Leapin' Lizards!

[Garson O'Toole]

The term "Leapin' Lizards" does appear in the Sunday strip of Little
Orphan Annie dated 1924 November 2 in the Chicago Tribune. It is on
page 133 of 134 of the issue according to the numbering in ProQuest
Historical Newspapers. I  looked through some earlier issues of the
Chicago Tribune and could not find Little Orphan Annie. It is possible
that the Chicago Tribune did not print the strip in its earliest days.

Wikipedia says the Special Collections Dept. at the Boston University
Library contains Gray’s original pen and ink drawings for Little
Orphan Annie daily strips dating from 1924 to 1968. I do not know if
these drawings include the lettering. But maybe someone associated
with Boston University can access the collection and look at the early
strips.

On Sun, Jun 13, 2010 at 9:55 PM, Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Shapiro, Fred" <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Leapin' Lizards!
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Thanks to Garson O'Toole, John Baker, Bill Mullins, and others for their excellent responses to my queries about Margaret Thatcher quotations.  Here's another challenge:  Can anyone find any information as to what was the exact date of the first appearance of the exclamation "Leapin' Lizards!" in the Little Orphan Annie comic strip?
>
> Fred Shapiro
>
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