November 27, 2007

Flapper Girls at Wilson and Sheridan, Nirvana by Ben Hecht with 1922 Life Magazine Flapper

Life Magazine

Life Magazine

Purchase print here.




Flapper girls had their origins in the 1920s with the popular contempt for prohibition. The term referred to the “new breed” of young women who wore short skirts, bobbed their hair, listened to jazz, and flaunted their disdain for what was considered decent behavior. The flappers were seen as brash in their time for wearing makeup, drinking hard liqour, and smoking. This gorgeous painting of a flapper girl graced the cover of the February 2, 1922 edition of Life Magazine.

Novelist and prolific screenwriter Ben Hecht (1893–1964) grew up in Racine, Wisconsin. As a young man he moved to Chicago, where he became a reporter for the Chicago Journal and the Chicago Daily News and contributed to Margaret Anderson’s literary journal The Little Review. At the Daily News he wrote the sensational column “1001 Afternoons in Chicago,” where this short story about Uptown was first published (text courtesy Project Gutenberg). He later went on to write 35 books and more than seventy films.


***


The newspaper man felt a bit pensive. He sat in his bedroom frowning at his typewriter. About eight years ago he had decided to write a novel. Not that he had anything particular in his mind to write about. But the city was such a razzle-dazzle of dreams, tragedies, fantasies; such a crazy monotone of streets and windows that it filled the newspaper man’s thought from day to day with an irritating blur.
And for eight years or so the newspaper man had been fumbling around trying to get it down on paper. But no novel had grown out of the blur in his head.

* * * * *

The newspaper man put on his last year’s straw hat and went into the street, taking his pensiveness with him. Warm. Rows of arc lights. A shifting crowd. There are some streets that draw aimless feet. The blazing store fronts, clothes shops, candy shops, drug-stores, Victrola shops, movie theatres invite with the promise of a saturnalia in suspense.

At Wilson Avenue and Sheridan Road the newspaper man paused. Here the loneliness he had felt in his bedroom seemed to grow more acute. Not only his own aimlessness, but the aimlessness of the staring, smiling crowd afflicted him.

Then out of the babble of faces he heard his name called. A rouged young flapper, high heeled, short skirted and a jaunty green hat. One of the impudent little swaggering boulevard promenaders who talk like simpletons and dance like Salomes, who laugh like parrots and ogle like Pierettes. The birdlike strut of her silkened legs, the brazen lure of her stenciled child face, the lithe grimace of her adolescent body under the stiff coloring of her clothes were a part of the blur in the newspaper man’s mind.
She was one of the things he fumbled for on the typewriter—one of the city products born of the tinpan bacchanal of the cabarets. A sort of frontispiece for an Irving Berlin ballad. The caricature of savagery that danced to the caricature of music from the jazz bands. The newspaper man smiled. Looking at her he understood her. But she would not fit into the typewritten phrases.

“Wilson Avenue,” he thought, as he walked beside her chatter. “The wise, brazen little virgins who shimmy and toddle, but never pay the fiddler. She’s it. Selling her ankles for a glass of pop and her eyes for a fox trot. Unhuman little piece. A cross between a macaw and a marionette.”

* * * * *

Thus, the newspaper man thinking and the flapper flapping, they came together to a cabaret in the neighborhood. The orchestra filled the place with confetti of sound. Laughter, shouts, a leap of voices, blazing lights, perspiring waiters, faces and hats thrusting vivid stencils through the uncoiling tinsel of tobacco smoke.

On the dance floor bodies hugging, toddling, shimmying; faces fastened together; eyes glassy with incongruous ecstasies.

The newspaper man ordered two drinks of moonshine and let the scene blur before him like a colored picture puzzle out of focus. Above the music he heard the childishly strident voice of the flapper:
“Where you been hiding yourself? I thought you and I were cookies. Well, that’s the way with you Johns. But there’s enough to go around, you can bet. Say boy! I met the classiest John the other evening in front of the Hopper. Did he have class, boy! You know there are some of these fancy Johns who look like they were the class. But are they? Ask me. Nix. And don’t I give them the berries, quick? Say, I don’t let any John get moldy on me. Soon as I see they’re heading for a dumb time I say ’razzberry.’ And off your little sugar toddles.”

