"Miss Television" in 1933 (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Laurence Horn]

At 9:04 AM -0600 11/29/07, Mullins, Bill AMRDEC wrote:
>Classification:  UNCLASSIFIED
>Caveats: NONE
>
>Google Books returns a 1930 hit for the phrase "Miss Television".  As
>always, it's hard to confirm a
>date there (the cite is from "The Century Monthly Magazine"), but
>searching within the volume for
>"1929" and "1930" returns hits, and "1931" and "1932" do not, so I'm
>inclined to believe that it's
>legit.
>
>Perhaps "Miss Television" had particular meaning back then.

Thanks.  It may have had a particular meaning for Fitzgerald, in any
case.  The Matthew J. and Arlyn Bruccoli Collection of Fitzgeraldiana
at the U. of South Carolina evidently possesses a copy of _Tender is
the Night_ inscribed to "Miss Television".  Plus in December 1928 the
Century Magazine Bill mentions published Fitzgerald's story, "Outside
the Cabinet-Maker's", which contains the following exchange:

"There's the Queen, Daddy. Look at there. Is that the Queen?"
"No, that's a girl called Miss Television."
http://gutenberg.net.au/fsf/OUTSIDE%20THE%20CABINET-MAKERS.html

Seems like a worthy candidate for the OED's entry for "television"
(if we can just figure out what it refers to).

LH

>  > -----Original Message-----
>>  From: American Dialect Society
>>  [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Laurence Horn
>>  Sent: Wednesday, November 28, 2007 7:34 PM
>>  To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>>  Subject: "Miss Television" in 1933
>>
>>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>  -----------------------
>>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>  Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
>>  Subject:      "Miss Television" in 1933
>>  --------------------------------------------------------------
>>  -----------------
>>
>>  OK, there are cites in the OED for "television", both as an
>>  imagined future device (dating back to a Scientific American
>>  reference in 1907 to a review of steps toward "the solution
>>  of the problem of
>>  television") and as an actual means of broadcasting signals
>>  or the service providing the transmission of those signals,
>>  dating back to these two cites--
>>
>>  1930 N. COWARD Private Lives II. 49 Aeroplanes..and Cosmic
>>  Atoms, and Television. 1938 Observer 26 June 12/6, I reviewed
>>  this film three weeks ago when I saw it on television.
>>
>>  But it was still somewhat startling to catch this passage
>>  from Fitzgerald's _Tender is the Night_ (1933, p. 104 of the
>>  Scribner's paperback).  Context: Dick Diver, married to a
>>  beautiful woman but tempted by another one, the 18-year-old
>>  ingenue movie actress Rosemary, has just been admitted to the
>>  latter's Paris hotel room...
>>  =======
>>      Dick saw her with an inevitable sense of disappointment.
>>  It took him a moment to respond to the unguarded sweetness of
>>  her smile, her body calculated within a millimeter to suggest
>>  a bud yet guarantee a flower. He was conscious of the print
>>  of her wet foot on a rug through the bathroom door.
>>      "Miss Television" he said with a lightness he did not feel.
>>  =======
>>  The allusion just struck me as anachronistic, given what I've
>>  always assumed about the availability of television
>>  broadcasts in the pre-WWII era, but since the book was
>>  *published* (and not just set) in 1933, it obviously can't have been.
>>
>>  (I caught this passage while listening on audiotape and I had
>>  to rewind and relisten to make sure it said what it said
>>  before checking the print version.)
>>
>>  LH
>>
>>  ------------------------------------------------------------
>>  The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>Classification:  UNCLASSIFIED
>Caveats: NONE
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org