"What are you doing in _those_ underwear?" [NT]

[Garson O'Toole]

Ron Butters wrote:
> What Cary Grant said was "gay," which in the 1930s ddn't mean 'homosexual' or (arguably) 'transvestite' but was associated with skimpy garments worn by burlesque dancing-girls. Of course, he was wearing Hepburn's nigjtclothes, not her undergarments. And his questioner said "clothes," not "underwear"!

Here is a link to a YouTube clip of the relevant scene with Cary Grant
in Bringing Up Baby together with an except of dialog from IMDB.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_A8U6aUPW48
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029947/quotes

Mrs. Random: Well who are you?
David Huxley: I don't know. I'm not quite myself today.
Mrs. Random: Well, you look perfectly idiotic in those clothes.
David Huxley: These aren't my clothes.
Mrs. Random: Well, where are your clothes?
David Huxley: I've lost my clothes!
Mrs. Random: But why are you wearing *these* clothes?
David Huxley: Because I just went gay all of a sudden!
Mrs. Random: Now see here young man, stop this nonsense. What are you doing?
David Huxley: I'm sitting in the middle of 42nd Street waiting for a bus.

> From: Joel S. Berson
> Sender: ADS-L
> To: ADS-L
> ReplyTo: ADS-L
> Subject: Re: [ADS-L] "What are you doing in _those_ underwear?" [NT]
> Sent: Apr 29, 2010 10:08 AM
>
> At 4/29/2010 01:19 AM, ronbutters at AOL.COM wrote:
>>I've just gone gay all of a sudden?
>
> Don't you mean transvestite?  After all, (some) vests are underwear.
>
> Joel
>
>>------Original Message------
>>From: Wilson Gray
>>Sender: ADS-L
>>To: ADS-L
>>ReplyTo: ADS-L
>>Subject: [ADS-L] "What are you doing in_those_ underwear?" [NT]
>>Sent: Apr 28, 2010 10:49 PM
>>
>>--
>>-Wilson
>>­­­
>>All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"­­a strange complaint to
>>come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
>>­Mark Twain
>>
>>------------------------------------------------------------
>>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>>
>>Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
>>
>>------------------------------------------------------------
>>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The Ame

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org