04/12/2006 May Day - Day Off

I didn't do much yesterday. I made up for my laziness today though. After five fours of research I'm spent. So, as a result I won't be updating anymore today and probably tomorrow. I'll need one more round of research tomorrow and I should be done. I found a wealth, just a ton of information regarding the story. I found out shit that I didn't even expect to find. For instance, the riot at the Trumpet is based off a real event. In fact, that whole group of rabble rousers messing with the socialists is based of an actual group of roughians. I'm really quite pleased with how things are going. I haven't run across any specific information about the song Fitzgerald quotes or anything about the trip to Rivers' Brothers but I'm making a trip to the Business library tomorrow. Hopefully there will be some good news. I've got more pictures too. I'm so damn awesome.

04/11/2006 May Day - Research (Part 5)

For the life of me I do not know where Tuesday has gone. Someone has taken this day away from me. It is already eight in the evening and I have done close to nothing all day. I have been putting off this trip to the library for two days now but tomorrow I’ll force myself into the research dudgeon. I’ll chain myself to the bookshelves until I find what I need.

For Tomorrow –

1. Maps of New York City, preferably those ranging in date from 1910-1920. I would like to outline the character’s specific journeys through the city with material from the time period if at all possible. Specifically, I’ll need maps that illustrate Forty-second Street to Central Park. The biggest problem will be bringing those images back with me or putting them onto the computer. I’ll take whatever as long as it works.
2. Next will be a list of local businesses. Hopefully, this won’t be too terribly difficult but I have some nagging doubts because I don’t believe phone-books were created yet. I’ll need information on Delmonico’s, the exact address of the Biltmore, information regarding a restaurant by the name of Childs’, information on a clothing store named Rivers’ Brothers, a communist newspaper by the name of the New York Trumpet, an eating establishment named Devineries’, and anything about a Tolliver Hall on tenth Street.
3. Old pictures from any of the businesses or the surrounding area from the early nineteenth century would be nice too.
4. Were there any elevated trains in New York City on Sixth Avenue? If so, a picture would be nice.
5. I need to find out where the boats with soldiers returning from World War One ported and what those ships were named. More specifically, those ships that returned to New York City in February and April 28th, 1919.
6. A Newspaper from May 2nd, 1919 or May 3rd, 1919.

I think that should do it but there is still a ton of information that needs to be sifted through, which is heartbreaking considering all the research I’ve already done. The only problems I’ve run into so far are the song that Fitzgerald quotes,

“if a saxophone and me are left alone why then two is com-pan-ee” (page 87)

any information regarding Welsh Margotson Collars (page 72) and the clothing line Covington (page 72). I’ve got some people from the Fitzgerald society looking into the song lyrics but as far as the clothes go I think I’ll have to do that on my own. Hopefully tomorrow will be a great success. I don’t want to stay here any longer than I have to.

The biggest problem I have had with “May Day” to date, has to be the criticism attributed to it. It has always been regarded as this great story, Fitzgerald’s brief, beautiful affair with realism. However, it seems the critics would want you to believe that there is a lot more being paid to the story than there actually is. I’ve already done a good deal of research on this part of “May Day”, its reception, and most of it is lip service. One piece in particular sticks out in my mind. Its this essay trying to compare “May Day” to a meat market. What I believe the essayist is trying to say is that the party at Delmonico’s is nothing more than a “market” where young women are put on display like meat for the men to dine on. I mean that would be a great point if every other Fitzgerald piece illustrated the same damn thing. For instance, take the “Camel’s Back”. Fitzgerald, more or less lampoons the whole debutante, ball room thing. The girl falls for a man dressed as a camel. There are plenty of other examples but alas I am to lazy to list them. As you can already see I have a wealth of information to go through and don’t feel like disproving an essay that I know needs no disproving if you are at all familiar with Fitzgerald’s works. I just don’t believe anyone has asked themselves why this story is considered so great and I tend to do just that.

Here is a small musing on “May Day” from last night,

Realism is exactly what it sounds like; artists trying to describe their subject matter as close to life as possible. “May Day” puts Fitzgerald’s brief affair with realism in a league of its own. The story has this ultra-realistic vibe to it. I can go where his characters have gone, know where the characters are but what I see is radically different from Fitzgerald’s writing. He could describe a piece of paper in a way that would make you cringe every time someone threw a piece away. Fitzgerald just adds layer upon layer until that piece of paper becomes something out of an art museum. “May Day” is this hybrid of a story; half fairy tale, half realist fiction.

