There’s only so many days of the Gatsby centenary to go, so I thought I’d share this: Scott Fitzgerald’s first biographer, Arthur Mizener, talking to Mary Margaret McBride about his new book, The Far Side of Paradise, in January 1951. The book was a milestone in the creation of the Fitzgerald legend and was published almost simultaneously with The Disenchanted from Budd Schulberg, a fictionalized account of Scott’s final years in Hollywood. To the best of my knowledge, the McBride show featured below has not been heard for almost 75 years.

It was also during this show that Scott’s old friend Max Gerlach telephoned McBride to reveal that he had been the original inspiration for Jay Gatsby. You can read more about Max Gerlach in F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Author at Work by Professor Horst Kruse. You can also listen the 8-part series American Dreamer: Who Was Jay Gatsby? on Amazon Music and Audible.

This is the full show so I feel I should warn you that the interview with Mizener and the actor, Louis Calhern, is punctuated by sudden and unexpected advertisements for cat food and detergents — McBride, totally apologetically, dropping them in at random. I’ve kept the show intact as Calhern, Mizener and McBride discuss the issue of weaving fact and fiction, first in relation to Shakespeare and then in relation to Scott and the people he knew. Prior to Mizener’s slot, Calhern discusses his role as U.S. Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes in the 1950 film The Magnificent Yankee, someone who McBride describes as a “kind of democratic ideal”, someone who stands for the “freedom of the individual.”

It’s an interesting show historically, as it provides a peep hole account of Scott’s legend taking shape and how he was understood by many Americans at this time.

Mary Margaret McBride is regarded by many as ‘the First Lady of Radio’. The show ran for many years, first on ABC and then on NBC.

Thank you to Karen Tobias and Michel P. Haggerty, and Estate of Cynthia Lowry for permission to use.