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Ida: Searching for The Jazz Baby
Who is Ida Pender? Is she the elderly woman - Ida-Spider - rumoured to be resident in a 1970's Mental Asylum?
Is she Squizzy Taylor's teenaged gangster moll of the roaring 1920's in Melbourne? The woman the police declared had shapely legs? She is Ida. The Jazz Baby.
Frank Prem explores the story of Ida Pender, largely forgotten now, but once the notorious associate of a 1920s Melbourne gangster. From the young girl sneaking out of her bedroom window to go dancing at the Palais de Danse, companion, accomplice, then wife and mother to Squizzy Taylor's child by her early twenties, Ida is an extraordinary woman and a marvellous story.
Is she Squizzy Taylor's teenaged gangster moll of the roaring 1920's in Melbourne? The woman the police declared had shapely legs? She is Ida. The Jazz Baby.
Frank Prem explores the story of Ida Pender, largely forgotten now, but once the notorious associate of a 1920s Melbourne gangster. From the young girl sneaking out of her bedroom window to go dancing at the Palais de Danse, companion, accomplice, then wife and mother to Squizzy Taylor's child by her early twenties, Ida is an extraordinary woman and a marvellous story.
91 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 2, 2023
2 people want to read
About the author
Frank Prem
59 books108 followersFrank Prem has been a storytelling poet for forty years. When not writing or reading his poetry to an audience, he fills his time by working as a psychiatric nurse.
He has been published in magazines, zines and anthologies, in Australia and in a number of other countries, and has both performed and recorded his work as ‘spoken word’.
He lives with his wife, in the beautiful township of Beechworth in northeast Victoria (Australia).
Franks web page is located at: www.FrankPrem.com.
YouTube video of Frank reading 'callignee butterflies', from Devil In The Wind.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 27, 2022
I received an Advance Reader Copy of Ida: Searching for The Jazz Baby from author, Frank Prem. This book was a quick read, but one I plan on returning to again to savor. Frank's poetry style is sparse, giving the reader tender glimpses in each of the twenty-three poems that serve as snapshots, like pieces in a jigsaw puzzle that fill in. By the end of the book you have an illuminated portrait of the subject. In this case, the portrait is Ida Pender, also known as The Jazz Baby.
The book of poetry I'm reviewing today is possibly about a patient named Ida Pender that Frank worked with in the psycho-geriatric ward in the asylum as an intern. She had the same name as the moll/accomplice/lover of Leslie “Squizzy” Taylor, one of Australia's well-known gangsters back in the 1920's. Frank's kernel of wonder at whether the Ida he cared for was the same person as the gangster's girlfriend germinated, sprouted and blossomed into this fine book of poems. I won't give away any spoilers, and to be honest, it doesn't matter whether the patient, Ida, and the gangster's Ida are the same person.
It was easy to do a google search for Squizzy, and there is a wealth of information out there on him. When I tried to do the same with Ida Pender, there is scant information. In the back of Frank's book is a lengthy source list showing where the information came from. Frank has searched through historical archives and pieced together a chronology of events documented about Ida Pender. By the end I saw her less as an objectified arm piece for a violent criminal and more as a human being.
Frank starts with Ida as a girl that took dance lessons, traveled to her teenage years, where she snuck out of her house at night to go to the dance hall, to her fateful introduction to Squizzy, her years as an accomplice in his violent crimes, their parting of ways, and her life after Squizzy.
Two of my favorite passages from the book are:
but faith
has a way
of uniting lovers
even with stone walls
in the way
from “as it transpires (I believe)”
and
there is no need
to tell lies
when
you can dance
from “tell them nothing (but a lie)”
In between poems are archival photos and newspaper clippings, which do a good job of grounding the reader in remembering that Ida, Squizzy, and the assorted cast of characters in the poems were real people. Frank works his magic between the lines of verse as Ida Pender begins to emerge.
