Whole Nine Yards update(1964)?

[Jonathan Lighter]

Whatever the reason, I did not find "whole nine yards" in her earlier book, _Forgive Us Our Press Passes_ (Prentice-Hall, 1962).

  JL

Sam Clements <SClements at NEO.RR.COM> wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Sam Clements
Subject: Re: Whole Nine Yards update(1964)?
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>From my earlier digging on her personal life, from memory.

She was married in the 1940-1950's to a miltary guy. She got divorced. She
married another military guy in the late 50's-early 60's. He was perhaps
retired/older. But she was alway around the military.

sc
----- Original Message -----
From: "Dave Wilton"
To:
Sent: Wednesday, June 20, 2007 11:01 PM
Subject: Re: Whole Nine Yards update(1964)?


>I don't know anything about her personal life. The dust jacket of my copy
>of
> "The Doom Pussy" just states that she was divorced at the time of
> publication. There's very little about her on the web. (Although I did
> find
> out that in her earlier career as an actor she played Darla's mother on
> one
> of the "Our Gang" shorts.)
>
> Still, from reading "The Doom Pussy" it's clear that she had a good
> rapport
> with the Air Force pilots she was writing about. It's a safe bet that any
> phrase she puts in the mouth of a pilot is, if not an exact quote, at
> least
> something that a pilot might in fact have said.
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
> Of
> Sam Clements
> Sent: Wednesday, June 20, 2007 7:35 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: Whole Nine Yards update(1964)?
>
> Dave, or anyone else who has delved into the phrase.
>
> I know that Elaine Shepard's husbands were military. If I remember
> correctly, her first husband was military from the 1940's and later. Her
> second husband was Air Force. Anyone?
>
> sc
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Dave Wilton"
> To:
> Sent: Wednesday, June 20, 2007 9:34 PM
> Subject: Re: Whole Nine Yards update(1964)?
>
>
>> Great find! It does appear to be genuine and while the gloss is rather
>> specific, it's clearly being used in the familiar sense. The citation
>> also
>> further strengthens the idea that its origins are in US Air Force slang,
>> NASA being very closely associated with the Air Force. (The article is
>> about
>> the slang of the space program.)
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
>> Of
>> Sam Clements
>> Sent: Wednesday, June 20, 2007 5:56 PM
>> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>> Subject: Whole Nine Yards update(1964)?
>>
>> Newspaper Archive, who has been(rightfully) much maligned the last few
>> weeks
>> while they're updating their workings, produces today this cite:
>>
>> Tucson(AZ) Daily Citizen, 25 April 1964, page 25, a story about NASA.
>>
>> "Give 'em the whole nine yards" means an item-by-item report on any
>> project.
>>
>>
>> Make of this what you will. It may not be what it seems. I just stopped
>> by
>> to report this.
>>
>> Sam Clements
>>
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>
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