Max Gerlach

Max Gerlach
A grainy surveillance photograph of Max Gerlach clandestinely taken by New York City police operatives. Gerlach appears blonde-haired and immaculately groomed. He is wearing a high starch collar and a large brown overcoat.
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, Prussia, Germany
DiedOctober 18, 1958(1958-10-18) (aged 73)[2]
New York City, U.S.
Resting placeLong Island National Cemetery[2]
NationalityGerman-American[a]
OccupationBootlegger

Max von Gerlach (born Max Stork Gerlach; October 12, 1885 – October 18, 1958) was a German-born American bootlegger 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, [6] Gerlach became a gentleman bootlegger who operated speakeasies on behalf of gambler Arnold Rothstein in New York City.[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]

  1. ^ a b Kruse 2014, p. 19.
  2. ^ a b c d e Kruse 2014, p. 26.
  3. ^ Kruse 2014, pp. 31, 34.
  4. ^ a b Bruccoli 2002, p. 178.
  5. ^ Kruse 2014, pp. 13–14.
  6. ^ Kruse 2002, pp. 53–54, 47–48, 63–64.
  7. ^ Sargeant 2022.
  8. ^ Kruse 2014, p. 15.
  9. ^ Kruse 2002, p. 47.
  10. ^ Kruse 2014, pp. 38–39, 63–64.
  11. ^ Kruse 2002, p. 60.
  12. ^ Kruse 2002, pp. 45–83; Bruccoli 2002, p. 178; Kruse 2014, pp. 19, 26.
  13. ^ a b Bruccoli 2002, p. 178; Kruse 2002, pp. 47–48; Kruse 2014, p. 15


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