"flicker" = 'movie' (1912) + "flicker alley" (1911), "flicker house" (1913)

[Ben Zimmer]

On Mon, Feb 11, 2013 at 5:34 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>
> On Feb 11, 2013, at 5:11 PM, Ben Zimmer wrote:
>
> > * "flicker" = 'movie' (OED2 1927)
>
> whence "flick" (OED 1926) and "the flicks".  Seems like someone might have
> noticed that the truncation is cited for 1926 and its source for 1927.  1911/12
> is more like it.

My impetus for researching this was the use of "the flicks" in the
episode of "Downton Abbey" that aired on PBS Sunday night (set in
1920). I haven't been able to push back the OED's 1926 date yet, but
even if it's antedateable, I think "the flickers" would have been more
period-appropriate. Only problem is it would be rather opaque to a
modern audience.


> > 1912 Oct 20 _Cleveland Leader_ [GenealogyBank] 6W/6 "Movies," "flickers,"
> > and all these thoughtless words do not help the business.
> > [quoting _The Universal Weekly_, a motion picture trade paper]
> >
> > 1912 Dec 22 _Cleveland Leader_ [GenealogyBank] S5/2 (head) Some big
> > "flickers" in picture business.
> >
> > * flicker alley
> >
> > 1911 Oct 17 _Manchester (UK) Guardian_ [ProQuest] 14/1 The [London]
> > cinematograph trade is yet too young to have evolved a type, but it seemed
> > to me that the denizens of Flicker Alley (as they call this passage) all
> > have something characteristic that marks them off from ordinary men.
> >
> > 1912 Mar 9 _The Musical Standard_ [ProQuest] 148/2 The very severe
> > criticism appearing in the last issue from the pen of Mr. Douglas Donaldson
> > anent "Bioscope Music," and his somewhat "chesty" dilatation upon the
> > cinematograph theatre have prompted me, under the threatening wrath of the
> > potentates of "Flicker Alley," to enter the witness box for the
> > perpetrators of that "dangerous poison" -- picture music.
> >
> > * flicker house
> >
> > 1913 June 5 _Life_ [ProQuest] 1128/1 For fiction also has its photo-plays.
> > And if you miss Dorothy or Jamie any time you're quite as likely to find
> > them up garret reading the one as down street at the flicker house watching
> > the other.

--
Ben Zimmer
http://benzimmer.com/

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