J.I. Jung
The World of Eddie Rum
The Eddie Rum novels are set in a time and place often defined by contradictions where reality meets myth, fact is confronted with fiction, and the Gilded Age is being eclipsed by the Jazz Age. Welcome to New York City 1919.
The Chinese Exclusion Act
In 1882 the Chinese Exclusion Act became Federal law. By 1919, a series of supplemental laws and court decisions isolated Chinese who were born or immigrated to America.
Chinese in America were restricted in voting rights, the type of employment available to them, and who could they could marry.
The Federal law severely curbed the immigration of women, leading to a divide in the high number of Chinese men and a very low number of Chinese women. The 1900 census demonstrated a rise in mixed marriages between Chinese men and non-Chinese women. In 1907, Congress passed the Expatriation Act, a Federal law that sanctioned anti-mixed marriage laws. Should a non-Chinese woman married a Chinese man she would lose her American citizenship. If the couple had a child, then the child was subject to relocation to another family. Perhaps not surprisingly, many Chinese in America lived very secretive lives under the Chinese Exclusion Act.
The 18th and 19th Amendments
While the Roaring Twenties is a highly romanticized time in America, the building blocks for the 1920s were established by two major pieces of American legislation.
The 18th Amendment to the Constitution was passed on January 16th of 1919. It forbade the making, the sale, the transportation, import or export of intoxicating beverages. This led to an era of so-called Prohibition. It was aimed at curbing the problem of drunkenness in America, but instead helped create several syndicates of organized crime, who sold intoxicating beverages illegally.
Much of the grassroots campaigning for the 18th Amendment was performed by women in America. Their newfound political impact led to the 19th Amendment, women’s suffrage. The 19th Amendment was passed on June 4th 1919, and granted the right for women to vote in every state in the union, beginning in August 1920.
In a span of less than six months, America amended the Constitution twice. Never had the country so radically adjusted its bill of rights in such a short amount of time. Without realizing it America had sharply divided itself between the past and the future. Prohibition would become the last big piece of moral legislation of Puritan America. Women’s suffrage signified the beginning of a modern and progressive America.
Railroads
Railroads were the engines that made American commerce hum. They carried goods and passengers throughout the country, and their importance generated a culture and mythology of its own. In many communities, the sound of a train at a particular hour was all residents needed to know that a familiar passenger line was passing through.
Baseball
If railroads were the engine of America, then baseball was its heart and soul. It wasn’t just major league baseball, but also negro leagues, women’s leagues, amateur leagues, semi-pro teams, union leagues, and school teams were all important parts of American cities and towns.
In June of 1920, New York and Chicago newspapers dedicated coverage to a game between Commerce High School of New York competing with Lane Tech High School of Chicago. The game was played at what is now Wrigley Field and was highlighted by a grand slam, that cleared the stadium and landed on N. Sheffield Avenue, it was hit by 17-year-old New Yorker, Lou Gehrig.
Pulp Fiction and Noir (or Noire)
In the early 20th century, America was a nation that could boast a 90% literacy rate. That also meant that America could also support a large reading audience. While there were movies and live performances, magazines provided engaging stories for a dime, a nickel, and even a penny. The more expensive periodicals were called slicks because they were printed on nice glossy paper. The cheaper magazines were called pulps for the unfinished paper they were printed on. The pulps were where you got good stuff. If you are a fan of modern television, with shows that deal with crime, science fiction, medical drama, or relationships, you have an idea of what the pulps were like.
Westerns were popular along with modern mysteries, which lead to writers (some of whom wrote a novel a month) in amalgamating the two genres. Use the gunslinger or the sherif you might find in a Western and place them in a modern mystery. The result was the hardboiled mystery, where the hero is tough and the odds against him are big.
In 1945, French literary editor, Macel Dumond, published French translations of many of these titles as part of Gallimard’s Serie Noire or Black Books. A year later, film critic Nino Frank, who was also French, coined the phrase Film Noir to describe the stylish but tragic films that Hollywood had made and were now available to the French. Many of these Hollywood films were based on or inspired by the hardboiled American stories that had been published in the Serie Noire.
The phrase 'noir' is now used to describe books and films that evoke dark moods, cynical motives, and sinister intentions. A search of 'noir' in Amazon's book section will bring back titles including: Detroit Noir, Baltimore Noir, Baghdad Noir, and of course, Spiderman Noir.