Flophouse  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

Related e

Wikipedia Wiktionary Shop Featured: Rhombicuboctahedron by Leonardo da Vinci

A flophouse (US English), doss-house or dosshouse (British English) is a place that offers very cheap lodging, generally by providing only minimal services.

In popular culture

• Marlon Brando plays a character that inherits a flophouse from his dead wife in Last Tango in Paris by Bernardo Bertolucci
• John Steinbeck refers to the "Palace Flophouse Grill" in his book Cannery Row where the central characters of the novel establish their residence in what is described as a storage shed that had to be cleared of fish meal prior to making it a suitable residence.
• Seasick Steve references flop-houses in his song "Shirly Lov" on the album Dog House Music. In the song the term flop-house is used to describe what seems to be a brothel, or a place where prostitutes can be found easily.
• George Orwell discussed dosshouses in the UK in his book Down and Out in Paris and London. He described them as having rather poor cleanliness standards, often issuing unwashed and badly stained blankets, and sometimes renting beds in a large common room resembling barracks more than private rooms. He noted that at the time he wrote the book (1933) the term "dosshouse" was already falling out of use.
• Jack Kerouac stayed in such places in San Francisco and other cities, referring to them as "skid row hotels" in his books. The low prices allowed him to stretch his money from writing, and from jobs such as firewatcher and railroad brakeman. He would often keep a typewriter and hot plate in his room.
• The Charlie Chaplin film The Kid (1921) depicts a barracks-style flophouse.
• In a number of his plays, notably in Vieux Carre, Tennessee Williams makes reference to flophouses, generally in New Orleans, as places favorable for short-term usage for homosexual encounters.
• The affluent fashion photographer in Blowup (1966) claims to have spent the night in a "dosshouse".
• The film Staying Alive (1983) features its lead character living in a flophouse.
• The character Elwood Blues lives in a flophouse next to the elevated train tracks in Chicago at the beginning of the film The Blues Brothers.
• A slang meaning for "flophouse" was referenced in the film Kids. The definition is a house or apartment (usually apartment) where substance abusers stay to party and abuse drugs or alcohol.
• They Might Be Giants's song The Shadow Government, mentions a flophouse -- Crawling out of the flophouse/I saw the mayor stealing my junk/I doth protest, citizen's arrest/Now my body's in his trunk
• Johnny 5 refers to his new home as a flophouse in the movie Short Circuit 2.
• In Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, Dagny finds the eldest Starnes heir living in a flophouse.
• "At the Flophouse" is the title of a song co-written by Pete Doherty and Dot Allison and released by Doherty's band Babyshambles.
• In the Star Trek episode "The City on the Edge of Forever", Kirk told Spock, "We have a "flop", a place to sleep".
• The ska band Smash Mouth in their song "Heave-Ho" tell of being accused of running a flophouse by their "whiney neighbor."
• In an episode of the British sitcom TV series The Good Life, snooty neighbour Margo apologizes to Lady Truskett for her having spent time in the Good home. Tom shouts, "Oi! It's not a dosshouse, you know!"
• In the video game Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories, after Donald Love lost his entire fortune he moved into a flophouse.
• In the video game Back to the Future: The Game, a flophouse is present in 1931 Hill Valley. During episode 2, Doc stays in that flophouse.
• Meridel Le Sueur discusses flophouses during the Great Depression in her 1932 short story "Women on the Breadlines". In this story, the inclusion of flophouses is connected to the larger issue of the limited resources available for women in cities during this era.

See also

• Capsule hotel
• Common lodging-house
• Hostel
• Internet café
• Punk house
• Staying Alive