March16

“Now you’re on the trolley”

You ever wonder why con artist movies always use the same old time lingo you don’t hear anyone else? Ropers, Inside Men, Stings, Wires, Big Stores and Long Cons all exist in history and fiction but rarely in the real world.

The terms all come from The Big Con by David Maurer. It’s a lingo heaving exploration of 1930’s swindling that is the basis for all the great con artist fictions - The Sting, Hustle, Confidence etc.

It’s still used today by novelists and screenwriters as a source for scams, despite being seventy years old.

Here are some hokey old terms. Can you define them?

Electric Bar

Double Trays

Boodle

Juice

Broads

Shillaber

Tin Mittens

The Spud

Modern Old Time Con Man Whit “pop” Haydn

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 16th, 2010 at 8:41 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

10 Comments to

““Now you’re on the trolley””

  1. On March 19th, 2010 at 8:46 am Oscar Jackson Says:

    Electric Bar: a bar with lots of suckers
    Double Trays: two identical trays of cash (one fake, one real)
    Boodle: a fake poodle?
    Juice: Electricity
    Broads: Queens in a deck of card.
    Shillaber: a shill
    Tin Mittens: someone who can’t play cards well
    The Spud: non idea.

  2. On March 19th, 2010 at 8:47 am dangle Says:

    electric bar is a maghnetic bar used in dice games. the spots have metal in them.

    Shillaber is the long version of shill.

    broads are queens as in ‘tossing broads.”

    No ideas about the rest.

  3. On March 19th, 2010 at 10:49 am Bill Nuvo Says:

    Boodle……any similarity to “kit and kaboodle”?

  4. On March 20th, 2010 at 1:39 am Bret Maverick Says:

    Boodle - counterfeit currency.

    Broads - While the word Broads has become synonymous with the “Queens” used in 3CM, it is believed that the term was not a sexist reference to women as broads, but was derived from the width of the cards originally used in 3CM, which were slightly wider than the cards generally used at the time.

    Juice - 1) the electricity used to power gaffs, particularly with wheel games; 2) the power to have thngs done through political channels; 3) 3) The commission paid by winners when picking favorites and in betting on the banker in baccarat; and 4) A sophisticated and not commonly known playing card marking technique requiring that the cheats gradually accustom their eyes to see the extremely faint dye markings.

  5. On March 20th, 2010 at 4:09 pm nickjohnson Says:

    Bret is spot on. Dangle is correct about shillaber.

    A boodle was used to describe a roll of fake money with a real note wrapped around the outside.

  6. On March 22nd, 2010 at 11:49 am nickjohnson Says:

    Electric Bar - a magnet bar in a saloon used in dice games.

    Double Trays - Dice with only three different faces, repeated twice. e.g. 1,3 and 5.

    Tin Mittens - Someone is easily bribe.

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  10. On June 3rd, 2011 at 4:24 pm www.conman.com.au Says:

    Now youre on the trolley.. I like it :)

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