But then I decided to actually look it up before I posted, and well, I got sucked down a research hole like you wouldn't believe.
Well, if I had to learn something, you folk are damn well learning something, too. So pay attention!!
We start with a "real tales of crime" feature from inside the back cover of Mike Shayne Private Eye #1 (1962):
Well, guess what: this was all true.
Hot corn girls were a real thing, one of the few ways female Irish immigrants had to earn money in the day. They sold hot corn on the street (and some, it was implied, sold themselves as well, if you take my meaning).
"Celebrated in rhyme and ballad?" Yes, indeed. Through exhausting personal research, I've managed to even find the sheet music to some of these ballads. You may not believe Dell Comics, but you've got to believe the Library Of Congress, right?
Look, I even have found a modern ballad someone wrote about hot corn girls.
And the murder story? 100% true, as well. Edward Coleman was one of the first notorious gangsters in New York City; he married a popular "hot corn girl;" he beat her severely when she didn't earn as much as he expected; she died from the wounds, and he was convicted of murder; and he was the first man hanged at the Tombs.
So there, we all learned something new today. It felt good, right?
Well, let's take our new found knowledge, get out there, and agitate for some Hot Corn Girl comic books!! And I want to see lots of Hot Corn Girl cosplay at future conventions! And maybe, just maybe, some sympathetic DC creator could sneak Stephanie Brown into the nu52 as the mysterious Hot Corn Girl Of Gotham...