One of the things I like best about reading Frank's books of poetry are how they are grouped by concept. One of Frank's books is on his growing up in a small town in Australia. Another is about wildfires that ravaged areas of Australia a few years back. One is about Frank's work experiences, first as an intern and later as a psychiatric nurse in an asylum. I've climbed in to each of them, each time feeling as if I were walking side by side with the author, immersing myself with empathy for the people contained within them. All are excellent reads infused with great insight and heart. This book stands in line beside them.
The book of poetry I'm reviewing today is possibly about a patient named Ida Pender that Frank worked with in the psycho-geriatric ward in the asylum as an intern. She had the same name as the moll/accomplice/lover of Leslie “Squizzy” Taylor, one of Australia's well-known gangsters back in the 1920's. Frank's kernel of wonder at whether the Ida he cared for was the same person as the gangster's girlfriend germinated, sprouted and blossomed into this fine book of poems. I won't give away any spoilers, and to be honest, it doesn't matter whether the patient, Ida, and the gangster's Ida are the same person.
It was easy to do a google search for Squizzy, and there is a wealth of information out there on him. When I tried to do the same with Ida Pender, there is scant information. In the back of Frank's book is a lengthy source list showing where the information came from. Frank has searched through historical archives and pieced together a chronology of events documented about Ida Pender. By the end I saw her less as an objectified arm piece for a violent criminal and more as a human being.
Frank starts with Ida as a girl that took dance lessons, traveled to her teenage years, where she snuck out of her house at night to go to the dance hall, to her fateful introduction to Squizzy, her years as an accomplice in his violent crimes, their parting of ways, and her life after Squizzy.
Two of my favorite passages from the book are:
but faith
has a way
of uniting lovers
even with stone walls
in the way
from “as it transpires (I believe)”
and
there is no need
to tell lies
when
you can dance
from “tell them nothing (but a lie)”
In between poems are archival photos and newspaper clippings, which do a good job of grounding the reader in remembering that Ida, Squizzy, and the assorted cast of characters in the poems were real people. Frank works his magic between the lines of verse as Ida Pender begins to emerge.
One of the things I like best about reading Frank's books of poetry are how they are grouped by concept. One of Frank's books is on his growing up in a small town in Australia. Another is about wildfires that ravaged areas of Australia a few years back. One is about Frank's work experiences, first as an intern and later as a psychiatric nurse in an asylum. I've climbed in to each of them, each time feeling as if I were walking side by side with the author, immersing myself with empathy for the people contained within them. All are excellent reads infused with great insight and heart. This book stands in line beside them.
January 8, 2023
A freeverse poetry collection about a jazz dancer and true crime in 1920s Melbourne, Australia where Jazz baby, Ida, daughter of a horse trainer, falls in love with Melbourne’s notorious underworld criminal, Leslie ‘Squizzy’ Taylor, once a horse jockey. The story begins in the 1970s where the author, Prem, as a young student, was a pyschiatric nurse at the Lunatic Asylum where several elderly women were called Ida. ‘Rumor’ had it that one of these Idas was Ida Pender, the gun-moll of Squizzy Taylor.
Prem researched the story of Ida Pender and Squizzy Taylor, who was eventually killed in a shootout, leaving Ida a widowed, single mother at the tender age of 23. Ida loved to dance since a child and was discovered to be part of a competitive dance group who loved to dance to jazz at the Palis de Dance. Prem brings back to life the story of Jazz Baby in prose and poetry. With each newspaper clipping headline, Prem tells the story in poetry through the character’s minds. An introductory poem to the elusive Ida:
the company (she keeps)
The pair are “Squizzy” TayJor, and his paramour, Ida
Pender, who has been associated with him since she
was a mere child of sixteen
“Squizzy” Taylor——As He Is! The Mirror, Perth 05/07/1924
is she
a bad girl
or
does she just choose
poor company . . .
a man
might be a
murderer
but still be nice
to me
and
if I love him . . .
and
I do love him . . .
where else
should I be
is she a bad
bad girl
or is she
just . . .
just . . .
just keeping company
as best
she can
If you enjoy a ‘different’ kind of story-telling, you will enjoy this well-researched story combined with the author’s imagination, written in poetry, accompanied by headlines. All the author’s research resources are listed in the book.