Now with the research,

There are some parallels between the life of Fitzgerald and the events of “May Day”. As Fitzgerald puts it,

“This somewhat unpleasant tale, published as a novelette in the "Smart Set" in July, 1920, relates a series of events which took place in the spring of the previous year. Each of the three events made a great impression upon me. In life they were unrelated, except by the general hysteria of that spring which inaugurated the Age of Jazz, but in my story I have tried, unsuccessfully I fear, to weave them into a pattern---a pattern which would give the effect of those months in New York as they appeared to at least one member of what was then the younger generation” (Page VIII).

The parallels between Fitzgerald and Sterrett cannot be ignored. Both were failing as artists, recently discharged from the Army, and having lady problems. In the Spring of 1919 Fitzgerald was living in New York City working for an advertisement agency. He hated the job. Like Sterrett, Fitzgerald too was done with the army by February 1919. Lastly, Fitzgerald was trying to convince Zelda to marry him although he was unsuccessful. Now one may thing that Sterrett is Fitzgerald but they would be wrong. We can see pieces of Fitzgerald in Key, Dean, and Peter too. I think the connection between Key and Fitzgerald may be limited; however the two do share some passing connection with Francis Scott Key.

“The taller of the two was named Carrol Key, a name hinting that in his veins, however thinly diluted by generations of degeneration, ran blood of some potentiality. But one could stare endlessly at the long, chinless face, the dull, watery eyes, and high cheek-bones, without finding a suggestion of either ancestral worth or native resourcefulness” (page 74).

It should also be noted that the two characters that die in the novella are those most closely related to Fitzgerald. I’ve read too that these months in New York were some of the hardest that Fitzgerald but instead of quoting something else will ask you to trust me. I do have a degree. Chapter Ten seems to be a retelling of a crazy night Fitzgerald had with a friend kicking bottles down the street (Bruccoli, 113). It’s almost as if each character was a different part of Fitzgerald’s personality but I don’t really think that is where I want to go with this paper. I’m sticking more to description and reader interaction than any biographical context. I do, however think it would be nice to mention in passing about the connections between Fitzgerald and the characters. I just don’t want to get to deep into it.

Fitzgerald never really mentions “May Day” in the Crack Up. He too, never appreciated this story. It kind of makes me think that I am fighting an uphill battle. In a letter to Edmund Wilson he mentions it in passing, saying that he had sold three or four stories (page 254). There is also a mention of the Mat Day riots occurring in New York City (page 15) but as far as I know Fitzgerald is the only one that remembers them because the Internet doesn’t. This is where an old copy of the New York Times would come in handy.

Lastly, In His Own Time doesn’t really cover the story either. Out of the two hundred and some odd pages of reviews, essays, and interviews it is mentioned twice. Not surprisingly, most of the essays in this collection focus on The Great Gatsby and the reviews tend to focus on his novels. Actually that previous statement is false. Ignore it. “May Day” gets props (if you will) in two pieces, both from Minnesota’s twin cities. The review from St. Paul mentions “May Day” as just part of Tales of the Jazz Age. The reviewer didn’t seem to love it or hate it. He probably didn’t even read it (page 341). The second mention is from the Minneapolis Journal in an essay entitled “The Future of Fitzgerald”. The essayist says that “May Day” is “a tragic story of the bitter sort” (page 414). He too, never gives his opinion. I really think that the only reason the story was mentioned at all was because these articles wanted to cram as much shit into them as possible to kind of gloat that this guy is from our town.

“Look what the guy from the twin cities can do.”
“You don’t have shit on us Wisconsin.”

Yup, that is defiantly what they were thinking because it was all about showing how much Wisconsin sucked ass back in those days.

Bruccoli, Matthew J. and Bryer, Jackson. F. Scott Fitzgerald In His Own Times: A Miscellany. Kent University Press. 1971
Bruccoli, Matthew. Some Sort of Epic Grandeur: The Life of F. Scott Fitzgerald. ©1981
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. “May Day”. Tales of the Jazz Age. First Pine Street Books: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2003.
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Crack Up. New Directions Publishing: New York, New York, 1945.

04/10/2006 May Day - May Day (Part 3)

“Thus, today,” he said, “the Red Flag of the proletariat, which is celebrating its day of liberation from the imperialist gangs, is flying over liberated Sevastopol” (Lenin).

If you live in the United States, then May Day most likely means has little to no significance in your life what-so-ever. For me May Day means nothing. And that is generally what May Day has become a forgotten celebration of worker’s rights. 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.

