Everybody Was So Young (64 page)

“We are very fond . . . important thing:
GCM
to
FSF
, 15 May 1928,
PUL
.

“We are friends . . . so far away”:
FSF
to EH, [Jul. 1928], JFK; Correspondence ofF. Scott Fitzgerald, p. 220.

The Murphys had recently . . . Scott and Zelda: Morton, Americans in Paris, p. 279.

“it looks like the setting”: Zelda Fitzgerald to Mr. E. E. Addison, 29 May 1928; in Milford, Zelda, p. 140. Milford quotes it as “Madame Tausand’s,” which is clearly a mistranscription.

[>] “There are limits . . . something awful would happen”: Ibid., p. 141.

“I hope you die . . . next to her”: Ibid., p. 142.

“The view was not . . . what she looked like”: Ibid., pp. 141–42.

One morning, soon after . . . flea markets:
HMD
interview.

[>] “It was such a . . . didn’t ever happen”:
GCM
to
JDP
, [19 Jan. 1929],
UVA
.

[>] “I’ve never been exposed” . . . second place: Ibid., 5 Aug. 1928.

In the summer of 1928 . . . Metropolis: King Vidor interview in Schickel, The Men Who Made the Movies, p. 147.

consciously adopted the “shadowy effects”: King Vidor interview by Dowd and Shepard, King Vidor, p. 48.

“a lot . . . the viewer”: Schickel, The Men Who Made the Movies, p. 143.

[>] “a classic country”: King Vidor interview, quoted in Miller, Letters from the Lost Generation, p. 8.

“in my home town . . . singing songs”: King Vidor interview by Dowd and Shepard, King Vidor, p. 102.

Scott Fitzgerald . . . Gerald Murphy:
GCM
to
FSF
, 15 May 1928,
PUL
. Vidor came . . . Gerald’s pictures:
HMD
interview.

“I thought that the type”: King Vidor interview, quoted in Miller, Letters from the Lost Generation, p. 8.

Gerald had been impressed . . . The Crowd:
GCM
to
FSF
, 15 May 1928,
PUL
.

“My latest things . . . liberation”:
GCM
to
JDP
, 5 Aug. 1928,
UVA
.

“An eye . . . foot in picture”:
GCM
art notebook,
HMD
.

[>] All were presented . . . experimenting: Léger had been to stay at the bastide for three weeks that summer, and he and Gerald had long talks about their work and the direction of painting. In Léger’s view, surrealism was “the end of something and not the beginning, but with all the revolutions in art . . . it has dragged some real values onto the stage.”
GCM
, MacAgy/Murphy papers;
HMD
.

“conglomerate standard”:
GCM
, MacAgy/Murphy papers.

“Dear G . . . old call us”: AMacL to
GCM
, 1 Sept. 1928,
HMD
.

16 “A dismantled house where people have once been gay”

[>] Sara’s bottle bag . . . evade customs: Yvonne Roussel Luff interview.

“I’m afraid we traveled”:
HMD
interview.

Their rooms at the Savoy . . . assured one another: S&G, p. 123.

[>] Don Stewart . . . Holiday:
DOS
, By a Stroke of Luck! p. 166.

most Indians had . . . no uncertain terms:
HMD
interview.

1737 Angelo Drive . . . Dicky, for Honoria:
HMD
and Patrick Murphy to Yvonne Roussel, undated; Yvonne Roussel Luff.

Marion Davies . . . Charlie Chaplin: S&G, p. 40.

“Patrick . . . Indians”: Baoth Wiborg (Murphy) to Yvonne Roussel, undated; Yvonne Roussel Luff; description of the cowboy outfits from a photograph in SWM’s albums,
HMD
.

“My God . . . Cupid Chips!”:
GCM
to
JDP
, [19 Jan. 1929],
UVA
.

[>] “It saves . . . Mary Pickford”: Ibid.

Dorothy Parker . . . office door: Meade, Dorothy Parker, p. 198.

“a $150, . . . heart out of you”:
GCM
to
JDP
, [19 Jan. 1929],
UVA
.

In Chicago . . . in that city: Vidor, King Vidor, pp. 99–100.

[>] “
SINCERELY
HOPE
. . .
BEST
REGARDS”: Telegram from Irving Thalberg to King Vidor, 27 Oct. 1928, Hallelujah! production files, King Vidor collection, University of Southern California.

In the earliest stages . . . not been resolved: Vidor, King Vidor, p. 100.

The first script . . . verses of the song: Aug. 1928 script for Hallelujah!, King Vidor collection, University of Southern California.

The opening . . . “make it permanent”: Ibid., 25 Sept. 1928.

[>] “[I]n two weeks . . . Minstrels”:
GCM
to
JDP
, 19 Jan. 1928,
UVA
.

