16 Facts About Max Gerlach

Many of these details about Max Gerlach inspired Fitzgerald's creation of Jay Gatsby, the titular character of his novel The Great Gatsby.

Max Gerlach died on October 18,1958, at Bellevue Hospital in New York City.

Max Gerlach was buried in a pine casket at Long Island National Cemetery.

Max Gerlach's father was Ferdinand Gerlach, a secretary to Frederick III in the Ministry of the Royal House of Hohenzollern.

Max Gerlach's father died in 1887 or 1888 while serving in the Royal Prussian Army.

In 1900, a fifteen-year-old Max Gerlach worked on a motor boat as a machinist where he traveled to Mexico.

Max Gerlach later worked as a mechanic and car salesman in Cuba and other locales.

In 1918, following the United States' entrance into World War I, Max Gerlach applied for a major's commission in the Ordnance Department of the US Army.

Immediately after his discharge, Max Gerlach often traveled between Cuba and the United States during which time he likely became involved in illegally importing alcohol during Prohibition.

Max Gerlach soon became a gentleman bootlegger who lived like a millionaire in New York.

In 2022, scholars discovered evidence that Max Gerlach operated a Manhattan speakeasy in 1927 in a building owned by Arnold Rothstein, the gambler and kingpin of the Jewish Mob upon whom Fitzgerald based the character of Meyer Wolfsheim in his novel, The Great Gatsby.

Max Gerlach's speakeasy was located a few hundred feet from the Plaza Hotel where Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda frequently stayed when visiting Manhattan, and Max Gerlach's well-heeled patrons were reported by the press to be "quite exclusive".

In Summer 1927, police arrested Max Gerlach and charged him with violating the Volstead Act by selling alcohol.

Max Gerlach attempted to communicate to Mizener that he had inspired the character of Jay Gatsby.

Max Gerlach died on October 18,1958, at Bellevue Hospital in New York City.

Max Gerlach was buried in a pine casket at Long Island National Cemetery.