Flamboozled; Dipsy-doodle; Zoot Suit; 29th Century Gabriel (1942)

[Wilson Gray]

On Feb 7, 2005, at 1:59 AM, Bapopik at AOL.COM wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Bapopik at AOL.COM
> Subject:      Flamboozled; Dipsy-doodle; Zoot Suit; 29th Century
> Gabriel (1942)
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> --------
>
> 20TH CENTURY GABRIEL (ERSKINE HAWKINS)
> ...
> I got tired and depressed and didn't read much of DOWN BEAT. No
> "hawk." I
> only wish I could help Chicago more.
> ...
> ...
> 1 January 1942, DOWN BEAT, pg. 14, col. 3 illustration:
> _Gabriel Drew Him_
> (Illustration)
> Lucky Millinder

As fate would have it, it was Lucky Millinder and his band that
recorded the instrumental, "D-Natural Blues," that I mentioned in an
earlier post.

-Wilson Gray

> , the sepia band leader who has made a nice comeback in  1941,
> is caricatured by fellow band leader Erskine Hawkins, the 20th Century
> Gabriel. Like Xavier Cugat, Hawkins wields a mean pencil in addition
> to blowing  a
> hot horn. Millinder, with Sister Rosetta Tharpe as an added
> attraction, has
> been playing the Savoy Ballroom, New York.
> ...
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> FLAMBOOZLED
> ...
> The HDAS has 1956, probably from FLA(BBERGAST( + (BAM)BOOZLED.
> ...
> I would think it's FLAM (as in flim-flam) + bamboozled.
> ...
> ...
> 1 January 1942, DOWN BEAT, pg. 5, col. 1:
> _"I Was Flamboozled!"_
> _Says Ballroom Op,_
> _After Losing 20 G's_
> ...
> Chicago--"I think I was flamboozled," said Mrs. W. L. Stearns, former
> manager of the Palladium ballroom here, after she and her husband has
> just  dropped
> $20,000 in the operation of the mammoth ballroom.
> ...
> ...
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> -------
> --------------------------------------------------------
> DIPSY-DOODLE
> ...
> The HDAS has various citations from 1943, 1951, 1954, 1983.
> ...
> ...
> 15 June 1942, DOWN BEAT, pg. 4, col. 5:
> Ben Pollack came out of the east with a new slang expression,
> "_dipsydoodlers_," referring to those location jobs on which the
> musicians are  expected to
> dig into their own pockets for office commissions, radio line  charges
> and,
> frequently, a direct bonus or premium to the operator  himself.
> ...
> ...
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
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> ZOOT SUIT
> ...
> 15 March 1942, DOWN BEAT, pg. 12, col. 4:
> _Pot Wants an "Au Reet" Zoot Suit_

"Au Reet" is probably eye-dialect for "all reet," a term still popular
down to the early '50's, like the phrase, "[she's] reet, petite, and
gone," i.e. "very attractive."

-Wilson Gray

> (Photo--ed.)
> You're not hep these days unless you're wearing a zoot suit, is the
> report
> among swing musicians today. Pot, Pan and Skillet, currently touring
> with the
> Duke Ellington ork, are knocking themselves out on a "Zoot Suit"
> sketch,
> written  by Sid Kuller. The trio introduced the sketch calling for a
> "zoot suit
> with a  reat pleat, a sadistic cape with a murderistic drape,
> shoulders extended
> solid  as intended, streamlined lining and drape-lined pockets, 53 at
> the knee
> and 7  inch cuffs."

No "drape shape" or "bluff cuffs"? ;-)

-Wilson Gray

>  Skillet and Pan are shown here carefully measuring the
> tape on Pot  so he gives his directions for the "ample 53."
> ...
> ...
> 1 April 1942, DOWN BEAT, pg. 4 ad:
> KAY KYSER

There was, in the
>  AND HIS ORCHESTRA
> Latest Columbia Recordings
> "A ZOOT SUIT"
> (FOR MY SUNDAY GAL)
>