cool cats of the '40s

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On 12/17/05, Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu> wrote:
>
> When did "cool cat" collocate? OED has it from 1955 (NYT, "cool Brooks
> Brothers cats"), and I don't see anything earlier in HDAS. The Chicago
> Defender has some interesting cites from the '40s. There are a few
> pre-WWII cites from gossip columns, with "cool" apparently used in
> HDAS sense 2a ("urbane; suave; sophisticated, esp. in ways attractive
> to the opposite sex"):

Whoops-- make that "pre-WWII and early-WWII cites"...

> -----
> Chicago Defender, Apr 5, 1941, p. 8/7, Doc ID 740922572
> Who is that cool looking cat that is taking Lucinda H---- around these days.
> -----
> Chicago Defender, May 23, 1942, p. 10/6, Doc ID 746488542
> Perry Givens played a cool cat at the May dance Friday.
> -----
> Chicago Defender, Jun 6, 1942, p. 10/6, Doc ID 741157902
> One of Gary's cool cats, Davage Minor, has just got back from New York.
> -----
>
> (The 1942 cites are from "Kid Harris' Gossip Column" by Fred Harris,
> Jr., who called everyone "cats" and "chicks".)
>
> After the war there appeared a band called "Abbey Brown's Cool Cats"
> (also shows up in online sources as "Abbey Brown & His Cool Cats",
> mostly referring to the band's appearance on recordings by Anita O'Day
> from the late '40s).
>
> -----
> Chicago Defender, Mar 2, 1946. p. 16/8, Doc ID 741728092
> [ad for Rainbow Music Shop, "Harlem's Greatest Record Store"]
> Milkin' the Goat -- Abbey Brown's Cool Cats.
> -----
> Chicago Defender, May 18, 1946, p. 9/7, Doc ID 741763112
> [ad for University Studio, "The World's Largest Negro Record Mail
> Order Company"]
> Flamin' Mamie; Serenade To A Jitterbug -- Abbey Brown's Cool Cats.
> -----
>
>
> --Ben Zimmer
>