23 skidoo (phrase)

23 skidoo (sometimes 23 skiddoo) is an American slang phrase popularized in the early twentieth century, first appearing before World War I and becoming popular in the Roaring Twenties. It generally refers to leaving quickly, being forced to leave quickly by someone else, or taking advantage of a propitious opportunity to leave, that is, "getting [out] while the getting's good." The exact origin of the phrase is uncertain.

23 skidoo has been described as "perhaps the first truly national fad expression and one of the most popular fad expressions to appear in the U.S," to the extent that "Pennants and arm-bands at shore resorts, parks, and county fairs bore either [23] or the word 'Skiddoo.'"^[1]

[edit] Origin

The Flatiron Building, c. 1903.

A woman's skirt blows up on 23rd Street, possible source of the phrase. Circa 1901

Although there are a number of stories suggesting the possible origin of the phrase, none has been universally accepted.

[edit] Flatiron Building

Perhaps the most widely known possible source of the expression derives from the area around the triangular-shaped Flatiron Building at Madison Square in New York City. The building is located on 23rd Street at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and Broadway, and due to the complex geography of the intersection winds swirl around the building. In the Roaring Twenties, groups of men would gather to watch women walking by have their skirts blown up, revealing ankles which were seldom seen in public at that time. Local constables, breaking up these groups of men, were said to be "giving them the 23 Skidoo".^[2]

It is at a triangular site where Broadway and Fifth Avenue—the two most important streets of New York—meet at Madison Square, and because of the juxtaposition of the streets and the park across the street, there was a wind-tunnel effect here. In the early twentieth century, men would hang out on the corner here on Twenty-third Street and watch the wind blowing women's dresses up so that they could catch a little bit of ankle. This entered into popular culture and there are hundreds of postcards and illustrations of women with their dresses blowing up in front of the Flatiron Building. And it supposedly is where the slang expression "23 skidoo" comes from because the police would come and give the voyeurs the 23 skidoo to tell them to get out of the area.^[3]

An early nickelodeon film, It Happened on 23rd Street, which dates from 1901, shows women's skirts being blown up by the updraft from a subway ventilation grating, exposing their knees.^[4]

The slang expression "23" was already in use at that time (see below), and Webster's New World Dictionary derives skiddoo (with two d's) as probably from skedaddle, meaning "to leave", with an imperative sense.

[edit] "23"

The Flatiron Building was completed in 1902, and three years earlier, in 1899, popular slang author George Ade explained the meaning of the new slang "twenty-three" in The Washington Post dated October 22:

By the way, I have come upon a new piece of slang within the past two months and it has puzzled me. I just heard it from a big newsboy who had a ‘stand’ on a corner. A small boy with several papers under his arm had edged up until he was trespassing on the territory of the other. When the big boy saw the small one he went at him in a threatening manner and said: ‘Here! Here! Twenty-three! Twenty-three!’ The small boy scowled and talked under his breath, but he moved away. A few days after that I saw a street beggar approach a well-dressed man, who might have been a bookmaker or horseman, and try for the usual ‘touch’. The man looked at the beggar in cold disgust and said: ‘Aw, twenty-three!’ I could see that the beggar didn’t understand it any better than I did. I happened to meet a man who tries to ‘keep up’ on slang and I asked the meaning of ‘Twenty-three!’ He said it was a signal to clear out, run, get away. In his opinion it came from the English race tracks, twenty-three being the limit on the number of horses allowed to start in one race. I don’t know that twenty-three is the limit. But his theory was that ‘twenty-three’ means that there was no longer any reason for waiting at the post. It was a signal to run, a synonym for the Bowery boy’s ‘On your way!’. Another student of slang said the expression originated in New Orleans at the time an attempt was made to rescue a Mexican embezzler who had been arrested there and was to be taken back to his own country. Several of his friends planned to close in upon the police officer prisoner as they were passing in front of a business block which had a wide corridor running through to another block. They were to separate the officer from the prisoner and then, when one of them shouted ‘Twenty-three,’ the crowd was to scatter in all directions, and the prisoner was to run back through the corridor, on the chance that the officer would be too confused to follow the right man. The plan was tried and it failed, but ‘twenty-three’ came into local use as meaning ‘Get away, quick!’ and in time it spread to other cities. I don’t vouch for either of these explanations. But I do know that ‘twenty-three’ is now a part of the slangy boy’s vocabulary.

[edit] Other explanations

• Cartoonist "TAD" (Thomas A. Dorgan) was credited in his obituary in The New York Times in 1929, as being the "First to say 'Twenty-three, Skidoo.'" ^[5]

• Another source says that baseball player Mike Donlin and comedian Tom Lewis created the expression as part of their vaudeville act.^[6]

• An article in the June 26, 1906 New York American credits the phrase to one Patsey Marlson, then a former jockey hauled into court on a misdemeanor charge. At his hearing, Marlson is asked by the judge how the expression came about. He explains that when he was a jockey, he worked at a track which only had room for 22 horses to start in a line. If a 23rd horse was added, the long shot would be lined up behind the 22 horses on the front line. Apparently, "23 skidoo" implied that if the horse in the back was to have any chance of winning, it would really have to run very hard. Marlson also says in the article that the expression was originally "23, skidoo for you."

