08/19/2006 - Notes
These are the notes that would go along with an annotated edition of “May Day”. Some things I haven’t been able to find yet and left blank. Hopefully I’ll be able to fill them in at a later date, or if any one actually reads this and could help me out it would be greatly appreciated.
Explanatory Notes
Title: “May Day”
May Day is most famous for falling on the same day as International Worker’s Day, a holiday with close ties to the Communist party. May Day’s United States origins can be traced back to 1886 on the first of May when over 800,000 workers went on strike throughout the United States in support of the eight hour work day. As one would imagine the United States government didn’t want anything to do with the holiday. Wanting to separate themselves from the Communist associated holiday, the United States gave its workers the first Monday of September as a holiday. The eight hour work day wasn’t officially recognized by the United States until some fifty years later in 1938, when the Fair Labor Standards Act made it a legal work day.
2.8 Biltmore Hotel
The Biltmore (Madison Avenue and 43rd Street), a famous New York City hotel lied between 42nd Street and Vanderbilt Avenue. It was part of an upscale chain of hotels that tried to evoke the Vanderbilt’s Biltmore Estate. Designed by the architectural firm of Warren and Wetmore, the red granite New York Biltmore was founded by John McEntee Bowman.
3.6 Yale graduates of the year before the war
This coupled with Gordon Sterrett’s recollection, “only three years before he had received a scattering vote in the senior elections at college for being the best-dressed man in his class” (4.2) puts both Phillip Dean and Gordon Sterrett graduating from Yale on June 21st, 1916.
4.16 Gamma Psi
A fictional fraternity made up by Fitzgerald. As far as Fitzgerald himself is concerned he was never a member of any fraternity (Bruccoli). Throughout his college career he was active in the Triangle Club, Tiger, and Lit; all of them literary clubs, however Fitzgerald did join the Cottage Eating Club (Bruccoli, 64) which served “in the absence of fraternities and secret societies” (Bruccoli, 64). The name Gamma Psi, however could come from Psi U, a fraternity at the University of Minnesota“In February, Fitzgerald cooked up a locally famous hoax, with Gus Schurmeier, he attended a Psi U dance at the University of Minnesota dressed as a girl and shocked his dancing partners with a racy line (The joke supposedly ended when Fitzgerald tried to use the men’s room.)” (Bruccoli, 73).
4.17 Delmonico’s
Delmonico’s (5th Avenue and 44th Street) is one of the most historic restaurants in the United States. Opening its doors in 1827, many regard it as the first restaurant to open in the country. The restaurant was quite different than anything that predated it. Delmonico’s was the first to have a separate wine menu and allowed diners to chose from a menu as opposed to being served a pre-made meal (Wikipedia, Delmonico’s). Eventually closing its doors in 1923 due to prohibition, the name Delmonico’s remains to be synonymous with fine dining throughout the United States.
6.7 I got back from France in February
According to articles from the New York Times, Sterrett would have came home on one of seven transports, the first three arriving home from France on February 3rd 1919 (New York Times). Of those three ships, the Agamemnon returned with 2914 troops from the 51st regiment of the Coastal Artillery, 38 officers and 311 men from Base Hospital two, 627 sick and wounded, 43 naval officers, and fifty wounded Marines of the 5th and 6th Regiments. The two other transports returning were Samarinda and Absecon carrying 278 officers and 23 casualties respectively (New York Times). The next group of troops to return home from France probably arrived home on February 19th, 1919, however an exact date isn’t given in the article dated February 20th, 1919 (New York Times). Arriving on the French liner Touraine from Havre, the soldiers were part of the first detachment of the 27th Division. In addition to not giving a date of the troops return, the article never cites exactly how many came home, only saying that in addition to the soldiers there were 19 officers aboard the Touraine (New York Times). The last group of soldiers to return home from France did so on February 22nd on two transports and one U.S. cruiser (New York Times). The U.S. cruiser Pueblo returned 1526 troops statewide most of them coming from the 161st and 162nd Infantry and several more from New York casual companies. Of the transports that sailed from France, the Orizaba brought back 2992, the Henderson 1272, and the Manchuria returned 4447 troops. The Manchuria consisted of 1697 soldiers from the 70th Coast Artillery, 1654 from the 71st Coast Artillery, 89 from the New Jersey Casual Company, and 779 from the St. Nazaire Company (New York Times).
