Posted by Duncan on November 15, 2002 at 16:16:13 from 205.188.209.46 user Duncan.
In Reply to: HULLABALOOS posted by Dan Lind on November 15, 2002 at -1:38:56:
As a social historian with a particular interest in music between the wars, I've been rather intrigued by the Hullabaloos as well. One thing to bear in mind is that in the 1930s such music (anglicised jazz, dance band fare) was ubiquitously popular, especially for people below a certain age (although seemingly above the age of the Coots!!!) There are various clues to suggest that the Hullabaloos are wealthy (hiring a cruiser in the broads for a fortnight in the 30s is almost clue enough, to be honest, but also speech patterns, etc.). To quote my last book, 'although people of all classes danced, they did not all dance together' and there was one tradition amongst 'progressives' and radicals that saw the pop music of the age as the cultural expression of late capitalism; you'll find radical cartoons of the age that use the image of the 'flapper' to represent capitalism or capitalists or the bourgeoisie (replacing the more traditional man in a top hat that had been the standard image of capitalism for over a century). You'll remember that Coot Club also includes George Owden who sells birds eggs for profit despite already getting more pocket money than any of the coots... people always start shouting at me if I look for echoes of AR's political writings in his writing for children, but...
In making the Hullabaloos enthusiasts for the dance craze, AR was actually entering into one of the great cultural debates of the day. We're talking seriously quite controversial (the BBC banned 'crooning' because they considered it obscene, newspapers were packed full of articles worrying about the youth of the day who were off dancing every night, etc.) But although there were plenty of working class and lower middle class flappers, I can't help but feeling that AR used social and cultural identifiers to imbue his villains with a degree of what his bolshevik friends would have called bourgeois decadence, and you can all shout at me as much as you like!!!
Duncan