[Dorothy Parker 05] - A Moveable Feast of Murder

by Agata Stanford

  Captain George Fried became an international hero after the crew of the S.S. Roosevelt daringly rescued the crew of the British ship, Antinoe. The tickertape parade in New York was held for him and his crew days before Parker, Benchley, and Hemingway sailed to France. As captain of America, he was to be honored with another parade in 1929, after he commanded the sea rescue of survivors of the Italian freighter, Florida. He has been largely forgotten, and I just chanced upon his name during my research of the S.S. Roosevelt. Through newspaper articles of the 1920s I identified Fried as the captain with whom Parker, Benchley, and Hemingway actually dined on the crossing to France.

  Dorothy Parker came to love the Murphys. She admired their courage and stoicism in the face of tragedy, after the death of their son, Baoth, from meningitis, and several years later, following a long struggle with tuberculosis, the death of their youngest child, Patrick, each passing at the age of sixteen. Because of her high regard for them, Dorothy accompanied the Murphys to Switzerland to help where she could during the time of Patrick’s treatment, and made numerous crossings from New York to be with them.

  Picasso spent the summer of 1923 as a guest of the Murphys at the Villa America. He sketched and painted numerous portraits of Sara. The paintings of Gerald Murphy are in the collections of the Whitney Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the Dallas Museum of Art in Texas. His modern style prefigured the Pop Art movement. Boatdeck, which caused a sensation at the Paris exhibition of the Salon des Indépendents in 1924, has been lost for decades.

  Both Robert Benchley and Alexander Woollcott became lifelong friends of the couple. Harpo Marx was Aleck Woollcott’s guest for the summer at a rented villa in Antibes and saw the Murphys often.

  Sara and Gerald were parental figures to both Fitzgerald and Hemingway. F. Scott Fitzgerald dedicated his novel, Tender is the Night, to Gerald and Sara, and modeled the two main characters of that novel, Dick and Nicole Diver, after them. By the second half of the book, though, Dick and Nicole more closely resembled Scott and Zelda. The obvious portrayals were upsetting to the Murphys, because they were far from flattering; aside from the physical similarities and character traits, the actions of the characters were untrue to their natures. Still, Scott and Zelda always remained in their hearts, as did Ernest Hemingway, for whom they served as constant benefactors early in his career, reading his first drafts, encouraging his work, providing financial assistance and a home for his wife, Hadley, and son, Jack (Bumby), during the child’s illness, and paying their medical bills. As he eventually did with most people who championed his work, including his longtime mentor, Gertrude Stein, and Sherwood Anderson, Hemingway finally turned against the Murphys, quite publicly, in his memoir, A Moveable Feast, proving true the old adage that no good deed goes unpunished.

  Dorothy Parker, who, as a critic, was known to cut to the bone the work of so many artists, reviewed all of Hemingway’s novels with effusive raves. Fortunately, she was never told by her friends how Hemingway had viciously disparaged her in a verse he wrote in the fashion for which she had become famous, and which he read aloud to their mutual friends at parties. What Hemingway thought humorous was seen by her friends as a cruel attack. Among those friends was playwright Donald Ogden Stewart, who had spent much time with Hemingway in France, as well as on the trip to the Pamplona bullfights, during which Hemingway recorded the conversations of the people involved to use for dialogue, using their real names in his first drafts of The Sun Also Rises. Don Stewart never talked to Hemingway again after he ridiculed Dorothy behind her back. After Ernest Hemingway’s death, Dorothy Parker naively asked a friend, “Do you think Hemingway liked me?”

  Robert Benchley wrote the humorous French for Americans, parts of which, along with my dialogue, he recites aloud in my story.

  Praise for Dorothy Parker Mysteries

  Those of us who since childhood had wished there was a time machine that could let us experience and enjoy life in other periods, should read Agata Stanford’s “Dorothy Parker Mysteries” series. They wonderfully recreate the atmosphere and spirit of the literary and artistic crowd at the Algonquin Round Table in the 1920s, and bring back to life the wit, habits, foibles, and escapades of Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley, and Alexander Woollcott, as well as of the multitude of their friends and even their pets, both human and animal.

  —Anatole Konstantin

  Author of A Red Boyhood: Growing up under Stalin

  Agata Stanford’s “Dorothy Parker Mysteries” is destined to become a classic series. It’s an addictive cocktail for the avid mystery reader. It has it all: murder, mystery, and Marx Brothers’ mayhem. You’ll see, once you’ve taken Manhattan with the Parker/Benchley crowd. Dorothy Parker wins! Move over, Nick and Nora.

  —Elizabeth Fuller

  Author of Me and Jezebel

  Dorothy Parker and the Regulars of the Algonquin Hotel Round Table are alive and well in Agata Stanford’s The Broadway Murders. Descriptions are fantastic in this who-dunnit as Stanford writes very colorfully. This is an adult’s picture book, too, which in the end turned out to be pretty terrific.

  —Terri Ann Armstrong

  Author of “Medieval Menace” for Suspense Magazine

  If you like murder mysteries, the fast-paced action, witty conversation, and glib repartee of the flapper era, you will love Agata Stanford’s recreation of the atmosphere of the crowd at the Algonquin Round Table in the 1920s.

  —Mr. Tomato

  for TheThreeTomatoes.com

  Dorothy is presented with wit and sarcasm sprinkled with tremendous insight. The life she lived is believably recreated, including the escapades of the Marx Brothers, the late nights of theater and dinners, even the famous speakeasy they drank at; all serve as backdrop to the investigation. The writing style affects the breezy language and popular slang to further transport you to that era when jazz artists and flappers coined modern terms. It is a heady mix and an escapist pleasure.

  —A.F. Heart

  for Mysteries and Musings

  About the Author

  Agata Stanford is an actress, director, and playwright who grew up in New York City. While attending the School of Performing Arts, she’d often walk past the Algonquin Hotel, which sparked her early interest in the legendary Algonquin Round Table.