Amy Jeanne
Call Me a Cab
- Messages
- 2,858
- Location
- Colorado
I heard Benny Goodman announce a song saying "this one rocks!" on a 1938 radio broadcast.
Amy Jeanne said:I heard Benny Goodman announce a song saying "this one rocks!" on a 1938 radio broadcast.
This list will come in handy. Im reading The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler and there were a couple terms I havnt been able to figure out.Chamorro said:1920's to 30's Slang Glossary
All in: Physically exhausted
All wet: Foolish or gravely mistaken
Alley apple: Half a paving brick. Carried in the coat pocket as a weapon. Came into use during the big union strikes during the 30's.
Altar: Toilet, toilet bowl
Artist: A skilled criminal
Baby/Baby Vamp: A popular and/or attractive girl
Baked Wind: Idle talk
Balloon: bedding, especially if carried in a roll; applied to transients
Ballon Juice: Idle or exaggerated talk
Bat: Prostitute
Bell Polisher: A boy who lingers in the lobby after dropping off a date
Bent: Criminal
Berries: Anything very good
Big Guy: God or an important official or criminal
Big Man: The Pinkerton Detective Agency or one of its men
Bird: An aviator or a popular girl
Biscuit: A flapper willing to engage in "petting"
Black Bottle: Poison
Blow Out: A big meal
Blurb: The advertising matter on a book jacket
Board Stiff: A sandwich board man
Bonehead: A fool
Boob: An Idiot
Brace (as in to brace): Ask someone for money
Break one's guts: Breaking the spirit of a prisoner by flogging
Breeze: Trivial or useless talk or information
Breezer: A convertible automobile
Broker: A drug dealer
Brush Ape: A country youth
Buck: A Catholic priest
Bull: A policeman, a cop
Bull (as in to bull): Lie or talk big
Bull Buster: One who assaults a cop
Bull Simple: Fearful of cops
Bull Wool: Cheap
Bundle (as in to Bundle): To steal
Bunk: Synthetic liquor or false goods
Bunk (as in to bunk): To conceal or fool
Burn up (as in to burn up): To defraud
Buzzer: A policeman's badge
Cackler: Perjorative name for a clerk
Cake Eater: A ladies' man
Candy Leg: A rich and popular young man
Cannon: A gun
More to come ...
This list will come in handy. Im reading The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler and there were a couple terms I havnt been able to figure out.Chamorro said:1920's to 30's Slang Glossary
All in: Physically exhausted
All wet: Foolish or gravely mistaken
Alley apple: Half a paving brick. Carried in the coat pocket as a weapon. Came into use during the big union strikes during the 30's.
Altar: Toilet, toilet bowl
Artist: A skilled criminal
Baby/Baby Vamp: A popular and/or attractive girl
Baked Wind: Idle talk
Balloon: bedding, especially if carried in a roll; applied to transients
Ballon Juice: Idle or exaggerated talk
Bat: Prostitute
Bell Polisher: A boy who lingers in the lobby after dropping off a date
Bent: Criminal
Berries: Anything very good
Big Guy: God or an important official or criminal
Big Man: The Pinkerton Detective Agency or one of its men
Bird: An aviator or a popular girl
Biscuit: A flapper willing to engage in "petting"
Black Bottle: Poison
Blow Out: A big meal
Blurb: The advertising matter on a book jacket
Board Stiff: A sandwich board man
Bonehead: A fool
Boob: An Idiot
Brace (as in to brace): Ask someone for money
Break one's guts: Breaking the spirit of a prisoner by flogging
Breeze: Trivial or useless talk or information
Breezer: A convertible automobile
Broker: A drug dealer
Brush Ape: A country youth
Buck: A Catholic priest
Bull: A policeman, a cop
Bull (as in to bull): Lie or talk big
Bull Buster: One who assaults a cop
Bull Simple: Fearful of cops
Bull Wool: Cheap
Bundle (as in to Bundle): To steal
Bunk: Synthetic liquor or false goods
Bunk (as in to bunk): To conceal or fool
Burn up (as in to burn up): To defraud
Buzzer: A policeman's badge
Cackler: Perjorative name for a clerk
Cake Eater: A ladies' man
Candy Leg: A rich and popular young man
Cannon: A gun
More to come ...
My favourite from Nana at bedtime was always "up the stairs to Bedfordshire"!
My grandmother would frequently classify something she didn't like as "for the birds." Usually punctuated with an eye-roll for good measure.
"This rain is for the birds."
Overpriced stores, waiting in line, poorly written crochet patterns, lousy hands at cards...all for the birds.
Here are some interesting sayings from the golden era:
"Beefburger - another name for hamburger, which was considered misleading"
Amtrak trains used this term on the menu in the 1980s, maybe they still do.
"Sweater girl - a movie starlet who wears tight sweaters to call attention to her bust"
Marilyn Monroe said "Take away their sweaters... and what have you got?"
and before that, Bob Hope said he had done a show for troops training in Colorado-- "It was so cold, Will Hays was wearing Lana Turner's sweater."
(Will Hays being the motion picture censor... one interpretation of the joke would be that he would no longer care if an actress was short of clothing, if he wanted to stay warm himself.) Hope followed it with, "I'm still trying to figure that one out."
When something is too easy, "that's as easy as sliding off a greasy log backward"
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I've heard many people say "as easy as falling off a log."
I understand the Yiddish expression for the easiest things translates to "like drawing a hair from milk" while the most difficult things are "like pulling a thorn through wool."
I remember when I was very young, teenagers were saying "Hubba-Hubba" (I may have the spelling wrong). I don't know what it meant exactly, but got the idea that you said it was something was really neat or beautiful, i.e., a gorgeous new car.
Does anyone know about this saying? Time-line would have been mid or late 40's.
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As was already supplied, it was usually a comment about a very pretty woman. But the first place I heard it, was when a neighbor family played baseball in their front yard. The dad, who would have been, oh, maybe 40 in 1969, would call out, "Okay, look alive, hubba-hubba..."
Later I was exposed to old movies and radio shows, where one guy would say "Would ya LOOK at HER?" And another guy would say, "Oh, hubba HUBBA!"
So for awhile I was confused...