Cigar sayings

[James A. Landau]

"Close but no cigar":

Polly Adler, a famous New York City madam of the Prohibition era, wrote in her memoirs "A House Is Not A Home" that at one time she was hiding in New York and someone (probably a newspaper columnist) reported that she was currently in Havana or some equally exotic locale.  She says that she was tempted to send that someone the message "close but no cigar".  If I remember correctly, she identified the particular investigation she was hiding from, which is probably dateable if anyone tries hard enough.  Not a hard antedating but anecdotal evidence that "close but no cigar" was a well-known saying circa the 1930's.

I am under the impression that the saying originates from a carnival game in which you swing a hammer to try to drive a weight high enough up a column to ring a bell, and in you succeed you win a cigar.  Does this make sense?

Incidentally Polly Adler in the same book tells that when she went to college she took a course in Etymology, in which she learned inter alia that "tram" comes from a man named Outram who invented the flanged wheel.  She states that she is still waiting for that conversation to get around to flanged wheels so that she can use that datum.

OT: reaching, but could "foo/fu" have come either from the made-up name "Fu Manchu" ("many man smoke, but Fu Manchu"), or alternatively from the well-known pun "if the foo shits, wear it"?

    - Jim

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