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<blockquote type="cite" cite>On Sat, 21 Apr 2001 17:12:55 -0500 Mark
Odegard<br>
<br>
> 'D-girl' brought to mind 'B-girl'. I've only heard B-girl in
old<br>
> movies.<br>
<br>
I am sorry to hear that. But I am happy to find an area on this
list<br>
where I have some expertise, for in my youth I had many friends
who<br>
frequented bars.<br>
<br>
A B-girl is indeed a hostess and certainly different from a
prostitute.<br>
That is not to say that she is necessarily celebrate, but the
contractual<br>
responsibility to the recreational facility in which she works is
only to<br>
be friendly with patrons and get them to buy drinks, for her and<br>
themselves (did I get the reflexives right?), in copious quantities,
from<br>
which she gets a cut. Whether her friendliness continues after the<br>
facility closes, which may well be after sunrise (I am told), is
entirely<br>
up to the girl. And B-girls are more selective.<br>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>(Well, that last bit I know from
personal experience.)</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><br></blockquote>
<div>Not to speak of celebration (or should that be celebracy?), but
I thought it worth mentioning the extensive entry in RHHDAS for
B-girl ('a woman employed by a bar, nightclub, or the like, to act as
a companion to male customers and to induce them to buy drinks, and
usually paid a percentage of what the customers spend'), since it
traces the origin not to B as in 'bar' or B as in 'buy', but to a
more complicated history, evidently discussed in Peter Tamony's 1965
Am Sp article, which 'derives the initial ultimately from<i>
beading-oil',</i> although the entry surmises that 'the idea of<i>
putting the bee</i> on cumstomers in a<i> bar</i> has also
contributed to the term's evolution'. (another case of
the lexical reflex of what Freud called overdetermination) Here
are the first three entries, of which only the third contains the
term itself, but the first two are certainly related. </div>
<div>========</div>
<div>1911 <i> Social Evil in Chicago</i> [sounds like a prequel
to Mamet's<i> Sexual Perversity in Chicago</i>] 194 The
mixed drinks brought to the prostitute [!] are counterfeit. For
instance the girl orders a "B" ginger ale highball.
This is colored water made in imitation of this drink.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>1935 Pollock<i> Underworld Speaks. Bee drinker,</i>
female entertainers in night clubs, who drink cold tea [= ice tea?]
camouflaged as liquor, for which customers pay the full price.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>1936 in Tamony<i> Americanisms</i> (No. 6) 7: No B Girls
buzzing around you here to sip tea you think is a
highball. No hostesses.</div>
<div>==========</div>
<div>There's a later reference to "whores and B-girls",
showing that the categories are distinct (if related), presumably
differentiated chiefly according to what is feigned. It might
also be worth mentioning a much later and unrelated
"b-girl" 'a young woman who is a performer or devotee of
rap music', where the initial is from break dance and is paralleled
and prefigured by "b-boy". Could lead to some
confusion, I fear.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>larry</div>
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