friend of Dorothy"

[George Thompson]

> Cassell's Dictionary of Slang by Jonathon Green . . . has an entry for "Dorothy's friend" but display is blocked
> in Google Books.
>

His earliest cite is 1972, from Rodgers" Queens' Vernacular.

GAT

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.  Working on a new edition, though.

----- Original Message -----
From: Garson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com>
Date: Tuesday, March 22, 2011 4:08 pm
Subject: Re: friend of Dorothy"
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU

> The OED has this phrase. I did not see it in the HDAS listed under
> Dorothy or friend. The first OED citation given in 1972 does not
> contain the phrase.
>
> Dorothy, n.
> a friend of Dorothy (slang), a homosexual man. Also in similar
> allusive uses.
>
> 1972  B. Rodgers Queens' Vernacular 66   Dorothy and Toto,‥any male
> couple whose effeminate partner is in command. ‘When's Dorothy and
> Toto getting here with the chest of drawers?’
>
> 1984  B. McConville & J. Shearlaw Slanguage of Sex (1985) 82/1
> Dorothy's friends, the male gay community, from the 50s onwards.
>
>
> The Concise New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional
> English (Google Books preview)
> friend of Dorothy noun a homosexual. Thought to be from the Judy
> Garland character in The Wizard of Oz; Garland is a gay icon
> AUSTRALIA, 1988
>
>
> Cassell's Dictionary of Slang by Jonathon Green (Google Books preview)
> Friend of Oscar n. [1920s+] a male homosexual (df. ABIGAIL n.) (the
> gay icon, playwright Oscar Wilde (1854-1901)]
>
> Cassell's has an entry for "Dorothy's friend" but display is blocked
> in Google Books.
>
> One book claims that the construction of the term "Friend of Dorothy"
> was influenced by the term "Friend of Bill" used by Alcoholics
> Anonymous (founded in 1935), but if Cassell's is correct then perhaps
> "Friend of Oscar" influenced both "Friend of Bill" and "Friend of
> Dorothy".
>
> On Tue, Mar 22, 2011 at 9:24 AM, Jonathan Lighter
> <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> > Sender: ?? ?? ?? American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster: ?? ?? ?? Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject: ?? ?? ??Re: friend of Dorothy"
> > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Prominent author, too.
> >
> > JL
> >
> > On Tue, Mar 22, 2011 at 8:50 AM, crawford <neil at typog.co.uk> wrote:
> >
> >> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >> -----------------------
> >> Sender: ?? ?? ?? American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >> Poster: ?? ?? ?? crawford <neil at TYPOG.CO.UK>
> >> Subject: ?? ?? ??friend of Dorothy"
> >>
> >> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>
> >> 'Schuyler could not recall seeing his young blond friend at any of
> the
> >> masses before tonight, but often there was wholesale confusion and
> >> resultant
> >> obscurity. In any case, here he was now, the young friend of a
> friend of
> >> Dorothy, perhaps homosexual himself...'
> >> ~Ed McBain, 'Vespers: a novel of the 87th Precinct', William
> Morrow, 1990,
> >> 144
> >>
> >> neil at typog.co.uk
> >>
> >> ------------------------------------------------------------
> >> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >>
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> truth."
> >
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> >
>
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