Take a powder (Buchanan papers, ca. 1939)

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

   We don't need to guess!  Peter Tamony has collected examples of "take a
powder" and "powder."  Gerald Cohen should request this (if he wants to).
I'll jump in only if more work needs to be done.

   The Barry Buchanan papers from his unpublished ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE
ENTERTAINMENT WORLD show, in the THEATER card section:

Take a brodie
Take a call
Take a cropper
Take a curtain
Take a cut
Take a dip
Take a flyer
Take a licking
Take a powder
   Slang for, to leave; to leave without notice; to sneak away from a place.
   Cf. powder.

(I can't locate the section with "powder."  I should probably put all these
entertainment terms online, but I'm more tempted to burn everything in this
apartment and somehow start some new life, in some new city--ed.)