23 skidoo (phrase)
Popularized during the early 20th century, 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'.
Perhaps the most widely known story of the origin of the expression concerns the area around the triangular-shaped Flatiron Building at Madison Square in New York City.
During the early 1900s, groups of men reportedly gathered to watch women walking by have their skirts blown up, revealing legs, which were seldom seen publicly at that time.
Local constables, when sometimes telling such groups of men to leave the area, were said to be "giving them the 23 Skidoo".
[4] An early nickelodeon film, What Happened on Twenty-third Street, which dates from 1901, shows a woman's skirt being lifted by the updraft from a ventilation grate, exposing her knees.
The earliest-known report of the slang expression "23" (or "twenty-three") as a code word for asking someone to leave is a newspaper reference on March 17, 1899: For some time past there has been going the rounds of the men about town the slang phrase "Twenty-three."
Sidney Carton, the hero of the novel, goes to the guillotine in place of Charles Darnay, the husband of the woman he loves.
The production moved to New York City later that year; it opened at the Herald Square Theatre on September 16, 1899.
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'.
[9][10]In the same interview, Ade described two purported origin stories he had heard: that it was "from the English race tracks, twenty-three being the limit on the number of horses allowed to start in one race" or that it had been a signal used in a plot to free a Mexican embezzler from custody in New Orleans.
[11] Webster's New World Dictionary derives skiddoo (with two d's) as probably from skedaddle, meaning "to leave", with an imperative sense.
[3] The word skidoo, used by itself as a noun denoting a supposed bringer of bad luck, is attested in the early 1910s, in P. G. Wodehouse's Psmith, Journalist.
[15] Both of the slang expressions, 23 and skidoo, were used in George M. Cohan's 1904 musical play Little Johnny Jones.
[16] Numerous news items from the period credited either Cohan or Tom Lewis (the actor performing the role that spoke those lines in the play) with creating or popularizing one or both of the expressions.
became popular in its own right, 23 (or twenty-three) and skidoo were frequently used in conjunction with, or near, one another in the same sentence or paragraph; 23 often as part of the phrase "23 for you [or yours].
[21] The phrase quickly became a ubiquitous catchphrase, and Google Books has many examples of commercial advertisements using "23-Skidoo" that begin in 1906.
5 (Boston, MA), has a full-page ad for a "23-Skidoo" sale,[22] with blurbs such as "23-Skidoo/Says Low Price to the Shoe/Now It's Up to You".
[23] A True McGlook once handed this to me:When little Bright Eyes cuts the cake for youCount twenty ere you eat the honey-gooWhich leads to love and matrimony – see?A small-change bunk what's bats on spending freeCan't four-flush when he's paying rent for two.The pin to flash on Cupid is 'Skidoo!
"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.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.
[36]John Prine uses the phrase as an address in the chorus of his song, "Jesus, the Missing Years" from the album of the same name.
