"the whole nine yards" 1942

[Stephen Goranson]

Admiral Emory Scott Land was appointed by FDR soon after the Pearl
Harbor attack to oversee a massive increase in U.S. shipbuilding. In his long
life (1879-1971) Land was, among other things, a naval architect and
administrator, a submarine builder, a pilot and president of the Air Transport
Association of America, and a director and consultant to General Dynamics, a
defense contractor and a supplier to NASA (where a 1964 usage of "the whole
nine yards" was recently announced). The Library of Congress published in 1958
a "Register of His Papers" deposited there. Land was on the cover of Time
magazine on March 31, 1941, before Pearl Harbor and before his April, 1942
Senate testimony in which he spoke the words "the whole nine yards."

Three of the options regarding those latter words, ending a sentence or
list, as they often do, are the following: (1) the words are a coincidental
collocation, having nothing whatever to do with the later popular quotation;
(2) he was quoting popular words; and (3) the words gave rise to the saying.

(1) These words, despite many and sustained searches, have not been
found (to my knowledge) earlier than 1942. So they are a fairly rare combination
of words. All other (known) uses of these words appear to be related to one
another. Note that these words appear in Defense appropriation hearings, in the
U.S. Senate, where they would reappear, though years later, at least possibly
sustained in memory there by slang oral tradition. Recall that many, for some
reason, insist that the phrase goes back to World War II times.

(2) In context, the dialog appears as quite serious business and devoid of
word-play or double meanings. And, again, the phrase is not (yet) known beforw
1942, to be quoted, anyway. Note that the huge increase in shipbuilding,
including at new yards set up by Kaiser on the west coast, was quite an
ambitious goal, and to achieve that goal at "the whole nine yards" would be a
remarkable achievement, seen as urgent to the war effort.

(3) The words in 1942 are a straightforward response to a question.
They do not seem to be intended to be artful, but they were emphatic, and spoken
by a much-respected authority. They report that if several items are achieved,
the ensemble whould require the full compliment of extraordinary contributions
by "the whole nine yards." This sets up the pattern: item, item, item--the
whole nine yards. Even by speakers, later, who were unaware what type of
"yards" were originally intended. I suggest that the possibility that April 23,
1942 was the birth of "the whole nine yards" is well worth considering and
testing by further research.

Stephen Goranson

Quoting Stephen Goranson <goranson at DUKE.EDU>:

> Investigation of the National Defense Program: Hearings Before a Special
> Committee Investigating the National Defense Program, By United
> States Congress.
> Senate. Special Committee Investigating the National Defense Program,
> part 12,
> U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington,1942, page 5192.
> (Google Books provided the title and page number but gave no text; WorldCat
> indicated the page was in pt. 12; the rest is from the paper publication.)
>
> Senators and Admirals on Thursday April 23, 1942 were discussing a rapid
> increase in construction of Liberty ships. Senator Harry S. Truman was
> chairman.
>
> [page 5191]
> ....
> Senator [Harold H.] BURTON....therefore you see a possibility of actually
> increasing the
> percentage of gain by 50 percent in these yards as a whole.
> Admiral [Howard L.] VICKERY. In the yards as a whole.
> Senator BURTON. And the yards that are below 12 percent now there
> would be more
> than a 50-percent gain because they are below that average at this time?
> [page 5292]
> Admiral VICKERY. Yes, sir.
> Senator BURTON. So that you have involved here a tremendous expansion in
> production, and you are shooting for a 50-percent increase or more than a
> 50-percent increase in seven out of nine plants.
> Admiral VICKERY. That is right, and they have got to make that to hit the
> schedules.
> Admiral [Emory S.] LAND. You have to increase from 7.72 to 12 for the
> average at
> the bottom of that fifth column, for the whole nine yards.
> Senator BURTON. That is pretty nearly twice.
> Admiral VICKERY. That is what we have got to do.
> Admiral LAND. That is what we are up against here, and they aren't up against
> anything that the rest of the United States and all its armed forces are up
> against.
> ....
>
> Stephen Goranson
> http://www.duke.edu/~goranson
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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