pearl-clutching

[Garson O'Toole]

Arnold Zwicky wrote
> i don't know how this posting got so messed up.  i suppose it's all decipherable -- but note that  everything in the posting is a forward from Chris Ambidge, except for the last bit (below), which is from me:
>
> On Aug 13, 2011, at 7:13 AM, Arnold Zwicky wrote:
>>
>> "clutch the pearls" is in a few dictionaries of gay slang (in one,
>> glossed as 'gasp'), but of course without citations or datings; these
>> things are just lists of words and phrases.
>>
>> E. Patrick Johnson has a chapter on gay black discourse in Leap & Boellstorff (ed.), Speaking in Queer Tongues (2004), with several mentions of "clutch the pearls" (and the accompanying gesture) in this community.
>>
>> it also seems to have a history in the British gay cant Polari.

Following the lead for "In Living Color" here is a citation in 1990
from NewsBank Access World News:

WHO'S THE JOKE ON, ANYWAY? DEBATING `IN LIVING COLOR'
The Record (New Jersey) - Sunday, May 13, 1990
Author: By Virginia Mann, Record Television Critic: The Record

Antoine, played by David Alan Grier, says he has just three words to
describe actor Ralph Macchio: fab-u-lous. And Blaine, one of the many
creations of gifted comic Damon Wayans, thinks Glenn Close is a man.
Otherwise informed, he squeals, "Well, clutch the pearls. What a
sneaky thing to do."

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