7 replies to this topic

[David]

An American advert - For $2.50 you got ( it's in the yellow box):

100 2” cannon salutes
200 flashlight crackers
25 flash salutes…

Well, I could go on- safe to say a lot of fireworks! Mostly bangers, little rockets etc and a wheel, a cone and a flare.

How times change! Back then a car was $700, toothpaste 25cents, chewing gum 5cents, a shirt about $1.

Note the picture of two lads “having fun” throwing them at each other.

Also, shocking as it seems nowadays, they saw nothing wrong with selling a type of firework known as “Nigg*rchasers” it’s the 8th one down, first row. The picture is from a book about adverts- the amount of implied, or even open, racism at that time is really striking.

This was 1937.

Edited by David, 05 February 2008 - 11:00 PM.

[MDH]

$2.50? How can I argue with that?!

[paul]

[...]

Also, shocking as it seems nowadays, they saw nothing wrong with selling a type of firework known as “Nigg*rchasers” it’s the 8th one down, first row. The picture is from a book about adverts- the amount of implied, or even open, racism at that time is really striking.

This was 1937.

I don´t know exactly atm (I have to look it up) but I think even Weingart (who wrote his book years after
1937 used that expression!

No excuse for that, anyway!

[pyromaniac303]

Just had a look in Weingarts book, they seem to be a kind of stickless rocket, with a crimped nozzle rather than a clay choke. I think the book was published around 1930s, then revised and renamed several times, so that could explain it.

[phildunford]

The devices are just 'serpents' as used in 'mines of serpents'. Short tubes filled with a sharp composition.

They used to be sold to throw on the floor and chase people around - much like jumping jacks. Both are considered too dangerous to be used now, although I can't imagine they ever did much harm.

I don't think we should be too hard on Mr Weingart. He was a man of his time using language of his time. We cannot judge him by modern standards. There is no evidence that I know of that he was in any way racist. This was the common name of the device.

[MDH]

Yeah. It was much of the same case with Walt Disney. A lot of famous people were slaves to the mentality around themselves and never questioned it.

[David]

A websearch shows that N----- Chasers is a reasonably well known term- some sites make reference to it in a modern context, such as "Urban dictionary." Some sources have it as simply the American term for our jumping jacks. Some blogs etc talk about making them by simply removing the stick off a bottle rocket

It is arguable that the term actually originated with baseball- a type of baseball throw that was somewhat unpredicatable, that came to be associated with dark skinned players. As in " The Pitcher threw a N----- Chaser." The firework, with its unpredicatable pattern, then took it name from that style of throw.

The earliest reference to the term I can find is from 1871, from Ohio, upon the opening of a Rail link to the town of Medina -

1871, Ohio