I’m currently reading a book about Chicago in the 1920s and 1930s, which has been great fun. I’m still researching Agatha Christie’s early novels, too, so it’s been interesting to cross-reference what was happening in both Chicago and England at the time.
Even though I was born in Chicago a very long time ago, I only just learned why we are called “that toddlin’ town!” The song, Chicago (That Todd’ling Town), was published in 1922 by Fred Fisher. I’m most familiar with the Frank Sinatra version, but apparently it’s been covered by zillions of musicians. Green Day even performed it during a Chicago concert in 2009!
The 1920s era is known for its trends and crazes. Jazz – and dancing to jazz – was one of those crazes. You probably know how to do a few steps of the Charleston, but do you know how to “toddle?”
Arthur Murray, as in the dance schools, started teaching dance as a teenager in 1912. By 1920, he was broadcasting dance music over the radio so people could practice at home. According to Murray, “In ‘toddling,’ you take the regular Fox Trot step, then rise up and come down at the finish of each step.” (The South-Bend News-Times) In case you want to try it!
That’s all very interesting, but let’s get back to connecting Agatha Christie to Chicago!
Agatha certainly had connections to America – her father was an American – and she referenced America in her books. Here are some American characters I found in the books from just the 1920s and 1930s:
- Julius Hersheimmer in The Secret Adversary (1922)
- Abe Ryland in The Big Four (1927)
- Rufus Van Aldin in The Mystery of the Blue Train (1928)
- Caroline Hubbard, Samuel Ratchett, Antonio Foscarelli, Helena Goldenberg Andrenyi, and Cyrus Hardman in Murder on the Orient Express (1934)
- Louise Leidner and maybe Frederick Bosner in Murder in Mesopotamia (1936)
- Andrew Pennington, Marie Van Schuyler, and Cornelia Robson in Death on the Nile (1937)
Hersheimmer, Ryland, and Van Aldin are all millionaires, and Ratchett says he’s “a very rich man.” Marie Van Schuyler, Caroline Hubbard, and Helena Andrenyi were probably also well-heeled, and the “rich American” was a popular stereotype. Since all of these stories have to do with traveling, maybe it’s not surprising that these American characters had money.
Speaking of money, Mrs. Hubbard was traveling the Orient Express with a book of American Express cheques. American Express started as a delivery service in 1850, got into the travel business, and introduced the cheques in 1892.
More America-related references in these early books include “Long Island Butler” and “Lobster à l’américane,” from Partners in Crime and The Secret Adversary. Tuppence complains that their assistant, Albert, acts like a Long Island butler, which is a reference to the servants of Gilded Age Americans like William K. Vanderbilt and J.P. Morgan. Lobster à l’américane is another Tuppence quote from The Secret Adversary. One theory for the name of this lobster-in-cream-sauce dish is that is was first served in the first-class dining rooms on American steamships.
Christie visited relatives in New York more than once but she doesn’t seem to have ever made it to Chicago. She does, however, mention Chicago a couple of times in the 1920s and 1930s books, particularly in Murder on the Orient Express. In the story, Poirot questions the valet, Masterman, about the man with whom he is sharing a compartment.
“Is there anyone in with you?”
“Yes, sir. A big Italian fellow.”
“Does he speak English?”
“Well, a kind of English, sir.” The valet’s tone was deprecating. “He’s been in America - Chicago, I understand.”
Chicago isn’t depicted in the best light in this novel! M. Bouc shares Masterman’s disdain for Chicagoans, particularly Italian-Americans, and while Christie doesn’t place him in Chicago, she definitely says that Ratchett was the “head of the gang.” Chicago, of course, was synonymous with gangsters in the twenties and thirties, so this was no doubt on her mind.
Another reference to Chicago is in Murder in Mesopotamia. Louise and her first husband seem to be Americans, and on the archeological dig, the team photographer, Carl Reiter, identifies himself as an American from Chicago. Both the Field Museum and the Oriental Institute were sending people to the Mideast during the early 1900s, so that makes perfect sense.
Since I am still focusing on the 1920s and 1930s, I’m looking forward to finding more Chicago references. (I know of at least one in the 1960s!) There aren’t many, alas!, but as they always say, it’s the journey, not the destination. Even when the destination is Chicago.