I recently traveling around the British Isles, so I thought I'd take a look at my favorite time period from an Irish perspective. In the U.S., the Jazz Age is generally defined as the period from 1920 to the early 1930s in which jazz music and dance styles gained worldwide popularity. The "Jazz Age" in […]

Despite Prohibition, New Yorkers still enjoyed their cocktails, whether in a speakeasy, from a teapot of "special" tea in Chinatown, or in their own homes from private supplies. The Old Fashioned, Sidecar, French 75, Highball, Ward Eight, and Gin Rickey are all Prohibition era drinks. Another is the Aviation Cocktail. The Aviation Cocktail, is said […]

Book readers and moviegoers are never hesitant to point out typos, misspellings, and (eek!) if the stepsister is called Sally in Chapter 1 and Eliza in Chapter 24. They are even happier to catch anachronisms. Some are obvious, others are less so. Showing a character wearing a wristwatch in an Elizabethan era movie is a […]

I gave up driving into New York City many years ago. Between the kamikaze bike riders and the gridlock, public transportation or "hoofing it" seems easier. But the problem is nothing new. Somewhere around 1912, automobiles outnumbered horses and buggies in New York. In 1913, The New York Times reported that from 1910 to 1912, […]

Accessories were all the rage in the 1920s, not only for flappers, but the population in general. The most famous (or perhaps, infamous) were decorative headbands, waist-length strings of pearls, long cigarette holders, and feathered boas. Feathers and boas were nothing new. Feathers are generally thought to signal that your guardian angel is nearby. White […]

Today we celebrate Labor Day. But what are the origins of the day? If you answered people wanted another day to barbecue, you're wrong. If you answered the official end of summer, you're also wrong. The roots of Labor Day grew out of violent clashes between labor and police during the Haymarket Riot in 1886, […]

Coney Island, a three-mile peninsula off Brooklyn, NY, has always been both famous and infamous — which accounts for its early nickname “Sodom by the Sea.” Until the turn of the century, Coney Island was an island. In the early 20th century, thanks to a great deal of landfill, it became "attached." The peninsula comprises […]

May is Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month — a celebration of Asians and Pacific Islanders in the United States — which led me to wonder if there were any Asian flappers. China also experienced their version of the Roaring 20s in Shanghai. Because of the opening of trade in the 1920s, there were many Western influences […]

Chicago gangster Al Capone was one of nine children born to Gabriele Capone, a barber, and Teresa Raiola, a seamstress. James Vincenzo Capone was the couple's first-born child, and one of two born in Italy before the family emigrated to the U.S. His U.S.-born siblings, Al, Savatore and Ralph, became members of the notorious Five […]

This is for all you writers who need complete quiet and concentration when you work — provided you don't suffer from claustrophobia. In 1925, editor and publisher Hugo Gernsback proposed an invention to eliminate noise distractions. Gernsback dubbed his creation "The Isolator" helmet. His prototype helmet was made of wood and felt, and included a […]