| The Reduso corset reduces measurements of hips and abdomen from one to five inches.
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April 18, 1910: Police round up 23 drunks on Sunday and the ones who are too intoxicated to give their names have a number stamped on their forehead: “John Doe No. 1,” etc., The Times says. I always assumed the expression “23 skiddoo” was from the 1920s, but this Times item shows it was in common use much earlier. In fact, “skiddoo” appeared in The Times as early as April 8, 1906, and was evidently already well-known :
On the jump, grim stories about beatings by drunk men. The almost daily litany of these stories helps explain the momentum behind Prohibition. |
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ladailymirror.com 
In New York it’s generally assumed “23 skidoo!” originated with the girl-watchers at the Flatiron Building on 23rd Street, but it goes back a good 30 years before that building was put up. I read the memoirs of someone who grew up in New York in the 1880s and he recalled the kids giggling in class whenever the number “23” was mentioned. I wonder, has anyone tried to trace the origins of the phrase?
In other news, “flapper” was in use by 1900 and meant “a flighty, butterfly-like girl,” way before the 1920s.
–“Wilma Safire”
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