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Elwood P. Dowd New user 27 Posts |
A guy was telling me a story that in the old days they used to have stores like Dollar Stores now that used the cheap stuff for sale as a draw to get people in the store, where they saw a monte game going on that sucked them in and then spit them out broke. He said that one of these stores in Chicago made so much money selling their crap that they stopped the monte and it turned into a big, famous department store! He didn't remember what store it was, though. Does anyone know which Chicago department store got its start as a monte store?
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tomsk192 Inner circle 3894 Posts |
This is mentioned in 'The American Confidence Man', or 'The Big Con', by David W. Maurer.
He does not identify which department store by name; the book was written in 1940, I think, so the store may not exist today. Perhaps the indefatigable Whit Haydn knows more? |
Elwood P. Dowd New user 27 Posts |
Since I guess nobody knows, does anyone have any ideas how to research into this? I'm not very internet savvy, and my google searches don't seem to be pulling up anything on this. If the story is from this Maurer guy, do we trust this reference? Is the rest of the book good and factual? Wikipedia says the guy was mostly into language use, so I'm picturing a dictionary with longer entries. Is it like the awesome Damon Runyan stories?
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tomsk192 Inner circle 3894 Posts |
No, it is not akin to a dictionary with longer entries. The book is widely available and would probably be of considerable value to anyone with more than a passing interest in the history of long cons.
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Pop Haydn Inner circle Los Angeles 3691 Posts |
I believe the chain was called the Dollar Store and began in a monte store in Chicago. I don't think it is related to any similar contemporary chains.
David Maurer's book The Big Con, also published as The American Confidence Man, is a history of the confidence racket in America, and tells the story of Ben Marks who created the Big Store, and describes in detail the scams, big cons and swindles pulled by the big time and small time bunco artists. Maurer is a linguist, writing for fellow linguists to study the argot of the criminal class of confidence men. So the book contains an invaluable glossary of the language of 1920's era. But the majority of the book is spellbinding. A description of the values, psychology, life styles and language of grifters of all stripes, and stories told direct to Maurer by the real deals. Maurer studies the language of a class of people by talking to them, taking down their stories and explanations, and recording their everyday language and criminal argot. The movie the Sting was based entirely on Maurer's detailed description of the Wire con. Maurer wrote a similar book on pickpockets called "Whiz Mob," and though it, too, was meant as a scholarly work on linguistics, is so detailed and thorough a description of the methods of the pickpockets that Apollo Robbins created much of his technique from the study of this book. Both these books, and the one Maurer wrote about Appalachian Bootleggers are fun reads, and not stuffy at all. They are filled with the history, methods, language, lives and thoughts of the classes he was studying. Offices that can be turned inside out and become a lady's boudoir within minutes. Detailed descriptions with the actual script of short cons like the Hype, the Smack, and others. The Big Con is just a fun read, and if you want to have an understanding of the manners and language of con men from the 1880's through the 1930's this is the most important book for that. The glossary is not boring either, but is filled with terms you have heard in the thirties movies and thought you understood, but probably didn't. What kind of guy does a Gun Moll live with? What kind of a girl is a Twist? When do you need a Gun? But even the stories in the glossary are great. It is there that Maurer describes the history of the term "Hep" used by jazz musicians and its beginning with a saloon keeper in Chicago named "Joe Hep." "He's Joe Hep" was con man slang for "He hasn't got a clue. He doesn't know what is going on, and we can talk right over him." When a musician or singer was brought over to a table loaded with grifters, he would be introduced, "He's okay! He's Joe Hep!" Joe Hep ran a Chicago saloon in the 1890's filled with high end con men like Gondorff. He thought they were all successful, honest businessmen. The musicians went away thinking they were "Joe Hep" and that meant a good thing. |
MGordonB Loyal user Toronto, Canada 279 Posts |
This a great book! It's available in ereader format. It's a bit repetitive, but still fascinating.
Read it, then watch the Sting again for a whole new appreciation of the lingo, the story and the set-up. |
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