whole nine yards -- predecessor phrase???

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>"He has suppressed the craving and given himself contentment, but when the
>time for reunion
>has come again he has gone the whole length, as we say in slang, and in a
>fine enthusiasm has pursued this
>game on the east coast and the west, among the highlands and the lowlands of
>his own north Britain, and
>then by the shores and in the nooks and crannies of England and in the very
>heart of it where he has made
>his home in Worcestershire."
>
>I found a couple of other cites from this magazine in which "the whole
>length" has more or less the same meaning we currently ascribe to "the whole
>nine yards".  Apparently it was thought of as a slang phrase then.  I
>haven't searched for it in any other sources.

This is like "go the distance" or "go the extra mile", I suppose, and
currently there is "go the whole nine yards" in similar application;
however, according to the available data AFAIK, the earlier "whole nine
yards" was not used this way: in the 1960's and 1970's the usual usage was
"[have/get/etc.] the whole nine yards" as if the yards measured some
substance rather than "go the whole nine yards" as if the yards measured a
distance. The earliest "go the whole nine yards" in HDAS is 1981, while the
earliest examples (1966) had IIRC something like (1) "untangle the whole
nine yards [of divorce red tape]", (2) "buy/get the whole nine yards [of
tonsorial treatment]", and an interjection "The whole nine yards!" in
context which would suggest implicit "She offers the whole nine yards [of
sex etc.]" IMHO.

Of course it is not impossible that there is considerable undiscovered
early "nine yards" material which would change the picture.

-- Doug Wilson