Prem researched the story of Ida Pender and Squizzy Taylor, who was eventually killed in a shootout, leaving Ida a widowed, single mother at the tender age of 23. Ida loved to dance since a child and was discovered to be part of a competitive dance group who loved to dance to jazz at the Palis de Dance. Prem brings back to life the story of Jazz Baby in prose and poetry. With each newspaper clipping headline, Prem tells the story in poetry through the character’s minds. An introductory poem to the elusive Ida:
the company (she keeps)
The pair are “Squizzy” TayJor, and his paramour, Ida
Pender, who has been associated with him since she
was a mere child of sixteen
“Squizzy” Taylor——As He Is! The Mirror, Perth 05/07/1924
is she
a bad girl
or
does she just choose
poor company . . .
a man
might be a
murderer
but still be nice
to me
and
if I love him . . .
and
I do love him . . .
where else
should I be
is she a bad
bad girl
or is she
just . . .
just . . .
just keeping company
as best
she can
If you enjoy a ‘different’ kind of story-telling, you will enjoy this well-researched story combined with the author’s imagination, written in poetry, accompanied by headlines. All the author’s research resources are listed in the book.
February 16, 2023
Ida: Searching for the Jazz Baby by Australian poet Frank Prem is based on an intriguing premise: whether or not it’s possible to uncover the past life of someone who has lost her identity to madness or senility:
I wonder
who
she really was
and who
she really is
....................
and why
I
am letting her hold
so much power (“the powerful woman”)
In this instance of lost identity, one of three women named Ida institutionalized in the Melbourne-Mayday Hills Asylum is rumored by a group of young amateur nurse-detectives to be none other than Ida Pender, paramour of notorious Melbourne gangster Lesley Squizzy Taylor, who was killed in a gunfight in 1927.
Ah, but which Ida is THE Ida, whom poet Prem later calls “my Ida”? Is she the one with “spindle legs” and “hands / shaped / into claws // just about / to strangle you? (“ida spider (I knew her when)”) Is she the poor soul who squawks like a parrot until the nurses throw a sheet over her so she’ll sleep? Or is she the Ida of rosy cheeks and bewilderment and little else? Which of the three is the woman with the interesting story, and which of the three are mere shambling shells?
This section of the book raised the discomfiting question in my mind of whether someone who is old, infirm, and/or suffering from dementia is any more of a person now for having led an interesting life then--or whether the interesting past life diminishes who she is now even more.
The collection goes through several movements and voices as Prem explores the Ida mystery from a vantage point of fifty years after he first encountered it as a young student. He first speaks in his own voice to retrieve his memories of the three Ida’s. As he uncovers pieces of Ida Pender’s story from newspaper accounts, he uses direct address to share them with the Ida he is in the process of creating. He then steps aside and lets the created Ida speak for herself.
Prem employs his customary minimalist style to good effect in these poems, with short lines and lack of capitalization or punctuation conveying the poet’s stream-of-consciousness musings and, in the poems speaking in Ida s voice, her youthful, carefree recklessness and, later, bemused regret.
The book includes several scanned newspaper clippings preceding the poems they inspired. I would have preferred that the newspaper clippings be placed at the end of the book with the listing of primary sources. I found that they distracted my focus on the poems because the old, faded typeface was very difficult to read. The brief, transcribed excerpts from these newspaper stories that serve as headers to the poems provide the necessary historical context on their own for each poem.
In the end, I found myself deeply moved by the presentation of Ida’s elusive, illusionary life. That said, the full import of the individual poems, as well as the collection as a whole, didn’t reveal itself to me until I had read the collection twice and given myself time for reflection. Ida: Searching for the Jazz Baby is a poetry collection best read slowly in a quiet room when the pressing demands of the day can be set aside. It’s the least we can do for Ida, real or imagined.
