"Yes, we have no bananas" origin

[Benjamin Zimmer]

Back in May 2002 Fred Shapiro asked if Tad Dorgan first popularized the
expression, "Yes, we have no bananas."  I see this claim in a number of
obituaries for Dorgan when he died in 1929. The claim was also apparently
made in 1923 at the height of the "bananas" craze, but a correspondent to
the Chicago Tribune's "Line O' Type Or Two" column disputed this and
provided a Chicago origin...

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http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?RQT=309&VName=HNP&did=353658982
Chicago Tribune, July 23, 1923, p. 6/3
Sir: "Yes: we have no bananas" was originated in the Fall of 1920 at Senn
High School by Spud and his gang. Harry Neily introduced it in the Chicago
American, and used it freely in the late edition. Tad Dorgan copied it
from Neily. Whosit.
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http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?RQT=309&VName=HNP&did=353661812
Chicago Tribune, July 25, 1923, p. 6/3
Harry Neily, while not denying that he did his due bit in fomenting the
banana panic, reproaches us as uncraftsmanly for permitting Whosit to say
so.
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Senn High School, on Chicago's Northeast Side, is still around:

http://www.cps.k12.il.us/schools/hsdirectory/schools/nicholas_senn.shtml


--Ben Zimmer