[Nateman]

You want way back? Try 23 skadoo or seeing the elephant!

[nopardons]

You want even older stuff"

"Hittin' the gong around" meant smoking opium ( usually in an opium den ) and goes back to the late 1800s, though it was still in use in the early 1930s.

[21twelve]

I thought it was a swell list.

(Reading my dad’s letters from WWII. He used the word “swell” a lot!)

[sparklite2]

No, no, no. It’s 23 Skidoo. This is my favorite origin story for the phrase...

“23-skidoo came from an expression that construction workers used while building the Flatiron Building on 23rd Street in N.Y.C. 23rd Street is one of the wider streets in New York that is like an uninterrupted wind-tunnel between the East and Hudson Rivers.

Frequently, when one is walking north or south on the avenues and comes to such an intersection, they can experience a sudden blast of wind as soon as they pass the wall of a corner building.

Apparently, when the workers sat on the sidewalk to eat their lunches, they would watch women’s skirts blow up from the sudden gusts.”

---

I pinged Nopardons to the thread as she can probably add a few idioms from the twenties, like ...

I’ll say she does!
Bee’s knees
Jitney

[jjotto]

“Ain’t that the berries!” and similar ‘berries’ phrases came from the 1920s.

How about the original college cheer? Ski-U-Mah!