"Lucky Break" and more (Winchell, 1933)

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

   From Walter Winchell's column in the HAVANA EVENING TELEGRAM.

2 February 1933, pg. 2, col. 2:
   Melancholywood.

17 May 1933, pg. 2, col. 2:
   _Add Slanguage._
   The following is some backstage slang overheard while playing at the Paramount Theatre:
   "Save it"--means put out the lights..."Hit 'em with a rifle"--put them on..."Strike it"--remove scenery..."Blimp" is a camera booth..."Sink"--to synchronize..."Put a silk on"--diffuse a lamp..."Break that broad's neck!"--tilt an arc lamp...""Pep up that broad!"--make a lamp better.

23 May 1933, pg. 2, col. 2:
   _Study in Slanguage._
   A heavily saturated with Wyoming Ketchup Pete-man was doing a little chesty chatter before a group of novices in the same racket.
   "Say," he began, "when I was in my prime I only done big tings.  Only once did I flooze it up.  I was loaded with nose-paint caressing a box dat had more locks on it den Hoodeenee!  But I gave it too much soup--and blew 200 Gs into a lotta confetti, an' an exit for meself tru de ceilin'--an' before I knew it--I was chinnin' meself on da moon!"
   Pete-man (safe-cracker)...Wyoming Ketchup (hooch)...Box (safe)...Soup (TNT)...200 Gs ($200,000)...Nose-paint (pre-war).
9 September 1933, pg. 2, col. 3:
   _Things I Never Knew Before._ (...)
   That in the old days when they wanted to trim a sucker they sold him the Brooklyn Bridge.
(Winchell never knew this before?--ed.)

21 October 1933, pg. 2, col. 2:
   "You're nuttier than a fruitcake" has only been in nine movies this year.

26 October 1933, pg. 2, col. 2:
   _ORIGIN._
   They were gabbing about the origin of "lucky break" again yesterday.  One of us remarked that it is supposed to have come from circus slang meaning bad weather it it rained, snowed or chilled it "broke bad," etc.
   This argument, however, seemed more like it.  One lad thought it came from the pool rooms many years ago.  If a player pocketed one or more pills on the first break it was a "lucky break."

3 November 1933, pg. 2, col. 2:
   I see that the expression "Too, too divine!" (which has become "devoon" until I could choke) is said to have originated in Hollywood...Quiteso--after Tallulah Bankhead brought it there...But when Bankhead shieks it--she means it derisively.