A
lice Mason was known for her extravagant black-tie dinner parties, which were the stuff of New York City's social pages. But in 1990, one such party would disrupt a secret she had kept hidden for much of her life. As a Manhattan real estate agent to the elite, Alice typically hosted six dinner parties a year, each with 56 guests - half women, half men, but rarely couples. Her guest list was a veritable who's who of A-listers: Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Barbara Walters, Gloria Vanderbilt, and more.

    Alice's private life was marked by an obsession with numerology, which she believed held the key to her success. She would often brag about her name adding up to 22, "the most powerful number." In the 1970s, Alice became friends with Jimmy Carter, who attended some of her dinner parties and even raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for his 1976 campaign.

    Alice's interests expanded beyond socializing into politics, but she always maintained an air of mystique. She would call donors asking for contributions of $225 - a number that added up to 9 in numerology, rather than the unlucky 7. Carter wrote to Alice after winning the election, thanking her for her support.

    In 1992, Alice hosted a fundraising dinner for Bill Clinton, raising $1.5 million. She once told The New York Times that the key to her parties was the small tables, which allowed guests to mingle with the whole table rather than just their neighbors. But it was one of these parties, held in 1990 for her daughter Dominique's engagement, that would ultimately ruin their relationship.

    Alice built her career on beautiful illusions, becoming a legend in New York's real estate market. She grew up in Philadelphia and attended Colby College in Maine before moving to New York and working as a dance instructor. Alice turned to real estate after being helped by Gladys Mills, founder of Gotham Realty, who offered her a job.

    Alice's clients included Marilyn Monroe and Rex Harrison, and she became close friends with socialite Jeanne Murray Vanderbilt. She would often host dinner parties at her rent-stabilized apartment on East 72nd Street, which was frequently documented in New York magazine and The Times. Alice's guests were a mix of celebrities, business executives, writers, artists, and heirs to wealthy families.

    Alice met Francis Richard, who had moved to New York from France, in the 1950s. They married in 1957, but divorced before their daughter Dominique was a year old. Tensions grew between Alice and Dominique as she got older, particularly after Alice's domineering personality became more apparent.

    Dominique met Luke Yang while he was at Columbia University, and they began dating after college. Alice immediately started planning an engagement party for the couple, which included some of Luke's friends from Harvard Business School. One guest, Lawrence Otis Graham, would later reveal a shocking secret about Alice's past.

    Graham had grown up in Westchester County and attended Princeton University before graduating from Harvard Law School. But he scrubbed his Ivy League credentials from his resume and got a job as a busboy at the Greenwich Country Club in Connecticut. His portrait appeared on the cover of New York magazine, with the headline "Invisible Man."

    Graham's book, "Member of the Club: Reflections on Life in a Racially Polarized World," was published in 1995 and explored the lives of Black elites. Alice Mason was listed as one of these individuals, but what Graham didn't know was that she was actually Black.

    Alice had grown up with her family's fair complexions earning them the nickname "the white Christmases." Her mother urged her to pass as white, leaving her family behind for a future in white society. Alice married a distant cousin, Lt. Joseph Christmas, but they divorced after one year due to his disagreement over passing off their family as white.

    Alice's life as a socialite and real estate agent was a paradox: she got her clients into buildings that would never have accepted her as a Black woman. Only years later did Alice publicly acknowledge her race and her real family. Following the revelation, Alice tried to distance herself from the controversy, saying "there are many people with family members who live on both sides." But the secret she had kept hidden for so long still left her deeply embarrassed.

    Dominique believes that Lawrence was tipped off about Alice's background by instinct, rather than any concrete evidence. The revelation of Alice's true identity would ultimately ruin their relationship and leave a lasting impact on Dominique's life.