Some Questions to Think About While Reading The Bobbed Hair Bandit
Keep in mind:
In 1924:
Prohibition had been in effect since 1921?
it had created
a new type of criminal, the bootlegger
Moving pictures (the movies) were still
relatively new
they had helped create a culture of
celebrity
The 1920s was the decade in which people
were first able to buy goods on credit, rather than pay cash upfront
The 19th amendment (women’s
suffrage) was passed only five years earlier, in 1919
The themes this book address (and be on the lookout for them) are:
Economic stratification
Gender roles
the rise of mass popular culture
the media
in general, change, which always
makes people uncomfortable
As you look at these questions, think of specific examples from the text that address the questions.
Chapter 1 addresses the ways in which historians do history
How do the authors
attempt to find veracity in past
events?
What are the authors trying to
do in this book?
What are the problems they face
with this particular incident?
Why were there so many different
versions of this story?
According to the authors:
Why, in the 1920s, was there an increase in the “material aspirations” of people who could
not afford to buy luxury items?
What kinds of problems could
this create?
What role did the movies play in the way Americans perceived their own
lives?
(Any
similarities/differences today?)
What was a flapper?
Why did “bobbing” ones hair cause such a stir in the 1920s?
What were the “Wood Affair” and the “
Where did Celia get her visions about how someone should conduct a
robbery?
How much planning did Ed and Celia put in to their robberies?
(Although none of you would ever break the law and attempt a robbery)If you put
yourselves in that situation, how much planning would you put into your
robbery?
How did perceived gender roles effect the way the newspapers portrayed
Celia and Ed?
How does Celia’s memoir of events differ from newspaper accounts of her
robberies?
On what did Ed and Celia spend their illicitly gained money?
What was the nature of the newspaper business in the 1920s?
How did Ed and Celia’s story fit into that business?
Why did Ed and Celia write their first note to the police?
As the publicity about their robberies grew, how did it affect Ed and
Celia?
How did the press treat the NYC police?
Commissioner Enright?
How do the authors describe William Randolph Hearst?
What was his relationship with the mayor or NYC?
How did his papers report on the Bobbed-Haired Bandit and the failure of the
police to capture her?
Was there any truth to the contention that “crime waves’ were created
by the media?
Example(s)?
As the police became more frustrated over their inability to find
Celia, they began apprehending a
large number of innocent bobbed-haired women. What explanation do the
authors cite as the reason they targeted bobbed-haired women who were not in
the company of men?
What steps did Commissioner Enright take
(especially after he took over the BHB case) to stop the robberies in NYC?
Why was it so important to him to stop these robberies?
What was the fate of Helen Quigley after she was arrested by the
police? How long did she spend in jail?
What were some of the theories about who the BHB really was? (one of my favorite parts of the book!)
What were some of the theories about what Celia must be like?
Who were some of the “copycats” Celia and Ed inspired?
Why did the newspapers barely mention Ed’s role in the robberies?
When they did, how did they characterize him?
To what did Americans ascribe the “emasculization”
of American men in the 1920s?
What was the “Bob Squad?”
According to Celia, why did she and Ed rob the drugstore across from
the armory full of
drilling policemen?
How lucrative was banditry for the Cooneys?
How was their land holdup different from the first?
How did the news that she was pregnant change the public perception of
Celia?
Why was the public sympathetic to Irene Jones? What did they believe to
be the reason for her crimes?
After the Cooney’s had been identified by the press, how did the
newspaper accounts
about them differ between those newspaper who had middle-class
readers and those whose audience tended toward working-class readers?
What were the two versions of how Ed and Celia got caught? Why were
there two different versions?
To where did Ed and Celia “escape” after their botched
robbery?
Why did so many people turn out to meet the Cooneys
at the train station in NYC?
Why did Sam Liebowitz want to defend Ed and
Celia?
What reason did Celia give for having committed the robberies?
Why did Celia agree to tell her story to the press?
How long did Celia stay in jail?
Ed? How did Ed die?
How do the authors describe Celia’s childhood? Life
before marriage?
Ed?
What did Celia tell her children about her earlier exploits?
What is your perception of Ed and Celia?
Cite some examples that reflect Americans’ anxieties about the changes
occurring in the roles of women.