06/03/2006 - Research (Part 6)

The following is a list of actual addresses from the New York City Telephone Directory dated May-October 1919. The four digit numbers you see on the far right hand side are phone numbers and the names underneath the street addresses are the neighborhoods where these places were located. As I said in a previous post, I forgot to write down the address for Brooks Brothers so it has been omitted. Lastly, Child’s was a chain of restaurants, much like a Denny’s, that littered the cityscape. There were actually two locations in Columbus Circle. The reason I did not include both is because this particular Child’s listed had a direct view of Columbus Circle and the other did not. I don’t know if you’ll be able to see it but I’ll throw in a copy of a map from 1916 (Bromley) that shows the view the address has of Columbus Circle(The picture isn't exactly what one would call satisfactory. Childs' is located on the left side of Columbus Circle where the Time Warner building is now.). Any other places of interest that Fitzgerald mentioned in “May Day” were not found. I had trouble locating any place by the name of “Tolliver Hall” (page 78) or “Deveneries’” (page 102). I never did make it to the business library and believe I will try one last time to locate these places.

1. Addresses
a. The Biltmore Hotel Madison Avenue and 43rd Street
Murry Hill 7920
b. The Commodore Hotel Lexington Avenue and 42nd Street
Vanderbilt 6000
c. Child’s Restaurant 300 West 59th Street
Columbus Circle 6344
d. Delmonico’s Office and Restaurant 5th Avenue and 44th Street
Murry Hill 6110

“Over on Sixth Avenue the elevated, a flare of fire, roared across the street between the glimmering parallels of light at the station and streaked along into the crisp dark. But at Forty-fourth Street it was very quiet” (page 103).
In an earlier post I questioned existence of elevated trains in New York City. I think my train of thought is excusable, especially for an outsider with no real working knowledge regarding the history of the city. How did they get all those trains from the above the streets to below? I mean I can imagine how they did but that must have been a most daunting task. Anyways, there were, as of 1916, elevated trains running up Sixth Avenue. I’ll try and get a picture of that but for now another map will have to do. Once again I don’t know if you’ll be able to see it because of size and quality. The tracks are illustrated by a ---------- and there is an “Elevated Station” towards the center, at the bottom of the map (Bromley).

The specific line of collars and clothing that Dean mentions “Welsh Margotson” and “Covington” (page 72), as far as I can tell, are made up. However, I did find a mention of a line of clothing being sold at Sears referred to as the Covington line. I couldn’t find any connection dating back to the time period of the story though.

As you will find out later the riot in “May Day” is based off real events. The New York Trumpet never really existed and was based off a daily communist called The Call (New York Times). The Call wasn’t located on 44th street either, so the building that Fitzgerald described doesn’t seem to have ever housed a paper. The one thing that really stuck out in the description that Fitzgerald gave was that this was “a two-story, comparatively old building on Forty-fourth” (page 103) in the middle of Manhattan and the only building I found on 44th that had two stories was a place called the Blue Bar. Once again I should have went over to the Business Library to find out what was there previously but did not.

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. “May Day”. Tales of the Jazz Age. First Pine Street Books: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2003.
N.Y.C. Telephone Directory, Manhattan White/Yellow Pages (includes all five boroughs). May, Oct. 1919. Reel 31.
G.W. Bromley & Co. Atlas of the Borough of Manhattan, city of New York. Map. New York, G.W. Bromley 1916.
“Soldiers and Sailors Break Up Meetings.” New York Times 2 May 1919: 8.
NYPL Digital Gallery