08/05/2006 - Timeline (Part 2)

This is a fairly extensive timeline of the events that happen during the narrative of May Day. A lot of these are estimates but in my defense Fitzgerald’s description is so dense that there is a pretty good chance that these guesstimates are nearly correct. As I said this is fairly thorough and is probably the third in a series of drafts. All the places, too, have been researched and if there are any questions about their locations or information regarding their existence I would suggest looking at the previous entries in the blog. I couldn’t think of anything that would illustrate it any better (like the maps) but now that I think about it a visual aide probably wouldn’t have helped anyway.

May Day:
Timeline

9:00 a.m. – Gordon Sterrett enters the Biltmore in search of Phillip Dean (page 62).
~ 9:05 a.m. – “A few minutes later Phillip Dean, dressed in blue silk pajamas, opened his door” (page 63).
12:00 p.m. – Sterrett and Dean make their way to the Yale Club through the “noon crowd” (page 70).
4:00 p.m. – Dean gets up and announces that he is leaving for Rivers Brothers. Sterrett along with an unknown party follow en suite (page 72).
5:30 p.m. – “ They left Rivers’ at five-thirty and paused for a moment on the sidewalk” (page 72).
8:00 p.m. – Sterrett is suppose to meet Jewel (page 72).
~ 9:00 p.m. – A mob stops in front of the New York Trumpet and begins to “bellow at the moon” (page 106).
9:00 p.m. – Carrol Key and Gus Rose leave “a cheap restaurant on Sixth Avenue” (page 74).
~ 9:30 p.m. – Key, along with Rose, searches for his brother’s place of employment; eventually finding out he works at Delmonico’s (page 79).
10:30 p.m. – Key and Rose arrive at Delmonico’s and are “surprised to see a stream of taxis emitting marvelous, young ladies, each one attended by a stiff young gentleman” (page 79).
10:40 p.m. – The two soldiers meet George Key (page 80).
~ 10:45 p.m. – Key and Rose are escorted to a pantry where they must wait for liquor (page 80). George tells them, “It may be half an hour” (page 80).
~ 10:55 p.m. – “Ten Minutes later restlessness seized them” (page 81) and they stumble upon a liquor filled room. “For several minutes” (page 82) the two discuss whether or not to just go ahead and take the newfound liquor.
~ 11:00 p.m. – While still arguing about what to do Key and Rose hear George return and “a minute later they heard several corks pop” (page 83). George tells them that he will return in five minutes with their “stuff” (page 83).
~ 11:05 p.m. – Carrol Key and Gus Rose start to drink their “stuff” (page 83).
12:00 a.m. – The banquet begins (page 81).
~ 12:05 a.m. – “A few minutes later” (page 87) Edith and Peter begin to dance.
“A man with a mustache” cuts in on Edith and Peter (page 87).
“A man with very fair hair” cuts in (page 87).
Edith is cut in on again, this time by “ a dark man” (page 88).
“A man prominent teeth cut in” (page 88). This, of course is Dean.
“A fat man with red hair cut in” (page 89).
Sterrett cuts in on Edith and “for a minute there was silence” (page 90).
~ 12:20 a.m. – Peter, working on his third highball (page 94), finds Key and Rose in the pantry.
“Peter gave them each a highball” (page 95). This is the fourth highball of the night for Peter.
Peter finishes his highball and begins to prepare another (page 96).
Presumably, Peter finishes his fifth highball when he asks the soldiers if they want another (page 97).
1:00 a.m. – The special orchestra arrives at Delmonico’s (page 97).
1:30 a.m. – Edith glances at her watch and remembers that her brother works “in the office of his newspaper until after one-thirty every evening” (page 99).
~ 1:35 a.m. – “ A few minutes later” Edith leaves Delmonico’s for her brother’s office (page 100).
~ 1: 36 a.m. – Judith tells George Key that if does not produce Sterrett within five minutes she will find him herself (page 101).
~ 1:39 a.m. – “In less than allotted time George came down-stairs” (page 101).
~ 1:40 a.m. – “In a minute” (page 103) Edith arrives at the offices of the New York Trumpet.
~ 1:50 a.m. – Edith and Henry decide to meet for lunch at noon (page 105).
Bartholomew tells Edith about a mob that had come by the building earlier in the evening (page 105).
~ 1:55 a.m. – Another mob, coming from Sixth Avenue, returns to the offices of the New York Trumpet and “the next five minutes passed in a dream” (page 107).
~ 2:00 a.m. – Carrol Key falls out of an open window and in hysterics, Edith calls out for her brother (page 110).
~ 2:05 a.m. – “Then, it was minutes later” (page 107), that the police arrive and broke up the mob.
4:00 a.m. – “ Childs’ Fifty-Ninth,’ at eight o’ clock of any morning differs from its sisters by less than the width of their marble tables or the degree of polish on the frying-pans” (page 111). “But Childs’, Fifty-ninth, four hours earlier is quite unlike any Child’s restaurant from Portland, Oregon, to Portland, Maine” (page 111).
~ 4:05 a.m. – Rose recognizes people from the party at Delmonico’s (page 112).
Rose starts to stare at Jewel and Sterrett “for some minutes” (page 113) until Jewel gives him a “quick, resentful look” (page 113).
4:54 a.m.[i] – “Dawn had come up” (page 117).
Dean and Peter take a cab from Childs’ to Delmonico’s in search of Peter’s coat and derby (page 119).
After stealing both the “In” and “Out” signs from Delmonico’s they decide to walk to the Commodore (page 120). Rose follows the two “at about forty paces” (page 120).
“It was quite light now” (page 120).
The two arrive at the Commodore and “the minutes passed” (page 121) as “the champagne became low in the bottle” (page 121).
“After a few more gorgeous minutes they decided on another quart” (page 121).
“Five minutes later they left the Commodore” (page 121) and made their back to the Biltmore.
9:00 a.m. – “Their watches told them it was now nine o’ clock” (page 121).
~ 9:30 a.m. – After their second bottle of champagne Peter and Dean run into Edith (page 123).
Edith sees Rose and has him arrested (page 124).
~ 9:35 a.m. – Sterrett wakes up and realizes that he is “ irrevocably married to Jewel Hudson” (page 125).
~ 10:05 a.m. – “He went out half an hour later and bought a revolver from at a sporting goods store” (page 125). Sterrett fires “a cartridge into his head just behind the temple” (page 125).

