Rubber Neck (1895, 1896)

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

   Evlvs Presley's previously unreleased "Rubberneckin'" can now be heard on
AOL.
   Merriam-Webster's 11th--where I turn with all of my Elvis questions--has
1896 for two "rubberneck" entries.  OED cites George Ade.  The CHICAGO TRIBUNE
should give us the earliest here, if not PUCK or LIFE.  Check back in a month.


   21 September 1895, STEVENS POINT JOURNAL (Stevens Point, Wisconsin),
pg.11?, col. 3:
   The contest Saturday between Chas. Pier's Rubber Necks and the Normal
Juniors was exciting to the finish and lasted two hours.


   3 October 1895, ATLANTA CONSTITUTION, pg. 7, col. 6:
   The average fakir is selling all sorts of invaluable goods.  Exposition
badges, collar buttons and slate pencils are but samples of his stock.
   "Now say," said one when notified that he must get a license by morning or
stop business, "yer ain't t'rowin' de merry giggle at us, is yer?  Now, on de
level, I ain't got no rubber in me neck; don't try yer guys on me; try me
nex' door neighbor and yet gets a dead proper take-out ef yer runs him out er de
biz."


   3 June 1896, ATLANTA CONSTITUTION, pg.
   Chicago, June 2.--The feature at Lakeside today was the six-furlong
handicap, in which Hi Henry, the 11 to 5 favorite, was beaten by Simmons in a drive.
 Favorites were bowled over in five of the events.  Rubber Neck, by Himyar,
being the only first choice to land a purse.


   25 December 1901, EVENING TELEGRAM (NY), pg. 5, col. 7:
_Original "Rubber Neck."_
   Another member of that organization is "Billy" Link, the man with a funny
monologue up his sleeve and ready for delivery at all times.  Mr. Link is the
originator of the "rubber neck," as exhbited in a theatre, and besides that he
is a vaudeville favorite the world over.  He will come to amuse the boys with
a lot of new quips and jokes which they can understand which are calculated
to tickle the risibles of adult and infant alike.
   Mrs. "Billy" Link, who on the stage is known as Miss Willette Charters,
will assist her talented husband in his fun making.  She is an operatic singer
of some note and one of the most effective comediennes that the East has seen
in some years.  Recently Mrs. Link accompanied her husband to London, England,
where they made a pronounced (Col. 8--ed.) bit and received all sorts of
complimentary notices in the English press.

   (I'll check the clipping file in the NYPL Performing Arts Library on
Thursday--ed.)