[Dixielandjazz] "Solid Gates" and "In Like Flynn"

[Stephen Barbone]

Jeanne Brei asked about "solid" and "gates"

In more up to date vernacular perhaps "solid gates" could be replaced by
"right on, man"., or "cool, stud". etc. Like "I'm Hip, JB."

Others debate "In Like Flynn" which is a interesting. See below:

>From "World Wide Words": "What is the derivation of in like Flynn?"
Reference books almost universally assert
that this set phrase, an American expression meaning to be successful
emphatically or quickly, especially in regard to sexual seduction,
refers to the Australian-born actor Errol Flynn. His drinking,
drug-taking and sexual exploits were renowned, even for Hollywood, but
the phrase is said to have been coined following his acquittal in
February 1943 for the statutory rape of a teenage girl. This seems to be
supported by the date of the first example recorded, in American Speech
in December 1946, which cited a 1945 use in the sense of something being
done easily. (Note by Barbone) The alleged rape supposedly took place in
November 1942 and involved two teenage girls.)

The trouble with this explanation is that examples of obviously related
expressions have now turned up from dates before Flynn's trial. Barry
Popik of the American Dialect Society found an example from 1940, as
well as this from the sports section of the San Francisco Examiner of 8
February 1942: "Answer these questions correctly and your name is Flynn,
meaning you're in, provided you have two left feet and the written
consent of your parents". To judge from a newspaper reference he turned
up from early 1943, the phrase could by then also be shortened to I'm
Flynn, meaning "I'm in".

It's suggested by some writers that the phrase really originated with
another Flynn, Edward J Flynn - "Boss" Flynn - a campaign manager for
the Democratic party during FDR's presidency. Flynn's machine in the South
Bronx in New York was so successful at winning elections that his
candidates seemed to get into office automatically.

The existence of the examples found by Mr Popik certainly suggest the
expression was at first unconnected with Errol Flynn, but that it
shifted its association when he became such a notorious figure. Since
then, it has
altered again, because in 1967 a film, In Like Flint, a spy spoof
starring James Coburn, took its title by wordplay from the older
expression, and in turn caused many people to think that the phrase was
really in like Flint.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone