Latest OED Additions/Peoria

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Mon, 12 Sep 2005 08:42:36 -0700, Jonathan Lighter wrote:

>This phr. came up a few months ago.  Someone (was it Fred ?) found what
>appeared to be a reference to it in the musical revue _Piff ! Paff !
>Pouff !_, by W. Jerome & J. Schwartz (1904).

That was me. Here are my "Peoria" posts:

http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0503C&L=ADS-L&P=16442
http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0503C&L=ADS-L&P=17178
http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0503C&L=ADS-L&P=18686

>A reading of the musical score - apparently all that remains of the show
> - reveals a song with the line "I'm the ghost [i.e., paymaster] of a
>troupe that disbanded in Peoria."  This seems to indicate that Peoria
>was already regarded in the theater world as a proverbial hick town. The
>phr. "play in Peoria," however, does not appear.

The earliest I found for the phrase was from 1969 (also discovered by Doug
Wilson)...

-----
New York Times Magazine, Aug 3, 1969, p. 59
When a newsman asked him why the President had made a certain move that
had aroused criticism in Washington, Ehrlichman replied crisply: "Don't
worry. It'll play in Peoria."
-----


--Ben Zimmer