6.8 Harrisburg
Sterrett is referring to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The capital of the commonwealth lies about 105 miles west of Philadelphia.
7.4 used to be ‘pure’
Sterrett refers to Jewel as pure in a virginal sense, meaning she was free of sin. The use of the word ‘pure’ to describe someone without sin was first recorded in the mid-fourteenth century (Etymology Dictionary). This slang use of the word as since fallen out of style since Fitzgerald published “May Day” in 1922. The American Heritage Dictionary defines this use of pure as,“Having no faults; sinless”and“Chaste; virgin”.
12.7 Yale Club
The Yale Club (50 Vanderbilt Avenue) of New York City opened the doors of it’s current location on June 15th, 1915. The club functions as an excuse for graduates, faculty, and full-time graduate students to come to New York City. The “largest clubhouse in the world” (Yale Club) is of neoclassical design and located at 50 Vanderbilt Avenue.
14.15 Rivers’ Brothers
Rivers’ Brothers is a refrence to the Brooks’ Brothers (666 Fifth Avenue) store. Located about a block away from the Yale Club, this Brooks’ Brothers location would have exsited when the story took place.
14.20 Welsh Margotson
14.21 Covington
15.3 Harrisburg Country Club
The Country Club of Harrisburg was founded in 1896.
17.14 landed three days before
Key and Rose returned to New York on April 28th, 1919. Unlike Sterrett, there past isn’t a complete mystery and since Fitzgerald gives the specific date of their return they can have only come back on one ship. The ship that returned stateside on the 28th of April was the America. On board was 4,500 hundred enlisted and officers from the 77th division (New York Times).
18.8 the law forbidding the selling of liquor to soldiers
World War One helped strengthen the argument for prohibition in regards to saving the grain used for making alcohol for food for soldiers. The first nationwide prohibition law to go into effect was the law banning the sale of liquor to soldiers (The Drug Library). This is why Key and Rose are unable to drink but the attendees at the Gamma Psi dance are. The prohibition of alcohol in the United States wasn’t as immediate as one may think; in fact prohibition was a gradual change that was eventually nationalized in 1919. The Volstead Act, better known as The National Prohibition Act, was officially enacted in Janruary 1920.
18.15 hash joint
Key is referring to a place where one could purchase Marijuana. The consumption of Marijuana was legal in the United States until 1937.
20.18 God damn Bolsheviki
The mob is using Bolshevik as a derogatory term for a Communist. The word refers to someone that is a member or supporter of a Lenin-Marxist party.
21.20 Tolliver Hall
29.9 O. D. coat
A military over coat. The “O.D.” stands for olive drab, the color of the coat.
33.14 “if a saxophone and me are left alone why then two is com-pan-ee!”
35.11 the Pump and Slipper and the Junior prom
There is no record of any “Pump and Slipper” dance (page 88), however there was a Junior Prom that was held at Yale until February of this year. The Junior Prom, called so because the Junior class was in charge of putting on the dance, a three-day event held once a year. By 1893 the faculty, worried that their students may not be studying enough moved the event from mid-February to within two weeks of the beginning of Spring term.
“Students spent so much money on the Prom that they eventually demanded reform. It was customary for the young Yale man to pay for his date and her chaperone's traveling expenses and hotel fees. The committee worked yearly to reduce students' expenses, at one point passing a resolution that men should send no flowers to their dates” (Hsu, ‘Girls’ on Campus Once a Year).
41.18 special delivery terms
Peter Himmel is referring to his mail status with Edith Bradin. Special delivery meant that one could receive mail any time, as opposed to waiting for a regular pick up or delivery. This insinuates that the two perhaps have a close relationship. However, Fitzgerald liked to use this term, especially when it came to girls that were on special delivery terms with many men concurrently.
46.2 Sheffield Scientific School
Founded in 1851 as Yale Scientific school, Sheffield Scientific School was later renamed for Joseph E. Sheffield. In it’s time; Sheffield was fairly innovative by trying to integrate the applied sciences to the more classic arts that colleges were teaching at the time.
