"suppress agent" -- WOTY? Or for 1923?

[Joel S. Berson]

I am forming an exploratory campaign committee
for "suppress agent" (not in the OED) for the
2011 elections.  A (press) agent who prevents a
celebrity from saying or doing something that is
likely to (go viral and) have effects harmful to
the celebrity's life or life style.  Perhaps of
increasing use since (or even before) Charlie Sheen.

Prompted by the article "When Publicists Say
"Shh!'", NY Sunday Times, April 17, 2011, Style, page 10 (New England Edition).

Not new, about 1.6 million Ghits, 92 in GBooks --
but not present in ADS-L archives.

There are variant senses; compare for example
1934, 1942, and 1995 quotations with the others.

* 1923

They have a suppress-agent department in the
"Aphrodite" organization which sees to it that in
the newspapers Miss Walker is never photographed,
paragraphed, biographed. She is the most widely
unknown sensation on the stage.

Actorviews: intimate portraits, Ashton Stevens -
1923, page 43 - Snippet view.  Date verified (Harvard catalog).

* 1926

About once in so often, out of the West or
somewhere comes tearing a new Napoleon of
finance, accompanied by his family, his touring
cars, his press agent ­ who later becomes his
suppress agent ­ his ego and his bank-roll. ...

Prose and cons, Irvin Shrewsbury Cobb - 1926, p.
343 - Snippet view.  Date verified (Harvard).

* 1934?

Not even a "suppress agent," who can keep
damaging facts out of print. He is a man who
often makes pleasant things happen to his
clients, and there is no clear label, yet, for a
man who does this. Maladjusted corporations go to him. ...

Advertising & selling: Volume 24, 1934 [no page
or page number revealed] - Snippet view of a
journal, requires verification.  Continued under various titles.

* 1935?

Reporters were pestering me for news of him, and
while I hadn't been hired as his press agent, or
suppress agent for that matter, that was the spot
that the ironic gods had picked for me, and they
never let up for the next six months.

Esquire: Volume 3, Issues 1-4, 1935, p. 171 -
Snippet view of a journal, requiring
verification.   Vol. number is consistent with Esquire having begun in 1933.

* 1940? [because I like it]

Anent the Jessel romance, Eddie quipped: "What
that fellow Jessel needs is a suppress agent!"

The Advocate: America's Jewish journal: Volume
99, 1940, page 29 - Snippet view of a journal,
needs verification.   Various titles and volume numbering over time.

* 1942

The railroad's publicist can soften the blow by
proper handling ­ which means to him: do not
mislead the editor; do not misinterpret the news; do not be a suppress agent.

Publicity, how to plan, produce and place it,
Herbert M. Baus - 1942, p. 106 - Snippet view.  Date verified (WorldCat).

* 1949?

Hoffman's rating in the domain of public
relations stems partially from his achievements
as a suppress agent. On one occasion he managed
to clamp a lid on the news when a prominent male
movie star, on a spree in New York, was caught in ...

Collier's: incorporating features of the American
magazine, 1949, page 26, col. 3. Snippet view of
a journal, arequires verification.

* 1995

Spot News is spontaneous, beyond your control,
and certainly not of your making.  An example is
the injury or death of a visitor at a
company-sponsored event.  The publicity derived
would not be beneficial, so your principal
functions as your organization's press agent
would be to try to mitigate the harmful impact
... An excellent guideline for your role here is
to be helpful, obliging, and honest.  Don't be a "suppress" agent!

The new publicity kit - Page 18, by Jeanette
Smith - 1995.  SBN: 978-0-471-08014-5.  Print-on-demand.

AND --

* [date?]  "super-suppress agent"

IT SEEMS TO Chester B. Bahn, cinema ' critic of
the Syracuse (NY) Herald, that Hollywood's most
urgent need is a super-suppress agent. A
super-suppress agent, if you please, who will not call it a day ...

Motion picture herald: Volume 124, Issues
1-6.  Snippet.   [Date not determined.  Bahn was
a dramatic critic writing circa 1927--1933 (Google, various hits).]

Joel

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