One Hundred Years of Gatsby

I can’t let April slip by without celebrating the 100th anniversary of The Great Gatsby. Published on April 10, 1925 to lukewarm reviews and anemic sales, it is probably the most enduring work of fiction of the 20th Century. And if you believe that imitation is the highest form of flattery, then The Great Gatsby has been pretty much flattered into somewhere above the clouds since its copyright expired in 2021.

“Flatter, flatter, flatter, flatter, flatter flatter,” in the words of two other 20th Century icons*. Gatsby, old sport, your story has spawned a small publishing industry of its own, a rather remarkable feat for a novel that a reviewer from the New York Evening World found to be full of “painfully forced” prose. Even H. L. Mencken of the Baltimore Evening Sun found fault; he pointed out that the novel seemed to be “more focused on maintaining suspense than exploring the characters’ inner lives.” Okay, H. L., how many people are still reading your enduring body of work?

But even before Fitzgerald’s third novel began inspiring variations on his theme, filmmakers were superimposing their visions on the story. They began in 1926, the year after it was published, with a silent film starring Warner Baxter as Gatsby and Lois Wilson as Daisy Buchanan. And, OMG, William Powell played George Wilson! The film is said to be lost, and the Jazz Age Junkie would be absolutely thrilled to learn that someone has discovered a stack of reels in a janitor’s closet somewhere in Latvia bearing a faded and almost illegible label on the side reading, The Great Gatsby/Property of Paramount Pictures..

This version is said to have played fast and loose with the story of Jay and Daisy. The film may be lost until further notice, but the trailer still exists.

If you want to see what women were really wearing in 1926, take a look. Oh, and those men's swim suits!

Next came the 1949 version starring Alan Ladd as Gatsby. Paramount Pictures, which had paid $45,000 for the screen rights, went ahead (with some reservations) with the remake, although the infamous Joseph Breen of the Production Code Administration rejected the first screenplay. The writers, Richard Maibaum and Cyril Hume, were forced to add moralizing elements to align with the code, pretty much turning the story into a film noir and emphasizing Gatsby's criminality (and the price to be paid for it), a disfigurement that probably was not present in the 1926 pre-code version, which has been called a "light entertainment."

Golly, The Great Gatsby must be a film noir!

I have to say there is nothing in the 1949 poster that says Gatsby to me. Here he is in a trench coat to make him look like a figure of the underworld. And which one of these film noir women is Daisy? And who the heck are the other ones?

Next came the 1974 version with Robert Redford and Mia Farrow with a screenplay by Francis Ford Coppola. In the eyes of the Jazz Age Junkie, this is the one -- it captures the spirit and look of the time. The costumes are lovely (although, not completely true to the year), the casting is brilliant, and the cinematography makes you feel that you've just stepped back into the Jazz Age.

The A&E television adaptation in 2000 didn't impress anyone. It stared Toby Stephens, Mira Sorvino and Paul Rudd. It was shot in Canada on a limited budget. Here is the poster. Just based on Mira Sorvino's hair style, or lack of hair style, I would never watch this version.

And finally, we come to the 2013 version, directed by Baz Luhrmann and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan and Tobey Maguire. Just too over-the-top for the Jazz Age Junkie. The excesses were simply too excessive, and the women's costumes were too modernized. And I yearned to hear some fabulous music of the era, but never got it.

The Baz Lurhmann vision of a Gatsby party.

Okay, now on to the written word. Nothing in filmdom rivals the runaway imaginations of novelists who've discovered they can now create their own version of the Gatsby story. You can call them homages, spin-offs, remixes or fan fiction, but there's something for everyone except purists in the following list, which could be a lot longer if I wasn't getting tired from beating on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo (2021)

The story revolves around rich society girl and professional golfer Jordan Baker, who doesn't quite fit in -- she's queer, Asian and adopted.

Beautiful Little Fools by Jillian Cantor (2022)

Three women, each suspected of murdering Jay Gatsby, each tell their stories in this retelling.

Self-Made Boys: A Great Gatsby Remix by Anna-Marie McLemore (2022)

Here, Nick is Nicolás Caraveo, a 17-year-old transgender boy from Minnesota, who rents a house in West Egg from this 18-year-old cousin, Daisy Fabrega, who lives in East Egg.

Nick by Michael Farris Smith (2021)

This is Nick Carraway's backstory--his struggle to make sense of the horrors of the Great War as he travels to Paris and New Orleans before his encounter with Gatsby.

Agent Gatz: A Great Gatsby Prequel by R. M. Spencer (2023)

At the beginning of World War I, a young Jay Gatsby is a foreign spy about to encounter a woman from his past. Together they face danger in war-torn Europe.

Great by Sara Benincasa (2014)

A contemporary story of a teenage girl who arrives in the Hamptons to spend the summer with her socialite mother and becomes drawn to her beautiful next-door neighbor who throws wild, lavish parties.

The Gay Gatsby by B. A. Baker (2021)

Gaylord Gatsby is throwing the gayest parties West Egg has ever seen, and Daisy may have something going on with Jordan.

The Pursued and the Pursuing by AJ Odasso (2021)

What if Jay Gatsby had not died at the end of The Great Gatsby? What if he had another chance of happiness traveling the world with Nick Carraway?

Concerning Encounters by Anita Acklin (2021)

Jordan Baker is threatened with extortion by the attractive man who saw her cheat at a championship golf tournament.

The Gatsby Gambit by Claire Anderson-Wheeler (2025)

Jay Gatsby has a young sister named Greta who has just completed her education at finishing school and has arrived at the Gatsby mansion for the summer. When death comes to West Egg, Greta must play the role of sleuth to uncover the truth.

*Mick Jagger/Keith Richards