Antedating of "Flack"

[Jonathan Lighter]

Yes, the third one looks legitimate.

JL

On Fri, Mar 8, 2013 at 8:46 AM, Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Shapiro, Fred" <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Antedating of "Flack"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Jon,
>
> I'm taking these citations from snippets on the Variety website archives,
> so they're somewhat unclear, but it looks like at least some of these are
> being used as synonyms for "publicist".  The third citation seems clearly
> to be generic.  Perhaps your point is that the first two citations may
> simply be references to Gene Flack.
>
> Fred Shapiro
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf of
> Jonathan Lighter [wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM]
> Sent: Friday, March 08, 2013 8:36 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: Antedating of "Flack"
>
> HDAS: 1939.
>
> Aren't these earlier exx. simply references to PR man Gene Flack rather
> than common nouns?
>
> JL
>
> On Fri, Mar 8, 2013 at 8:18 AM, Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu>
> wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       "Shapiro, Fred" <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
> > Subject:      Antedating of "Flack"
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > flack (OED, n.2., 1946)
> >
> > 1933 _Variety_ 20 Sept.  Peripatetic Flack Press agent at one of the
> > downto=
> > wn radio stations.
> >
> > 1933 _Variety_ 7 Oct.  Flack Writes Lyndsley Parsons, Monogram press
> agent.
> >
> > 1933 _Variety_ 24 Oct.  Flack Quits  Blake McVeigh resigned from the
> > Paramo=
> > unt publicity staff, effective Saturday.
> >
> > Fred Shapiro
> >
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"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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