Talk:Flat Foot Floogie (with a Floy Floy)

Jackie Robinson story
There's an interesting story relating this song to Jackie Robinson, but since there are some discrepancies in it, I thought I should put it here.

The story is that Robinson and a friend were walking home from a movie when the friend began whistling this song. A police officer heard the friend singing, took offense, and confronted him. Robinson stuck up for his friend, and ended up being arrested and sentenced to 10 days in jail, although the sentence was suspended and never served.

There are several generally-reliable sources for this story; I encountered it in an article tying in with the recent film about Robinson's life (http://theharlemtimes.com/sports/jackie-robinson-10-things-you-didnt-know), but I found several books which tell the same story http://books.google.com/books?id=V1FOPvDwZsoC&pg=PT52&lpg=PT52&dq=%22flat+foot+floogie%22+%22jackie+robinson%22&source=bl&ots=bGWWbOTwsP&sig=ToYs8XwcVJ6992XvReh3wfe7808&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Z2ZsUbO3A4LZ0wGO94HoBA&ved=0CDwQ6AEwAg, http://books.google.com/books?id=yYsAFPnM_50C&pg=PA20&lpg=PA20&dq=%22flat+foot+floogie%22+%22jackie+robinson%22&source=bl&ots=GSpNqIuV4l&sig=Hm8ubtzPIX78K8OAf6gJ0vuK_fQ&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Z2ZsUbO3A4LZ0wGO94HoBA&ved=0CDkQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=%22flat%20foot%20floogie%22%20%22jackie%20robinson%22&f=false

The problem, though, is that these sources all say that the incident happened in January of 1938, with January 25 seeming to be the preferred date. However, Slim Galliard's version of the song, which was the original, was recorded on Feb. 17, 1938: http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~at9k-ikd/McVouty/Session/380217vocalion.html (There's an indication that Galliard earlier recorded the song for another label on January 19, but that recording wasn't issued until decades later. Even given that Robinson was somewhat known as an athlete at this time, it seems highly unlikely that his friend would have known and been singing a song that hadn't been released in any form yet, especially since the sources all treat it as though this were a current hit song that people already knew.

Seems likely to me that it wasn't really this song, although it's also possible that the incident happened at a later date. (A date's much easier to verify.) I suppose I could put all that in the article, but that's starting to sound like "original research". Thought I'd at least get it in here for anyone else who might be looking to add the info. Brettalan (talk) 22:29, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

Floy-floy could mean "cool"
[NYT article mentions floy floy]

I remember the scene from the film Atlantic City (1980 film) where Burt Lancaster's character refers to floy-floy as a "good thing." The article above mentions this and states that the term came to mean "cool" among whites in the '40s. This may put a different spin on the meaning of the lyrics as far as what many people heard. 99.245.230.104 (talk) 09:26, 25 March 2014 (UTC)