** Casting call ** The Scarlet Lady

[Cathay]

Set in the 1920's. Where else? Chicago, of course.
Film noir style. Tho, looking for some comedy.
All posts to begin with: "I knew she was trouble, the minute
I laid eyes on her." (remember, "her" could be anything.)
Owner of the Speakeasy (The Scarlet Lady) being played
by Swashbuckler.
Sultry torch singer: Caspai
Private eye: Cathay
Looking for some bumbling criminal wannabes, a truly nasty
henchman (or woman) never let it be said, I am sexist!!
Need an Agnes Gooch type for secretary. A cop or too.
(on the take...or not)
The only thing I ask is that if you post and your post is responded
to, with response required, hang in there and finish that little
"episode" before dropping out. (Muchas Gracias)
Join in and have some fun. I just want to watch it unfold.
so...........come on in. The bathtub gin is flowing, the gas lights
are lit and the flappers are amazing.

Cat

Samantha Olivia Spayde (played by Cathay)
Dark hair, gorgeous of course, suffers from multiple personalities
and is totally unaware of it. Has a dog that just hates her.
(course he never knows whose gonna pop out), Lives for junk
food, and tequila. Smokes like a fiend. Father was a retired
cop, started his own agency cause he was bored took Sammi
on when she was 18. Her little brother is Peter (appropriate
name - he's gay haha.) He's a police photographer.

 

[Cathay]

new players added

Promethus2 is: Elmo, our JAZZ player!
Darrenfate: Any damn person he wants to be
Poganin: A truly nasty henchman ...hmmm could be "mobster"

Pick your characters folx and give us a little description here!
Dis is gonna be 23 skidoo...............

 

[catlover]

sounds like a fun thread but looks to me that there would only be room for ONE "CAT"

 

[Poganin]

Okay, here we go.

My character will be Victor "Broderick" Cimino, head bruno of the Salieri mobster. His jobs range from escorting hooch transports to killings. Victor is ruthless and has no qualms about murdering both men and women. Always wearing dark suits to match his black hair and brown eyes, he is a calm person yet easily angered and off the track. Looks more like a gentleman than a mobster and behaves like one too, unless professional matters are at hand and then he simply slips into his other behaviour of a tough guy eager to spit lead or deliver a serious broderick. Best get out of his way when he loses it.

 

[caspai]

OK, Cat, here goes for my discription.

Leslie McKenzie has always been a vixen (of course, ), even in the one-horse town she had escaped when she was 15, running off to the big city. She has since been searching for riches where ever she could find them. She has a wandering eye, a firey temper, and a taste for champagne, but gin will do in a pinch. Oh, and the physical discription, I always forget that part. She has very short, very curly bright red hair, topaz eyes that shoot fire when she is angry, and is a very slim 5'6".

 

[prometheus 2]

Elmo St. John

Elmo grew up in St Paul Mn. playing piano and organ for a Lutheran church on the southside, but started down a long road to hell when he started hanging out with a group of blues musicians from downtown.

Found himself on the wrong side of the law one night, waking up drunk next to a dead whore in a flop house on Washington ave.

Caught a freight train to chicago and ended up at a speakeasy where he became the piano player for the chorus line. No one really appreciated his talent for playing the blues so he satisfied his need to be somebody by befrending the chorus girls. Not asking for much just a bed to flop into and a piano to play, hoping someone would come along and discover him, elom can be found there almost every night of the week tickling the ivories ...or some chorus girls fancy.

Elmo is tall, 6' 1" thin with delicate feature gentle blue eyes, an easy smile and and an open mind. His long slender fingers play with the dexterity and creativity of a true artist. His favorite song "Love for Sale." speaks for his view of life and his price is simply....... a song.

 

[faith]

hiya Cat... thanks for the invite to the party

*grin* okay here goes...

the name is Dixie Dugan...

Dixie is a modern miss... has never stepped out of the City Limits and has no plans too either...she is a girl for the times... she is by day, a waitress at Louie's which is a dive but the clientel has money...*grin*... more than a few of 'em are gangsters grabbing a bite before going across the street to the speakeasy.... She works hard for her money and is good at what she does. The clientel is a at times a little rough but she handles it like a pro..... half are gangsters and the other half *grin* the coppers watching the coming and goings at speakeasy across the way.. tips are good for the girl with the saucy smile and she isn't afraid to let go of her money... newpapers with the latest on the gang wars... and the antics of that woman Margaret Sanger ...or on things like the newest books by F. Scott...or the music... god she loves this new stuff... jazzzzzzz.... it speaks to her soul...

Her favorite time of the day is late evening... when she sheds her uniform from the workday... and cuts loose... looking in the mirror she see's a dark haired beauty. Hair cut in a bob... soft and sassy... she is 5'6" and thin... her neck drips pearls...and her flapper dress fits her like a dream...

her eyes are what really grab you..soft chocolate eyes full of life laughter and fun...that can look straight into your soul

 

[Cutie Lillie]

Agnes Cooch

Agnes. Miss Cooch, if you please, is a transplant from the corn fed wilderness of small country life in the Midwest.

