Letters, Jun. 28, 1937

Half Black Geese

Sirs:

Relative your article TIME, June 7 on the word "jalopy" and Webster R. Kent's comments (TIME, June 21), I think you are both in error. Approximately ten years ago while in a Los Angeles café with the late Herbert Somborn, ex-husband of Gloria Swanson, approximately eight mulatto dancing girls appeared. Mr. Somborn exclaimed: "What beautiful jalopies!" Pressing him for information, he stated that a jalopy was anything half black and that the word originated in a certain part of Africa, where plurals are unknown, and a jalopy is a...

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