The Great Gatsby Rises Again!

Lollapalooza! It's all over town that a gentleman with the delightful name of Baz Lurhmann is making a new motion-picture version of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, starring a swoony matinee idol named Mr. Leonardo DiCaprio (correct me if I'm mistaken, but didn't poor Mr. DiCaprio go down with the Titanic? That story seemed to be all over your newspapers just last week . . .). Anyway, this new retelling of The Great Gatsby is set to come out later this year, and it's a talkie and everything. My stars, it will even be in COLOR! Hand me the smelling salts, I think I'm going to faint. The Orpheum in my hometown has never seen anything quite so lavish.

For those not familiar with F. Scott Fitzgerald, he's only one of the most prominent writers of my decade. I think I've already mentioned that he coined the term "Jazz Age" in his short-story collection "Tales of the Jazz Age." But his chef d'oevre is his novel The Great Gatsby, published in 1925. If you haven't read this classic story about the enigmatic Jay Gatsby and his beyond-reach sweetheart, Daisy Buchanan, run right out and get it (or read it online here, if you have the patience for that sort of thing--personally I like to read my novels while immersed in a steaming bubble bath, which is a place not compatible with these newfangled computer machines, I am to discover...). The story is set on Long Island in the heyday of--well, of my day. It will explain a lot of things about the era, although I certainly haven't been drinking cocktails at millionaire's estates and whatnot. Anyway, read it before the movie comes out. You'll be glad you did!


More about Mr. Fitzgerald and his wife, the fabulous Zelda, in a future post. Meanwhile, toodleoo, and don't take any wooden nickels!