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Flappers with bare legs

Posted by ESC on September 01, 2003

In Reply to: Rouge my knees posted by ESC on September 01, 2003

: : The song "All That Jazz" sung in the movie "Chicago" contains the phrase, "I'm gonna' rouge my knees and roll my stockings down...."

: : What is the meaning and derivation of that phrase?

: : Thanks,
: : Rick

: I am guessing that in the 20s it was very daring for a woman to show bare leg -- rolling her stockings down and adding a little "blush-on" to her knees for good measure.

Speakeasies, Flappers & Red Hot Jazz: Music of the Prohibition
Broadcast the week of 6/12/03

Prohibition jump-started the Jazz Age. As songwriter Hoagy Carmichael put it, the 1920s came in "with a bang of bad booze, flappers with bare legs, jangled morals and wild weekends." According to novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald, during Prohibition, "The parties were bigger.the pace was faster.and the morals were looser."

www.riverwalk.org/ proglist/showpromo/prohibition.htm Accessed Sept. 1, 2003.

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