Read American Language Supplement 2 Online
Authors: H.L. Mencken
American Language Supplement 2 (141 page)
The recurring efforts to put down strip-teasing have produced, in many cities, rules for its regulation. In New York, in 1941, those rules were as follows:
Strippers must perform on a darkened stage; all
bumps
must be toward the wings, not frontwise; during
grinds
the hands may stray, but they mustn’t touch; the
flash
(the apparent moment of complete nudity) must be at one of the wings, may only last for eight bars of music, and may expose only one breast.
2
Before the days of the strip-tease the women of burlesque were largely of Brünnhildian build, as indeed were the chorus girls of musical comedy before 1900. They were called
hill-horses
or
beef-trusts
, the last a reference to Billy Watson’s famous “Beef Trust” company, the billing of which announced that it offered “two tons of women.” When less massive girls began to appear they were called
ponies
. But
hill-horse
disappeared from memory with the old-time horse-cars, and was supplanted by
big horse
.
3
In the 1900 era
there was a distinction between a
chorus-girl
and a
show-girl
or
clothes-horse
. The former simply hoofed and sang in the ensembles; the latter was a more pretentious performer who wore expensive costumes and sometimes had a few lines. In recent years there has appeared the
swing-girl
, who, when shows play seven nights a week, relieves other girls on their nights off.
1
Chorus girls apparently speak the argot of whatever branch of the theatre they happen to adorn, but they also have some terms of their own. In 1943 Earl Wilson, saloon editor of the New York
Evening Post
and a recognized expert on Broadway lexicography, was reporting that those then laboring in the night-clubs were using
to fluff off
to signify getting rid of an unwelcome admirer,
falsies
for the pads which converted them from perfect 32’s to perfect 34’s,
2
and “Don’t give me that
jive
” or “Don’t give me that
routine
” as a set reply to honeyed advances.
3
From time to time afterward he added other terms,
e.g., square
or
creep
for a stupid and tiresome person,
4
body
for any man,
to give him the B.R.U
. (from
brushoff
) for to get rid of him,
to smoke up
for to smarten up,
fractured
for under the influence of alcohol, and
sex appeal
for the aforesaid
falsies
.
5
The ladies of the more decorous ballet, whether Russian
6
or operatic, also have a trade language, made up chiefly of technical terms,
7
but so far as I have been able to discover there is no special lingo of opera proper.
There remain the theatre auxiliaries – for example, the box-office crew and the corps of stage-hands. The vocabulary of the former was printed in the New York
Times
in 1935,
1
and that of the latter in
American Speech
in 1928.
2
From the box-office list I take the following:
Annie Oakley, skull or clicker. A pass. See also
ducat
.
Box. The doorkeeper’s receptacle for ticket-stubs; also the stubs themselves.
Buy. A ticket agency’s purchase of seats.
3
Count the box,
v
. To count the stubs in the
box
, which see.
Count the rack,
v
. To count the tickets left unsold in the box-office.
Crashing. Getting into a theatre without a ticket.
Dressing a house. Seating an audience in such a manner that it appears to be larger than it is, usually by leaving every other pair of seats vacant.
Ducat. A pass; also, a desirable seat.
Dumps. Tickets returned to the box-office by ticket-agencies.
Gyp. One who charges more than the legal premium on agency tickets.
Hardwood. Tickets for standing-room.
House-seats. A few seats reserved by the management for favored patrons or guests.
Ice. Commissions formerly paid to box-office men.
Murder. A heavy demand for tickets.
Rat, or digger. A sidewalk ticket speculator.
Schlag, or brutal. A very light demand for tickets.
4
Steerer. One who directs persons turned away from the box-office to a ticket speculator.
Treasurer. A euphemism for ticket-seller.
5
From Gable’s “American Stage-Hand Language,” lately cited, and from various articles in
Variety
, come these examples of the argot of stage crews:
Ad curtain. The curtain behind the
asbestos
, so called because it formerly bore advertisements.
Asbestos. The main curtain, usually fireproof.
Booth. The electrician’s station.
Carps. The stage carpenter.
Clear. A warning to stage-hands that the curtain is about to go up.
Cover. A property-man who stands in the wings during gunplay on the stage, to discharge a pistol in case that of the actor fails to go off.
Cyclorama, or cyc. A back drop with extensions enclosing the whole stage.
Deck-hand. A stage-hand.
Drop. A hanging piece of scenery.
Flat. A piece of rigid scenery.
Flood. A light illuminating the whole stage.
Fly-floor. A platform midway between the
grid
and the stage floor. To it the
lines
supporting scenery are tied off or
belayed
.
Flyman. A
grip
who handles the ropes supporting scenery.
Grid. A framework high above the stage from which the
lines
supporting the scenery are suspended.
Grip. One who assists the carpenter and
second hand
.
Juice. The electrician.
Line. A rope supporting scenery. Each drop has three – a
short line
, a
center line
and a
long line
.
Operator. An assistant to the electrician.
Pin-rail. A rail on the
fly-floor
to which
lines
are fastened.
Pocket. An electrical outlet.
Practical. Said of scenery or properties that are not merely painted, but really work.
Props. The property-man.
Scene-dock, or organ-loft. The place where scenery belonging to a theatre is stored.
Second hand. The carpenter’s chief assistant.
Set. The entire scenery for a scene.
Skate. To slide a
flat
across the stage.
Spot. A small light whose rays are concentrated in one place.
Strike. To dismantle a set.
1
The argot of the movie-lots shows a good many loans from that of the theatre, but it has also produced some picturesque novelties of its own, chiefly having to do with the technical process of picture making. Most of the following specimens, assembled from
various sources,
1
were scrutinized and revised by Miss Anita Loos and the late Edgar Selwyn, to whose friendly aid I am much indebted:
Baby. A small spotlight.
2
Beard, muff, or feather-merchant. An extra with natural whiskers.
Beef. A laborer.
Best boy. The first assistant to a
gaffer
, which see.
Blupe. An unwanted sound on a sound track.
Boom-jockey. A sound man who follows the action with a microphone.
Bottle. A camera lens.
Breakaway. A chair or other object made of Balsa wood, which falls to pieces when one performer uses it to clout another; also, any simulated glass object made of clear sugar for the same purpose.
Bulber. A photographer.
Bungalow. The metal housing of a sound-proof camera.
Butterfly. A disk of gauze used to diffuse light, or a speck on the camera lens.
Canary. An unidentified noise.
Carbon-monkey. The man who renews the carbons in the lights used on a technicolor set.
Century, or nigger. A cloth shade to shield the camera lens.
Charlie, or walrus. An actor with a mustache.
Civilian. A person not connected with the movies.
3
Co-ed. A small floodlight carried on the camera.
Cooked. Said of an overdeveloped negative.
Cook’s tour. A visit to a movie lot by civilians.
Cow-waddy. A he-man in a Western film.
4
Cutting-room. The place where movies are edited.
Dolly,
v
. To move up on a shot with the camera.
Double frame,
v
. To slow up the speed of action by printing each
frame
of a film twice.
Dub,
v
. To re-record and combine effects – dialogue, music, etc. – on one film.
Extra. A performer in crowa scenes, without lines to speak and usually hired by the day.
Fishpole. An appliance for holding a microphone over the head of a performer.
Frame. Each picture on a film.
1
Free ride. A meal at the expense of the company.
Gaffer. The head electrician.
Gag-man. One who supplies the working script with comedy.
Galloping. Variable motor speed.
2
Gimbal tripod. A camera-mount that simulates the motion of a ship.
Gobo. A black screen mounted on a tripod, used for casting shadows.
3
Grease-room. A make-up room for extras. A make-up man is a
grease-pusher
.
Hays office. The Motion Picture Producers & Distributors of America, Inc., of which Elder Will H. Hays was president, 1922–45. Its chief function is to keep the movies out of trouble, and one of its duties is to censor pictures.
4
Hollywood. In the movie sense, the whole Los Angeles region. Legally speaking, Hollywood is that part of Los Angeles north of Melrose avenue and west of Vermont avenue.
Independent, or indie. A movie producer not affiliated with one of the big companies; also, the owner of an independent movie-theatre.
Inky. An incandescent light.
