Closed Room mysteries appear regularly in mystery novels, but what about real-life examples? On June 12, 1920, around 9 a.m., a housekeeper unlocked the front door to the West Seventieth Street apartment of self-made millionaire Joseph B. Elwell. There, inside the living room, she found a body sitting in a chair with a gunshot to […]

The decade of the 1920s saw rapid advances in technology, both in and out of the home. Most Americans were quick to adopt of radio, television, vacuum cleaners, electric blenders and toasters,  and telephones. Most, but not all. One small segment of the population began debating the dangers of these new technologies: the Amish. In […]

Just like chop suey, Mah Jong has its roots in China but was adopted in a modified form in the US. The game originated in and around Shanghai in the mid to late 1800s (there is some debate when it exactly began, where, and by whom), but had its US introduction in the mid-1920s through […]

Princes William and Harry were not the first British princes to marry non-royalty. On April 26, 1923, Prince Albert, the second son of King George V and Queen Mary, wed Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, the youngest daughter of the Earl and Countess of Strathmore, at Westminster Abbey. Years earlier, Albert had formed a romantic connection with […]

The Ides of March are behind us, but the Ides of April await – aka Tax Day. The first attempt to tax income in the US occurred in 1643, when several colonies instituted a "faculties and abilities" tax. Early tax collectors went door to door, asking if the individual had income during the year. If […]

Michelle Yeoh’s well-deserved Oscar/Golden Globe wins have been all over the news lately, but what about those who came before her? Have you even heard of Anna May Wong? Wong, nee Wong Liu Tsong, was the first Chinese American movie star. And while she may not have won an Oscar, she appeared on silent film, […]

I’m just back from three weeks “Down Under”, so I thought I’d post about the notorious gangsters of Australia’s Roaring Twenties. 1920s Melbourne wasn’t all that different from New York or Chicago when it came to crime. Gangsters abounded, and their criminal endeavors kept the police jumping and Victoria Prison full. The US had Al […]

Writing historical fiction entails huge amounts of research. Some of the best sources are old newspapers and magazines. Once you get started it’s hard to stop, particularly when you come across headlines like the one below, which appeared on this day in 1925 in the New York Times. VICTIM FELLS BANDIT WITH CELERY, IS SHOT […]

On this day in 1925, Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming became the first female governor in the United States. Ross won a special election to fill a vacancy caused by the death of her husband, the incumbent, even though she had refused to campaign. She would later serve as the first female director of the […]

It's that time of the year again, when we look forward to celebrating Christmas with family and friends yet dread the myriad tasks the season brings, including baking dozens of cookies, decorating the house, wrapping presents, untangling the tree lights, and my own personal bête noire: writing Christmas cards. Some say we have Sir Henry […]