From the interesting Wordhistories site:
“Popularised by the 1938 theatre musical Hellzapoppin’, and by the 1941 film Hellzapoppin’ based on the former, the one-word form hellzapoppin’ represents a colloquial pronunciation of the phrase hell’s a poppin’…
“The phrase hell’s a poppin’, and its variants, mean events are unfolding …
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to SpyTalk to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.