[i] http://aa.usno.navy.mil/cgi-bin/aa_rstablew.pl

08/05/2006 - Timeline (Part 1)

Unfortunately I could or rather haven’t found any calendars from 1919. I forgot to look for one from 1916. I don’t think it is terribly important but it would be nice to look at. So, the following is a timeline for the dates that don’t directly happen in May Day’s narrative. Instead most of the dates here are mentioned in passing and don’t have any real importance to the narrative, aside from maybe the dates Sterrett gives. They show how long he has been suffering from his depression and tell us how important Edith is to him.


May Day Timeline:
(By Year and Month)

June1916 -
1. June 21st (Department of Manuscripts and Archives at Yale) – Gordon and Phillip graduate from Yale (page 63).

January 1919 –
1. Gordon begins to fall apart on the inside. "Things have been snapping inside me for four months like little hooks on a dress, and it's about to come off when a few more hooks go" (page 92).

February 1919 –
1. At some point in February, Gordon returns from the war boat sailing from France (page 65). He arrives on one of the following vessels, the Agamemnon, Samarinda, Absecon, Touraine, Pueblo, Orizaba, or the Manchuria (New York Times). He would have arrived anywhere from February 3rd to February 22nd. He stays in Harrisburg for a month (page 65).

March 1919 –
1. It is revealed that Edit first starts to desire to see Gordon again during March. It is a wonder that the two never met up in Harrisburg when Gordon went back home. "The twist of her imagination which, two months before, had disclosed to her unguessed desire to see him again" (page 86).
2. Peter Himmel begins his special delivery terms with Edith during March, "For a matter of two months he had been on special delivery terms with Edith Bradin" (page 93).


April 1919 –
1. At some point in April Edith turns 22 (page 64).
2. April 10th - Again Jewel accuses Gordon of neglecting her, however this time instead of ten days she says three weeks. "You haven't been near me for three weeks" (page 102).
3. April 22nd - Gordon stops seeing Jewel, " You haven't been near me for ten days" (page 101).
4. April 24th – According to the conversation Gordon has with Phillip his problems begin here. "Well, things came to a crisis about a week ago" (page 66).
5. April 28th – Carrol Key and Gus Rose come home from fighting in World War One. They too, leave from France (page 74). They return on the America (New York Times).
6. April 30th - Gordon gets fired from his job due to excessive calls from Jewel (page 66).

May 1919 –
1. May 1st and 2nd – The narrative and main events of the story take place during both May first and second.
2. May 4th, 12:00 p.m. - Edith and Henry's proposed lunch date before his leg is broken during the mob attack on the offices of the New York Trumpet (page 105).