46.11 Kipling says ‘Any lady and Judy O’Grady under the skin.’
Peter Himmel is quoting, incorrectly, from Rudyard Kipling’s “The Ladies”; a poem that describes Kipling’s many relationships with women. Peter Himmel’s quote should be as follows,
“They're like as a row of pins --
For the Colonel's Lady an' Judy O'Grady
Are sisters under their skins!”
54.9 Devineries’
55.5 Over on Sixth Avenue the elevated
Elevated trains, or “Els”, dominated the city for decades before subways were finally introduced in the early twentieth century. There were four main lines that ran above Second, Third, Ninth, and Sixth Avenue. Eventually in 1953 the New York Transit Authority was created after the city took over the subway system from private companies in 1940. The els were then eventually closed, seeing as how the subways preformed the same function, there was no need for them anymore.
55.14 the New York Trumpet
The New York Trumpet is based on a socialist newspaper from New York City named the Call. The riot in “May Day” is based off of a similar event that happened at the offices of the Call on May 1st, 1919. Coming because they heard there was a meeting of Bolshevist sympathizers, roughly 400 soldiers and sailors marched to the new offices of the communist newspaper The Call on Fourth Avenue. The soldiers, lead by a Canadian, told the 700 men, women, and children to take down posters of a “Bolshevik nature”. A partygoer refused their demand and as a result the soldiers, armed with clubs and sticks, forced their way into the celebration and tore the posters from the wall. Driving celebrants into the streets, the soldiers formed a semi-circle around them and beat them with blunt objects.
57.4 “Where do you keep the bombs?”
Edith’s joke is a reference to a rash of bombings, attributed to Communists, occurring throughout the United States during the year. The bombs were sent through the mail to various country leaders opposed to communism.
62.14 Boche-lovers
Boche entered the American Lexicon during World War I. It comes from French and means something close to rascal.
64.13 and of a sudden disappeared helplessly out through the open window
Carrol Key’s death is based on a similar accident that occurred when soldiers rioted at the offices of the Call.
“One of The Call stockholders, who was threatened by soldiers, ran to the rear of the building and jumped from a window twenty-five feet above the ground” (New York Times)
66.7 Childs’
Child’s (300 West 59th Street) was a chain of restaurants, much like a Denny’s, that littered the cityscape. There were actually two locations in Columbus Circle at the time of the story, however only one had a direct view of Central Park. The chain eventually closed it’s doors and today the Time Warner building presides of the former location of this particular Childs’.
73.11 Maxfield Parrish moonlight
Born in 1870, Maxfield Parrish was an American artist known for his particularly individual style of art. Defying any specific school of art Parrish’s style was quite complicated. His method involved significant amounts of transparent oil, interchanging with coats of varnish on stretched paper (Illustration House). The effect of this would result in“a combination of great luminosity and extraordinary detail. In his hands, this method gives the effect of a glimpse through a window....except that the scene viewed is from the fairy tale world” (Illustration House).Maxfield Parrish was well known in his time. He gained a following through his illustrations for books and magazine covers and by the 1920s he began to exclusively devote his artistic endeavors, specifically to painting (Wikipedia, Maxfield Parrish). Scribners, a frequent publisher of Fitzgerald’s, commissioned Parrish to do a frontispiece for them in 1910. The resulting image was for a short story by George T. Marsh, called “The Errant Pan” (Maxfield Parrish Gallery).
76.17 “Some Sheff student.”
“During the second half of the nineteenth century Yale College and Sheffield Scientific School, separated by only a few streets, were two separate countries on the same planet” (Wikipedia, Sheffield Scientific School).
A derogatory term to describe a student at the Sheffield Scientific School. Relations between the classical students of Yale’s main campus and the scientific students that went to Sheffield were not exactly cordial. The thought was that the scientific studies were impractical, thus the students at Sheffield were considered inferior because they spent their time something that was deemed worthless.
78.10 the Commodore
Part of the “Terminal City” that surrounded Grand Central Station, the Commodore (Lexington Avenue and 42nd Street) was the largest of the hotels in “Terminal City” housing almost 200 rooms. Today, the Grand Hyatt lies where the Commodore once stood.
