Surveillance photograph of bootlegger Max Gerlach clandestinely taken on July 8, 1915, by the New York City Police Department
Born
Max Stork Gerlach
(1885-10-12)October 12, 1885[1]
Berlin, Brandenburg, Germany
Died
October 18, 1958(1958-10-18) (aged 73)[2]
New York City, U.S.
Resting place
Long Island National Cemetery[2]
Nationality
German-American[a]
Occupation
Bootlegger
Max von Gerlach (born Max Stork Gerlach; October 12, 1885 – October 18, 1958) was an American racketeer and an acquaintance of American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald.[4][5] After serving as an officer in the American Expeditionary Force during World War I, Gerlach became a gentleman bootlegger who operated speakeasies on behalf of gambler Arnold Rothstein in New York City.[6][7] Gerlach's bootlegging activities soon made him a millionaire.[6][7]
Flaunting his newfound wealth as a bootlegger in New York, Gerlach threw lavish parties,[8] never wore the same shirt twice,[9] used the phrase "old sport",[4] claimed to be educated at Oxford University,[10] and fostered outlandish myths about himself, including that he was a relation of the German Kaiser.[11] Many of these details about Gerlach inspired Fitzgerald's creation of Jay Gatsby, the titular character of his novel The Great Gatsby.[12]
With the end of prohibition and the onset of the Great Depression in the early 1930s, Gerlach lost his immense wealth.[13] Living in reduced circumstances, he attempted suicide by shooting himself in the head in 1939.[13] Blinded after his suicide attempt, he lived as a helpless invalid for many years.[2] Gerlach died on October 18, 1958, at Bellevue Hospital in New York City.[2] He was buried in a pine casket at Long Island National Cemetery.[2]
^ abKruse 2014, p. 19.
^ abcdeKruse 2014, p. 26.
^Kruse 2014, pp. 31, 34.
^ abBruccoli 2002, p. 178.
^Kruse 2014, pp. 13–14.
^ abKruse 2002, pp. 53–54, 47–48, 63–64.
^ abSerjent 2022.
^Kruse 2014, p. 15.
^Kruse 2002, p. 47.
^Kruse 2014, pp. 38–39, 63–64.
^Kruse 2002, p. 60.
^Kruse 2002, pp. 45–83; Bruccoli 2002, p. 178; Kruse 2014, pp. 19, 26.
^ abBruccoli 2002, p. 178; Kruse 2002, pp. 47–48; Kruse 2014, p. 15
Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).
Max von Gerlach (born Max Stork Gerlach; October 12, 1885 – October 18, 1958) was an American racketeer and an acquaintance of American writer F. Scott...
character on MaxGerlach, a mysterious neighbor and World War I veteran whom the author met in New York during the raucous Jazz Age. Like Gatsby, Gerlach threw...
based Gatsby on their enigmatic Long Island neighbor, MaxGerlach. A military veteran, Gerlach became a self-made millionaire due to his bootlegging endeavors...
wireless telegraphy at Jena under Max Wien. He also served in the Artillerie-Prüfungskommission under Rudolf Ladenburg. Gerlach became a Privatdozent at the...
"Medaglia Stern-Gerlach". German Physical Society (in German). Retrieved March 23, 2021. Wikimedia Commons has media related to Max Planck Medal. "Official...
(wife) Frances Scott Fitzgerald (daughter) Ginevra King (literary model) MaxGerlach (literary model) Maxwell Perkins (literary editor) Matthew J. Bruccoli...
Characters Jay Gatsby Nick Carraway Daisy Buchanan Adaptations Other MaxGerlach Ginevra King Edith Cummings Francis Cugat G "The Great Phatsby" Nick...
Manfred Gerlach (8 May 1928 – 17 October 2011) was a German jurist and politician, and the longtime leader of the East German Liberal Democratic Party...
Kurt Albert Gerlach (22 August 1886, Hanover – 19 October 1922, Frankfurt) was a German professor and sociologist. Gerlach was the son of the chemist and...
Ernst Carl Gerlach Stueckelberg (baptised as Johann Melchior Ernst Karl Gerlach Stückelberg, full name after 1911: Baron Ernst Carl Gerlach Stueckelberg...
Mignon G. Eberhart, author James Fay, US Congressman, World War I veteran MaxGerlach, bootlegger who inspired the character of Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby...
(wife) Frances Scott Fitzgerald (daughter) Ginevra King (literary model) MaxGerlach (literary model) Maxwell Perkins (literary editor) Matthew J. Bruccoli...
cruiserweight champion (1994-2000); in Grand Junction, Tennessee Died: MaxGerlach, 73, German-born American millionaire who had been the inspiration for...
Lardner, newspaper editor Herbert Bayard Swope and (probably) bootlegger MaxGerlach as friends and neighbors. September Marcel Proust's sequence À la Recherche...
"Bootleggers, used car dealers and The Great Gatsby – on the trail of MaxGerlach". Retrieved July 2, 2014. Rhode Island Radio: Dutee Wilcox Flint - 61...
unregulated until 1934 when it was placed under the command of Walter Gerlach and his adjutant Arthur Liebehenschel. Run as a prison by the Gestapo,...
medicine, with Nobel Prize winners including Max von Laue and Max Born, and breakthroughs such as the Stern–Gerlach experiment. In recent years, the university...
von Gerlach (2 February 1866 – 1 August 1935) was a German journalist and politician. Hellmut von Gerlach, the son of landowner Max von Gerlach, was...
Walther Gerlach, Otto Hahn, Paul Harteck, Werner Heisenberg, Horst Korsching, Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker, and Karl Wirtz. Also incarcerated was Max von...
presented by the DPG are the Max Planck Medal for work in theoretical physics, first awarded in 1929, and the Stern–Gerlach Medal for work in experimental...
mercury atoms is quantized. (1914) Otto Stern and Walther Gerlach conduct the Stern–Gerlach experiment, which demonstrates the quantized nature of particle...