I wonder
who
she really was
and who
she really is
....................
and why
I
am letting her hold
so much power (“the powerful woman”)
In this instance of lost identity, one of three women named Ida institutionalized in the Melbourne-Mayday Hills Asylum is rumored by a group of young amateur nurse-detectives to be none other than Ida Pender, paramour of notorious Melbourne gangster Lesley Squizzy Taylor, who was killed in a gunfight in 1927.
Ah, but which Ida is THE Ida, whom poet Prem later calls “my Ida”? Is she the one with “spindle legs” and “hands / shaped / into claws // just about / to strangle you? (“ida spider (I knew her when)”) Is she the poor soul who squawks like a parrot until the nurses throw a sheet over her so she’ll sleep? Or is she the Ida of rosy cheeks and bewilderment and little else? Which of the three is the woman with the interesting story, and which of the three are mere shambling shells?
This section of the book raised the discomfiting question in my mind of whether someone who is old, infirm, and/or suffering from dementia is any more of a person now for having led an interesting life then--or whether the interesting past life diminishes who she is now even more.
The collection goes through several movements and voices as Prem explores the Ida mystery from a vantage point of fifty years after he first encountered it as a young student. He first speaks in his own voice to retrieve his memories of the three Ida’s. As he uncovers pieces of Ida Pender’s story from newspaper accounts, he uses direct address to share them with the Ida he is in the process of creating. He then steps aside and lets the created Ida speak for herself.
Prem employs his customary minimalist style to good effect in these poems, with short lines and lack of capitalization or punctuation conveying the poet’s stream-of-consciousness musings and, in the poems speaking in Ida s voice, her youthful, carefree recklessness and, later, bemused regret.
The book includes several scanned newspaper clippings preceding the poems they inspired. I would have preferred that the newspaper clippings be placed at the end of the book with the listing of primary sources. I found that they distracted my focus on the poems because the old, faded typeface was very difficult to read. The brief, transcribed excerpts from these newspaper stories that serve as headers to the poems provide the necessary historical context on their own for each poem.
In the end, I found myself deeply moved by the presentation of Ida’s elusive, illusionary life. That said, the full import of the individual poems, as well as the collection as a whole, didn’t reveal itself to me until I had read the collection twice and given myself time for reflection. Ida: Searching for the Jazz Baby is a poetry collection best read slowly in a quiet room when the pressing demands of the day can be set aside. It’s the least we can do for Ida, real or imagined.
February 11, 2023
Ida Pender was the young girlfriend, and later the wife, of a notorious criminal in the 1920s The book begins with the proposition that one of the now elderly ladies in a care home is this Ida and I found that thought incredibly moving. The notion that the vibrant girl who used to sneak out of her home aged 16 to go dancing, could now be the elderly woman with severe mobility problems hunched over a Zimmer frame.
The format of this book worked really well for me. The author has juxtaposed newspaper articles about Ida with poetry that paints a different, more human side to the sensational stories. He gives her a depth and vulnerability that the press didn’t.
a man
might be a
murderer
but still be nice to me
and
if I love him…
and
I do love him…
where else
should I be
The newspaper articles were fascinating and began with items about the dance school that Ida attended as a child. Ida Pender clearly made an impression then and, thanks to Frank Prem, she has made an impression on me, too.
The format of this book worked really well for me. The author has juxtaposed newspaper articles about Ida with poetry that paints a different, more human side to the sensational stories. He gives her a depth and vulnerability that the press didn’t.
a man
might be a
murderer
but still be nice to me
and
if I love him…
and
I do love him…
where else
should I be
The newspaper articles were fascinating and began with items about the dance school that Ida attended as a child. Ida Pender clearly made an impression then and, thanks to Frank Prem, she has made an impression on me, too.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews