Mr. X's fedora reasonably hides the tentacles on his head, but because it's summer, Jim Thompson Knocks this bloke's hat off his head because it's out of season...
1:34 Coca Cola was indeed "invented" by the 1920s. By 1920, Coca Cola was in China already. An argument could be made that a speakeasy wouldn't have a soda machine. But the contour bottle that has become famous was issued as the 'Christmas Bottle' in 1923, and speakeasy bartenders would regularly use the cola to cover the taste of low-quality rum. Heck, RC Cola, a competitor, was already spread across the US by the 1920s. Pepsi was also around - but in bankruptcy for most of the 1920s, and wasn't offered in bottles until the 1930s. Yeah, I know we aren't supposed to sweat this minutia, but 1) I grew up in the town where two of these were formulated - so it's hardwired into me and, 2) Mason brought it up first - so there >_< .
Yep, that struck me too. Coke was developed in the 1880's, nationally available at soda fountains and in bottles by the great war. Dr. Pepper was invented about the same time and had a national advertising campaign by 1904.
I really enjoyed Only Yesterday by Frederick Lewis Allen. He wrote it at the end of the 1920s, as a look back over the decade. It's interesting to see such a "ground level" view of the decade without the benefit of hindsight and all of that. So, perhaps not so accurate, but more about perception.
okay so i did some research on this and by 1920 applications to mail children were being rejected outright but we can confirm that at least 7 children were mailed between 1913 and 1917. One as far as from Florida to Virginia which was over 700 miles. So it absolutely was a thing, doubters needed damned. As for the coca-cola thing though, coke was invented in 1880 but I don’t know how widely available it would have been by 1920. As one person has pointed out it was already being sold in China, however that says nothing of practical availability. Could I have driven my wagon the 2 hours down to the corner store in Buckingham Virginia and gotten a coke? I doubt that. But in any major city it would have been readily available in most places that served non-alcoholic beverages. As far as speakeasies though I’m pretty sure Jack and Coke had also been invented by that time. Coca-cola and root beer I believe were fairly common even before the 20s. The rest of this as far as I know is fairly accurate. The seasonal hat snatching thing was incredibly common and plays into more events than one would assume. AFAIK the sleeping sickness thing is not only legit but part of what inspired Neil Gaiman’s first story arc of the original Sandman (as well as some subsequent stories as well obv). And flagpole sitting was one of the least silly stunts people were getting up to at the time. American history is full of that kind of goofy shit.
An episode of I Love A Mystery, originally written around 1941, has a "vulgarian" and somewhat old-fashioned character jokingly refer to herself as a "flagpole sitter". I assumed it was dirtier than it apparently turns out to be. Those two guys who stayed up there for more than a month... well they had to go to the bathroom somehow. I'd imagine they must have had accomplices on the ground to prevent them from becoming a public health hazard.
I also think we would have more certainty about children having been "mailed" back in the 1920s if it really happened. So much of this feels very anecdotal or speculative than factual.
It is the roaring 20s and Doctor Fate has been possessed by a Yith. He and his servitor Max embark on a mission of unknown purpose around the globe chased by investogators Maggie Dubois and The Great Leslie. Can the two investigators uncover the plot of the Yith or will they leave the world to its fate?
Very cool. I once started a campaign around the published scenario "Lurker In The Crypt" (Fatal Experiments) where a cult of Nyogtha was doing bad things with dead people. A sort of sentient "lively awfulness" employed by one of the big bads was immune to fire so I had him stalk the PCs to an old school gas station and break the glass beaker on top of the gas pump and light it up. Good times great old ones .
The Spiritualism of the era due to the huge loss of life during the Great War is interesting... posting Shoggoth Material is not an option .....regarding other matters.
5:20 If you went to school in Australia hats were a mandatory part of the school uniform, so I think you have worn a hat in your life. 😉 But in a related note, the thing that really strikes me when you see old recorded footage from the twenties through to the fifties is how *all* the women’s shoes have heels.
Bill Hicks famously joked about "the Hooligans" knocking hats off heads and tipping over dustbins and such, and this was what passed for crime in England. "I'd like to see the Hooligans go up against the Bloods in L.A. That'd be a short gang battle."
