WEBVTT 00:00:03.930 --> 00:00:09.478 Zelda Fitzgerald spent years in and out of psychiatric hospitals. After nearly a decade of 00:00:09.478 --> 00:00:16.068 failed treatments, her doctors thought that electroshock therapy would help her. Sadly, 00:00:16.399 --> 00:00:19.079 it would be the reason for her gruesome end. 00:00:23.739 --> 00:00:29.138 Zelda Fitzgerald was a young Southern belle before she became a rebellious flapper who 00:00:29.138 --> 00:00:35.020 became an icon of the roaring twenties. From her toxic marriage to her years struggling with 00:00:35.020 --> 00:00:41.859 her mental health all the way to her terrible end, Zelda's life was both fascinating and 00:00:41.859 --> 00:00:48.658 tragic. Born to a prominent and wealthy Southern family, Zelda Sayre wanted for nothing 00:00:48.658 --> 00:00:54.829 in her youth except for the love and attention of her father. A state Supreme Court justice 00:00:54.829 --> 00:01:00.810 who was largely absent, this family dynamic had a very negative effect on the young girl. 00:01:01.509 --> 00:01:07.469 As a teen, Zelda was bored at school and found excitement in increasingly more scandalous 00:01:07.469 --> 00:01:13.870 places. Though Southern women were expected to be demure and well behaved, Zelda had a wild 00:01:13.870 --> 00:01:20.808 side. She smoked, drank, and spent all her spare time flirting with boys. She got away 00:01:20.808 --> 00:01:27.588 with it thanks to her family's sterling reputation. Zelda definitely had a flair for 00:01:27.588 --> 00:01:33.629 the dramatic, and it began when she was still quite young. Alongside her childhood friend and 00:01:33.629 --> 00:01:40.230 future Hollywood megastar Tallulah Bankhead, Zelda was a magnet for local gossip. When 00:01:40.230 --> 00:01:45.629 neighbors began to whisper that she was seen swimming naked, she made a skin-colored bathing 00:01:45.629 --> 00:01:52.609 suit to play into the scandalous rumors. While Zelda was still just 18, she met 00:01:52.609 --> 00:01:57.888 an aspiring writer named F. Scott Fitzgerald. At the time, he was volunteering in the 00:01:57.888 --> 00:02:04.319 military and stationed near her hometown of Montgomery, Alabama. Upon meeting her, Scott 00:02:04.319 --> 00:02:11.080 showered her with attention, calling her daily and visiting whenever he could. But this was no 00:02:11.080 --> 00:02:17.770 casual crush. Scott Fitzgerald immediately began to rewrite his characters to reflect 00:02:17.770 --> 00:02:23.939 Zelda's looks and personality. He also copied from her letters and diary and inserted 00:02:23.939 --> 00:02:30.528 passages of her writing into his own. At one point, he even showed Zelda's diary to his 00:02:30.528 --> 00:02:37.409 friends, and they contemplated publishing it. From the beginning, Zelda had her own 00:02:37.409 --> 00:02:42.889 ideas. She had suitors lining up to take her out, and she would sometimes use them to make 00:02:42.889 --> 00:02:49.770 Scott jealous. But then everything changed. The army was sending Scott to France, and 00:02:49.770 --> 00:02:52.929 he fully expected to die in combat. 00:02:57.879 --> 00:03:04.319 While waiting to go to France, World War 1 suddenly ended. Scott was able to return to 00:03:04.319 --> 00:03:10.429 Zelda, who was in Montgomery, where they spent the next 4 months together. He decided that 00:03:10.429 --> 00:03:17.219 he'd go to New York City to make his name. There was just one problem. Zelda had no 00:03:17.219 --> 00:03:23.419 interest in marrying a man with no job and no money. She stayed back at home and waited for 00:03:23.419 --> 00:03:29.250 him to prove himself. Within months of arriving in New York, Scott finished his first 00:03:29.250 --> 00:03:35.838 novel, This Side of Paradise. It included passages taken directly from Zelda's letters to 00:03:35.838 --> 00:03:41.838 him. The novel came out and Zelda traveled to New York City. Days later, they were married. 