The glamorous life of Alva Vanderbilt Belmont, the millionaire socialite whose life inspired HBO's 'The Gilded Age'

Alva Belmont. Bettmann/Getty Images Alva Vanderbilt Belmont was a prominent Gilded Age socialite who married a Vanderbilt railroad heir. She built palatial residences on "Millionaires' Row" in New York and in Newport, Rhode Island. In her later years, she was a suffrage activist and president of…