Brown is the best way to describe her. Brown from her mousy bunned hair to her sensible shoes and support hose. She is as dull and nondescript as a person can be.
Insecure, repressed and definately a lost human on the road to obscurity. She blends in... to the walls and her surroundings... so that people often forget she's standing right next to them.
That is until she causes some sort of accident (like walking into a table or breaking a vase). Grace is not her middle name, but she is a crack secretary and typist. That is how she got to Chicago, by way of a scholorship which took her from corn country Iowa to Miss Blindie's School of Typing and Office Automation in Boston.
Graduating at the top of her class she was picked up by a boss who needed good skills and a clueless demeanor.
Agnes had both.

With her taupe valise in hand, she stepped off the train in Chicago, and while squinting over her glasses Anges Cooch headed to Miss Minnie's Boarding House to begin her new life.



PS - Thanks, Cathay!!!!!

 

[Cutie Lillie]

Resource Site

In case anyone is curious or wants to bone up on some slang, fads, or other things-of-the-day during the Roaring Twenties.

Three good sites I found ! Fun reading!

1)Kingwood County College
American Cultural History 1920 -1929
http://kclibrary.nhmccd.edu/decade20.html


2) Jazz Age Culture
http://faculty.pittstate.edu/~knichols/jazzage.html


3) Clash of Cultures 1910's and 1920's
http://www.history.ohio-state.edu/projects/clash/default.htm

 

[Cathay]

Lil, (aka Agnes)

Thank you! Those are great!! Lord I've missed you. The
research queen. No wonder you've been the Queen Librarian
for so long.

 

[faith]

just a little fyi

the name of my character comes from a cartoon of the era...

'Dixie Dugan', by John H. Striebel and J.P. McEvoy, ran from the late 20's into the 60's

Dixie Dugan was a comic strip about a showgirl, the character was modeled after Louise Brooks. My present avatar is a picture of Louise, she was a silent screen star who appeared in 24 films between 1925 and 1938



to read about John go to:
http://www.lambiek.net/striebel_jh.htm

more about Loiuse and the flapper culture and style go to:
http://www.pandorasbox.com/
http://www.geocities.com/flapper_culture/

for other links to the history of the era...
http://www.ku.edu/history/VL/USA/ERAS/20TH/1920s.html

 

[Swashbuckler]

Angelo Marino....

aka... "Dark Angelo"


My name is Angelo Marino, I was born in Scicilly and immegrated tot he US as a small child in 1899.

Upon arriving and finding the streets filled with filth and smoke, as opposed to gold. I left school to go to workfollowing my father's death in an accident at a meat packing factory. I was 11 then, seems like a lifetime ago, but someone had to put food on the table for my mother and younger brother, Micheal.

Then one day, I had an eppifany in a strage way. That is how the devil works sometimes. My mother had asked me to take the 25 cents we had to the grocer and buy a loaf of bread to feed us for the next several days. On my way throught he crowded streets I passed some slightly older boys who were pitching dice in the alley. I watched as one of t boys placed a quarter down and after teh cubes stoped tumblign rejoiced and hastily grabbed up several more coins that the other boys had placed out on the chalked sidewalk.

Intrigued I asked if I could join. I can still hear the dice rattling to a close. A bit of a gigle ran out of the other boys as the oldest one ran a stick out and swept all the wagers asdie and took everyone's coins.

There I was, havign worked all week, and now, having to return to my mother and show her that I had no bread, and no money. yet in a matter of seconds, this older boy had made as much as I had in a month. His mother would not be hungery tonight.

That was the beginning of my second life. It was in that moment when I refused to go home, and follwed the older boy, begging him to show me how to do that. He would not until I did him a favor. That was the first day I broke the law, the next evening I broke my first commandment. Teh third mronign I never went back to work again.

But that was over 20 years ago. I am now a grown man. With a younger brother off to college in the east, a mother who despises me, yet still lives in the penthouse flat I pay for, and nothing else outside of a rap sheet that spans from burgalry, petty theft, narcotics, and an arrest for murder. Though that killing I had nothing to do with.

I have left behind the life of the street urchin immigrant for the finest in charcoal pinstipes. I run a jazz club, with more than music on the menu for the outfit. Though that is my purpose, it is my solace as much as anything. I can sit in the corner and play chess with myself and watch the bouncing tides of humanity sailing on paint gin, thier risque sails bilowed with the winds of hot piano. All the while letting the younger toughs do all the real work. Controling the whining fromt he upstairs girls and the chorus line, removing the occasional ruffian or jealous husband. I let the club be adn the club lets me be. Perhaps the only place I have ever felt at home in my life.

 

[rashid]

Paul Vance

Lootenant to you ok???????
And no smart mouth from da cheap seats......I aint havin any - not now an not later. I spent my youth on these streets with no momma an no poppa - did all of it the hard way and learned to stay alive by watching my own back. When I was 15 a flatfoot named Eddie Barzoom pinched me for swiping food from Angelo Gucciones cart up on 72nd, dragged me home and locked me in his spare bedroom for a year of so until I got "civilized". Best thing that ever happened to me From that time on he was the only family I ever had. Too bad it didn't last long. The day I turned 18 Eddie caught a stay round in a Hooch bust. They told me he never felt a thing - dead in less than a minute.......