Fitzgerald, F. Scott. “May Day”. Tales of the Jazz Age. First Pine Street Books: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2003.
“35 Soldiers Hurt In Atlantic Storm.” New York Times. 4 Feb. 1919:3.
“Vanguard Of 27th Reaches New York With Tale Of Valor.” New York Times. 20 Feb.1919:1.
“Storms Buffeted Troops On 4 Ships.” New York Times. 23 Feb. 1919:5.
“Expects Full 77th In Time For Parade.” New York Times. 28 Apr. 1919:4.

08/04/2005 - Maps (Part 5)

And finally the journey of Key and Rose and the final resting place of Gordon Sterrett. There isn’t much to these two locations as they are not pivotal to the story. I guess one could argue that Sterrett’s apartment is important but what I guess I am trying to say is that without the description that the other places have, this apartment feels like New York City stock footage from an episode of Seinfeld. The following places will be up to down,

1. Sixth Avenue – “About nine o’clock of the same night two human beings came out of a cheap restaurant in Sixth Avenue” (page 74).
2. East 27th Street (since I do not know exactly where Sterrett lived on the street I’ll highlight the whole thing) – “Then he took a taxi to the room where he had been living on East Twenty-seventh Street, and, leaning across the table that held his drawing materials, fired a cartridge into his head just behind the temple” (page 125).
3. Fifth Avenue and Broadway (the Flatiron building is highlighted as a visual reference to where Key and Rose are) – “They found the place after a few minutes' patrol of the street --a shoddy tablecloth restaurant between Fifth Avenue and Broadway” (page 78).

Lastly I am unsure of what route the mob of “patriots” took. They went down Sixth Avenue and took a cross street to get to Broadway but since the cross street remains unknown I cannot, in good faith outline the march (page 78). Tomorrow will be similar, in that I will get calendars from the era and highlight important dates along with May 1st and 2nd that are mentioned throughout the story.

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. “May Day”. Tales of the Jazz Age. First Pine Street Books: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2003.
Atlas of the Borough of Manhattan, City of New York. Plates 49,55. Map. New York: Bromley. 1916.

08/04/2006 - Maps (Part 4)

Here is part four in what seems to be a never-ending battle against time. The following is the first series of events outlined in chapters one and two, a closer look at Sterrett and Dean’s early morning walk. The map contains these points of interest from right to left,
1. Yale Club (50 Vanderbilt Avenue) - “In the Yale Club they met a group of their former classmates who greeted the visiting Dean vociferously” (page 71).
2. The Biltmore Hotel (43rd Street and Madison Avenue)
3. Rivers’ Brothers (Brooks’ Brothers) – “At four, to his relief, Dean rosed and announced that he was going over to Rivers Brothers to buy some collars and ties” (page 70).
4. 44th Street and Fifth Avenue - “Fifth Avenue and Forty-fourth Street swarmed with the noon crowd” (page 70).
It just dawned on me that these two never set foot in Delmonico’s together, in fact it could be argued that the two never even saw each other at the party. The last post will be another smll one: Rose and Key’s search for George and a glimpse of what Sterrett calls home, East 27th Street.

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. “May Day”. Tales of the Jazz Age. First Pine Street Books: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2003.
Atlas of the Borough of Manhattan, City of New York. Plate 73. Map. New York: Bromley. 1916.

08/04/2006 - Maps (Part 3)

Constructing these pictures has been an ungodly task. I’ve been doing them on the fly without any real knowledge of what I am doing and as a result have spent more time than anyone deserves to on such a task. The following posts will be quick and short. This photo below represents Edith’s journey from Delmonico’s to the office of the Trumpet and will highlight the following things:

1. Delmonico’s (44th Street and Fifth Avenue)
2. Fifth Avenue - “Pulling her cloak close about her Edith darted across the Avenue. She started nervously as a solitary man passed her and said in a hoarse whisper --"Where bound, kid do?" She was reminded of a night in her childhood when she had walked around the block in her pajamas and a dog had howled at her from a mystery-big back yard” (page 103).
3. 44th Street – A “two-story, comparatively old building on Forty-fourth” (page 103). Since the Trumpet office is fictional, I am unsure exactly if this is the building that Fitzgerald is speaking of, however this remains the only area left on 44th Street where there is a short two story building.
4. Sixth Avenue - “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).
5. 42nd Street - “Glancing down toward Forty-second Street she saw a commingled blur of lights from the all-night restaurants” (page 103).

Aside from 42nd Street, which will be two streets directly south of 44th Street, you’ll be able to see these landmarks inked in black from right to left. As far as resources go, I have liked to a page at the N.Y.P.L. Digital Gallery where you can look at original copies of the maps. I believe most of the maps I refrenced and used here are on pages four and five.

