"Will it play in Peoria?"

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Thu, 17 Mar 2005 19:02:03 -0800, Jonathan Lighter
<wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM> wrote:
>
>Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at RCI.RUTGERS.EDU> wrote:
>
>>On Thu, 17 Mar 2005 17:45:29 -0800, Jonathan Lighter
>>wrote:
>>
>>>The phrase must be considerably older in showbiz. Berrey & Van Den
>>>Bark (1942) don't list this phrase, but they do offer "Peoria" as
>>>synonymous with "An imaginary [sic] 'hick' town."
>>
>>There are a number of Proquest cites from the late '20s and early '30s
>>with Peoria as a "joke town" on the vaudeville circuit, like Kokomo and
>>Kalamazoo. The earliest jokey reference I can find is from the 1904
>>Broadway musical comedy "Piff! Paff!! Pouf!!!" starring Eddie Foy. One
>>of the songs (music by Jean Schwartz, lyrics by William Jerome) is
"The
>>Ghost That Never Walked," with the refrain, "I'm the ghost of a troupe
>>that disbanded in Peoria."
>
>More hearty thanks, my man!  This sort of cite is undoubtedly relevant.
>Two or three more would be very good.

Here are some references to the song from the 1904 play:

-----
New York Times, Apr 13, 1904, p. 9
That one about the ghost of a troup that was stranded at Peoria had a
weird fascination of its own and a lilt that lingers long in the memory.
-----
Washington Post, Dec 25, 1904, p. A8
They backed away from the desk, took the center of the floor, and warbled
to Mulcahy about the ghost of the man who was stranded with a troupe in
Peoria.
-----
New York Times, Aug 25, 1918, p. 32
For it developed that Miss Dickson and Martin Brown ... had acted together
at one time in a one-night troupe that was stranded, not in Peoria, but
Rat Portage, Mich.
-----
New York Times, Mar 27, 1932, p. X3
The late Eddie Foy used to sing, in melancholy accents, a ditty in which
he proclaimed hiimself to be "the ghost of a troupe that was stranded in
Peoria." As a result that shy municipality practically sprang into comic
significance akin to that enjoyed by such cultural centres as Kokomo,
Kalamazoo and Ypsilanti. It was an unofficial "joke town."
-----

Another Broadway play, "Lightnin'" (opened 1918), poked fun at Peoria in a
racy courtroom scene...

-----
Washington Post, Jan 29, 1918, p. 9
It offers a really delightful flirtation between the presiding judge of a
Reno court and a buxom applicant for divorce who had married her
vaudeville partner in Peoria at the end of a rainy week that got on her
nerves.
-----
Washington Post, Jan 13, 1924, p. AA6
Why Peoria is "kidded" in "Lightnin';" town was chosen by Frank Bacon out
of compliment to Robert G. Ingersoll.
Many of those who have witnessed "Lightnin" may wonder just why it was
that Frank Bacon and Winchell Smith happened to use the name of Peoria in
the courtroom scene: for to those who have seen this quaintly amusing
comedy, it will be recalled that in the Reno courtroom, Bessie Bacon,
portraying a vaudeville actress, is being questioned in her divorce action
and is asked:
"Where were you married?"
"Peoria," she answers.
"I didn't get that," counters the judge.
"Peoria," she repeats; and then with some hesitation adds, "It's a place."
"Were you living in Peoria?"
"I should say not! -- we were playing there. We were partners, doing a
dancing act."
"Then why did you marry him?"
"That's hard to explain," she falters. "You see, we were in Peoria -- and
we were partners -- and -- and -- it rained all week."
Because of this bit of dialogue ... there are some who have imagined that
Bacon or Smith played the town at some time during their theatrical
journeyings, and as a result of some incident, disagreeable or otherwise,
seized this occasion to take a fling at the town. ...
At a dinner tendered the two Lightnin' Bills by the mayor and other
prominent officials and citizens of Peoria, Mr. Bacon explained that no
slam at the city was intended, but that, on the contrary, it was selected
out of compliment to Mr. Ingersoll, its distinguished citizen.
-----

The courtroom scene in "Lightnin'" was invoked when a contributor to the
Chicago Tribune column "A Line O' Type Or Two" wanted to ridicule a
pompous correspondent who signed off as "Wally from Peoria":

-----
Chicago Tribune, Jun 23, 1924, p. 8
But is Peoria to Blame?
R.H.L.: How amazingly old is Wally from Peoria, and how unutterably dull
must be an intelligentsia that cannot appreciate Nietzsche and Dumas,
James Stevens and Lewis Carroll, Lafcadio Hearn and The Duchess! ... I
think it would be well to omit Peoria in one's travels.  Pansy.
-----
Chicago Tribune, Jul 31, 1926, p. 4
Hasn't Peoria Lived That Down Yet?
Dick: Whereinell is this Peoria that this fellow Wally is so chesty about?
The only time I recall hearing it mentioned was in Frank Bacon's play
"Lightnin'" during the court scene when, in reply to the judge's query as
to how she happened to marry, the weeping divorcee gave the reason: "Well,
I had to spend the week in Peoria-- and it was raining!"  Tobey, the
Village Shyster.
-----

Here are the Internet Broadway Database entries for the two plays in
question:

http://www.ibdb.com/production.asp?ID=5863
http://www.ibdb.com/production.asp?ID=8725


--Ben Zimmer