I took it pretty hard. Felt sorry for myself just long enough to become a Copper so's I could even the score and then it was too late. I found out I was good at being a Cop. Twenty years later I'm getting a belly, losing my hair and growing an attitude. Too mean to be married an too handsome to be ignored, I'm hard on a skirt and harder on the local wise guys. I figure if I'm lucky, I'll catch one like Eddie and not have to start feelin sorry for myself for getting old.

6'2", 220, lanky, balding (so I wear a hat) piercing dark eyes, most of my own teeth and a permanent scowl. If I weren't such an asshole, I'd be loveable.

 

[rashid]

Paul Vance

Lootenant to you ok???????
And no smart mouth from da cheap seats......I aint havin any - not now an not later. I spent my youth on these streets with no momma an no poppa - did all of it the hard way and learned to stay alive by watching my own back. When I was 15 a flatfoot named Eddie Barzoom pinched me for swiping food from Angelo Gucciones cart up on 72nd, dragged me home and locked me in his spare bedroom for a year of so until I got "civilized". Best thing that ever happened to me From that time on he was the only family I ever had. Too bad it didn't last long. The day I turned 18 Eddie caught a stay round in a Hooch bust. They told me he never felt a thing - dead in less than a minute.......

I took it pretty hard. Felt sorry for myself just long enough to become a Copper so's I could even the score and then it was too late. I found out I was good at being a Cop. Twenty years later I'm getting a belly, losing my hair and growing an attitude. Too mean to be married an too handsome to be ignored, I'm hard on a skirt and harder on the local wise guys. I figure if I'm lucky, I'll catch one like Eddie and not have to start feelin sorry for myself for getting old.

6'2", 220, lanky, balding (so I wear a hat) piercing dark eyes, most of my own teeth and a permanent scowl. If I weren't such an asshole, I'd be loveable.

 

[darrenfate]

Seamus Patrick O'Callaghan

The Irish born bartender stepped off the very next boat after the Titanic in New York after a rough and lengthy journey in steerage. Growning up in Belfast, he fled Ireland following an armed encounter with the hated Brits. Realizing he'd soon be dead sticking around, he was gone to the new world, never looking back. The IRA was in his past now.

The only thing this redhead was qualified to do was to think and drink. Naturally, he took to bartending where he could watch and learn right out in the open as unseen to the patrons as the marble tile underfoot. Seamus' gift was knowing everyting about everyone. Seamus made friends with Dark Angelo when he was in New York, who recognized his singular talent and could see that having eyes and ears like that was invaluable to his SpeakEasy business.

That was five years ago. Now Seamus was Dark Angelo's silent best employee, and as close to a real friend as Dark Angelo would ever let himself have. Seamus ran the bar, knew the beat cops liberally taking care of their large drinking tabs as de facto paid protection program. The girls that worked the joint were safe with Seamus keeping a sharp eye out for them, nursing the big Colt that was never far from his hand behind the bar.

Just your normal illegal establishment is all, not as flashy as Capone's but hey as long as they stayed small held their own turf they were safe. At least, that is what they thought.

 

[caspai]

Darren, love! Your character sounds great. I was glad to see you were going to be writing with us. *kisses*

 

[faith]

*grin* got a question for you Cat...

i am in love with the line..."I knew she was trouble..." BUT...most of the trouble i have had in life started with the the line....

I knew he was trouble....


*grin* so would it be okay if we played with that line just a wee little bit... and make it so it is a she or he.... but we always knew trouble was coming.....

*wink* let me give my imagination a little extra room for play and i promise you a damn near perfect post from me...(i'll even run it though spell check)...btw..i never promise perfect cause there is only one way to go from there...and it sure isn't up...lol

just let me know....

((((((Big HUGS))))))))

love ya'
~faith~

p.s. *very very very cheeky grin*

 

[Cathay]

Feel free my dear Dixie to play

with The line (or anything else for that matter) to your
heart's content. The opening line is adjustable just want
it close (ya'll know what I mean) Da mood setter as in any film
noir. And I must also agree with you, Most of the trouble I've had
is with Men also.........hmmmm..... I sense a pattern here.


lol
Knock yourself out you talented broad!

 

[kitsuke]

I have been invited to join this thread by the Lady Cathay.

I have read and do believe I would like to post as an Englishman named Thomas Whitechapel. A recent immigrant from England he is a veteran of The Great War and is simply a killer for hire. He has an arsenal he keeps in a couple of large suitcases specially made to his specifications. The contents thereof will be disclosed during the course of the story I am sure.


A fairly proper gentleman, those in "the business" will easily be able to recognize from his movements and his eyes that is a killer, pure and simple.

Oh, and he HATES krauts.

 

[caspai]

Welcome back, Kit. You were missed.

 

[kitsuke]

*hugz* thx caspai