Boats Against the Current,
documentary about Westport inspiring The Great Gatsby, sells out Fairfield
Theatre Company
By Dan Hajducky
It has always been believed
that F. Scott Fitzgerald drew on his time spent living in Great Neck, Long
Island, and hanging out in Little Neck, Queens, when writing his masterpiece
The Great Gatsby. A number of fantastic nonfiction books—namely Maureen
Corrigan’s So We Read On: How The Great Gatsby Came to Be and Why It Endures
and Sarah Churchwell’s Careless People: Murder, Mayhem and the Invention of The
Great Gatsby—devote time to the subject, but never mention Scott and wife
Zelda’s six-month honeymoon in 1920, after This Side of Paradise was published,
spent living in Westport having an influence on the tour de force. In fact, few
scholars and Fitzgerald aficionados do.
Until now.
The documentary Boats Against
the Current—by local author Robert Steven Williams and local historian/New
Canaan High School history department head Richard “Deej” Webb—was recently
pre-screened at the Fairfield Theatre Company to a sold-out crowd. Williams and
Webb delighted in hearing that their documentary was so anticipated that FTC
staff had to turn customers away. And for good reason, noting the revelatory nature
of the film.
“We were thrilled at the
turnout,” says Williams. “The event was about presenting our findings and
getting a reaction from the town so that we could get it all on film as part of
the narrative.”
In 1996, Westporter Barbara
Probst Solomon wrote a New Yorker article linking The Great Gatsby to Westport;
unfortunately, the piece was largely dismissed by Fitzgerald scholars. But it
hit home with Westporter Mr. Webb, who began giving talks around town inspired
by Barbara’s article, and Mr. Williams, who attributes the piece as a main
inspiration for the documentary’s undertaking.
After years of research, they
found that the “grey house,” the aforementioned Fitzgerald House on 244 Compo
Road South, and surrounding area comes up more in Scott’s writing (namely The
Beautiful and Damned) and Zelda’s than any other place they lived. In fact, the
structure of Nick Carraway’s, Daisy’s and Gatsby’s house in The Great Gatsby
can’t have been inspired entirely by Long Island…the house that the Fitzgeralds
lived in there isn’t near the water.
However, Westport’s structure
makes sense. In sight of the Compo Road house was an 175-acre estate owned by
reclusive railroad millionaire Frederick E. Lewis, who was renowned for his
behemoth summer bashes by the water. Additionally, directly across The Sound
from the estate (the mansion of which is now the Inn at Longshore) is a lengthy
dock, which once had a lighthouse within spitting distance.
Sound familiar?
As Webb and Williams started to
report their findings to Fitzgerald scholars—including Pace University’s Walter
Raubicheck, who attended the screening and was part of a panel discussion—they
started convincing them that Westport played a bigger part in The Great
Gatsby’s conception than was previously thought.
Boats Against the Current is so
convincing that Great Neck Historical Society president Alice Kasten, who was
invited to the premiere by Williams and Webb, stood up and said, “We concede!”
Even better, Scott and Zelda’s granddaughter, Vermont artist Eleanor “Bobbie”
Lanahan, who appears in the film, said that she feels she’ll learn more about
her grandparents from watching Boats Against the Current than she currently
knows.
The film also happens to be
narrated by Westport’s own 2001: A Space Odyssey actor Keir Dullea and features
Law and Order’s Sam Waterston (a long-time Connecticut resident), who played
Nick Carraway in the 1974 film version of The Great Gatsby.
A more pressing matter has
arisen, though, that Williams and Webb hope the film will help publicize: the
Fitzgerald Home, which had been on the market for years, was recently sold for
$2.59 million. The house is not landmarked, meaning it can be torn down any day
like Ray Bradbury’s Los Angeles home was earlier this year. Though the wife of
the new Compo Road home owner is reported to be a Fitzgerald fan, that doesn’t
ease the minds of Webb and Williams, who ideally would like the home to be an
international F. Scott Fitzgerald museum, or provide writer-in-residence
opportunities.
Williams’ and Webb’s work, with
the stamp of Barbara Probst Solomon herself, has people in the literature world
rethinking Fitzgerald’s history already. Let’s hope their voices are heard loud
enough to preserve the Compo Road house, in a town that inspired The Great
American Novel.
“We’re giving the narrative
time to unfold,” adds Williams. “But at some point soon, we’re going to have to
wrap things up. In the meantime, our cameras are rolling.”
For questions regarding the
documentary, or how you can get involved, head to Against The Grain
Communications (againstgrain.com) or contact them via e-mail:
info@againstgrain.com.