Woo-Woo (1938); Glitterbug

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WOO-WOO

   Not in my CASSELL DICTIONARY OF SLANG.  Not in RHHDAS A-G or H-O.
   From "This New York" by Lucius Beebe, NEW YORK HERALD TRIBUNE, 26 November 1938, pg. 16, col. 2:

   Originated by the Ritz Brothers and long accepted in the West as a cry of dismay, festivity or general acclamation, the screaming of "woo woo" has penetrated the New York bars.

   From THIS WEEK magazine in the NEW YORK HERALD, 18 September 1938, pg. 7, col. 1:

_"THEY THINK I'M A SCREWBALL!"_
_But Hugh Herbert, the "Woo-woo!" man of_
_the movies, isn't saying what he thinks_
_about Hollywood.  His wife won't let him_
by FREDERICK JAMES SMITH
(...)(Col. 2--ed.)
   Herbert didn't acquire his befuddled, giddy style until later.  He was working in a comedy, "The Diplomaniacs," with Wheeler and Woolsey, and had been on a late party the night before.  For one ofthe scenes he had to climb forty feet into a tree, which was surrounded by Indians.
   Up and far out on a lonely branch, Herbert wavered uncertainly.  His head was throbbing.  "Woo-woo!" he called pathetically.  The Indians took up the call.  "Woo-woo!" they yelled back.  And the now famous Herbert cry of frustration--woo-woo!--was born.

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GLITTERBUG

   Beebe would get a little more careful with Cholly Knickerbocker's words and phrases.
   From "This New York" by Lucius Beebe, NEW YORK HERALD TRIBUNE, 3 December 1938, pg. 16, col. 1:

   If anything were needed to indorse the circumstance that New York town has been taken over in its ultimate fashionable entirety by what Maury Paul calls the "glitterbugs" (copyright Maury H. B. Paul 1938, U. S. Patent Office), it is the spectacle offered by the opening of the Metropolitan Opera these recent years.