THE YEAR THE WORLD WENT MAD

This was the year 1927- a year of ebullition- the boom before the bust in the most obstreperous decade- and Allen Churchill (The Improper Bohemians, etc.) has brought it all back against a soundtrack of incidental news notes and social comments. While prohibition was still out, radio was on the way in along with the Book of the Month Club; so was the flapper- and Clara Bow had arrived; advertising had discovered the testimonial; sports reached two high points- with the disputed Tunny-Dempsey bout, and Babe Ruth's best year; and politically- along with the dashing Mayor Walker- there was the dour Coolidge administration. Some of the noisier, more notorious phenomena however have a fuller recall: the Peaches and Daddy Browning foolishness with which the tabloids titillated hundreds; Texas Guinan whose ""boisterous talents"" exploited a sucker supper club clientele; the Snyder-Gray case which had more lineage than any murder before or since; and while Shipwreck Kelly broke a flagpole sitting record, Lindbergh set a more distinguished one and America found a Hero..... A playback, of all the small details as well as the bigger spectacles of an era which reached its climax in this year, provides another only yesterday which is entertaining to read about- embarassing to think about.