Explanatory Notes
Title: “May Day”
May Day is most famous for falling on the same day as International Worker’s Day, a holiday with close ties to the Communist party. May Day’s United States origins can be traced back to 1886 on the first of May when over 800,000 workers went on strike throughout the United States in support of the eight hour work day. As one would imagine the United States government didn’t want anything to do with the holiday. Wanting to separate themselves from the Communist associated holiday, the United States gave its workers the first Monday of September as a holiday. The eight hour work day wasn’t officially recognized by the United States until some fifty years later in 1938, when the Fair Labor Standards Act made it a legal work day.
2.8 Biltmore Hotel
The Biltmore (Madison Avenue and 43rd Street), a famous New York City hotel lied between 42nd Street and Vanderbilt Avenue. It was part of an upscale chain of hotels that tried to evoke the Vanderbilt’s Biltmore Estate. Designed by the architectural firm of Warren and Wetmore, the red granite New York Biltmore was founded by John McEntee Bowman.
3.6 Yale graduates of the year before the war
This coupled with Gordon Sterrett’s recollection, “only three years before he had received a scattering vote in the senior elections at college for being the best-dressed man in his class” (4.2) puts both Phillip Dean and Gordon Sterrett graduating from Yale on June 21st, 1916.
4.16 Gamma Psi
A fictional fraternity made up by Fitzgerald. As far as Fitzgerald himself is concerned he was never a member of any fraternity (Bruccoli). Throughout his college career he was active in the Triangle Club, Tiger, and Lit; all of them literary clubs, however Fitzgerald did join the Cottage Eating Club (Bruccoli, 64) which served “in the absence of fraternities and secret societies” (Bruccoli, 64). The name Gamma Psi, however could come from Psi U, a fraternity at the University of Minnesota“In February, Fitzgerald cooked up a locally famous hoax, with Gus Schurmeier, he attended a Psi U dance at the University of Minnesota dressed as a girl and shocked his dancing partners with a racy line (The joke supposedly ended when Fitzgerald tried to use the men’s room.)” (Bruccoli, 73).
4.17 Delmonico’s
Delmonico’s (5th Avenue and 44th Street) is one of the most historic restaurants in the United States. Opening its doors in 1827, many regard it as the first restaurant to open in the country. The restaurant was quite different than anything that predated it. Delmonico’s was the first to have a separate wine menu and allowed diners to chose from a menu as opposed to being served a pre-made meal (Wikipedia, Delmonico’s). Eventually closing its doors in 1923 due to prohibition, the name Delmonico’s remains to be synonymous with fine dining throughout the United States.
6.7 I got back from France in February
According to articles from the New York Times, Sterrett would have came home on one of seven transports, the first three arriving home from France on February 3rd 1919 (New York Times). Of those three ships, the Agamemnon returned with 2914 troops from the 51st regiment of the Coastal Artillery, 38 officers and 311 men from Base Hospital two, 627 sick and wounded, 43 naval officers, and fifty wounded Marines of the 5th and 6th Regiments. The two other transports returning were Samarinda and Absecon carrying 278 officers and 23 casualties respectively (New York Times). The next group of troops to return home from France probably arrived home on February 19th, 1919, however an exact date isn’t given in the article dated February 20th, 1919 (New York Times). Arriving on the French liner Touraine from Havre, the soldiers were part of the first detachment of the 27th Division. In addition to not giving a date of the troops return, the article never cites exactly how many came home, only saying that in addition to the soldiers there were 19 officers aboard the Touraine (New York Times). The last group of soldiers to return home from France did so on February 22nd on two transports and one U.S. cruiser (New York Times). The U.S. cruiser Pueblo returned 1526 troops statewide most of them coming from the 161st and 162nd Infantry and several more from New York casual companies. Of the transports that sailed from France, the Orizaba brought back 2992, the Henderson 1272, and the Manchuria returned 4447 troops. The Manchuria consisted of 1697 soldiers from the 70th Coast Artillery, 1654 from the 71st Coast Artillery, 89 from the New Jersey Casual Company, and 779 from the St. Nazaire Company (New York Times).
6.8 Harrisburg
Sterrett is referring to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The capital of the commonwealth lies about 105 miles west of Philadelphia.
