Spare the Palm and Spoil the Flapper

Regular reader JS666 has sent me some pictures which appeared in American Weekly during the late 1920s/early 1930s. He’s scanned them himself from library microfilm, so there’s a good chance you might not have seen them before. Since they all seem to feature fashionable but naughty young women, I thought I’d use them in a post about flappers. The scanned pictures are all clickable.

After World War 1, a new breed of young women no longer felt the need to conform to normal society. They flaunted their disdain for what was then considered acceptable behavior. They were giddy and took risks. They were the flappers.

Flappers were seen as brash for drinking, smoking, dancing, having the vote, and treating sex in a casual manner. They cut their hair, wore excessive make-up, and went to petting parties.

One writer described the typical flapper as “a somewhat foolish girl, full of wild surmises and inclined to revolt against the precepts and admonitions of her elders.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s definition was more to the point; he defined a flapper as:

“lovely, expensive, and about nineteen.”

..and made to be spanked!

Olive Thomas painted by Alberto Vargas

The Flapper (1920) was one of the first films to reflect the new trend. It’s starred Olive Thomas, and the plot sounds like a spanking movie, complete with a strict disciplinarian headmistress called Mrs Paddles!!

16-year-old Genevieve ‘Ginger’ King (played by Olive Thomas), is growing up in the boring town of Orange Springs, Florida where having a soda with a boy is scandalous. Because of her behavior and yearning for a thrilling life her father decides to send her to a boarding school, which is run by strict disciplinarian – Mrs. Paddles (played by Marcia Harris).

Ginger gets in trouble with the headmistress when she sneaks out to the local country club…

Hmm…despite this highly promising synopsis, there is no spanking in the film to my knowledge. Tragically, Olive Thomas died a few months after The Flapper was released, from a mysterious, Marilyn Monroe-style overdose.

Had she lived it is highly probable that she would have been spanked on-screen, because it wasn’t long before flappers were getting spanked…everywhere you looked!

Henry Ford’s innovations were making the automobile more accessible for the people. Cars were fast and risky – perfect for the flapper attitude. Flappers not only insisted on riding in them, they drove them too.

I like to think that this girl is being spanked for speeding. That wide footplate on the Model T came in very useful for elderly guardians of traditional values and moderate speed limits!

Flappers didn’t just use cars to ride in. The back seat became a popular location for the sexual activity known as petting. They also held petting parties at which they flaunted their sexuality. It was a radical change from their parents and grandparents’ generations.

One of Olive Thomas’ successors in movie flapper roles was Sally O’Neil. This still from her film Don’t (1926) shows her being spanked by both parents for just such outrageous petting behaviour. She was also spanked in The Battle of the Sexes (1929).

To look more like young males, flappers ditched their corsets and wound their chest with strips of cloth in order to flatten it. This illustration shows a flapper being spanked for the ‘crime’ of un-ladylike dress.

The fashionable short haircut favoured by flappers was called the bob, and the look was often finished off with a felt, bell-shaped hat. One flapper said:

“Bobbed hair is a state of mind and not merely a new manner of dressing my head. It typifies growth, alertness, up-to-dateness, and is part of the expression of the elan vital!”

But of course, many disapproved of this symbol of female freedom and independence. In Jiri Menzel’s Postriziny (1981), (a.k.a. Cutting It Short), a flapper is spanked in the street by her boyfriend for getting her hair cut into the new style.

There was also a stage play of Postriziny, from which this picture is taken. The skirt is raised to reveal some typical flapper underwear of the period.

Flappers also drank. At a time when the United States had outlawed alcohol, young women were starting the habit early. Some even carried hip-flasks so as to have it on hand. Again, more than a few adults were scandalised by the sight of tipsy young women.

Other notable movie flapper spankees included naughty Colleen More (left) in We Moderns (1925), and Nancy Carroll (right), who was spanked by Jack Holt in The Water Hole (1928).

Towards the end of the 1920s, flapper-spanking mania reached it’s peak when a mother/daughter spanking in Kansas City hit the headlines, and became a rallying call for all those who felt that young ladies needed to be put back firmly in their place.

Yes, I am referring to THE GREAT KANSAS CITY SPANKING CONTROVERSY OF 1928!