When Thalberg heard . . . picture in droves: Daily memoranda, Hallelujah! studio files, King Vidor collection, University of Southern California.

To lighten things up . . . uplifting finale: Miscellaneous scripts, Hallelujah! and final credit sheet, Hallelujah! studio file; ibid.

“
LIONEL
BARRYMORE
. . . Zowie”:
GCM
to
JDP
, [19 Jan. 1929],
UVA
.

It was still . . . ranch house: Diane Fish interview.

Murphy children adored . . . picnicking: S&G, p. 42.

[>] “It seems the most . . . trouble later”:
SWM
to
FBW
, [Mar. 1929],
HMD
.

Rather than “letting everything” . . . addition to his own: Ibid.

Murphys on shipboard . . . somthing to happen: Photograph,
SWM
scrapbooks,
HMD
.

[>] “Ireland is doomed”:
GCM
to
JDP
, quoted in S&G, p. 29.

“Ernie” in the first draft: Item 618,
JFK
.

“I can blow him”: EH, “Fathers and Sons,” The Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway, p. 496.

“My Dear Boy . . . (french spelling)”:
GCM
to EH, 16 Oct. 1927,
JFK
.

“Every other day”: EH to
JDP
, [Dec. 1928],
JFK
.

[>] “I know how the death”: AMacL to EH, 14 Dec. 1928,
JFK
. According to notes in the Hemingway collection, the letter was not opened until 5 May 1978, after Hemingway’s death.

Gerald asked Ernest . . . Marseille and Majorca:
GCM
to EH, [spring 1929],
JFK
.

proofs of his new novel . . . Honoria’s crew: EH to AMacL, 18 Jul. 1929, Ernest Hemingway: Selected Letters, p. 300.

On his insistence . . . handsome dowry: Thomas, John Strachey, p. 71.

Strachey was already . . . day by herself: Ibid., p. 78.

[>] “I hate figs”: DP to Helen Droste, Sept. 1929, quoted in Meade, Dorothy Parker, p. 202.

smoking solitary cigarettes . . . gamine countenance: Yvonne Roussel Luff interview.

Baoth went so far . . . patois: DP to Alexander Woollcott, in Meade, Dorothy Parker, pp. 201–204.

“the Murphys have given their”:
FSF
to EH, 9 Sept. 1929, The Letters of F. Scott Fitzgerald, pp. 305–306.

Gerald, at least . . . Antibes that summer: ZF to
FSF
, [late summer/early fall 1930],
PUL
.

Zelda became terrified . . . drowning victim:
GCM
interview with Nancy Milford, Zelda, p. 155.

“It’s been gay here . . . five years”:
FSF
to EH, 23 Aug. 1929, The Letters of F. Scott Fitzgerald, p. 305.

[>] “absolutely blotto”: Meade, Dorothy Parker, p. 204.

Another day, driving in Nice . . . fifteen days’ imprisonment: The information about Robert Benchley and Gerald Murphy’s run-in with the French authorities comes from a 13 Nov. 1919 letter from Charles D. Morgan, Gerald’s Paris lawyer, to Benchley, asking for an affidavit. Morgan’s version contradicts that given by Honoria Murphy Donnelly in Sara and Gerald, where she claims the car was impounded when left unattended, and says that Gerald, “realizing that he was in the wrong . . . quickly apologized” (S&G, p. 32).

[>] “Green fruit softening”:
GCM
to
JDP
, [19 Jan. 1929],
UVA
.

Wasp and Pear: There is some dispute about the date of this painting. Murphy, of course, rarely dated his own paintings and had difficulty remembering their chronology when attempting to reconstruct it in later life. Douglas MacAgy, in his catalogue for American Genius in Review, assigned it to 1927; but William Rubin, in his Museum of Modern Art retrospective The Paintings of Gerald Murphy, dated it 1929. Elizabeth Hutton Turner reverted to the 1927 date for her Phillips Gallery exhibit, Americans in Paris. It seems to me impossible, however, for someone who painted as slowly and painstakingly as Murphy did to have executed four canvases in the 1927–28 period that also included Doves, Cocktail, and Portrait. And it seems equally unlikely in the face of documentary evidence that he painted no pictures after 1927—yet he described Wasp and Pear to Douglas MacAgy as “illustrating the direction in which my work was going when I was obliged to stop painting.” He painted nothing while he was in America from Oct. 1928 until Mar. 1929—so it seems likely that 1929 is indeed the only date that can be assigned to Wasp and Pear. The “green fruit” imagery, which dates from his Jan. 1929 letter to Dos Passos, only underscores this logic.

“hornet (colossal)” . . . seen from below:
GCM
art notebook,
HMD
.

