OED Appeals: Bellini

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

The December 1955 issue of Esquire did contain a passage that
mentioned buying a Bellini along the Grand Canal in Venice. The page
number given by Google Books was inexact. I checked on microfilm and
the correct page was 141 and not 147.

Cite: 1955 December, "The Grand Canal: Tide of Elegance" by Charlotte
& Denis Plimmer, Start Page 141, Quote Page 141, Esquire, Inc.,
Chicago, Illinois. (Verified on microfilm)

[Begin excerpt]
Because the Grand Canal is, quite genuinely, Venice's Main Street, you
can transact the same kinds of business here that you can along any
Main Street anywhere. You can get your suit pressed, buy your
cigarettes, have a tooth pulled, ...

...
you can open a bank account, consult a lawyer, get arrested, buy a
kilo of baby octopus, a hunk of salami, a bunch of roses, a Bellini or
a nickel post card.
[End excerpt]

Garson

On Sat, Oct 6, 2012 at 7:55 PM, ADSGarson O'Toole
<adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: OED Appeals: Bellini
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Great find, Stephen!
>
> Google Books has a match in an issue of Esquire with a GB date of
> 1955. Based on probes I think the match is probably in the December
> 1955 issue in an article titled "The Grand Canal: Tide of Elegance" by
> Charlotte & Denis Plimmer. The article contains a very long list of
> transactions that one can perform near the Grand Canal in Venice.
> Included in this list is buying a Bellini.
>
> Note that Harry's Bar is adjacent to the Grand Canal. I hypothesize
> that the authors were talking about buying a Bellini at Harry's Bar. I
> have only seen GB snippets of the Esquire issue. So this analysis
> might be completely wrong, and the match might be in some other issue
> of the magazine. But this might be a useful lead for the OED editors.
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> Because the Grand Canal is, quite genuinely, Venice's Main Street, you
> can transact the same kinds of business here that you can along any
> Main Street anywhere. You can get your suit pressed, ...
>
> ... consult a lawyer, get arrested, buy a kilo of baby octopus, a hunk
> of salami, a bunch of roses, a Bellini or a nickel post card. You can
> rent a room and bath in a Renaissance palazzo, visit an American
> millionairess who owns the finest private
> [End excerpt]
>
> I can try to verify this on Sunday. Of course, the action of buying a
> Bellini is ambiguous. Vincenzo Bellini  was an opera composer, and
> Giovanni Bellini was a painter. But I do not think that purchasing a
> musical score or painting makes sense here.
>
> Garson
>
> On Thu, Oct 4, 2012 at 8:00 AM, Stephen Goranson <goranson at duke.edu> wrote:
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Stephen Goranson <goranson at DUKE.EDU>
>> Subject:      Re: OED Appeals: Bellini
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> You may post there anything I post here.
>> SG
>> ________________________________________
>> From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf of Jesse Sheidlower [jester at PANIX.COM]
>> Sent: Thursday, October 04, 2012 7:59 AM
>> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>> Subject: Re: [ADS-L] OED Appeals: Bellini
>>
>> On Thu, Oct 04, 2012 at 11:56:05AM +0000, Stephen Goranson wrote:
>>> Requested noun (cocktail) earlier than 1965.
>>>
>>> Venice Observed, Mary McCarthy (1956) page 19 col. 1 (confirmed on paper):
>>> Harry's Bar has a drink called a Tiziano, made of grapefruit juice and champagne and colored pink with grenadine or bitters. "You ought to have a Tintoretto," someone remonstrated, and the proprietor regretted that he had not yet invented that drink, but he had a Bellini and a Giorgione.
>>>
>>
>> Thanks!
>>
>> Would you like to add this to the comment section of the site? Or can I
>> post it there and mention your name?
>>
>> The same goes for other posts, from anyone, for that matter--if you'd
>> like more-public credit, put it there!
>>
>> Jesse Sheidlower
>> OED
>>
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