1962 "the whole nine yards"

Thu Mar 19 13:51:45 UTC 2009

It begins...  Seriously, Stephen, tremendous discovery in finding the earliest known usage of "whole nine yards"!

Fred

________________________________________
From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Stephen Goranson [goranson at DUKE.EDU]
Sent: Thursday, March 19, 2009 9:40 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: 1962 "the whole nine yards"

Thanks, Joel!

I think these are not 36-inch-type yards.

Sam Clements found a 1964:
1964 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.
and April 18 1964 The San Antonio Express and News,,How To Talk 'Rocket', by
Stephen Trumbell [Trumbull?] for The World Book Encyclopedia Science Service:
"the new
language spreads across the country - like a good joke - with amazing
rapidity"

Bonnie Taylor-Blake found a related 1962:
962 From Gale F. Linster's letter to the editor, "Constructive
Criticism," *Car
Life* Vol. 9, Issue 11 (December 1962), Pg. 2
"When you decide what extra cost equipment the American car buyer would like
to hear about, each of the models tested should be so equipped.  Your staff
of testers cannot fairly and equitably appraise the Chevrolet Impala sedan,
with all nine yards of goodies, against the Plymouth Savoy which has
straight shift and none of the mechanical conveniences which are quite
common now.  The cars tested should be as nearly alike as possible."

I found an I proposed relevant 1942:
1942 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

Quoting "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>:

> Confirmed Stephen Goranson's find (1962).  I only
> ask in return that someone tell me what the previously earliest find was.
>
> Michigan's Voices: A Literary Quarterly Magazine
> Created by Michigan Writers and Artists
> Vol. 2, No. 4 (Fall 1962)
>
> "Man on the Thresh-hold"
> by Robert E.Wegner
> (starts on page 26)
>
> page 41
>
> [If this is not enough context, I will mail Jesse
> the page -- it's in a one-sentence, 42-line
> paragraph.  But the next two paragraphs are one line each.]
>
> Marjorie's fault, and if all this howling and
> yelling up and down through the furnace pipes
> didn't stop soon they'd have the kids awake and
> then we can all take positions at one of the
> vents and bellow at each other  ... then the dog
> would catch on and go ki-yi-yi-ing from one to
> the other of the shouting pyjama-clad
> participants -- mad, mad, mad, the consequence of
> house, home, kids, respectability, status as a
> college professor and the whole nine yards, as a
> brush salesman who came by the house was fond of
> saying, the whole damn nine yards and Marjorie
> with her credulous countenance which allowed him
> to tell her with a perfectly straight face ...
> tell her it was a left-handed screwdriver he
> needed, one that turned counter-clockwise ...
>
> [The left-handed screwdriver is just a teaser for the list.]
>
> For anyone wanting to ask Wegner whether it was a
> Fuller Brush salesman, the following shows up via
> Google (and on-line library catalogs):
>
> There is a Robert E. Wegner, author of _The
> poetry and prose of E. E. Cummings_ (Harcourt, Brace & World, 1965).
>
> He may also be one of the photographers credited
> in _The Third coast : Contemporary Michigan
> Fiction (Wayne State University Press, 1981,
> ISBN-13: 9780814316955, ISBN: 0814316956).
>
> And more recently, Cummings, E(dward) E(stlin)
> 1894–1962: Critical Essay by Robert E. Wegner
> from Literature Criticism Series. ©2005-2006
> Thomson Gale, a part of the Thomson Corporation.
>
> Finally, a hint that he has removed to Florida
> and become a bed-and-breakfast host:
>
http://www.ourkeywest.net/keywest-bookstore/1-1000-Robert+E++Wegner-Author-sr-1.html
> Tropical Inn, 82 Duval Street, Key West, Florida 33040.
> (This web page lists 5 books for which Wegner is author or co-author.)
>
> Joel
>
> At 3/18/2009 03:17 PM, Jesse Sheidlower wrote:
>> On Wed, Mar 18, 2009 at 03:10:07PM -0400, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>> > At 3/18/2009 02:54 PM, Jesse Sheidlower wrote:
>> >> According to the University of Michigan catalog, Volume 2 of
>> >> this journal covers 1961-1962. Could be a real find here....
>> >
>> > Jesse, I'm going to the Harvard Libraries later this afternoon, and
>> > they say they have Vol. 2, no. 1-v. 3, no. 4 (spring 1964)..  Shall I
>> > look for this?
>>
>> Sure! Report back to all of us.
>>
>> Jesse
>>
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