"Bernice Bobs Her Hair," by F. Scott Fitzgerald

In which a Jazz Age wallflower from Eau Claire gets some good advice from her cousin, who gets upset when it works a little too well, and revenge is had via haircut; and in which you should be thankful that our narrator decided against attempting a Wisconsin accent.



So, as mentioned in the recording, this installment is largely in honor of my AP English teacher, Mr. Denis Linehan, who would put his hand to his heart when he spoke fondly of "Bernice." Yes, he was on a first-name basis with the story. So, Mr. Linehan, wherever you are now (probably at the track), this one's for you.

"Bernice Bobs Her Hair" was one of F. Scott Fitzgerald's first big stories, published in the May 1, 1920 issue of The Saturday Evening Post, making this the most modern work we've featured so far (and, barring any permissions I get from authors, one of the most modern we're likely to feature.) Fitzgerald had published in the Post before, but this marked the first time he got his name on the cover. The cover painting itself has nothing to do with the story, though; it's titled "Ouija," and is by the legendary Norman Rockwell.

More covers and notes after the jump!

The story was apparently popular enough that Bernice herself would be featured on the cover of the Post in the November 6 issue of that same year (though with no accompanying story by Fitzgerald that I know of), in a painting by the very influential but somewhat-less-legendary-than-Rockwell Coles Phillips. While I do genuinely love this piece (notice the little tear on her face! And the damaged butterfly!), it's actually not nearly as cool as many of Phillips's other works, featured at that link. Check it out.

The story also appeared in Fitzgerald's first collection of short stories, published as Flappers and Philosophers by Scribners in 1920. The first edition featured a cover by William Ely Hill, a British cartoonist now primarily remembered for his famous 1915 version of the young woman/old woman optical illusion, entitled "My Wife and My Mother-In-Law."

You know, it occurs to me that I should really be tagging the artists in the posts, in addition to the authors. Imma start doing that on this one, and fill in earlier ones soon.

And now some notes!

4:20, "la-de-da-da dum-dum." I'm not entirely sure what the dancers are "facetiously repeating" here. Since it's after the band ending with "a flourish and a bang," it seems like it should be the ol' "shave and a haircut, two bits!" but it's a syllable short for that. Anyway, I could only hear it in my head this way for, y'know, some reason, so I do what I want.

6:00, "quite as famous to her own generation as Hiram Johnson and Ty Cobb." Johnson was a progressive politician of the time, serving as governor of California from 1911-1917, and US Senator from CA from 1917 until his death in 1945. He was Teddy Roosevelt's running mate in 1912, where they beat the incumbent Taft but lost to Woodrow Wilson. He was known as a strict isolationist who wanted to keep the US out of WWI and voted against the League of Nations. In an interesting coincidence, he died on August 6, 1945, the same day the US dropped the bomb on Hiroshima.

Ty Cobb, meanwhile, was a legendarily good baseball player whose name is still known and who still holds numerous records to this day. He was also a rather legendarily terrible human being.

6:17, "pump-and-slipper dance." This is something that's apparently specific to the Yale chapter of St. Anthony Hall (a national literary society at elite colleges), and is a yearly tradition that continues today. The name refers to the dancing shoes worn: patent leather pumps for men, and slippers for women.

13:04, "brought up on the warm milk prepared by Annie Fellows Johnston." This woman, apparently responsible for the unrealistic expectations of Bernice and other girls like her, was a children's fiction author primarily known for her Little Colonel series, later made into a Shirley Temple movie. We'll get to them on the blog here. Eventually. Sure.

31:21, "wondered if it was brilliantine that made [her hair] glisten so." Brilliantine is a hair-grooming product, obviously, designed to make hair look neat and glossy, and wow, it's apparently still being made.

41:40, "all the sensations of Marie Antoinette bound for the guillotine in a tumbrel." Oh good, another method of conveyance. I really need to make a reference page just for them. A tumbrel is a two-wheeled open-topped wagon pulled by a horse or ox, usually for agricultural uses like hauling manure. They became notorious during the French Revolution for, yup, being used to haul prisoners to the guillotine for execution.

And on that happy note, I'll see you next time for a new book! Thanks for listening.


If you would like to read along, the text can be found at Project Gutenberg. No reading ahead, though!