[>] “bed of crimson” . . . dark secret love”: Blake, Songs of Innocence and Experience, unpaged facsimile edition.

“it was his duty”: DP to RB, [7 Nov. 1929], BU.

[>] “a wire from Gerald”: EH to
FSF
, 4 Sept. 1929, Emest Hemingway: Selected Letters, p. 304.

“at an altitude . . . fruits, etc.”:
GCM
to Mary Hoyt Wiborg, 7 Sept. 1929,
HMD
.

“He’s taking the injections . . . two years”:
GCM
to EH, 12 Oct. 1929,
JFK
. “bronchials showed speckly”:
SWM
to PH, [12 Oct. 1929],
JFK
.

[>] “My mother wants me . . . you to America”: Baoth Wiborg (Murphy) to EH and PH, [Nov. 1929], quoted in S&G, p. 93.

worst decision . . . also the kindest: Meade, Dorothy Parker, p. 206.

“Sometime you must . . . coat or the muffler”: Quotations are from DP to RB, [7 Nov. 1929], BU.

[>] Ernestine took care . . . children’s lessons: Yvonne Roussel Luff interview, “isolated himself . . . ‘poor Gerald’”: Quotations are all from DP to RB, [7 Nov. 1929], BU.

17. “The invented part, for me, is what has meanin”

[>] “laughing our heads off”:
JDP
, The Best Times, p. 203.

Sara roasted . . . Christmas carols:
HMD
interview.

“big arty rout” . . . it was the Murphys: AMacL to EH, [10 Feb. 1930], Letters of Archibald MacLeish, p. 232.

“an impossible sort of cheque”: Bankers Trust Company check dated 18 Dec. 1929, and made out to
SWM
, BU.

“Don’t be mad . . . eternal snows”:
SWM
to RB, [1 Jan. 1929], BU.

[>] He would sit for hours . . . Miss Roussel or Gerald: Yvonne Roussel Luff interview.

February . . . visit to Antibes:
HMD
to Yvonne Roussel, [spring 1930], Yvonne R. Luff.

“
DEUX
CENTS
FRANCS
. . . MURPHYS”
GCM
cablegram to RB, 7 Feb. 1930; BU.

“Were you talking . . . right there with them!”:
GCM
to Nancy Milford, in Zelda, p. 157.

[>] Meanwhile the Murphys . . . Montana to Vermala:
HMD
to Yvonne Roussel, [spring 1930], Yvonne R. Luff.

“melancholly skenery”:
HMD
interview.

“there is no more”:
HMD
to Yvonne Roussel, [spring 1930], Yvonne R. Luff.

“Harry’s Bar” . . . piano and sing:
DOS
, By a Stroke of Luck! p. 187.

[>] “My father holds”:
HMD
to YR, [spring 1930], Yvonne R. Luff.

Sara had tried . . . he refused it:
SWM
telegram to RB, [spring 1931], BU. Because of the potency . . . hair of the dog: Meade, Dorothy Parker, pp. 211–12.

“I have a great surprise”:
HMD
to YR, [spring 1930], Yvonne R. Luff.

[>] “I don’t suppose”:
SWM
to
FSF
, 3 Apr. [1936], PUL; see also Meade, Dorothy Parker, p. 213.

“even though Patrick”:
DOS
, By a Stroke of Luck! p. 187.

Gerald rented current . . . Saturday nights:
HMD
to Yvonne Roussel, [spring 1930], Yvonne R. Luff.

In addition to the Murphys’ . . . rabbit:
PFM
II to
GCM
, [Sept. 1930],
HMD
.

parrot named Cocotte . . . shoulder everywhere: DP to RB, [7 Nov. 1929], BU.

“and two enormous turtles”:
HMD
to Yvonne Roussel, [spring 1930], Yvonne R. Luff.

[>] “that morbid, turned-in thing”: DP to RB, 7 Nov. 1929, BU.

One day he became enraged . . . slipper: Yvonne Roussel Luff interview.

There was another row . . . avoid everyone else:
GCM
to AMacL, 22 Jan. 1931,
LOC
.

“Gerald is here . . . breathe in it”: AMacL to
FSF
, 15 Sept. [1930], Letters of Archibald MacLeish, p. 236.

“After all these years”:
GCM
to AMacL, 22 Jan. 1929,
LOC
.

[>] “I hope . . . without offending you”: Ibid.

“a long hike”: S&G, p. 56.

[>] “he’d had a kind”: Hester Pickman/
HMD
interview,
HMD
.

“because I never believed”: Lillian Hellman/
HMD
interview,
HMD
.

“authenticity . . . prospects”: “Les Expositions/Exposition Murphy” (article signed “E.T.”), L’Intransigeant, 29 Jan. 1929, p. 5.