When the dog days of summer come around, the prospect of relaxing and playing on beautiful beaches is highly anticipated. The laws of “Jim Crow” (the colloquial name for the dizzying array of prohibitions and restrictions placed on black and white interaction from roughly 1896 to 1954/1964) meant that African Americans were often barred from …
Tag: leisure
The Knut, or the Edwardian Man-About-Town
The Regency era Corinthian, the Parisian flâneur, and the Broadway playboy had its late Edwardian England counterpart in the knut. The word was popularized in the revue The Passing Show, which opened at the Palace Theatre in April 1914, and made an instant star of its lead actor, Basil Hallam when he sang “Gilbert the …
The Gentlemen’s Clubs of Edwardian London
Club life was life to an Edwardian gentleman. There he could unwind, dine, play cards, smoke, and chat in a wholly masculine enclave–some even provided temporary quarters for its members down from the country (or in dire need to avoid their London home). The Edwardian era was the apogee of the gentleman’s club (one could …