Origin of "jazz"--Hickman is unreliable

[Baker, John]

        The failure to quote any ballplayers either is not particularly
significant or proves too much.  Presumably the ballplayers did start using
"jazz" at some point before June 1913, whether or not their source was
Gleeson.

        As to Gleeson's influence, I meant only that I think it unlikely
that Gleeson essentially created the word "jazz" (in the sense of pep,
enthusiasm) between March 3 and March 6, 1913, and that he probably was not
the sole source for its propagation to the San Francisco Seals.  I am sure
that the writings of Gleeson, Hopkins, and other journalists played an
important role in popularizing the word.

John Baker


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Gerald Cohen [SMTP:gcohen at UMR.EDU]
> Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2001 3:53 PM
> To:   ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject:      Re: Origin of "jazz"--Hickman is unreliable
>
        [snip]

         But who could those totally mysterious sources be? If they were
        the ballplayers to whom Hickman alludes in his 1919 interview, why
is
        there not a single attestation of "jazz" attested in the speech of
        ballplayers in the Feb. - June 1913 _S.F. Bulletin_ articles?  Every
        single attestation of "jazz" in this time period comes solely from
        the sportswriters. Sportswriters love to quote sports figures--it
        makes for good copy, especially if anything out of the ordinary is
        said. If a ballplayer in spring training started using a new word,
        the sportswriters should have been quoting him right away.

>     And why is it implausible that a new term should spread via the
> media? In NYC of 1921ff. the term "the big apple" (= NYC racetracks)
> spread at first via the single-handed efforts of turf writer John J.
> Fitz Gerald. Why shouldn't Gleeson have been able to exert a similar
> influence in San Francisco some eight years earlier?
>
> ---Gerald Cohen