Inky-dink. A small
baby
, which see.
In the can. Said of a film that has gone through the cutting and dubbing processes and is ready to be shipped to exhibitors.
Jelly. A gelatine sheet placed in front of a light to diffuse its rays.
Juicer. An electrician. See
gaffer
.
Junior. A spotlight intermediate in size between a
broad
and a
baby
.
Kick. Light reflected from bright objects.
Kill,
v
. To turn off a light.
Klieg eyes. Eye inflammation produced by the glare of lights.
5
Lens louse. An actor who tries to put himself forward.
Lily. A good
take
, which see.
Location. Any place for making pictures that is not a
lot
, which sec.
Loop it. To re-record dialogue in order to improve the reading of a line or to get rid of extraneous voices that were recorded with the original.
Lot. Any permanent place for making pictures.
Lowboy. A low camera base.
Lupe. A tubular light of more than 1500 watts.
6
Match-box, or pickle. A miniature spotlight.
Matte shot. A film made with a section blocked out, to be filled later on another set.
Mike-boom. An apparatus supporting the microphone.
Mike-monkey. A sound man who manipulates the
mike-boom
.
Milk a scene,
v
. To get everything possible out of it.
Montage. An effect produced by dissolving into each other a series of short shots with dramatic
crescendo
.
M. O. S. A scene without sound.
1
Moviola. A machine enabling film editors to see a picture and hear the sound during the cutting process.
Neighborhood-house. A movie-theatre out of the downtown area, usually presenting the second or later runs of pictures.
2
Orange-peel. A roughened light reflector.
Organ. A portable sound-control apparatus.
Organ-grinder. The operator of an
organ
.
Pan,
v
. To move a camera horizontally.
Pill. A long speech, hard to learn.
Quickie. A movie made in haste, usually by a small company and with little expenditure.
Red-light. Warning over the door of a studio while a scene is being shot.
Retake. A second photographing of a scene after a picture has been completely shot, usually to rectify blunders.
Rifle. A small spotlight throwing a narrow beam.
Roughie. A preliminary sketch made by the art department.
Rushes. Quickly made positives of films shot during the day, for the inspection of directors and other functionaries.
Scoop. A light with a shovel-shaped reflector.
Scrim. A large gauze light-diffuser.
Script-girl. A girl stationed on the set who keeps a detailed record of the shooting of every scene.
Sheepherder, or lung-man. An assistant director in charge of extras.
Shiner. A sun reflector for outdoor work.
Shoot,
v
. To photograph with a movie-camera.
Skip frame,
v
. To hasten the speed of the action by printing only every alternate
frame
.
Skirt. A silk screen fastened over a spotlight to diffuse the light.
Skull doily. A wig.
Soup. The photograph’s developer.
Spaghetti. Film.
Speed, or up to speed. Used to indicate that the camera is running film at the standard speed of 90 feet a minute, or 1 1/2 feet a second.
Stand-in. A person of the same height, build and coloring as a principal performer, employed to take the latter’s place during the tedious process of focusing the camera and adjusting the lights for a shot.
Standing-board. A device for enabling a performer to rest between scenes without sitting down and thus rumpling his (or her) clothes.
Still. An ordinary photograph of a scene or people in a movie.
Stockade. A protection for the camera when animals are being photographed, or there is other danger of injury to it.
Stunt-man, or -woman. A performer resembling a principal performer,
employed to take the latter’s place in hazardous scenes, such as wrecks, duels, explosions, and leaps from automobiles and airplanes.
Suck,
v
. To lift with a block and tackle.
Swing-gang. The night shift of stage hands.
Take. A scene or other unit of a picture.
Titles. The legends used to explain the action of a movie.
1
Trailer. An advance notice of a new film, with specimen scenes, prepared for theatres in which it has been booked.
Treatment. A first rough draft of a story for a screen play.
Trucking shot. A shot made with the camera moving along with the action.
Western, or horse-opera. A movie dealing with cowboys, Indians, bandits, etc.
Whodunit (Who done it?). A melodramatic movie dealing with mystery and murder.
2
Yes-man. A sycophantic subordinate.
3
Zoom. To move a camera up to or away from an object quickly.
