"Guys and Dolls"

[Wilson Gray]

On Jun 3, 2005, at 3:16 AM, neil wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       neil <neil at TYPOG.CO.UK>
> Subject:      Re: "Guys and Dolls"
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> on 29/5/05 3:09 pm, Fred Shapiro at fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU wrote:
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>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Fred Shapiro <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
>> Subject:      "Guys and Dolls"
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>> I am including book titles in my quotation dictionary when they have
>> "entered the language."  I am trying to decide whether to include
>> Damon
>> Runyon's title "Guys and Dolls."  The OED cites this as one of their
>> quotations under "guy," but that may or may not mean much.  Does
>> anyone
>> have a sense of how linguistically or phraseologically influential
>> Runyon's title was?
>>
>> Fred Shapiro
>>
>>
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>> Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
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> In the 1960s/70s, UK DJ Jimmy Saville addressed his teenage audience as
> "guys and gals" -- possibly influenced by Guys and Dolls".
>
> --Neil Crawford
>

But "guys and gals" goes back to the 'Thirties, more that enough time
for it to have crossed the pond by the 'Sixties. FWIW, my comment
doesn't rise to the level of an opinion, even IMO. It's more like a
WAG. But ti's not impossible,

-Wilson Gray