Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US) a departure, an escape; usu. as do/pull a fadeaway v.

1911		H.S. Harrison Queed v 56: She had only pretended to die in order to make a fade-away with the gate receipts.
1913		Eve. Star (Wash., DC) 23 Nov. 51/1: Of all the boob players [...] To take a Brodie plunge like that, and then t do the fadeaway!
1920		C. Sandburg ‘The Sins of Kalamazoo’ in Smoke and Steel 52: Kalamazoo, both of us will do a fadeaway. / I will be carried out feet first.
1926		E. Walrond Tropic Death (1972) 60: An’ me standin’ right by him, doin’ a fadeaway.
1932		K.C. Times 25 Feb. 20: For instance, you can put a peck in a pan, add a few drops of water and set it on a hot stove and it immediately begins to do the fade-away [DA].
1933		H. Craigie ‘Reverse English’ Detective Nov. 🌐 Come on, fella—do a fade!
1965		C. Brown Manchild in the Promised Land (1969) 184: The cat pulled a fadeaway.
1972		E. Grogan Ringolevio 264: He also pulled the same kind of a fade back in the seventeenth century.