7.4 used to be ‘pure’
Sterrett refers to Jewel as pure in a virginal sense, meaning she was free of sin. The use of the word ‘pure’ to describe someone without sin was first recorded in the mid-fourteenth century (Etymology Dictionary). This slang use of the word as since fallen out of style since Fitzgerald published “May Day” in 1922. The American Heritage Dictionary defines this use of pure as,“Having no faults; sinless”and“Chaste; virgin”.
12.7 Yale Club
The Yale Club (50 Vanderbilt Avenue) of New York City opened the doors of it’s current location on June 15th, 1915. The club functions as an excuse for graduates, faculty, and full-time graduate students to come to New York City. The “largest clubhouse in the world” (Yale Club) is of neoclassical design and located at 50 Vanderbilt Avenue.
14.15 Rivers’ Brothers
Rivers’ Brothers is a refrence to the Brooks’ Brothers (666 Fifth Avenue) store. Located about a block away from the Yale Club, this Brooks’ Brothers location would have exsited when the story took place.
14.20 Welsh Margotson
14.21 Covington
15.3 Harrisburg Country Club
The Country Club of Harrisburg was founded in 1896.
17.14 landed three days before
Key and Rose returned to New York on April 28th, 1919. Unlike Sterrett, there past isn’t a complete mystery and since Fitzgerald gives the specific date of their return they can have only come back on one ship. The ship that returned stateside on the 28th of April was the America. On board was 4,500 hundred enlisted and officers from the 77th division (New York Times).
18.8 the law forbidding the selling of liquor to soldiers
World War One helped strengthen the argument for prohibition in regards to saving the grain used for making alcohol for food for soldiers. The first nationwide prohibition law to go into effect was the law banning the sale of liquor to soldiers (The Drug Library). This is why Key and Rose are unable to drink but the attendees at the Gamma Psi dance are. The prohibition of alcohol in the United States wasn’t as immediate as one may think; in fact prohibition was a gradual change that was eventually nationalized in 1919. The Volstead Act, better known as The National Prohibition Act, was officially enacted in Janruary 1920.
18.15 hash joint
Key is referring to a place where one could purchase Marijuana. The consumption of Marijuana was legal in the United States until 1937.
20.18 God damn Bolsheviki
The mob is using Bolshevik as a derogatory term for a Communist. The word refers to someone that is a member or supporter of a Lenin-Marxist party.
21.20 Tolliver Hall
29.9 O. D. coat
A military over coat. The “O.D.” stands for olive drab, the color of the coat.
33.14 “if a saxophone and me are left alone why then two is com-pan-ee!”
35.11 the Pump and Slipper and the Junior prom
There is no record of any “Pump and Slipper” dance (page 88), however there was a Junior Prom that was held at Yale until February of this year. The Junior Prom, called so because the Junior class was in charge of putting on the dance, a three-day event held once a year. By 1893 the faculty, worried that their students may not be studying enough moved the event from mid-February to within two weeks of the beginning of Spring term.
“Students spent so much money on the Prom that they eventually demanded reform. It was customary for the young Yale man to pay for his date and her chaperone's traveling expenses and hotel fees. The committee worked yearly to reduce students' expenses, at one point passing a resolution that men should send no flowers to their dates” (Hsu, ‘Girls’ on Campus Once a Year).
41.18 special delivery terms
Peter Himmel is referring to his mail status with Edith Bradin. Special delivery meant that one could receive mail any time, as opposed to waiting for a regular pick up or delivery. This insinuates that the two perhaps have a close relationship. However, Fitzgerald liked to use this term, especially when it came to girls that were on special delivery terms with many men concurrently.
46.2 Sheffield Scientific School
Founded in 1851 as Yale Scientific school, Sheffield Scientific School was later renamed for Joseph E. Sheffield. In it’s time; Sheffield was fairly innovative by trying to integrate the applied sciences to the more classic arts that colleges were teaching at the time.
46.11 Kipling says ‘Any lady and Judy O’Grady under the skin.’
Peter Himmel is quoting, incorrectly, from Rudyard Kipling’s “The Ladies”; a poem that describes Kipling’s many relationships with women. Peter Himmel’s quote should be as follows,
“They're like as a row of pins --
For the Colonel's Lady an' Judy O'Grady
Are sisters under their skins!”