“It is not surprising that the state, business leaders, mainstream union officials, and the media would want to hide the true history of May Day. In its attempt to erase the history and significance of May Day, the United States government declared May 1st to be "Law Day", and gave the workers instead Labor Day, the first Monday of September - a holiday devoid of any historical significance” (Anarchy).

It is kind of absurd that the government would consider having a holiday on a certain day would increase the chances of riots. The date was made official in the late 1880’s as a result of the Haymarket Riots in Chicago a year earlier. The United States government has been urged to change the day to May first, however the change could be viewed as “aligning the U.S. labor movements with internationalist sympathies” (Wikipedia).

Lenin
Anarchy
Wikipedia
The photo is a May Day poster (Russia, 1920) from, Berkeley

04/10/2006 May Day - The Riots of 1919

“The next five minutes passed in a dream. Edith was conscious that the clamor burst suddenly upon the three of them like a cloud of rain, that there was a thunder of many feet on the stairs, that Henry had seized her arm and drawn her back toward the rear of the office. Then the door opened and an overflow of men were forced into the room --not the leaders, but simply those who happened to be in front” (Page 108).

I think this will probably be one of the last things I do for research regarding “May Day” before I get into some history of New York City. Expect more research to follow in the near future about Fitzgerald and the events that helped inspire “May Day”.

Soldiers were coming home to a drastically changed United States at the end of World War One. Fitzgerald illustrates this through the war veterans of “May Day”. Sterrett is affected by the job market and inflation. Coupled with his obvious shell-shock, he eventually kills himself. Rose and Key return stateside to prohibition and fear of Communism. Factories were letting a substantial amount of workers go with the war ending and strikes were occurring across the country.

“In the U.S., anarchist activities helped fuel fears and animosity toward all radicals and labor unionists - with many Americans failing to see a distinction between Marxists, anarchists and organized labor” (Unrest in 1919).


The riot that occurs in “May Day” isn’t specific to only New York City. On May 1, 1919 riots broke out across the United States. One particular riot broke out in Cleveland Ohio when marchers protesting the jailer of Eugene Debs were stopped by a group of Victory Loan Workers insisting that the protesters lower their flags. When the protesters refused the request fighting broke out and quickly spread across the city[1]. Cleveland wasn’t the only city plagued with hysteria, apparently Boston, too, had riots (Eskimo). However, the validity of the statement hasn’t been conformed outside of that one resource. It isn’t a riot but on “May Day 1919 the young telephone workers threatened to strike” (The Red) in Boston.

And as the quote from “May Day” shows, Fitzgerald was well aware of the blur between what the public thought were anarchists and Communists. The end of World War one ushered in what was the first “Red Scare” in the United States. History would later repeat itself after World War Two with Senator McCarthy and his communist witchunt.

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. “May Day”. Tales of the Jazz Age. First Pine Street Books: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2003.
The photo is a Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine poster from, Wikipedia.
Unrest in 1919
Eskimo
The Red
[1] Wikipedia, May Day Riots of 1919

04/10/2006 May Day - May Day

(May Day 1919, Russia)


“There was a riot of voices, and in a minute Rose and Key found themselves flowing with the jumbled crowd down Sixth Avenue under the leadership of a thin civilian in a slouch hat and the brawny soldier who had summarily ended the oration” (Page 77).

The holiday for which Fitzgerald’s “May Day” was an entirely day that what it is known, rather not known for in the United States today. As a child, I knew May Day through its association with the beginning of Spring and school fairs. I was quite sheltered as a child. In fact, May Day is most famous for falling on the same day as International Workers Day. A holiday that has close ties with the Communist party. Knowing this now the riot at the offices of the New York Trumpet makes a lot more sense.

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. The support for the eight hour work day was especially prevalent in Chicago where “300,000 workers struck and marched through the city streets in a huge display of proletarian power” (May Day, New Haven). Two days later outside of the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company a fight broke out between protesters and police. When the skirmish was all said and done, the Chicago police had killed four protestors and wounded several others. Obviously, the workers and anarchists throughout Chicago did not look upon this favorably and decided to march in protest of “the bloodthirsty Chicago police” (May Day, New Haven). The protest at Haymarket Square began peaceful enough. In fact, the protestor’s were behaved so well “that Mayor Carter Harrison, Sr. who had stopped by to watch, walked home early” (Wikipedia, Haymarket Riot). As the events to the day came to a close and police were dispersing the crowd a bomb was thrown at the police line, killing one and injuring several others. Thus, a substantial riot followed. The next day following the riot,

“under the direction of State's Attorney Julius Grinnel, police began a fierce roundup of radicals, agitators and labor leaders, siezing records and closing socialist and labor press offices. Eight men were finally brought to trial for conspiracy” (Chicago Public Library).