00:03:42.770 --> 00:03:49.330 Just like in Montgomery, Zelda quickly became famous for her wild behavior in New York. She 00:03:49.330 --> 00:03:56.008 could be found dancing in fountains or on top of cars, but she sometimes went too far. 00:03:56.569 --> 00:04:02.689 Drinking was a problem for both her and Scott. Behind closed doors, they fought 00:04:02.689 --> 00:04:08.689 terribly. They were kicked out of multiple hotels for their disorderly behavior. In 00:04:08.689 --> 00:04:14.258 1921, the Fitzgeralds' hard parting lifestyle was briefly put on hold when Zelda became 00:04:14.258 --> 00:04:20.290 pregnant. She gave birth to their first child, Francis Scotty Fitzgerald, but she didn't 00:04:20.290 --> 00:04:26.500 exactly take to motherhood and the domestic lifestyle. Another pregnancy followed, but they 00:04:26.500 --> 00:04:33.290 didn't end up having the child. More and more people were becoming enchanted with Zelda, and 00:04:33.290 --> 00:04:38.269 she began to write short stories and essays as well, but the good times couldn't last forever. 00:04:40.798 --> 00:04:46.920 After a failed play written by Fitzgerald, the couple was broke and getting desperate, so they 00:04:46.920 --> 00:04:53.338 came up with a plan. Zelda and Scott packed up their things and moved to France. Scott began 00:04:53.338 --> 00:04:58.980 working on his next novel, which left Zelda with a lot of time on her hands, and she spent 00:04:58.980 --> 00:05:05.238 that time in a very scandalous way. She started seeing a young French pilot named 00:05:05.238 --> 00:05:10.720 Edouard S. Jozin, who was stationed on the air base near their home on the French Riviera. 00:05:11.488 --> 00:05:17.500 After weeks of afternoons on the beach and nights spent dancing with Josanne, Zelda told 00:05:17.500 --> 00:05:24.160 Scott she wanted a divorce. At first he asked to meet with Josanne, but ultimately 00:05:24.540 --> 00:05:31.278 he decided on a different course of action. He locked Zelda in their house in Nantib until she 00:05:31.278 --> 00:05:37.920 agreed to stay with him. Zelda was ready to leave her family for Edouard, but Edouard left 00:05:37.920 --> 00:05:44.778 the Riviera, not knowing about Zelda's plan. She never saw him again. Zelda did 00:05:44.778 --> 00:05:51.699 her best to keep up a brave face, but beneath the surface she was struggling. Late one night, 00:05:51.939 --> 00:05:57.738 Scott appeared at a friend's door, desperate and afraid. Zelda had taken too many sleeping 00:05:57.738 --> 00:06:04.459 pills, and he was at a loss for what to do. The friends, Gerald and Sarah Murphy, hurried 00:06:04.459 --> 00:06:09.838 back to the Fitzgeralds' home. Where they were confronted with a troubling scene. 00:06:11.238 --> 00:06:16.040 Sarah did everything she could to help Zelda. Somehow they made it through this terrible 00:06:16.040 --> 00:06:22.559 ordeal. The Murphys had no idea why Zelda had chosen to do something so drastic, but one 00:06:22.559 --> 00:06:28.298 thing was clear things weren't as they appeared between Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald. 00:06:29.759 --> 00:06:34.869 After that night, the Fitzgeralds traveled for a time and eventually settled down in Paris, 00:06:35.278 --> 00:06:42.238 where they met Ernest Hemingway and his wife Hadley. The two couples became very close. The 00:06:42.238 --> 00:06:48.879 truth was that Ernest and Zelda just didn't get along. She thought he was full of 00:06:48.879 --> 00:06:54.920 it, and he thought she was too much, but there was another reason for all of the tension. 00:06:57.369 --> 00:07:03.928 Zelda accused her husband of having an affair with Ernest Hemingway. Scott's response was 00:07:03.928 --> 00:07:10.009 deeply misguided. In an attempt to defend himself, he deliberately staged evidence of a 00:07:10.009 --> 00:07:16.329 relationship with another woman for Zelda to find. Unsurprisingly, this only escalated their 00:07:16.329 --> 00:07:23.290 conflict, leading to arguments that grew longer and more bitter than ever. At 00:07:23.290 --> 00:07:28.519 the beginning of their relationship, Zelda and Scott's dramatic antics always had an 00:07:28.519 --> 00:07:35.230 undercurrent of fun and mischief. Now the fun was gone, especially for Zelda. 