banana oil = nonsense, insincere talk, 1952

[sagehen@westelcom.com]

This expression was very familiar to me in my childhood inthe '30s .  My
impression is that it was found in more
places than Wodehouse (though we were great readers of Wodehouse & had an
extensive collection of them):
perhaps  funny papers & (?) radio.
AM


Original Message:
-----------------
From: Joel S. Berson Berson at ATT.NET
Date: Fri, 27 Jun 2008 20:30:46 -0400
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: "banana oil" = nonsense, insincere talk, 1952


OED Draft Revision Sept 2007 has "banana oil" = nonsense, insincere
talk from 1927 and 1960 (thus from no-one besides Wodehouse), and no
other quotations.

I think I heard it in "Singin' in the Rain", in the early scene just
after Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly) thanks an audience for its favorable
reception of his latest movie, and Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen) presumes
that the studio-concocted romance between her and Don is real.  Don
says something like "Don't believe all the banana oil you hear."

Joel

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