Max Gerlach

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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. After serving as an officer in the American Expeditionary Force during World War I, Gerlach became a gentleman bootlegger who operated speakeasies on behalf of gambler Arnold Rothstein in New York City. Flaunting his newfound wealth as a bootlegger in New York, Gerlach threw lavish parties, never wore the same shirt twice, used the phrase "old sport", claimed to be educated at Oxford University, and fostered outlandish myths about himself, including that he was a relation of the German Kaiser. Many of these details about Gerlach inspired Fitzgerald's creation of Jay Gatsby, the titular character of his novel The Great Gatsby. With the end of prohibition and the onset of the Great Depression in the early 1930s, Gerlach lost his immense wealth. Living in reduced circumstances, he attempted suicide by shooting himself...

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