Talk:Flophouse

Untitled

"Such people, whether employed or unemployed, lead a hedonist self-destructive lifestyle. If they are employed, their money usually goes to drugs and/or alcohol. Other bums and partygoers can also temporarily stay for parties." -- IT'S LIKE I'M READING A REAL ENCYCLOPEDIA!

That caught my eye and I removed it. Not a NPOV at all. 81.235.136.245 00:27, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

Blues Brothers as a source?

"Hotel for Men; Transients Welcome"??? That's exactly what the sign says on the hotel Jake and Elwood live in. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.68.127.93 (talk) 01:49, 9 November 2008 (UTC)

I removed it. Czolgolz (talk) 01:43, 1 November 2011 (UTC)

Etymology

Being English I am not familiar with the use in America of 'flophouse' as an equivalent of the British doss-house. I do know however that 'flop-house' in British English has a specific meaning, i.e. a form of accommodation where the only mechanism from keeping sleepers off the floor were ropes over which they would place their arms to go to sleep. There were no beds: a user would simply 'flop' over the rope. Presumably the American word came from that same source. Should this not be included on the page? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.24.121.212 (talk) 15:19, 3 March 2012‎

"In popular culture"

Extended content

Marlon Brando plays a character who inherits a flophouse from his dead wife in Last Tango in Paris by Bernardo Bertolucci. John Steinbeck refers to the "Palace Flophouse Grill" in his book Cannery Row where the central characters of the novel establish their residence in what is described as a storage shed that had to be cleared of fish meal prior to making it a suitable residence. Seasick Steve references flophouses in his song "Shirly Lov" on the album Dog House Music. In the song the term flophouse is used to describe what seems to be a brothel, or a place where prostitutes can be found easily. George Orwell discussed dosshouses in the UK in his book Down and Out in Paris and London. He described them as having rather poor cleanliness standards, often issuing unwashed and badly stained blankets, and sometimes renting beds in a large common room resembling barracks more than private rooms. He noted that at the time he wrote the book (1933) the term "dosshouse" was already falling out of use. Jack Kerouac stayed in such places in San Francisco and other cities, referring to them as "skid row hotels" in his books. The low prices allowed him to stretch his money from writing, and from jobs such as firewatcher and railroad brakeman. He would often keep a typewriter and hot plate in his room. The Charlie Chaplin film The Kid (1921) depicts a barracks-style flophouse. In a number of his plays, notably in Vieux Carre, Tennessee Williams makes reference to flophouses, generally in New Orleans, as places favorable for short-term usage for homosexual encounters. The affluent fashion photographer in Blowup (1966) claims to have spent the night in a "dosshouse". The film Staying Alive (1983) features its lead character living in a flophouse. The character Elwood Blues lives in a flophouse next to the elevated train tracks in Chicago at the beginning of the film The Blues Brothers. A slang meaning for flophouse was referenced in the film Kids. The definition is a house or apartment (usually apartment) where substance abusers stay to party and abuse drugs or alcohol. They Might Be Giants's song The Shadow Government, mentions a flophouse -- Crawling out of the flophouse/I saw the mayor stealing my junk/I doth protest, citizen's arrest/Now my body's in his trunk. Johnny 5 refers to his new home as a flophouse in the movie Short Circuit 2. In Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, Dagny finds the eldest Starnes heir living in a flophouse. At the Flophouse is the title of a song co-written by Pete Doherty and Dot Allison and released by Doherty's band Babyshambles. In the Star Trek episode "The City on the Edge of Forever", Kirk told Spock, "We have a "flop", a place to sleep". The ska band Smash Mouth in their song Heave-Ho tell of being accused of running a flophouse by their "whiney neighbor". In an episode of the British sitcom TV series The Good Life, snooty neighbour Margo apologizes to Lady Truskett for her having spent time in the Good home. Tom shouts, "Oi! It's not a dosshouse, you know!" In the video game Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories, after Donald Love lost his entire fortune he moved into a flophouse. In the video game Back to the Future: The Game, a flophouse is present in 1931 Hill Valley. During episode 2, Doc stays in that flophouse. Meridel Le Sueur discusses flophouses during the Great Depression in her 1932 short story Women on the Breadlines. In this story, the inclusion of flophouses is connected to the larger issue of the limited resources available for women in cities during this era. In Cormac McCarthy's 1979 novel, Suttree, the title character visits the "halfdollar dosshouse" on Vine Avenue in Knoxville, Tennessee, where he witnesses a homeless character known as "the ragpicker" huddled around a stove with several other "half addled aged and rumsoaked dotards."

Every minor mention of a flophouse in the history of American culture. This may be acceptable on some trivia-focused Wikia, but not in Wikipedia article space. --87.79.43.128 (talk) 23:10, 28 July 2012 (UTC)

References

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Is this copied from somewhere?

your ha'penny would buy you

This doesn't sound like it was written by a modern speaker of any dialect I'm aware of. Is it taken from somewhere? — Sonata Green (talk) 21:20, 20 July 2018 (UTC)

If I understand correctly the history of London English, this expression was commonplace in the late 19th century, when such institutions were also commonplace. Jim.henderson (talk) 14:45, 24 July 2018 (UTC)

Requesting help cleaning up article

Tried to cleaning up article from iPhone, then did a little more from iPad when phone calls and other work came in. Most concerned about opening paragraphs. I’d welcome any help! Thumb typing on iPhone interface doesn’t work well for editing... DrMel (talk) 22:53, 6 March 2019 (UTC)

unclear

"the turn of the 20th century"- When is this? Is it 1901 or 2001? The Wikipedia article on 'turn of the century' says the term is ambiguous (citing ChMS). 2600:6C67:1C00:5F7E:5074:94AA:1A:68AA (talk) 04:00, 18 July 2022 (UTC)