F. Scott Fitzgerald in Drag (1916)

It has been said that the dom­i­nant influ­ences on F. Scott Fitzger­ald were lit­er­a­ture, Zel­da, alco­hol, and Prince­ton. The pho­tos above were tak­en dur­ing the nov­el­ist’s Prince­ton days, where he played an active role in The Prince­ton Tri­an­gle Club, writ­ing scripts and lyrics for what’s now the old­est col­le­giate musi­cal-com­e­dy troupe in the US. After Fitzger­ald failed sev­er­al exams, he was barred from per­form­ing in the club’s 1916 musi­cal pro­duc­tion, The Evil Eye!. A shame, giv­en that he co-wrote the script. But F. Scott was­n’t going to be com­plete­ly denied. Yes, he posed in drag for a pub­lic­i­ty pho­to that appeared in The New York Times on Jan­u­ary 2, 1916. The news­pa­per called him “the most beau­ti­ful” girl in the show.

H/T Retro­naut

Relat­ed Con­tent:

F. Scott Fitzger­ald Cre­ates a List of 22 Essen­tial Books, 1936

F. Scott Fitzger­ald Reads From Shakespeare’s Oth­el­lo and John Masefield’s “On Grow­ing Old” (c.1940)

Ernest Hem­ing­way to F. Scott Fitzger­ald: “Kiss My Ass”

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