23 skidoo

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For the band, see 23 Skidoo.

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. One nuance of the phrase suggests being rushed out by someone else. Another is taking advantage of a propitious opportunity to leave, that is, "getting [out] while the getting's good."

Wentworth and Flexner describe it as "perhaps the first truly national fad expression and one of the most popular fad expressions to appear in the U.S." They say "Pennants and arm-bands at shore resorts, parks, and county fairs bore either [23] or the word 'Skiddoo.'"^[1]

There are several stories suggesting the origin of the phrase, none that have been universally accepted. Cartoonist "TAD" (Thomas A. Dorgan) is credited by The New York Times in his obituary as "First to say 'Twenty-three, Skidoo.'"^[2] One source says that baseball player Mike Donlin and comedian Tom Lewis created the expression as part of their vaudeville act.^[3]

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 called Sheepshead Bay. The track 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."

Webster's New World Dictionary derives skiddoo (with two d's) as probably from skedaddle, meaning "to leave", with an imperative sense.

1 1899 Example
2 Examples of use
3 Origin
4 Examples of use in modern popular culture
5 References
6 External links

[edit] 1899 Example

In 1899, popular slang author George Ade explained the new slang "twenty-three." The story appeared in the October 22, 1899 Washington Post and was reprinted in many other newspapers:

“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 unusual ‘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] Examples of use

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^[4]

"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)^[5]

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^[6]

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.^[7]

[edit] Origin

The Flatiron building, c. 1903.

The "23" part of the phrase has a wide diversity of explanations. Among them:-

New York City's Flatiron Building, on 23rd Street, is shaped as a triangle. This shape caused frequent winds, which would stir ladies' skirts, revealing ankles which, in the early years of the Twentieth Century, were seldom seen in public. Rogues would loiter around the Flatiron Building hoping for glimpses. Local constables, shooing such rogues away, were said to be giving them the 23 Skidoo.

"The intersection in front of the [Flatiron Building] was always a congested spot, and a windy one, too, and in the old days the corner was a famous spot for young lads to watch women's skirts being whipped around. So famous was the spot, in fact, that policemen would occasionally have to shoo away these perpetual watches, and the expression 'Twenty-three Skidoo' was said to have been born on this windswept corner.^[8]

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.^[9]
Death Valley National Park Service interpreters have sometimes given as an explanation that the early 1900s mining town of Skidoo 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.^[10]
Sydney Carton, the protagonist of A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, is the 23rd person sent to the guillotine in a series of executions in a popular stage production of the book.^[9]
It is said that 23 was an old Morse code signal used by telegraph operators to mean "away with you."^[11] (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".)^[12]
Aleister Crowley titled the 23rd chapter of his 1913 book, The Book of Lies "Skidoo".^[13]
From the maximum number of horses allowed in a race: see 1899 Example.

[edit] Examples of use in modern popular culture

John Prine refers to 23 Skidoo in his song "Jesus - the missing years:" Chorus:-

Charley bought some popcorn, Billy bought a car,

Someone almost bought the farm, But they didn't go that far,

Things shut down at midnight, At least around here they do,

Cause we all reside down the block, Inside at ....23 skidoo.

MF Doom in the song "Sofa King" on the album DangerDoom uses the lyrics:

"Kept all his earnings in the bank and his shoe.

Spat what he knew, energy for true.

