"Yes, we have no bananas" origin

[Harrold Wilson Gray]

The originator probably was familiar with Russian or another language
that works the same way.

English:
You don't have bananas, do you?
No, we have no bananas.

Russian:
You don't have bananas, do you?
Yes, we have no bananas.

-Wilson Gray

On Sep 2, 2005, at 11:09 AM, Benjamin Zimmer wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at RCI.RUTGERS.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: "Yes, we have no bananas" origin
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
> Barry points out via email that he already posted about this last year:
>
> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0408A&L=ADS-L&P=R5276
>
> I had searched the archive for "Neily" but didn't see anything. Barry
> transcribed the name as "Nelly" so the search didn't catch it. Just to
> clarify, the writer's name was indeed "Neily":
>
> http://www.baseballlibrary.com/baseballlibrary/ballplayers/N/
> Neily_Harry.stm
>
> Sorry about that, Barry.
>
>
> --Ben Zimmer
>
> On Fri, 2 Sep 2005 04:41:49 -0400, Benjamin Zimmer wrote:
>
>> 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...
>>
>> -----
>> 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.
>> -----
>> 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.
>> -----
>>
>> 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
>