Episode #65: 1919 Timeline Twist & The Anarchist Letter Bombings of 1919

Anarchist bombing in New York City

4/30/2025: On today’s episode, Valerie’s Timeline Twist outlines a wild year, including wars, riots, and strikes, as well as a LOT of beverages, as folks prepared for prohibition - Boo! We also discuss the second-ever cocktail book written by the highly skilled, famous African-American bartender, Julian Anderson, an appropriated and offbeat new dance called the “Black Bottom”, and the short-lived magazine, Good Morning, featuring the Poor Fish. Next, Amy Jo tells the intense story of the Anarchist Letter Bombings that terrorized post-war America, when pro-labor Galleanists carried out coordinated attacks in April and June of that year which contributed to the backlash of the Palmer Raids and the First Red Scare, although they didn’t know there would be another Red Scare at that time. Anarchists, Communists, Socialists and Feminists, Oh My!

The funeral procession of Theodore Roosevelt makes its way to the top of the hill, January 8, 1919

R34 Dirigible

The Boston Globe bid adieu to a battle-scarred pirate-gladiator representing 1918.

Poster equating world peace, (lady) liberty and (American) prosperity produced by the United Cigar Stores Company.

20th Century versions of product logo and packaging. Top: Original J. N. Collins logo. Bottom: Packaging of Peter Paul version.

Newspaper clipping with caption "In the hotsy-totsy cabaret: Miss Edith Wilson in the Black Bottom Dance".

Sheet music for the "new dance sensation", the Black Bottom.

The Marchesa Casati, Augustus Edwin John (1878 - 1961)

Poor Fish cartoon from Good Morning magazine.

Luigi Galleani, Head of the Anarchism Movement in 1919.

U.S. Flag design w/ Anarchy symbol.

Philadelphia - Rectory of the Chuch of our Lady of Victory Washington - A Mitchell Palmr's house in the capital New York - Home of Judge Charles C. Nott, Jr., 151 East Sixty-first Street.

J. Edgar Hoover, 1924.

Damage done by the bomb at Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer's house.

June 3, 1919, Newspapers of the 1919 United States anarchist bombings.

Cartoon featuring an "old-fashioned anarchist-style round bomb with burning fuse".

Sources/Photo Sources

Intro Sources:

NA

Timeline Twist Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1919 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodrow_Wilson 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/League_of_Nations 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Products_introduced_in_1919 

https://punchdrink.com/articles/montanas-great-lost-barman-julian-anderson/ 

https://www.retrorhythm.com/pre-swing-era 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Bottom_(dance) 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marchesa_Casati_(painting) 

https://flashbak.com/good-morning-magazine-471577/

https://streetsofsalem.com/2018/12/28/victory-new-year-1919/ 

https://www.merriam-webster.com/time-traveler/1919

Timeline Twist Photo Sources:

https://trgravesite.org/the-gravesite/ 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marchesa_Casati_(painting)#/media/File:Augustus_Edwin_John_-_The_Marchesa_Casati_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R33-class_airship#/media/File:R34.jpg 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Bottom_(dance)#/media/File:Singer-actress_Edith_Wilson_performing_the_Black_Bottom_(dance)_in_the_London_stage_production_of_Lew_Leslie's_%22Blackbirds%22_(1926)_(cropped).jpg 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Bottom_(dance)#/media/File:Black_Bottom_Sheet_Music.jpg 

https://flashbak.com/good-morning-magazine-471577/ 

https://streetsofsalem.com/2018/12/28/victory-new-year-1919/ 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walnettos#/media/File:Walnettos_candy,_two_old_images.jpg

The Anarchist Letter Bombings of 1919 Sources:

https://youtu.be/qk5EdMVbydU?si=gtX7J21ag0vKJTip 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1919_United_States_anarchist_bombings#:~:text=A%20series%20of%20bombings%20were,bombs%20were%20sent%20by%20mail 

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/april-17-2025

https://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/plainwords.html 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Red_Scare

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmer_Raids

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1918%E2%80%931920_New_York_City_rent_strikes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarchism 

https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/palmer-raids https://www.neh.gov/divisions/preservation/featured-project/the-anarchist%E2%80%99s-chronicle

https://time.com/5580829/anarchist-may-day-mail-bombs/

https://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/plainwords.html 

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2006/03/reds200603?srsltid=AfmBOorUp6tUpT8cfm4H97oY8rdj83CB2ruwKY9_HNzuQcaQEYoDwLa3

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/31/opinion/1919-america.html 

https://time.com/5580829/anarchist-may-day-mail-bombs/

The Anarchist Letter Bombings of 1919 Photo Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1919_United_States_anarchist_bombings#/media/File:New-York_Tribune_coverage_of_1919_United_States_anarchist_bombings.png 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1919_United_States_anarchist_bombings#/media/File:Palmer_Bombing.jpg 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1919_United_States_anarchist_bombings#/media/File:June_3_1919_Newspapers_of_the_1919_United_States_anarchist_bombings.png 

https://www.legendsofamerica.com/ah-1919bombings/ 

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BombThrowingAnarchists 

https://news.sky.com/story/a-history-of-violence-letter-bomb-campaigns-in-the-us-11535230