To all fake rappers, 23 skidoo".^[14]

There is an Industrial music act called 23 Skidoo.
In the child's television show Blue's Clues, the main character leaps quickly into a painting or picture by performing a "Blue Skiddoo."^[15]
In the animated television show The Simpsons, the character Mr. Burns often uses the phrase.^{[citation needed]} In the 1994 episode Burns' Heir Burns says "Five, 23, skidoo" when attempting to punt a football just prior to booting Smithers in the head and falling over. In the 2006 episode Treehouse of Horror XVII, Disco Stu, seen dressed in a zoot suit, spinning a watch, and preparing to flee from invading aliens, proclaims "Big Band Stu says 23 skidoo!" prior to being shot in the back by Homer. In the episode "Helter Shelter," Marge uses the phrase as she runs off after slamming a book in Apu's face.
In the Tenacious D episode The Search for Inspirado, JB says, "I could 23 skidoo you a song, I could zippity-do-da you a song, but that would be false. It would be wrong."
In "Illuminatus!", the conspiracy-trilogy of Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea, it's an often used phrase by the members of "The Legion of Dynamic Discord."
An anonymous reporter in Dallas asked Peyton Manning after an Indianapolis Colts loss on November 19, 2006, "The Dallas defense gave your boys the 23 skidoo all night long. What were they doing to play like the cat's pajamas?"^[16]

There is a professional swing dance (see "Lindy Hop") troupe called 23 Skidoo. They are based in Denver, Colorado, USA and are consistently rated in the top 5 Lindy Hop groups in the world.

[edit] References

^ Wentworth, Harold; Stuart Berg Flexner (1960). Dictionary of American Slang. Thomas Y. Crowell.
^ "'Tad,' Cartoonist, Dies In His Sleep. Thomas A. Dorgan, Famous For His 'Indoor Sports,' Victim of Heart Disease. Was A Shut-In For Years. Worked Cheerfully at Home in Great Neck on Drawings That Amused Countless Thousands." The New York Times, May 3, 1929 p. 21: "His slangy breeziness won immediate circulation. It was he who first said 'Twenty-three, Skidoo,' and 'Yes, we have no bananas,' 'apple sauce' and 'solid ivory.' Other expressions that are now part of the American vernacular include 'cake-eater,' 'drug-store cowboy,' 'storm and strife,' 'Dumb Dora,' 'dumb-bell,' 'finale hopper,' 'Benny' for hat and 'dogs' for shoes."
^ Mansch, Larry D. (1998). Rube Marquard: The Life & Times of a Baseball Hall of Famer. McFarland and Company. ISBN 0-7864-0497-3. p. 96, "Lewis sat on Mike's lap and acted as a dummy to Mike's ventriloquist. The pair first came up with the expression 'twenty-three skidoo.'"
^ The Love Sonnets of a Car Conductor, by Wallace Irwin, available at Project Gutenberg., sonnet II. Presumably from Irwin, Wallace (1908). The Love Sonnets of a Car Conductor. San Francisco: Paul Elder & Company.
^ The House Boat Boys; or Drifting Down to the Sunny South, available at Project Gutenberg. Chapter X. Presumably from Rathborne, St. George (1912). The House Boat Boys; or Drifting Down to the Sunny South. Chicago: M. A. Donohue & Company.
^ Smith, Betty [1943] (2005). A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Harper Perennial Modern Classics. ISBN 0-06-073626-7. , p. 118
^ Gilbreth, Frank B.; Ernestine Gilbreth Carey [194] (2002). Cheaper by the Dozen. HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-008460-X. p. 67
^ Douglas, George H. (2004). Skyscrapers: A Social History of the Very Tall Building in America. McFarland and Co.. ISBN 0-7864-2030-8. p. 39
^ ^a ^b "Twenty three skidoo". "The Phrase finder". Retrieved on June 2, 2006.
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^ Partridge, Eric (1992). Dictionary of Catch Phrases. Scarborough House. ISBN 0-8128-8536-8.
^ G.M. Dodge. "1859 Western Union "92 Code". Signal Corps Association. Retrieved on June 3, 2006.
^ Aliester Crowley. "The Book of Lies". Internet Sacred Text Archive. Retrieved on June 2, 2006.
^ "Sofa King Remix Lyrics". SmartLyrics.com. Retrieved on June 4, 2006.
^ "Snack Time". TV.com. Retrieved on June 4, 2006.
^ "1310 The Ticket". "The Ticket". Retrieved on December 25, 2006.