1913 "jazz"; was: Terror Dome; Dallas Morning News (1885-present?)

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Thu, 8 Sep 2005 13:14:27 -0400, George Thompson wrote:

>I would myself be interested in any appearance of the word "jazz" in
>regional and small town newspapers, through 1920 or so. I have access
>to Proquest, but not Newspaper Archives or other such files.

I think "jazz" had reached quite a large portion of the country by 1920.
Perhaps 1917 or even 1916 would be a more interesting cutoff? We've
already seen cites for "jazz/jass" by late 1916 in cities like Sheboygan
and Indianapolis (though I suppose those were both in Chicago's sphere of
influence). By late 1917, Newspaperarchive finds cites from dozens of
papers-- from Bismarck (ND), Iowa City (IA), Fort Wayne (IN), Lima (OH),
Connellsville (PA), Trenton (NJ), Fitchburg (MA), etc., etc.

Even without Newspaperarchive it's not too hard to find cites from 1917-19
in digitized regional papers. See, for instance, the Northern New York
Historical Newspapers database <http://news.nnyln.org/>. Here are some
cites from just two of the papers available on the site, the Ft. Covington
Sun and the Fulton Patriot...


http://news.nnyln.org/fort-covington-sun/1917/fort-covington-sun-1917-september-december%20-%200024.pdf
He went into a cabaret the other night and complained about the jazz band.

http://news.nnyln.org/fulton-patriot/1918/fulton-patriot-1918%20-%200021.pdf
Harvey D. Orr's big musical knock-out "There She Goes," will be presented
one night at the Quirk on Tuesday, Jan. 22d. The cast consists of 35
people, the most of which are pretty girls and funny comedians. One of the
novelties in this production is the "Old Jazz Band."

http://news.nnyln.org/fulton-patriot/1918/fulton-patriot-1918%20-%200227.pdf
The P. K. E. will hold its annual commencement dance in the American
Mechanics hall this evening from 11 to 3. A Syracuse "Jazz" orchestra will
furnish the music.

http://news.nnyln.org/fort-covington-sun/1919/fort-covington-sun-1919-january-april%20-%200033.pdf
Here in Detroit cafes, hotels and "jazz" restaurants were crowded.

http://news.nnyln.org/fulton-patriot/1919/fulton-patriot-1919%20-%200580.pdf
The Victory Loan meeting in the town hall at Volney Center Sunday
afternoon was not as largely attended as it should have been, but those
present were highly entertained by a jazz band from Oswego.


--Ben Zimmer