“So I’ve decided,” she continued, her voice rising slightly, “that early next week I’m going down to the Sevier Hotel barber-shop, sit in the first chair, and get my hair bobbed.” She faltered, noticing that the people near her had paused in their conversation and were listening; but after a confused second Marjorie’s coaching told, and she finished her paragraph to the vicinity at large. “Of course I’m charging admission, but if you’ll all come down and encourage me I’ll issue passes for the inside seats.”
—F. Scott Fitzgerald, "Bernice Bobs Her Hair," 1920
The photo above shows Muriel Redd, who was appearing in the show Tickle Me, having her hair bobbed by Lewis Morgan, the manager of the Hotel McAlpin barber shop, September 13, 1920.
Photo: Bettmann Archives/Getty Images/Fine Art America
“Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter--tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther.... And one fine morning-- So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”
Zelda Fitzgerald loved New York, where she lived in the early 1920s. A talented painter (as well as writer and dancer), she created these works over a period of years, from the 1920s to 1943. In 1996, her granddaughter, Eleanor Lanahan, included many of her works in a book, Zelda: An Illustrated Life.
Eighty-three of her paintings are available for purchase as prints from art.com. These are the ones of New York.
Above: Central Park in the spring.
The Brooklyn Bridge, apparently after a party.
Fifth Avenue. The view is dominated by St. Patrick's Cathedral, in whose rectory Zelda and Scott were married in 1920. On 5th Avenue, everyone celebrates.
Grand Central Station
Grant's Tomb
Times Square. "Past the Rialto, the glittering front of the Astor, the jewelled magnificence of Times Square … a gorgeous alley of incandescence ahead . . . " (F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Beautiful and Damned)
Washington Square
Scottie and Jack, Grand Central Time. This is the last of the pictures, painted in 1943, when her daughter Scottie married Jack Lanahan, seen here in his Navy uniform.