Let your smile be your SPLAT!

Charlotte Observer, June 1, 1891. Read more.

High society

Detroit News, April 23, 1931. You just don’t hear of socialites jumping out of windows over Park Avenue anymore.

Showgirl in freefall

Detroit News, April 22, 1931. I guess she couldn’t wait until Tuesday.

Going down

Detroit News, May 16, 1931. Wilcox is a minor character in the book I am writing about political skulduggery in Prohibition-era Detroit.

Widow through window

Detroit News, May 12, 1931. It hadn’t occurred to me before, but jumping from a tall building at this time was an ostentatiously posh way to off yourself. Not until the advent of high-rise public housing projects would the poor have equal access to the annihilating forces of gravity.

Drop over any time

Detroit News, April 17, 1931. People don’t seem to commit suicide by jumping out of windows as much as they used to. I wonder why. The Allerton, by the way, is a Chicago landmark and former home to a penthouse-level bar called the Tip Top Tap. The gorgeous and alliterative neon sign for same is still on display, but the bar itself is closed.