another chinese disturbance (or a day at the museum)

Well, I managed to drag my ass out of the house at the crack of noon today to go see that "American Twenties" exhibit over at UT's Harry Ransom Center. Personally, I do see what all the fuss is about seeing as I'm convinced that in a past life must have I lived through the Harlem renaissance back in '24. (Or the stock crash of '29... I keep forgetting which.) So, this excursion was like slipping on a familiar coat, visiting old friends -- or is that slipping up getting familiar with old friends?
In any case, I was greeted at the entrance by a wall sized placard with the sobering words of Frederick Lewis Allan that I found impossible not to roll around on my tongue repeatedly, like a hard candy that you can't help but savor:

" Soon the mists of distance would soften the outlines of the nineteen- twenties, and men and women, looking over the pages of a book such as this, would smile at the memory of those charming, crazy days when the radio was a thrilling novelty, and girls wore bobbed hair and knee- length skirts, and a trans-Atlantic flyer became a god overnight, and common stocks were about to bring us all to a lavish Utopia. They would forget, perhaps, the frustrated hopes that followed the war, the aching disillusionment of the hard-boiled era, its oily scandals, its spiritual paralysis, the harshness of its gaiety; they would talk about the good old days ...."

The exhibit was broken down into themes, each room more or less encompassing some movement or cultural shift that occured in art, literature, music, architecture and interior design. "Babbitts and Bohemians," gave way to "The Rise of Women," which in turn led to "The New Negro." The door on the left led to the bathrooms and segregated drinking fountains.

I was particularly struck by the artifacts in "Hollywood's Dream Factory" including an actual flapper gown and black and white gelatin prints of the likes of Gloria Swanson, Douglas Fairbanks, and Mary Pickford.
There was even a wall-sized lithograph of a Houdini poster entitled "Man from Beyond," that showed the magician being taunted by jungle natives in a block of ice. Most tantalizing -- almost like that night I got lost on E. 12th Street.


What really grabbed my attention though was a portrait of the inimitably bobbed Louise Brooks in a miu-miu that exclaimed "ANOTHER CHINESE DISTURBANCE!" It went on to say that Miss Brooks, a new player at Paramount Pictures exhibits the latest in Oriental style, with a jacket of brocade and matching mules unseen on this continent.
I, for one, can vouch that this is one trend that won't be making a return appearance at your local North American Target.