Monday, April 29
7pm ET
$8

PLEASE NOTE: A link to a recording of this talk will be sent out to ticket holders after its conclusion. It will also be archived for our Patreon members. Become a Member HERE.

Ticketholders: A Zoom invite is sent out two hours before the event to the email used at checkout. Please check your spam folder and if not received, email hello@morbidanatomy.org. A temporary streaming link will be emailed after the event concludes.

At the turn of the 20th century, the exploits and styles of Parisian Apache (pronounced Ah-pahsh) street gangsters fascinated the international bourgeoisie. Readers breathlessly followed the criminal exploits of "the Terror", "Golden Helmet" and other infamous Apaches via tabloid newspapers; nightclubbers thrilled to the danse d'Apache, which acrobatically mimicked a violent encounter between an Apache pimp and a prostitute; slumming society ladies took classes in la langue verte ("the green language"), the secret slang of Montmartre brothels and back-alleys. Apache fashions, weapons and even their ingenious pickpocketing and mugging tricks became the subjects of high society discourse, and their lore was quickly absorbed into popular culture via pulp novels, Grand Guignol plays and silent film serials.

This lavishly illustrated presentation explores the extraordinary demimonde mystique of the Apache subculture during la Belle Époque and ponders its pop-culture legacy unto the present day.

About the presenter

New Zealand citizen and US resident Tony Wolf is an author and antiquarian whose books include the popular graphic novel trilogy Suffrajitsu: Mrs. Pankhurst's Amazons, the true-crime anthology Houdini's "Girl Detective" and the historical action-adventure novel The Life and Fantastical "Crimes" of Spring Heeled Jack.