"whole enchilada" 1954

[Mullins, Bill AMRDEC]

Barry Popik has done some research on "the whole enchilada". An ADS-L post on 29 May 2004, he 

cited "the full enchilada" from 3/15/1955 and "the whole enchilada" on 11/22/1961.

The original movie version of Dragnet was on TCM tonight, and the phrase "the whole enchilada" was

used there. This pushes it back to 1954 (Warner Brothers, written by Richard Breen, Harry 

Essex and Jack Webb).

Jack Webb ran with a jazz crowd (see his film "Pete Kelly's Blues"; plus, he was married to torch

singer Julie London). It might be worth checking his other 1950's work for slang antedatings.

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