“How old are you?” inquired the newspaper man abstractedly.

“Eighteen, nosey. Why the insult? I got a new job yesterday with the telephone company. That makes my sixth job this year. Tell me that ain’t going good? One of the Johns I met in front of the Edgewater steered me to it. He turned out kind of moldy, and say! he was dumb. But I played along and got the job.

“Say, I bet you never noticed my swell kicks.” The flapper thrust forth her legs and twirled her feet. “Classy, eh? They go with the lid pretty nice. Say, you’re kind of dumb yourself. You’ve got moldy since I saw you last.”

“How’d you remember my name?” inquired the newspaper man.

“Oh, there are some Johns who tip over the oil can right from the start. And you never forget them. Nobody could forget you, handsome. Never no more, never. What do you say to another shot of hootch? The stuff’s getting rottener and rottener, don’t you think? Come on, swallow. Here’s how. Oh, ain’t we got fun!”

* * * * *

The orchestra paused. It resumed. The crowd thickened. Shouts, laughter, swaying bodies. A tinkle of glassware, snort of trombones, whang of banjos. The newspaper man looked on and listened through a film.

The brazen patter of his young friend rippled on. A growing gamin coarseness in her talk with a nervous, restless twitter underneath. Her dark child eyes, perverse under their touch of black paint, swung eagerly through the crowd. Her talk of Johns, of dumb times and moldy times, of classy times and classy memories varied only slightly. She liked dancing and amusement parks. Automobile riding not so good. And besides you had to be careful. There were some Johns who thought it cute to play caveman. Yes, she’d had a lot of close times, but they wouldn’t get her. Never, no, never no more. Anyway, not while there was music and dancing and a whoop-de-da-da in the amusement parks.
The newspaper man, listening, thought, “An infant gone mad with her dolls. Or no, vice has lost its humanness. She’s the symbol of new sin—the unhuman, passionless whirligig of baby girls and baby boys through the cabarets.”

* * * * *

They came back from a dance and continued to sit. The din was still mounting. Entertainers fighting against the racket. Music fighting against the racket. Bored men and women finally achieving a bedlam and forgetting themselves in the artifice of confusion.

The newspaper man looking at his young friend saw her taking it in. There was something he had been trying to fathom about her during her breathless chattering. She talked, danced, whirled, laughed, let loose giggling cries. And yet her eyes, the part that the rouge pot or the bead stick couldn’t reach, seemed to grow deader and deader.

The jazz band let out the crash of a new melody. The voices of the crowd rose in an “ah-ah-ah.” Waiters were shoving fresh tables into the place, squeezing fresh arrivals around them.

The flapper had paused in her breathless rigmarole of Johns and memories. Leaning forward suddenly she cried into the newspaper man’s ear above the racket:

“Say this is a dumb place.”

The newspaper man smiled.

“Ain’t it, though?” she went on. There was a pause and then the breathless voice sighed. She spoke.

“Gee!”—with a laugh that still seemed breathless—“gee, but it’s lonely here!”

16 comments:

Joseph Arain said...

Cricket viewers in the United States can watch ICC T20 Cricket World Cup 2021 live coverage on Willow TV and Sky Sports Cricket to broadcast live coverage in the United Kingdom, while cricket viewers in the UK can tune to NOW TV and Sky Go for online live streaming score apps of matches.


World Cup 2021 live matches in India will be accessible on the Star Sports organization. Additionally, the live streaming will be accessible on Disney+HotStar Vip and Premium. Star Sports have the authority rights to broadcast all huge ICC occasions in India from 2015 to 2023. Star Sports have a wide scope of channels to bring to the table live matches inclusion in various provincial Indian dialects. You can watch Men's T20 World Cup Live Streaming matches on Star Sports 1, Star Sports 2, Star Sports 3, and Star Sports 1 in Hindi.

