Idiom: What does "spot white" mean?

[pronker]

Source is a 1934 film, Mandalay, starring Kay Francis. Her character, Tanya, is abandoned by her lover as they cruise the Far East in his yacht. She takes up the only work she can find, "hostessing" in a Rangoon "nightclub" until she gathers enough funds to escape that life. "Spot White is her name?" asks a patron as she makes a glamorous

Comments

[beesandbrews]

I'm going to take a guess. A Spot White is a billiard cue ball ( called a spot white o differentiate it from a plain white.)

So if her nickname was Spot White then she must have had a reputation for getting things going or something similar just like a cue ball in a billiards game.

https://www.gametablesonline.com/blog/difference-between-billiards-pool-snooker/

[pronker]

You've got it, thanks! it fits because one of the activities in the "nightclub" was billiards, roulette, etc.

[beesandbrews]

Yay! My first search return was a snooker club called Spot White https://www.spotwhite.com/ so that gave me an idea of where to look.