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Alan Mays

Alan Mays club

Posted: 30 Mar 2016

Taken: 30 Mar 2016

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The Saucy Little Bird on Nellie's Hat

The Saucy Little Bird on Nellie's Hat
"'100 and 23 for yours,' said the saucy little bird on Nellie's hat. Love's Young Dream."

The illustration on this postcard is based on a song, "The Bird on Nellie's Hat," that was popular when the card appeared in 1908, and the title of the book that Nellie is reading–Love's Young Dream–is a phrase that comes from the lyrics to the song.

The bird's snide utterance–"100 and 23 for yours"–to the guy who's lurking behind Nellie is a reference to the "23 skidoo" fad that started around 1906 or 1907. Telling someone "23 skidoo" or "23 for you" was a shorthand way of saying "scram," "beat it," or "get lost" (I'm not sure whether the addition of "100 and" to the more typical "23 for yours" phrase had any extra meaning). For more "23 skidoo" postcards, see my Skidoos and Lemons album.

Check out the sheet music for The Bird on Nellie's Hat (1906), which is part of the Lester S. Levy Collection of Sheet Music at Johns Hopkins University, or go to YouTube to see the lyrics and hear an Edison wax cylinder recording of Ada Jones singing "The Bird On Nellie's Hat" (1913).

, , , Smiley Derleth have particularly liked this photo

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