00:07:35.420 --> 00:07:41.750 The drinking, flirting, and dancing on tables seemed more like a joyless performance. During 00:07:41.750 --> 00:07:46.350 the Fitzgeralds' years in Europe. Scott had written and published The Great Gatsby, his 00:07:46.350 --> 00:07:52.389 most celebrated novel, but the couple's time in Paris had done serious damage to their 00:07:52.389 --> 00:07:58.790 relationship as well. They needed a change, and that's when they received an offer from 00:07:58.790 --> 00:08:05.329 Hollywood. Naturally, the Fitzgeralds jumped right into the Hollywood party scene. At one of 00:08:05.329 --> 00:08:11.639 these parties, Scott met an up and coming starlet named Lois Moran. She was just 17 years 00:08:11.639 --> 00:08:18.528 old. He was 31. Soon they began a passionate affair right under Zelda's nose. 00:08:19.619 --> 00:08:25.858 Zelda had always been her husband's muse, but now he was basing his new characters on Moran. 00:08:26.439 --> 00:08:32.599 Zelda lashed out one night while Scott was out at dinner with Lois. Zelda took her expensive 00:08:32.599 --> 00:08:38.879 clothes out of the closet and burned them in the bathtub. After this incident, the couple 00:08:38.879 --> 00:08:43.869 decided to move to Delaware, where Scott could write and their daughter Scottie could be with 00:08:43.869 --> 00:08:50.460 her parents. Zelda took up painting and ballet , but it wasn't enough to occupy 00:08:50.629 --> 00:08:57.119 her troubled mind. After two relatively unproductive years in Delaware, the Fitzgeralds 00:08:57.119 --> 00:09:02.918 returned to Europe this time with little Scottie. While there, Zelda wrote a series of 00:09:02.918 --> 00:09:08.759 short stories, but when it came time to publish them, she experienced a terrible 00:09:08.759 --> 00:09:15.509 betrayal. The magazine she had been writing for wanted to publish Zelda's stories under her 00:09:15.509 --> 00:09:22.149 husband's name. They offered a payday so large that the Fitzgeralds couldn't say no. Once 00:09:22.149 --> 00:09:28.399 again she had to put her own needs aside so Scott could shine. Between writing and her 00:09:28.399 --> 00:09:34.558 daily dance lessons, Zelda was exhausted both mentally and physically. She was struggling, 00:09:34.719 --> 00:09:37.798 but no one knew exactly what was around the corner. 00:09:43.960 --> 00:09:48.908 One day while the family was driving in France , Zelda grabbed a hold of the car's steering 00:09:48.908 --> 00:09:55.849 wheel and attempted to drive it off a cliff. Luckily they survived, but it was 00:09:55.849 --> 00:10:02.658 clear that Zelda had reached a breaking point. In 1930, Zelda Fitzgerald finally sought 00:10:02.658 --> 00:10:08.070 treatment at a hospital on the outskirts of Paris. Three days later she left abruptly 00:10:08.070 --> 00:10:13.869 against her doctor's wishes. It was a horrible mistake. She threw herself into ballet once 00:10:13.869 --> 00:10:17.808 again, but what she really needed was professional help. 00:10:21.109 --> 00:10:26.820 For the next month Zelda slowly became more and more incoherent, and her bad dreams began 00:10:26.820 --> 00:10:30.558 to creep into reality. She desperately needed help. 00:10:33.609 --> 00:10:39.538 Eventually, Scott was able to persuade her to go to a psychiatric facility in Switzerland. 00:10:40.090 --> 00:10:45.678 There, doctors diagnosed Zelda Fitzgerald with schizophrenia, and she spent months recovering 00:10:45.678 --> 00:10:52.558 on the shores of Lake Geneva. While there, Scott wrote to her. Shockingly. Instead 00:10:52.558 --> 00:10:57.759 of letting her rest, he asked the doctor when she would be able to help him edit something he 00:10:57.759 --> 00:11:03.440 was working on. Zelda Fitzgerald had plenty of ups and downs during her time in Switzerland. 00:11:04.168 --> 00:11:10.320 Visits from Scott and Scotty were especially difficult for her. Eventually, Zelda left the 00:11:10.320 --> 00:11:16.558 facility after 1 year and 3 months. She sailed back to the US with Fitzgerald and Scotty. 00:11:19.369 --> 00:11:24.759 They went to Alabama so Zelda could be with her family. This may not have been the best 00:11:24.759 --> 00:11:31.119 decision. Zelda's father was extremely ill. Ever the thoughtful husband, Scott went off to 00:11:31.119 --> 00:11:36.479 Hollywood to work on another screenplay. He was gone when Zelda's father died, leaving her 00:11:36.479 --> 00:11:43.460 to deal with the logistics and grief alone. Sadly, only 00:11:43.460 --> 00:11:50.109 5 months later, Zelda was hospitalized once again. This time, Zelda sought treatment 00:11:50.109 --> 00:11:54.668 stateside at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. She was able to focus on her 00:11:54.668 --> 00:12:01.580 recovery, and the results were jaw-dropping. She wrote an entire novel, Save Me 00:12:01.580 --> 00:12:06.899 the Waltz, in her 1st 6 weeks there, which she submitted to Scott's publisher. 