54.9 Devineries’
55.5 Over on Sixth Avenue the elevated
Elevated trains, or “Els”, dominated the city for decades before subways were finally introduced in the early twentieth century. There were four main lines that ran above Second, Third, Ninth, and Sixth Avenue. Eventually in 1953 the New York Transit Authority was created after the city took over the subway system from private companies in 1940. The els were then eventually closed, seeing as how the subways preformed the same function, there was no need for them anymore.
55.14 the New York Trumpet
The New York Trumpet is based on a socialist newspaper from New York City named the Call. The riot in “May Day” is based off of a similar event that happened at the offices of the Call on May 1st, 1919. Coming because they heard there was a meeting of Bolshevist sympathizers, roughly 400 soldiers and sailors marched to the new offices of the communist newspaper The Call on Fourth Avenue. The soldiers, lead by a Canadian, told the 700 men, women, and children to take down posters of a “Bolshevik nature”. A partygoer refused their demand and as a result the soldiers, armed with clubs and sticks, forced their way into the celebration and tore the posters from the wall. Driving celebrants into the streets, the soldiers formed a semi-circle around them and beat them with blunt objects.
57.4 “Where do you keep the bombs?”
Edith’s joke is a reference to a rash of bombings, attributed to Communists, occurring throughout the United States during the year. The bombs were sent through the mail to various country leaders opposed to communism.
62.14 Boche-lovers
Boche entered the American Lexicon during World War I. It comes from French and means something close to rascal.
64.13 and of a sudden disappeared helplessly out through the open window
Carrol Key’s death is based on a similar accident that occurred when soldiers rioted at the offices of the Call.
“One of The Call stockholders, who was threatened by soldiers, ran to the rear of the building and jumped from a window twenty-five feet above the ground” (New York Times)
66.7 Childs’
Child’s (300 West 59th Street) was a chain of restaurants, much like a Denny’s, that littered the cityscape. There were actually two locations in Columbus Circle at the time of the story, however only one had a direct view of Central Park. The chain eventually closed it’s doors and today the Time Warner building presides of the former location of this particular Childs’.
73.11 Maxfield Parrish moonlight
Born in 1870, Maxfield Parrish was an American artist known for his particularly individual style of art. Defying any specific school of art Parrish’s style was quite complicated. His method involved significant amounts of transparent oil, interchanging with coats of varnish on stretched paper (Illustration House). The effect of this would result in“a combination of great luminosity and extraordinary detail. In his hands, this method gives the effect of a glimpse through a window....except that the scene viewed is from the fairy tale world” (Illustration House).Maxfield Parrish was well known in his time. He gained a following through his illustrations for books and magazine covers and by the 1920s he began to exclusively devote his artistic endeavors, specifically to painting (Wikipedia, Maxfield Parrish). Scribners, a frequent publisher of Fitzgerald’s, commissioned Parrish to do a frontispiece for them in 1910. The resulting image was for a short story by George T. Marsh, called “The Errant Pan” (Maxfield Parrish Gallery).
76.17 “Some Sheff student.”
“During the second half of the nineteenth century Yale College and Sheffield Scientific School, separated by only a few streets, were two separate countries on the same planet” (Wikipedia, Sheffield Scientific School).
A derogatory term to describe a student at the Sheffield Scientific School. Relations between the classical students of Yale’s main campus and the scientific students that went to Sheffield were not exactly cordial. The thought was that the scientific studies were impractical, thus the students at Sheffield were considered inferior because they spent their time something that was deemed worthless.
78.10 the Commodore
Part of the “Terminal City” that surrounded Grand Central Station, the Commodore (Lexington Avenue and 42nd Street) was the largest of the hotels in “Terminal City” housing almost 200 rooms. Today, the Grand Hyatt lies where the Commodore once stood.
posted by May Day at 11:10 AM
2 Comments:
In the story, "hash-joint" is not what you say but a "hash-house" (a cheap eating-house, accord to Oxford English Dictionary)
Here's something about Pump and Slipper:
"But the Hall's most prestigious public event is an annual black tie dance with a name -- Pump and Slipper -- curiously evocative of the titles of Yale's secret societies. This year's Pump and Slipper will commemorate the dance's 95th Anniversary.'
And this is the source:
http://www.yaledailynews.com/articles/view/17166
Post a Comment
<< Home