Correction of OED/HDAS Dating of "Movie"

[Sam Clements]

In support of Fred's arguments against a 1902 date for "movie," I used
ancestry.com tonight to search for "Murine/movie."  There WAS a hit in a
Wisconsin paper from 1915.  It, indeed, said "After the movies, Murine your
eyes."  But there was NO such ad from 1902-1914.

Murine, as a product appears in 1904.  It may appear earlier, but I didn't
check before 1902.  But I  DID spot check Murine from 1902-1914.  I read
perhaps 50-70 ads.  There were probably 100-200 ads.  There was no "movie"
there.  They seem to have started that ad campaign in 1915.  I might be off
by a year or so, if checking each hit was important.  But there were few ads
in the 1904-1908 period.  The ads increased in the 1910-1915 period.  And,
since it appears that it was a Chicago product, the ads mostly appeared in
the Wisconsin/Iowa papers.

I think Fred nailed this one.

SC

I also searched for "Murine."
----- Original Message -----
From: "Fred Shapiro" <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Wednesday, October 15, 2003 8:07 AM
Subject: Correction of OED/HDAS Dating of "Movie"


> HDAS cites the following as its first use of the word "movie":
>
> 1902 Jarrold _Mickey Finn_ (ad on rev. title):  After the Movies "Murine"
> Your Eyes.
>
> This citation, much earlier than anything else that has been found as far
> as I know, is repeated in OED.
>
> Sam Clements has graciously obtained a copy of the book referred to above,
> _Mickey Finn's New Irish Yarns_ (1902), which he has lent to me.  There is
> no advertisement on the reverse of the title page and, although there are
> ads in the back of the book, none of them includes the "movie" usage.  I
> think that, unless someone locates another copy of the book that does
> contain the Murine ad, the OED/HDAS cite should be considered erroneous.
>
> As I have indicated before, this leaves the following citation (from
> ProQuest Historical Newspapers) as the earliest known usage of "movie":
>
> 1911 _Wash. Post_ 1 Aug. 6  I learned how to bake stuffed tomatoes at the
> 'movies' last night.
>
> Fred Shapiro
>
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
> Associate Librarian for Collections and     YALE DICTIONARY OF QUOTATIONS
>   Access and Lecturer in Legal Research     Yale University Press,
> Yale Law School                             forthcoming
> e-mail: fred.shapiro at yale.edu               http://quotationdictionary.com
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>