Here’s the details of the case, and a contemporary illustration:

The story began simply enough when 18-year-old Lorene Jones returned home from a Sunday drive. She got into an ordinary mother-daughter spat with her mother Christine Woodside, a former carnival snake charmer and lion-tamer who operated a small hotel with her second husband. Christine asserted her authority by picking up a wooden coat hanger and applying it to Lorene’s bottom.

The next day, Lorene showed the bruises to one of her teachers and a school nurse. They in turn reported the matter to the authorities and arranged for the girl to stay with her teacher for the time being. The authorities pressed charges for assault against Christine.

So far, this is a rather pedestrian story. But the story quickly took on a wider cultural significance. This was, of course, the era of flappers and flaming youth, bobbed hair and rolled stockings, hip flasks and petting parties. Many people apparently saw the issue as one of keeping the girls in line.

Christine was interviewed about her child-rearing practices and she stoutly defended her actions. She revealed that she had often spanked Lorene. “And when I whip her,” Christine added, “I take all her clothes off so that I’m sure she feels it.” (Whether this meant the girl was fully nude or merely bare-bottomed we are not told.)

The notorious ‘Woodside’ case, 1928

Christine admitted that she had used a bit more severity than she should, but she also vowed to spank Lorene again when she returned home.

By the time the case came to trial a week later, it had attracted a crowd of several thousand spectators, and the court had to be removed to the city auditorium. The two principals, both young and pretty, arrived and were photographed dressed in the latest fashions. Lorene broke down and cried, and a number of mothers in the audience fainted, when Christine was found guilty. Refusing to pay a $10.00 fine—“I’ll not crawfish, Judge”—Christine was taken off to the local jail.

That evening, the phones of the court judges rang repeatedly with calls from mothers who complained that their daughters were now declaring that they would take no more spankings. The judges assured the distraught parents that their traditional rights were intact, provided they were not exercised with undue severity. (We may infer that in the next days the hard wooden seats of the Kansas City high schools creaked as a number of plump, flapperish bottoms squirmed uncomfortably.)

One of the judges made a public statement the next day that he regarded spanking as an excellent punishment for teenaged girls. He advised, however, that a light paddle would be a better
instrument.

Back in K.C., Christine posted bond after a night in jail, and Lorene came home a few days later. At the girl’s own request, her mother spanked her as promised, using only the flat of her hand this time.

The publicity surrounding this case snowballed until it made front-page news all over the country for a week. There were numerous editorials and sermons on the issue. One of the Chicago papers summed up the popular mood with the headline:

“Spare the palm and spoil the flapper!”

Marital spankings must have seen a sharp rise during this period too. This final American Weekly picture shows such an encounter.

It’s reminiscent of possibly the greatest flapper spanking scene of all – Alice White’s comeuppance in The Naughty Flirt (1931).

The spanking is good, but the whole film is well worth watching for it’s depiction of flapper culture…and misbehaviour:

Throwing a party in honor of her annual expulsion from finishing school, perky, well-to-do blonde Kay (played by Alice White) dances, plays the ukulele, bats her eyelashes, and gets thrown in the paddy wagon along with her circle of wild chums. And that’s just the start of this story!

While at court she meets handsome young lawyer Alan Ward (Paul Page ), who by coincidence works for her daddy’s law firm. She falls for him, then pursues him like crazy – but she’s too much of a flirt for our serious young law man.

So she tries to snag him via the “Cinderella Dance” (girls throw in one shoe on the dance floor, guys pile on top of each other to attempt to find the shoe for their fave gal and get her for “dancing and dinner” later). But man crazy Kay is currently engaged, by her own count, to “six or seven men”. Alan, tired of her flirtations, puts her over his knee and gives her a spanking.

This is a lively romp of a film mostly good because of Alice White who gives an engaging, fun-to-watch performance. She is more cute, with her spit curls, big eyes, and pouty mouth, than a good actress, but her acting does run circles around that of her co-star, Paul Page. Really enjoyable, light fun – a very entertaining film.

With titles like The Naughty Flirt and Why Be Good?, another Colleen Moore vehicle, the late twenties was a great time to be a movie-goer, and coming soon I have a special guest post on the theme of “Slapstick”. It will take an in-depth look at the physical comedy from films of this period and the career of one particular actress who ended up with more than her fair share of rosy-bottomed embarrassment. So don’t miss it.