Fact Check: Key Historical Context for "Boardwalk Empire's" Season 4 Premiere (No Spoilers!)
A few pieces of American history to know before catching up with Nucky and friends.
Image via Complex Original
HBO's gangster drama Boardwalk Empire returns for its fourth season tonight at 9 p.m. As ever, the show goes to great lengths to capture the realities of Prohibition, and that includes using old slang and havings its characters speak about the big sociopolitical issues of the day. Unless you're a scholar of American history during the Roaring Twenties, you're going to encounter some moments during tonight's premiere where you'll wish you had more context.
Edutainment alert! There will be no spoilers about the action of tonight's episode in this piece, but you will learn a little something. This installment of Fact Check will elaborate on some locations mentioned or frequented in tonight's episode, define some slang and antiquated words, offer the history of a certain cocktail, and more. This way, you won't feel dumb watching Boardwalk Empire.
RELATED: Everything You Need to Know to Watch Season 4 of Boardwalk Empire
Piggly Wiggly
A supermarket chain in the south and midwest U.S., Piggly Wiggly was founded in Memphis, Tennessee in 1916. Founder Clarence Saunders patented the idea of the self-service store with Piggly Wiggly. It was the first to price mark items, have checkout stands and have refrigerated cases to keep produce fresh among other things. Piggly Wiggly's success inspired other supermarkets to adopt the self-service model in the '20s and '30s.
Owney Madden & The Cotton Club
Owney "The Killer" Madden was a prominent figure in Manhattan's underworld during Prohibition. In 1923, he took over Club Deluxe, which boxer Jack Johnson hadopened in 1920, and renamed it The Cotton Club. It was a whites-only club located in Harlem in New York City. Despite the policy of segregation among customers, many famous black entertainers performed at the club, including Fletcher Henderson, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, and Billie Holiday.
Factotum
noun \fak-ˈtō-təm\ 1: a person having many diverse activities or responsibilities 2: a general servant
"All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone."
This quote comes from French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer, and Christian philosopher Blaise Pascal's book Pensées. Pascal was a child prodigy who eventually began to work with the natural and applied sciences, where he studied and contributed to the study of fluids, pressure, vacuum. He also invented the mechanical calculator and influenced the development of modern economics and social science.
After the death of his father in 1654 he devoted himself to theology and philosophy. That same year he wrote his two most famous works: Lettres provinciales and Pensées. Pensées, which translates to "thoughts," was a defense of Christianity.
Keens Steakhouse
Keens was established in 1885 in New York City. It was known as a rendezvous for the rich and famous. Keens boasts the world's largest collection of churchwarden pipes. A churchwarden pipe is a tobacco pipe with a long stem that can be as long as 16 inches. The name comes from the churchwardens, who used to put the pipe's long stem out of church windows so they could smoke in the holy place.
Churchwarden pipes provide a cooler smoke because of the long distance the smoke must travel from bowl to mouth. Teddy Roosevelt, Babe Ruth, Albert Einstein, and J.P. Morgan have all been members of Keens' Pipe Club.
Fletcher "Smack" Henderson
James Fletcher Hamilton Henderson Jr. was born December 18, 1897 in Cuthbert, Ga. He was known as "Smack" Henderson because of his baseball skills, but he was chiefly a pianist, bandleader, arranger, and composer. Henderson was a key player in the growth of big band jazz and swing music, and his influence has been compared to Duke Ellington.
In the 1920s he played piano for many blues singers before going on to form his own band in 1922. Louis Armstrong joined two years later.
New York Sour
This cocktail dates back to the 1870s, and was most likely invented in by a bartender in Chicago. It was known as the Continental Sour and the Southern Whiskey Sour before New York Sour stuck.
Here's how to make one: Mix 2 ounces of rye or bourbon whiskey, with 1 ounce of fresh lemon juice and 1 ounce simple syrup in a cocktail shaker. Fill with ice, close, and shake for 30 seconds. Strain into an ice-filled glass. Hold the back of a spoon over the top of the drink and pour 1/2 ounce fruity red wine. This will make the wine float on top, creating the distinctive look and flavor.
Sawbuck
A sawbuck is a heavy device with two X-shaped ends used to hold rough wood in place so you can saw it more easily. It's also old slang for a 10-dollar bill. That last usage is the one you'll want to be familiar with for tonight's premiere.
Warsaw, Indiana
Warsaw became a town in 1854. It was named after the Polish capital and as a tribute to Tadeusz Kościuszko. Kościuszko was a national hero who fought for Poland against Russia, and also fought on the American side in the Revolutionary War.
Warsaw is nicknamed "Lake City" because of its numerous surrounding lakes: Pike Lake, Hidden Lake, Center Lake, Winona Lake.
During the Polish-Soviet War, between 1919 and 1921, the fall of the real Warsaw, Poland, seemed inevitable. But Poland pulled out a victory at the Battle of Warsaw. As the Polish army advanced east, the Russians called for peace. The war ended in a cease fire in 1920, but a formal peace treaty (Peace of Riga) wasn't signed until 1921.