ICC T20 World Cup Schedule 2021 PDF Download for Indian Match Date and Time, Venue, and Stadiums List is released. 2021 ICC Men’s T20 WC is held in Oman and UAE Cricket Stadiums. Now T20 CWC LiveICC T20 World Cup Match Schedule 2021 has been released by BCCI a few hours ago. It will be played in UAE and Oman across four venues – Dubai International Stadium, the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi, the Sharjah Stadium, and the Oman Cricket Academy Ground.

Taylors Smith said...

A robotic pool vacuum is, mostly, totally self-contained. It usually has two motors. One that drives the scrubbing brushes and the wheels or tracks and another that pumps water through a filter to collect the debris and dirt.https://wisereviews.com.au/best-robotic-pool-cleaners.html

Ejustice.PK said...

We are the best law firm in Pakistan. Among the best lawyers in Lahore Pakistan, Nazia Advocate in Lahore Pakistan is best lawyer in Pakistan.

Greece Power Ball said...

Uk49s lunchtime results of 2022 is announced. New results for Lunchtime Result today is published here. Old UK49s lunch results for South Africa/UK and UK ...

Greece Power Ball said...

The Greece Powerball, better known as TZOKER (Joker) is held three times a week, on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. The draw takes place at 22:00.
https://thabani.co.za/

Baron Silva said...

Bravo TV allows you to watch the latest episodes and stream live programming on your favorite streaming devices like Roku, Android TV, Apple TV, and Fire TV through a simple activation process. To get the Bravo TV app on your streaming device, just install the app from the relevant application store of your streaming device/smart TV and activate it by visiting bravotv.com/link. To get complete information on the installation and activation process, follow the instructions provided below.

Baron Silva said...

To access your Yahoo Mail account on Thunderbird, you will need to set it up using the appropriate Yahoo Mail IMAP settings, Below, you can find the complete information on how to set up Yahoo Mail on Thunderbird using IMAP settings.

Baron Silva said...

If in case, you found any trouble while accessing the steps of Yahoo password recovery, get in touch with our help team to recover your email password immediately.

Baron Silva said...

With the Blaze TV app, you can watch hundreds of top TV shows like Forged in Fire, Paws, and Storage Wars. The application brings all the content from their TV channel BLAZE (not available anymore); comprising a collection of hit programming that is sure to entertain you. Well, if you are using a streaming device like Android TV, Fire TV, Roku, or Apple TV, you can easily get the Blaze TV app on them by following a simple activation process at blazetv.com/activate. However, before following the activation process, make sure you have signed up for a Blaze TV subscription. In case you haven’t bought it yet, here are the steps that will help you get one.

Baron Silva said...

Are you looking for Timesmail Timesgroup Login? Now get all the access to your account in one-click using the official links provided below:

Baron Silva said...

Way to watch USTVGO on Roku is via screen mirroring

Baron Silva said...

Are you looking for Mypage Apple Login? You can now easily access all web pages of Mypage Apple Login in one click.

johnsmith said...

Hello, I John Smith am a customer service based content writer. I write specifically about the Yahoo mail problems. If you are facing any problems with Yahoo Mail, read my blogs to help you understand and solve the issues.

Yahoo mail login error

Yahoo chat support

johnsmith said...



Hi.. I am Nick . By passion, I am a writer and by profession, My more than 5 years of experience with one of the US-based reputable payment apps have inspired and motivated me to spread knowledge about a number of money transfer applications including but limited to PayPal, Venmo, Cash App, Apple Pay, Chime, Netspend, and so on and so forth. My aim is to make the payment system hassle-free and convenient by sharing technical information.

NetSpend bank statement

How to check your NetSpend card balance

Blog said...

I just finished reading 5th articles on your blog
Live Cricket Streaming app

web said...

Thanks for this super blog

Conception Calculator

When Did I Conceive


Happy Birthday Wishes For Mom

Short Birthday Wishes For Mom

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails

LinkWithin

Related Posts Widget for Blogs by LinkWithin