Founded in 2017, Strange Times is a twice-monthly newsletter that explores the weirdest news of 1921, one day at a time. To get free games and the original PDFs of every article that runs in Strange Times—plus stories that didn’t make the cut—back me on Patreon.
Things I Like
Tomato Soup! Learn more here.
Getting Even/Letting Go! The newest novel by Julian Tepper, whose books I used to edit and whose work I still adore, Getting Even/Letting Go doesn’t come out until October but I think you should do yourself a favor and order it now. While you’re at it, grab one of the matching reissues of his past novels, which are absolutely gorgeous. Pure ‘70s paperback perfection.
Bland Food! I picked up a stomach complaint from my darling child this weekend, so for the last few days I’ve been living on bananas, buttered toast, and broth. On Saturday night I had a bowl of plain rice next to a handful of greens spritzed with lemon juice and it tasted as good as anything I’ve ever eaten. Get violently ill and you’ll enjoy the little things, too.
Today we have a Looney Tunes prince and a shimmy on the harbor. Ruin an opera on…
September 6, 1921
A ship in New York harbor requests help quelling a mutiny, but when the police boat arrives their help is refused, with crew explaining that the mutiny was only “slight.”
In London, five female councillors are arrested as part of a tax protest, including Mrs. Edgar Lansbury, future mother of a well known star of stage and screen.
Pope Benedict XV, who is known to be fond of birds, contributes £40 to the Roman Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and composes a letter condemning “all wanton destruction of animal life by unscrupulous sportsmen.”
The Weather: Cloudy today; Wednesday fair with moderate temperature; moderate south shifting to west winds.
It’s no wonder the 1930s were the golden age of the screwball comedy—the people who made them came of age when life was pure screwball. This is something straight of a Lubitsch picture. Share your pitches for the screenplay in the comments. As pure a piece of Strange Times as I’ve seen in months.
PARIS, Sept. 5.—The little seaside resort of Crotoy in the Bay of Somme, one of the quietest spots on the northern French coast, is greatly excited by the unusual manners and doings of an unusual guest in its hospitable precincts. He is a young man calling himself Omar Ibrahim, “Hereditary Prince of Egypt.”
The “Prince” arrived at Crotoy recently with a small company of retainers consisting of a majordomo, two negroes and several courtiers of lesser importance. This alone was sufficient to cause a flutter.
But when Omar Ibrahim attended an opera performance in a bathing costume and then entered a ballroom riding a bicycle, interest in him rose to a fever pitch.
One cynical visitor who expressed doubt regarding the “Prince’s” claims he was nearly lynched because everyone else agreed that only an authentic Prince could act in this manner.
Nevertheless, inquiries at the Foreign Office brought the reply that nothing was known about any Egyptian Prince sojourning in France. Despite this, as well as the skeptical articles in the newspapers, Crotoy continues to believe firmly that Omar is a Prince.
And this is another impeccable Strange Times item! Here’s a useful instructional video that shows what the shimmy might have looked like both when done correctly and (as was probably the case here) when done wrong.
The story of a free-for-all fight on the deck of the excursion steamer Mandalay, as that craft, inward bound from the Highlands, came through the Narrows yesterday, was told last night in the Men’s Night Court to Magistrate Jessie I. Silberman. The Magistrate also was called up on to determine judicially when the “shimmy” is not the “shimmy.”
Walter Hand of 637 Henry Street, Brooklyn, appeared in court as complainant against Joseph Mosto of 510 Grand Street, Rutherfod, N.J., and Ludwig A. Auger of 72 East 122nd Street. Hand is the manager of the dancing floor on the excursion boat. Mosto and Auger said they were in the real estate business. The complaint charged both men with disorderly conduct.
According to the story of Hand, he noticed that Mosto and a girl were dancing in a manner which the dancing manager decided was not up to the standards of the Mandalay. So, he said, he went over to Mosto and told him to stop. There was an exchange of words and finally Hand said he tried to escort the Rutherford realty man off the dance floor. But it was “no go.” So, continued Hand, he had instructed the chief of the musicians to swing from the jazzy fox trot then being purveyed into the milder pleasures of an old-fashioned waltz.
Hand said he thought the influence of the softer strains might have a good effect on Mosto. Apparently it failed of its purpose, he said, and he found himself trying to remove Mosto from the scene. Dancers joined in; so did members of the crew. Fists rose and fell. Dancers fell and rose, while their fair partners screamed.
That was Hand’s side of it, as he told it to the Court. Then Mosto was put on. He appeared with two black eyes and other evidences of rough handling. He denied that he had been dancing improperly and offered to put on an exhibition, which offer was declined by Magistrate Silberman.
“I was not shimmying, your honor,” said Mosto; “it must have been the motion of the boat.”
Continuing his account of what had happened to him, the Jersey excursioner said that Hand had punched him several times and then confined him in the hold of the steamboat. Down there, he charged, Hand had applied a half-Nelson wrestling hold and had struck him with a short club—a “billy.” Auger, who had been accused by Hand of attempting to rescue Mosto, said that he had seen the two men wrestling near the rail of the Mandalay and had tried to stop both from falling overboard.
Magistrate Silberman discharged both Mosto and Auger. Then Patrolman Brown of the Old Slip Station, where the prisoners had been taken by Hand after the Mandalay docked, made a charge of violation of the Sullivan law against the dancing manager. He was accused of carrying the “billy” Mosto charged had been used on him. Magistrate Silberman held Hand in $500 bail for examination.