00:12:07.700 --> 00:12:14.298 Unfortunately, the publisher sent it to Scott, who was absolutely furious with 00:12:14.298 --> 00:12:21.000 Zelda. The novel was largely based on the ups and downs of their 00:12:21.000 --> 00:12:27.070 relationship. That didn't bother him too much. He was furious because he had been working on a 00:12:27.070 --> 00:12:31.139 novel for years, a novel based on their complicated marriage. 00:12:38.418 --> 00:12:44.210 Scott confronted Zelda about her novel and gave her an ultimatum. He wanted her to remove 00:12:44.210 --> 00:12:50.879 the parts that he found objectionable, the parts he wanted to use in his novel. 00:12:51.460 --> 00:12:58.399 He said she was a third-rate writer and that she had plagiarized his work. Maybe 00:12:58.399 --> 00:13:04.590 he simply forgot that he plagiarized her letters and diaries all the time. Worse still, 00:13:05.009 --> 00:13:10.570 the publisher only agreed to a small run of the book, just a few 1000 copies. Once 00:13:10.570 --> 00:13:16.330 published, it did not sell out, and critics didn't seem to care for it either. Now Zelda 00:13:16.330 --> 00:13:22.099 had to contend with her husband's criticism and the book's failure. It was absolutely 00:13:22.239 --> 00:13:28.109 devastating. In 00:13:28.109 --> 00:13:33.019 1934, a gallery exhibited a number of paintings that Zelda had made throughout the 00:13:33.019 --> 00:13:38.320 years, including some that she painted during her stay at the hospital. As with the novel, 00:13:38.399 --> 00:13:43.969 the reception for her art wasn't what she wanted it to be. After feeling so much 00:13:43.969 --> 00:13:49.719 rejection for her work, Zelda was never quite the same again. Her struggles with mental 00:13:49.719 --> 00:13:55.769 illness continued and became even worse. Scott felt that he had no choice but to hospitalize 00:13:55.769 --> 00:14:02.190 her, this time in Asheville, North Carolina. Then he left to take on a job in Hollywood, 00:14:02.649 --> 00:14:07.950 where he found a distraction. While Scott was in Hollywood, he had an affair with gossip 00:14:07.950 --> 00:14:13.690 columnist Sheila Graham. By this time, the Great Depression had hit, and people were less 00:14:13.690 --> 00:14:20.440 charmed by Fitzgerald's characters and their lavish lifestyles, and his royalties slowed 00:14:20.440 --> 00:14:26.168 down to a trickle. He still had Zelda's massive medical bills to cover, not to mention 00:14:26.168 --> 00:14:32.489 his own. Scott's many years of heavy drinking had finally caught up with him, and he had his 00:14:32.489 --> 00:14:38.109 own share of medical problems. And who did he blame for his troubles? 00:14:38.950 --> 00:14:44.690 Zelda, of course. Scott continued feeling angry towards Zelda from afar while she 00:14:44.690 --> 00:14:51.009 recovered in Asheville. This anger eventually started to affect his new relationship. He had 00:14:51.009 --> 00:14:56.869 a violent fight with Graham and fled Los Angeles to see Zelda. He stepped off the plane 00:14:56.869 --> 00:15:03.779 still drunk, and whisked Zelda off to Cuba. It was a truly terrible trip. Scott confronted 00:15:03.779 --> 00:15:09.460 a group of strangers, and they assaulted him. He spent the rest of the trip drinking heavily. 00:15:11.048 --> 00:15:17.330 When they returned to New York, Zelda had to check him into a hospital. After contacting her 00:15:17.330 --> 00:15:22.359 in-laws to take care of Scott while he was in the hospital, she said farewell to him and 00:15:22.359 --> 00:15:27.548 returned to Asheville. Despite the circumstances, the trip had rekindled their 00:15:27.548 --> 00:15:32.629 feelings towards each other somewhat, and the letters they wrote during this time showed a 00:15:32.629 --> 00:15:39.210 certain fondness. Zelda petitioned her doctors to allow her release from the 00:15:39.210 --> 00:15:46.009 hospital in 1940. After four years, she finally got her way. She went to live with her 00:15:46.009 --> 00:15:52.288 mother, but Scott barely had the money to send to support her. Then a few months later, the 00:15:52.288 --> 00:15:53.479 unthinkable happened. 