"Heavens to Murgatroyd"

[Wilson Gray]

I vote for Bert Lahr. He had or was on a radio show, back in the day,
on which he used "Heavens to Murgatroyd" as his catch phrase. It seems
to me that Ed Wynn may also have used it. But that's just an inkling
in the back of my thinking cap. Maybe it was both of them. In 1944, I
was only about seven years old. Hence even I wouldn't bet anything on
the correctness of my memory.

-Wilson

On 2/17/07, Stephen Goranson <goranson at duke.edu> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Stephen Goranson <goranson at DUKE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: "Heavens to Murgatroyd"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I don't know whether this is relevant. _Men, Women and Guns_ by Herman Cyril
> McNeile (1916) pages 225-6 via Google Book full view:
>
> ...a dreadful shout was heard....
> ...the Colonel appeared in the door of his dug-out.
> "Where is that accursed idiot, Murgatroyd? Pass the word along for the damn
> fool."
> "'Urry up, Conky. The ole man's a-twittering for you." Murgatroyd emerged from a
> recess.
> "What's 'e want?"
> "I'd go and find out...."...
> "Great 'Eavens! Murgatroyd reluctantly rose to/ his feet....
> "Look at this, you blithering ass, look at this." The Colonel was searching
> through his Fortnum and Mason packing-case on the floor. "Great Heavens! and
> the caviar too--imbedded in the butter. Five defunct rodents in the brawn"....
> "It wasn't me, sir," Murgatroyd spoke in an aggrieved tone."
> "I didn't suppose it was, you fool." The Colonel straightened himself and glared
> at his hapless minion.
> "Great heavens! there's another rat on my hair-brush."
>
> A.A. Milne, _The Sunny Side_ 1922 has something vaguely similar.
>
> Bert Lahr's 1944 role was The Commander.
>
> Stephen Goranson
> http://www.duke.edu/~goranson
> "Jannaeus, His Brother Absalom, and Judah the Essene"
>
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>


--
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
-Sam'l Clemens

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