• It may have come from a parody of Henry Miller's highly-regarded stage presentation of Charles Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities. Miller's 1899 production, entitled "The Only Way," was staged at the Herald Square Theatre. The final scene of the play portrays a series of executions at a guillotine. As each person is beheaded, an old woman counts. When Sydney Carton, the protagonist of the story, is beheaded, the old woman calls out "Twenty-three!"^[7] The grisly scene was remarkable for its time, but it soon became the subject for parody, and the phrase "Twenty-three, skidoo!" was used by Broadway comedians to parody this moment.^[8] This seems likely to be an instance of comedians using an already-popular slang^[9] juxtaposed against a well-known dramatic moment for the resulting comic effect, and not an indication of coinage, however it's quite possible that the theatrical usage popularized the expression, or made it more widely known.

• It is said that 23 was an old Morse code signal used by telegraph operators to mean "away with you."^[10] (The same story accounts for 30 as "end of transmission", a code still used by modern journalists, who place it at the end of articles as a sign to editors. However, the Western Union 92 Code, which is the source of 30 and other numbers like 73 and 88 still used in Amateur radio, lists 23 as "all stations copy".)^[11]

• An early 1900s Death Valley town had 23 saloons (many basically tents). A visit to all, going 23 skidoo, meant having a really good time.^[7]

• Death Valley National Park Service interpreters have sometimes given as an explanation that the early 1900s mining town of Skidoo, California required that a water line be dug from the source of water on Telescope Peak to the town - a distance of 23 miles. Most thought it would be easy, but the immensely hard rock along the course made it very difficult; it was eventually accomplished by a determined engineer. The term "23 Skidoo" was then used as a statement of irony, something like "duck soup": a reference to something 'apparently easy,' but actually very difficult.

• It may harken back to a jump rope rhyme that ended up "butterfly, butterfly, twenty three to do" which dates to 1909.^[12]

• In The Literature of Slang (p. 38), W.J. Burke claims that the term "skidoo" was coined in 1906 by the musical comedy star Billy B. Van, citing an article in the Indianapolis Morning Star, March 31, 1906.

[edit] Examples of use

Popularly used in early morning meetings at trucking companies when comparing to out of date log book usage. Made popular by Don "Roaring 20's" Lacy

A True McGlook once handed this to me:

When little Bright Eyes cuts the cake for you

Count twenty ere you eat the honey-goo

Which leads to love and matrimony - see?

A small-change bunk what's bats on spending free

Can't four-flush when he's paying rent for two.

The pin to flash on Cupid is 'Skidoo!'

The call for Sweet Sixteen is 23."

—Wallace Irwin, The Love Sonnets of a Car Conductor, 1908 ^[13]

"Just back up along the beach, and if you make the first move to do anything I'm going to shoot. Now, twenty-three for yours, mister, skidoo! We don't want your company; not today," said Thad.

– St. George Rathbone, The House Boat Boys (1912) ^[14]

He dispersed the crowd very simply by telling them he'd send for the pie wagon and take them all down to the station house if they didn't twenty-three skidoo.

– Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn ^[15]

He took Mother for a ride in his first automobile.... As Dad and Mother, dressed in dusters and wearing goggles, went scorching through the streets of Boston, bystanders tossed insults and ridicule in their direction.... "Get a horse. Twenty-three skidoo."

– Frank B. Gilbreth and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey, Cheaper by the Dozen ^[16]

The saying was in popular usage prior to 1912, as it appears in the transcript of the Titanic Inquiry.

6341. Then was it that watertight door, which you see on the plan is in the alleyway, which is in front of your room?

- I am not sure, but I think it is No. 23 door.

6342. I do not know their numbers, but was it the one just forward of your room?

- Yes, in the alleyway.

6343. And you actually saw them doing that?

- Yes, they were working on it.

6344. You are quite right; it is No. 23 door?

- We used to call it the skidoo door, on account of the number. That is how I remember the number.

6345. (The Commissioner.) I do not understand that?

- It is an American joke.

6346. Will you explain it?

- I could not explain it, my Lord.

6347. (The Solicitor-General.) At any rate it connects No. 23 with something about skidoo?

- Yes.^[17]

[edit] Notes

[edit] External links

Look up 23 skidoo in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Word Detective column on origin of 23-skidoo
• Twenty-Three Skidoo 1899 George Ade "twenty-three" article by word researcher Barry Popik.
• 23 Skidoo! Denver, Colorado USA swing dance website.