broken figures / the ruling style at present was dazzle

Cover of Jack London's novel (1902)

As we are once again learning at this point in American life, even if something is blatantly false, it can be widely assumed to be true, if it continues to be repeated. Over many decades of researching the history of modern-era camouflage (ship camouflage specifically), I’ve watched as people have increasingly claimed that Americans popularly referred to disruptively-patterned WWI ship camouflage as razzle dazzle.

While it is true that the British called it dazzle or dazzle-painting when they officially adopted that approach in 1917, neither they nor the Americans called it razzle-dazzle. They certainly could have, since the term was in use (in the US) and would have been appropriate, but they chose not to. If anything, the Americans called it baffle painting, in part because they were reluctant to use the term that the British had already chosen. Another proposed American term was jazz painting, but eventually, dazzle won the day.

In earlier posts we’ve talked about the etymology of razzle-dazzle and its relevance to ship camouflage. Two other more recent findings may provide additional help—

First, the term is central to an autobiographical novel, titled The Cruise of the Dazzler, by American writer Jack London (1902). In that novel, the central character named John Barleycorn purchases a sloop named the Dazzler, which is central to the book. At age fifteen, London himself had purchased a comparable boat, called the Razzle Dazzle, with which he harvested oysters to sell to restaurants in the San Francisco Bay. So the term was commonly in use, but far in advance of WWI proposals for wartime ship camouflage.

Second, it may be helpful to quote a passage from a magazine called Clothier and Furnisher (January 1889), which claims that razzle-dazzle was current as American English slang as early as 1886, and suggests that the following passage may be its first use in print—

My confrère, The Chevalier, last month gave a new name to the scarfs of disjointed pattern when he called them the razzle-dazzle. The name was evidently a hit of the most patent character, for in several avenue and Broadway stores the clerks have thrown out a display of broken figures before me and explained that the ruling style at present was the razzle-dazzle, and the word seems to have been equally effective with the public, for when it is quoted by the live salesman, the customer, I am told is at once interested and caught by it.

RELATED LINKS    

Dazzle Camouflage: What is it and how did it work? /  Nature, Art, and Camouflage / Art, Women's Rights, and Camouflage /  Embedded Figures, Art, and Camouflage / Art, Gestalt, and Camouflage /  Optical science meets visual art /  Disruption versus dazzle / Chicanery and conspicuousness /  Under the big top at Sims' circus

Sale-priced books on camouflage / free shipping

when father mangles celery with unctuous enthusiasm

Above A vintage photograph (source unknown) of a highly unusual example of ship camouflage during World War I in which the shape of the vessel has been made confusing by applying warped perspective shapes to the bow, while also attaching triangular forms to the masts, smoke stack, and upper deck surfaces, as a means of distorting the ship’s silhouette.

Note Since this was initially posted, we have been told by Aryeh Wetherhorn that this is a photograph of a Russian patrol boat, the Kondor, in the Baltic Sea.

•••

Everett L Warner, in Summary of Points to be Made in First Part of General Lecture on Marine Camouflage, unpublished typescript (n.d.)—

[The] British called [the] ultimate type [of WWI ship camouflage] “dazzle painting,” and this name, which we also used, was in itself a source of misunderstanding. [There was an] effort in [the US] Navy Department to find [a] more descriptive name, and to differentiate [the] American system from its British prototype. Suggestions [were] invited. Three days leave [was] offered [as a reward, but] no one secured it. One man suggested “jazz painting,” [and] I have always thought that this name summed up accurately the popular idea.

•••

FLORIBEL’S FLAPPERGRAMS in The Lafayette Journal and Courier (Lafayette IN), May 17, 1923— 

Floribel says: That jazz record on the fireside phonograph is mighty fittin’ at times. Put it on, say, when father mangles celery with unctuous enthusiasm or when he swiffles soup or swings a wicked saucer. A full-tone needle and enough jazz may help distract the awe-stricken dinner guests in the celery crisis. That same jazz may drown out the midnight racket of those dropped shoes in the parental bedroom upstairs. Any girl will tell you that when the “date” is a likely one, and a bit skittish, ‘most any household camouflage is justified, even jazz. At that, the average jazz record is no worse than the Teething-Baby Blues.

