand just how privileged life was here for America's most pampered people (who referred to these elaborate castles as their "summer cottages"), consider young Elizabeth Taylor. In 1961 she was invited to stay as guest of a wealthy heiress who owned the mansion, Beaulieu. The heiress asked the hostess of a dinner she was invited to if she might bring Taylor, then the world's biggest movie star. "Absolutely not," came the reply. "We would never have an actor in the house." Taylor ate alone at Beaulieu; her host couldn't un-accept an invite.
If you're keen to see American grandeur from its glitziest-ever period - and in its most picturesque setting - forget Beverly Hills, or Long Island, or Manhattan. Come to Newport, Rhode Island.
The best part about being here is you don't have to be a billionaire - or even a millionaire - to be a part of the decadence. Newport's most expensive mansions (and we're talking, in excess of $99 million or $US70 million) can be visited for less than $42 ($US30). The Preservation Society of Newport offers entrance to Newport's mansions, including the Breakers and Rosecliff, the 114-year-old mansion used as the setting for the original Great Gatsby, starring Robert Redford in 1974.
Although I actually haven't paid a cent this morning to peek into the lives of America's richest people. I'm taking a five kilometre public walk - the Newport Cliff Walk - on a cloudless Sunday. The walk takes me right through the backyards of the grandest estates, so close I feel like I shouldn't really be here. As I round corners on the rocky coastline, I find sheltered sandy bays where sailboats rest on mooring lines just off-shore. The harbour's full of every type of yacht - from $100 million superyachts to three-metre-long hobie-cats racing each other in regattas.
The best part about being here is you don't have to be a billionaire.
It's plain to see from here why Newport's considered the world's sailing capital. The harbour's the perfect place for it - it's deep and protected on all sides and was once the busiest harbour in the US during its colonial era. You probably remember it as the site of Australia's most famous sporting victory, the 1983 America's Cup, a come-from-behind win which broke the longest winning streak in the history of all sports. You can visit the National Sailing Hall of Fame in town to relive the glory. The mansions on Ocean Drive are only part of the history on display in Newport, mind you. On the other side of the harbour, I follow the Newport Harbour Walk around one of the oldest working waterfronts in America. Newport's historic district pre-dates Newport's gilded age by two centuries. I find what's thought to be America's oldest tavern - the White Horse Tavern - is still serving cold beers today, 450 years after it opened.
I walk past 300-year-old colonial homes, beside its pretty harbour. There's the odd strip of kitsch souvenir shops you'd expect in a city that swells with tourists during summer, but Newport manages to display its past without turning itself into a history lesson. The city has one of the highest concentrations of inns and B&Bs in the country, most of them in centuries-old buildings. And there are historic bars and restaurants set all along the waterfront. I like going beyond Newport, too, into the folds of Rhode Island. There are more than 700km of coastline in the state. Rhode Island's also home to some of the best vineyards in America's north-east with a maritime climate that closely resembles France's Burgundy region.
But it's the glitz and glamour on display here that fascinates me most. The first US Open of tennis was held here. I walk through the International Tennis Hall of Fame where in 1881 string quartets played beside the court. I take a harbour cruise to see where JFK and America's most glamorous first lady, Jackie, got married and where president Eisenhower ran America from his summer White House. And for a time, I feel I'm one of them, those gilded people. Till my time's up and I catch the bus back to reality.
Craig Tansley travelled courtesy of Brand USA.