The eight hour work day wasn’t officially recognized by the United States until some fifty years later. Finally in 1938 “the Fair Labor Standards Act under the New Deal made it a legal day's work throughout the nation” (Wikipedia, Eight Hour Day).




Fitzgerald, F. Scott. “May Day”. Tales of the Jazz Age. First Pine Street Books: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2003.
The picture is from, http://www.postcardman.net/100889.jpg
Chicago Public Library
May Day, New Haven
Wikipedia, Eight Hour Day
Wikipedia, Haymarket Riot

04/10/2006 May Day - Sterrett and Dean

“Fifth Avenue and Forty-fourth Street swarmed with the noon crowd” (page 70).

In my haste I completely forgot about the first two whole chapters of “May Day”. Sterrett and Dean never stray far from the Biltmore but in my never ending quest to document as much as possible about the lives of the characters it is important to note what they do for lunch.

The Biltmore and Yale Club were quite close to each other; Sterrett and Dean walked less than two blocks from the hotel to arrive at the club. I’ll have to look into this but if Sterrett and Dean were walking towards the Yale Club when they left the Biltmore, they wouldn’t have crossed Forty-fourth and Fifth. The two would have crossed Forty-fourth and Madison. Maybe at some point Madison Avenue used to be known as Fifth Avenue. I’ll check on that. Also, Fitzgerald could be simply addressing the crowd outside of the Biltmore and using the cross-street as a point of reference as opposed to an exact location.

“Madison Avenue was not part of the original New York City street grid established in the Commissioners' Plan of 1811, and was carved between Park and Fifth Avenue in 1836” (Wikipedia).

So, it was the latter. Either that or Sterrett and Dean exited through the front door. I bet that is what it was and as they step out onto the sidewalk the narrator comments on the noon crowd. I’ll check the address at some point tomorrow.

“In the Yale Club they met a group of their former classmates who greeted the visiting Dean vociferously” (page 71).

The Yale Club of New York City opened its doors on June 15th, 1915. The club functions as an excuse for graduates, faculty, and full-time graduate students to come to New York City. Why do they need their own clubhouse in New York City when the college is in Connecticut? I will never know. The “largest clubhouse in the world”[1] is of neoclassical design and located at 50 Vanderbilt Avenue.

As far as the store they visit after lunch, Rivers’ Brothers, I have not found any information regarding the store or the collars that Dean mentions (page 72). I did, however find out that there is a clothing line named Covington’s that is sold by Sears. Are the two one and the same? I don’t know either but I will try to find out.

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. “May Day”. Tales of the Jazz Age. First Pine Street Books: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2003.
Wikipedia
[1] Yale Club

04/09/2006 May Day - Maxfield Parrish

“The great plate-glass front had turned to a deep creamy blue, the color of a Maxfield Parrish moonlight -- a blue that seemed to press close upon the pane as if to crowd its way into the restaurant” (page 116).

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[1]. 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[2]. 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”[3]


Fitzgerald, F. Scott. “May Day”. Tales of the Jazz Age. First Pine Street Books: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2003.
The picture is from, http://www.mcduffskeep.net/parrish/pictures/ErrantPan.jpg
[1] Illustration House
[2] Wikipedia
[3] Maxfield Parrish Gallery

04/09/2006 May Day - Research (Part 4)

‘“What you say we see if we can getta holda some liquor?” Prohibition was not yet. The ginger in the suggestion was caused by the law forbidding the selling of liquor to soldiers’ (page 75).

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[1]. 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.

“By the time national prohibition took effect in January 1920, thirty-three states (63 percent of the total population) had prohibited intoxicating liquors” (Answers).

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. “May Day”. Tales of the Jazz Age. First Pine Street Books: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2003.
Answers.com
[1] The Drug Library

04/09/2006 May Day - Research (Part 3)

“Her name is Jewel Hudson," went on the distressed voice from the bed. "She used to be 'pure,' I guess, up to about a year ago” (page 66).

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[1]. 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”[2].

As far as slang goes, I had never heard the word ‘pure’ used in this respect until I read “May Day”.


Fitzgerald, F. Scott. “May Day”. Tales of the Jazz Age. First Pine Street Books: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2003.
[1] Etymology Dictionary
[2] American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.