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. “May Day”. Tales of the Jazz Age. First Pine Street Books: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2003.
Atlas of the Borough of Manhattan, City of New York. Plates 73,72. Map. New York: Bromley. 1916.

08/04/2006 - Maps (Part 2)

The following is a closer look at Dean and Peter’s cab fare. The map is more detailed, so hopefully you’ll be able to follow their trip from Columbus Circle to Delmonico’s (44th Street) a little easier than before.

“Fifty-third Street was a bus with a dark, bobbed-hair beauty atop; Fifty-second was a street cleaner who dodged, escaped, and sent up a yell of, "Look where you're aimin' ! " in a pained and grieved voice. At Fiftieth Street a group of men on a very white sidewalk in front of a very white building turned to stare after them, and shouted: "Some party, boys!"At Forty-ninth Street Peter turned to Dean. "Beautiful morning," he said gravely, squinting up his owlish eyes” (page 118).

I’ve highlited (in black) the places they mention or visit. They are as follows (south from the top left hand corner);

1. Childs’ Restaurant
2. 53rd Street
3. 52nd Street
4. 50th Street
5. 49th Street
6.Delmonico’s
7. Biltmore Hotel
8. Commodore Hotel

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. “May Day”. Tales of the Jazz Age. First Pine Street Books: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2003.
Atlas of the Borough of Manhattan, City of New York. Plates 82,76,73,72,71. Map. New York: Bromley. 1916.

08/04/2006 - Maps (Part 1)

The following is a poorly constructed map outlining most of the events that happen within New York City during the story. It is poorly constructed on my behalf using Photoshop. The actual map at the New York Public Library’s Map Division department is a lot better. The detail that went into the maps was quite amazing. As you’ll see in future posts the maps actually identify businesses by labeling specific buildings. I’ve opted to omit labeling Key and Rose’s brief introduction to mob rules and search for Delmonico’s because of simple space constraints. However, if one wonders where they might find their adventure on this map it would be in plates forty-nine and fifty. Also, due to limited space, Sterrett’s journey home to 27th Street from his hotel near Childs’ is left out. He would, presumably follow the same route as Peter and Dean, however continuing along Broadway till he reached his destination somewhere between plates fifty-five and fifty-six.

The map is color coordinated to show specific events. For instance, Peter and Dean’s cab ride is in black and is labeled as so. As I stated earlier, in future posts today I will show the specific plates that illustrate May Day’s narrative.

Atlas of the Borough of Manhattan, City of New York. Map. New York: Bromley. 1916.

08/03/2006 - Photographs (Part 2)

And part two of my photo essay of May Day: New and Old.

3. Brooks Brothers’ – There were two different photographs to choose from for this building but I believed I picked the correct one. The other was of their headquarters half way down Broadway at 22nd. Now I think Brooks Brothers’ is located about a block west from Delmonico’s. Now if I would just look at my maps I would know that they are on the same block just at opposite ends. It looks as if you can see Delmonico’s in the distance however I am still unsure if this is the same Brooks Brothers’ that is there today. Too much. Anyways, this is probably the only place in May Day that remains in the same location as it did in the book. I think I am seeing a pattern here.



4. Yale Club – The final, in this rather abbreviated set of pictures is of the Yale Club. Like the Brooks Brothers’ picture above I am unsure if this is the same building that currently houses the Yale Club. It is a picture of Vanderbilt Avenue at 44th and 45th Streets. One of the reasons I am unsure is because of the current incarnation of the Yale Club. It is under some kind of restoration and as a result the main entrance has been blocked off by plywood and scaffolding.



I couldn’t find anything on Tolliver Hall but I am thinking that if I look at those New York Times articles a little closer I will find something to the Rivers Brothers’ conundrum that I wrote at length about in an earlier post. As for The Call no pictures were to be found, however I did find out that at one point it was the most widely circulated socialist newspaper. It closed its doors in 1923. With regards to the hotels, I've already covered both the Biltmore and The Commodore. Devineries’ still remains a mystery but Fitzgerald does mention it in This Side of Paradise so there should be something there. Well I can’t find it know and am getting tired so I’ll try to find it tomorrow along with some colorful maps of New York City circa 1919. Actually they re the same maps from a previous post except know there won’t be glare.

Here are the orginal links to the photographs from part one and two:

Delmonico's
Columbus Circle
Brooks Brothers'
Vanderbilt between 44th and 45th

08/02/2006 - Photographs (Part 1)

And for the last post today I present part one of some contrasting images of old and new.

