Let George Do It

[Baker, John]

        Fred's antedating is to the comic strip "Let George Do It," by
George McManus, better known for the long-running "Bringing Up Father."
That's probably the origin.  There seem to be a lot of hits from around
1910, shortly after the strip appeared, and I don't see any confirmed
hits before that.  An alternative theory is that it refers to Pullman
porters, all nicknamed "George" after George Pullman, see Barry's post
at
http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0505B&L=ADS-L&P=R7170&
I=-3.

        I haven't seen the comic, so for all I know it is about Pullman
porters.


John Baker


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
Of Fred Shapiro
Sent: Thursday, March 22, 2007 6:27 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Let George Do It

On Thu, 22 Mar 2007, Jesse Sheidlower wrote:

> On Thu, Mar 22, 2007 at 10:04:02AM -0400, Baker, John wrote:
>>         IMDB lists movies named "Let George Do It" from 1938 and
>> 1940, both starring comedians named George (George Wallace and George

>> Formby, respectively).  I don't know if the better-known 1940 movie,
>> from England, drew the inspiration for its name from the 1938
>> Australian movie, or if it was already a catch-phrase.  However, a
>> 1938 date would seem to preclude a WWII origin.
>
> As would the 1910 example in the Dictionary of Americanisms, and the
> two additional 1910's cites in HDAS.

Note that I have previously posted an antedating from 1909.

Fred Shapiro


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Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
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