Bobby socks are white, ankle-length socks, most often made from cotton, that have been worn by women, children—and especially teenage girls—since the 1930s. In particular, adolescents wore them with penny-loafers or saddle shoes. However, bobby socks are more than just a type of footwear. In December 1942, Frank Sinatra (1915–1998; see entry under 1940s—Music in volume 3), then a skinny, bow-tied young singer from New Jersey, opened at the Paramount Theatre in New York. Those same girls and young women who favored bobby socks came to see him and spontaneously screamed and collapsed as he performed. They danced the jitterbug—the latest craze in dancing (see entry under 1900s—The Way We Lived in volume 1)—in the theater aisles. They swooned (fainted) in their seats and jammed the area surrounding the stage door and demanded his autograph. They flowed out into the streets of midtown Manhattan, tying up...