Manhattan slang (1936)

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   An enjoyable slang article, from Ancestry.com.


   9 October 1936, CHARLESTON DAILY MAIL (Charleston, West Virginia), pg. 8,
col. 8:
_Trails on Broadway_
_With George Ross_
   NEW YORK.--The Manhattan linguist is not a product of a School of
Languages.  He is a slang expert.  He must know pidgeon English, TImes Square prattle,
ball park banter, Tin Pan Alley lingo and the strange argot of Madison Square
Garden.  For each of Gotham's coteries has a tongue of its own.
   This is the fantastic jargon of the soda jerkers: "Axle grease" is butter,
"pin a rose" is to place a slice of onion on a hamburger, and a "midget from
Harlem" is a small chocolate soda.  "One on the city" is a request for a glass
of water, "toast two on a slice of squeal" is ham and eggs and a "George
Eddy" is the chap who leaves no tip.
   Who is "George Eddy"?  "Probably some guy," one of the soda dispensers
told me, "who came in every afternoon a long time ago for a 'twist it, choke it
and make it squeal'--and never dropped a dime."  A "twist it, choke it and make
it squeal" is a plain, ordinary egg malted milk!
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   The town's taxi-drivers have a tongue which baffles even the most talented
Manhattan interpreters.  The taximeter is a "glom," a "rip" is a call that
averaged over two dollars and a "howcase" is the label handed to a new
conveyance.  If a driver gets an order from a dreamy-eyed couple to drive them around
the park he tells his confreres that he had a "mugger rip."  The decrepit,
wheezing cabs which rattle along the city's streets are known as "tin fannys."
And if you happed to climb into a cab manned by a particularly talkative pilot
there is some comfort in knowing that the boys in the profession would dub him
"a coffee-pot lawyer"...
   Even the salesgirls in this town have developed a jargon of their own.  A
"B. H." is a bargain hunter, and "the reds" are those customers who argue with
a salesgal to a point bordering on exhaustion.  A shopper who unfolds her
life story while purchasing a pair of stockings or a handkerchief is known as
"Gabby Gertie," and "a sub-deb" is a little old lady who wears junior miss sizes.
 When the department buyer heaves into view, the girls behind the counter
have their own conversational code to tip-off their co-workers--simply "the Queen
Bee is coming."...
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   Up around the Yankee stadium and the Polo grounds, slang is a finely
developed art.  And yet the boys in the grandstand and those down on the base-paths
 each speak a set of phrases that is totally different.  To a baseball fan, a
scratch hit can mean but one thing, but to the fellows in uniform it can be a
"nubber," "blooper," "bleeder" or "squib."
   The man with the score-card calls a left-handed pitcher "a south-paw," but
the ball players themselves would more than likely call him "cockeyed,"
"twirly thumbs" or "corkscrew."  A "sugarbrush" is a rookie, and a good curve ball
is "a sugar handle."  Ballplayers never speak of a "beanball" or "dusting
so-and-so off."  With them it's "sticking it in somebody's ear."
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   But leave it to Broadway to spawn the most bewildering and colorful
contributions to Manhattan's collection of slang.
  For example: an actor is a "MacAvoy" when he steals bows, a "short con" is
a small time moocher, and all piano players are "organ grinders."  When a
stage director says the spotlight on the feminine per- "spot the doll" he means
"throw former." (A word missing here?--ed.) "Laying an egg" means that a show or
entertainer flops badly; and an acrobat has to go through life with the tag
"kinker" attached to him.