Note There are no full-color photographs of WWI ship camouflage. The original of the black and white image above has been digitally “colorized” using AI software. While its light / dark values are accurate, the choice and location of colors, even when plausible, may not be literally correct.

RELATED LINKS

Optical science meets visual art 

Disruption versus dazzle 

Chicanery and conspicuousness 

Under the big top at Sims' circus

Woodpecker Compared to Dazzle Camouflaged Ship

Hypothetical ship camouflage / ivory-billed woodpecker

Above Provocative justaposition of John James Audubon's portrayal of a woodpecker with the design of a hypothetical camouflaged ship in the style of American artist Corita Kent.

•••

Unsigned, CAPTAIN SAW U-BOAT OFF NEW YORK HARBOR In The Washington Times, July 26, 1918, p. 13—

Boston, July 26—The captain of a coal steamer now at this port believes he sighted a large German submarine off Fire Island NY last Sunday at noon. He was confident she was German, he said, as her superstructure was different from that of American undersea boats. She was lying on the surface a mile distant.

There was a light fog at the time and the captain of the coaler expressed the opinion that the haze and the steamer's camouflage prevented the submarine from sighting him.  He estimated the length of the submarine at between 300 and 400 feet.

Australian Radio Interview | Roy R. Behrens

Click here to access podcast

Above An interview of Roy R. Behrens by Margaret Throsby, broadcast live on Midday on ABC Classic FM on August 13, 2013, in Sydney, Australia. Among the topics of conversation were music, improvisation, Eric Satie, Billie Holiday, Keith Jarrett, Eden Ahbez, Gertrude Stein, William Cook, Le Corbusier, Buffalo Bill, ventriloquism, Iowa—and camouflage.

Camouflage Poster | Danielle Shearer

Above One of ninety posters designed by graphic design students at the University of Northern Iowa, to advertise an upcoming talk on WWI ship camouflage by RISD scholar Claudia Covert. This is one of three posters designed by Danielle Shearer. Copyright © 2012 by the designer. All rights reserved.

***

John F. Parker, “‘Art and the Great War” in International Studio, November 1919—

[In World War I] the cubists certainly had their grand opportunity, were backed financially by the government and, in the navy, the extent of their "canvases" limited only by the length and height of the ships. Thus, the ocean became a perpetual Salon des Independents, upsetting the gravity of sober old tars by the jazz and dazzle of many streaks of color, and introducing altogether a hitherto unknown gaiety into life on the ocean wave.

Camouflage Poster | Samantha Schilmoeller

Above One of ninety posters designed by graphic design students at the University of Northern Iowa, to advertise an upcoming talk on WWI ship camouflage by RISD scholar Claudia Covert. This is one of three posters designed by Samantha Schilmoeller. Copyright © 2012 by the designer. All rights reserved.

***
 
Anon, “Cubist Art and Filigree Designs Make Manufacture of Drums a Difficult Task” in Music Trades. September 2, 1922, p. 31—

The production force today [in manufacturing drums] must be greatly enlarged since jazz happened along and turned things topsy-turvy in the music world. In addition to others necessary for the production end, there must be an artist, an authority on cubist designing, a camouflage expert and others who are both numerous and expensive. The jazz orchestra, with its craze for something different, has affected the drum making business.

"In addition to a good drum in the strict sense of the word [said a company executive], the musician wants a lot more…

What are you going to do when such an order comes in?…[Maybe a member] of the jazz fraternity wants a drum head done in a cubist design to match his uniform. The average artist knows little and cares less for cubist art. So we must look among such Bohemians as may be found in Indianapolis and ferret out one who has studied along those lines.

Others want stripes, large and small, around one way; and others want stripes, small and large, around the other way. What’s the poor manufacturer to do? …Believe me, styles are getting more uncertain in the drum business than for women’s hats."