00:15:59.849 --> 00:16:05.960 Zelda ultimately survived her husband, who died suddenly in 1940 while at home with Sheila 00:16:05.960 --> 00:16:12.769 Graham. Zelda was heartbroken. She wasn't able to 00:16:12.769 --> 00:16:18.649 attend his funeral, but she did get her hands on the manuscript of his final novel which she 00:16:18.649 --> 00:16:22.479 cherished and which helped her to get through the loss of her husband. 00:16:26.969 --> 00:16:31.798 After Scott's death, Zelda began working on another novel, and she continued to struggle 00:16:31.798 --> 00:16:37.190 with her mental health. Eventually she returned to the hospital and her doctors in 00:16:37.190 --> 00:16:43.440 Asheville where she was in and out for the next few years. However, this time the 00:16:43.440 --> 00:16:49.139 experience was very different. Zelda had written Save Me the Waltz in a frantic six-week 00:16:49.139 --> 00:16:55.538 period during her first time at the hospital in Asheville. She had no such luck this time 00:16:55.538 --> 00:17:00.940 around. Not only could Zelda not complete the novel, but her mental state deteriorated. 00:17:01.379 --> 00:17:08.250 Finally, doctors decided on an experimental treatment that seemed promising. But 00:17:08.250 --> 00:17:14.900 which would sadly not end well. Zelda Fitzgerald began receiving 00:17:14.900 --> 00:17:21.459 electroshock therapy, and one evening in 1948, nurses prepared her for a course of 00:17:21.459 --> 00:17:27.920 treatment. They gave her sedatives and locked the door to her room. It was then that disaster 00:17:27.920 --> 00:17:33.680 struck. A fire began in the kitchen of the hospital, and it quickly spread throughout the 00:17:33.680 --> 00:17:40.660 facility. While Zelda sat waiting. Smoke began to fill the room, and eventually flames. 00:17:41.029 --> 00:17:47.699 Zelda died inside the hospital along with 8 other women. She was only 47 years old. 00:17:49.000 --> 00:17:54.680 Just days before her tragic death, Zelda wrote a letter to her daughter Scottie, and it was 00:17:54.680 --> 00:18:01.189 heartbreaking. In it, Zelda shared how much she wanted to meet Scottie's newborn daughter, 00:18:01.390 --> 00:18:06.809 her 2nd grandchild. Sadly, that meeting never happened. 00:18:08.118 --> 00:18:13.640 When Scott and Zelda died, there was little fanfare. She was buried next to him after a 00:18:13.640 --> 00:18:19.578 sparsely attended service. His career had floundered long before he passed. She had been 00:18:19.578 --> 00:18:25.689 out of the public eye for decades, but then in the years that followed, something strange 00:18:25.689 --> 00:18:31.549 happened. People began to revisit not only their writing but their life story and found it 00:18:31.549 --> 00:18:37.900 fascinating. A landmark biography of Zelda followed. And it exposed all of the 00:18:37.900 --> 00:18:44.828 secrets the Fitzgeralds had long kept hidden. For many years, Scott's friends had painted 00:18:44.828 --> 00:18:49.949 Zelda as a burden on him, the thing that brought him down both personally and 00:18:49.949 --> 00:18:56.509 professionally. The book Zelda, a biography, revealed the extent to which Scott had 00:18:56.509 --> 00:19:02.750 plagiarized from his wife, how controlling he was, and how he'd done his best to stomp out 00:19:02.750 --> 00:19:09.150 her creative flame. It also exposed the jealousy and affairs that had defined their 00:19:09.150 --> 00:19:15.250 tumultuous relationship and another secret that Zelda had kept over the years. 00:19:16.420 --> 00:19:21.660 When the Fitzgeralds moved to the French Riviera, Zelda had famously fallen for a man 00:19:21.660 --> 00:19:28.219 named Edouard S. Jozin. And demanded a divorce . Years later, Jazan 00:19:28.219 --> 00:19:34.289 revealed the surprising truth about his time with Zelda. Though they spent time together as 00:19:34.289 --> 00:19:39.598 friends, he claimed that they never actually had an affair and that the couple had 00:19:39.598 --> 00:19:46.500 embellished the story to feed their need for drama. Thanks for watching History 00:19:46.500 --> 00:19:52.140 Expose. If you love uncovering the best stories in history, hit like and subscribe to 00:19:52.140 --> 00:19:57.739 keep exploring with us. Don't forget to visit our main page Factinate for more incredible 00:19:57.739 --> 00:19:59.519 facts about everything.