1. Delmonico’s – The first is a picture of what the club looked like circa 1908 and the second is what remains today. I believe it is a Rite Aid now. That or a Best Buy, not that it really matters.



2. Columbus Circle – I was really excited about this one because if you are sharp enough you can see the Childs’ restaurant where Fitzgerald describes the beautiful Central Park sunrise. The newer picture doesn’t incorporate what Childs’ is now. It is kind of hard to miss but I think I effectively erased the Time Warner building from the picture. Oh and the picture is of the Central Park sunrise. Unfortunately it isn’t as pretty as what Fitzgerald would lead you to believe but that is because of several factors, one being my ignorance of the difference between east and west.

08/02/2006 - Where do you keep the bombs?

“They seem very nice,” she replied. “Where do you keep the bombs” (page 104)?

Unscrambling the rampant paranoia of the first Red Scare is a daunting task. Since I haven’t been regular with my research and postings I have forgotten most of the information I had posted previously. Looking over it I get the feeling that this wasn’t the first time I had such feelings. What I have been looking for is a simple way to explain the attitude towards communism during and after World War I. I’ve alluded to this before with Sterrett’s fears of inflation and job security but the whole idea was still shaky, at least to me. To put it as simple as possible, Americans feared that foreigners were trying to topple their revered institutions (government, ideals, etc.). Americans weren’t completely unfounded in their distrust of communism. The above quote from Edith is referring to the events of a few days earlier. On April 28th, 1919 Seattle Mayor Ole Hanson was sent a bomb. It was defused. However, a servant of Senator Thomas Hardwick wasn’t as fortunate. She lost both hands. Later, on May 1st “thirty-four bombs were intercepted before reaching their intended targets which included, among others, Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, North Carolina Senator Lee S. Overman, Utah Senator William H. King, Postmaster General Albert Berlson, and John D. Rockefeller” (Intellectual Conservative).

A quick aside on the website I cited. This was an excellent source for what I was looking for. The article was well written and easy to understand, I however don’t necessarily support some of their beliefs but a damn fine history lesson. I too did not read in what context these facts were used. So, in theory they could come from an article about how liberals are to blame for the world today, that or something about Israel but in all honesty I believe it has something to do with September 11th (I would expect nothing less).

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. “May Day”. Tales of the Jazz Age. First Pine Street Books: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2003.
Intellectual Conservative

08/02/2006 - Based On True Events

I really believe that the riot that ensues at the offices of The Trumpet is the most fascinating and surreal event that occurs in May Day. The fact that it is based off a real event on the same day, in a much larger scale, is even more amazing. It really shows how Fitzgerald worked as an author; taking real events and making them entirely his own. It also shows how a seemingly small event in the real world can take on other worldly meanings in the realm of fiction.

“Henry rose, and going to the window exposed himself as a long silhouette against the office lights. Immediately the shouting became a steady yell, and a rattling fusillade of small missiles, corners of tobacco plugs, cigarette-boxes, and even pennies beat against the window. The sounds of the racket now began floating up the stairs as the folding doors revolved” (page 108).

May 1, 1919 was quite the tremendous day. Just looking at the New York Times from the following day shows how much turmoil the world was in after World War One. Nestled in between stories about riots in Paris and Cleveland is a short piece about a disturbance at a “socialist daily”. 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. This all seems so surreal..

“A figure flashed by her out of nowhere, tottered, was edged sideways, and of a sudden disappeared helplessly out through the open window with a frightened, fragmentary cry that died staccato on the bosom of the clamor. By the faint light streaming from the building backing on the area Edith had a quick impression that it had been the tall soldier with the weak chin” (page 110).

This wasn’t the only thing that Fitzgerald lifted from real world events he also based the death of Key on a stockholder taking a tumble from a window twenty five feet above ground 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).

Eventually the police did show up and fortunately they had little trouble in disarming what had become a full-scale riot. As a result of the events at The Call’s new offices on Fourth Avenue, police were dispatched to their old location on Pearl Street, however nothing would end up happening. I write like I know where these places are but I really don’t have a clue. Let me amend that statement by saying that I could find The Call’s offices on Fourth Avenue with relative ease however their location on Pearl Street is anyone’s guess.

This paranoia is inexcusable . It is mind-boggling that war veterans would attack American citizens on their home soil especially Americans and their allies. Where does this out right animosity come from? For me, it just appears so out of character for them to be participating in such egregious activities. I expect more of them I suppose.

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. “May Day”. Tales of the Jazz Age. First Pine Street Books: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2003.

“Soldiers And Sailors Break Up Meetings.” New York Times. 2 May. 1919:3.