"cliff-hanger", 1931

Tue Feb 18 02:10:54 UTC 2014

Since I'm planning to write about the 1736 cliff-hanger and wanted to
look in the horse's mouth, I went to the Variety microfilm.  Fred's 8
Mar 2013 quotation is accurate.  But I don't think he gave the
page/column.  In case that's needed, it's p. 7, col. 2.

Joel

At 1/21/2014 03:24 PM, Shapiro, Fred wrote:
>I posted the 1931 Variety antedating last year.
>
>Fred Shapiro
>
>
>________________________________________
>From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf of
>Baker, John [JBAKER at STRADLEY.COM]
>Sent: Tuesday, January 21, 2014 2:25 PM
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>Subject: Re: "cliff-hanger"
>
>I think Jon may be right to look to _Variety_.  A search of the
>Variety archives provides several early examples, of which the
>earliest is from 6/16/1931:  Neither John Mack Brown or John Wayne,
>announced for Universal's serial, "Battling with Buffalo Bill" will
>be in the cliff hanger.
>
>Not confirmed in hard copy or with full-text PDF.
>
>
>John Baker
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On
>Behalf Of Jonathan Lighter
>Sent: Tuesday, January 21, 2014 2:04 PM
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>Subject: Re: "cliff-hanger"
>
>The earliest I have found. The word seems not to have been widely
>used until the late '40s:
>
>1935 _San Antonio Light_ (Apr. 19) 3-B: On the same program is the
>current cliff hanger, "The Red Rider."
>
>1935 _Trenton Evening Times_ (Oct. 21)  11: Even with the boom in
>horse opera and cliff-hanger drama.
>
>1937 _Los Angeles Times_ (Mar. 31) A1: Pearl White, star of the
>celebrated serial film, or "cliff hanger" ... "The Perils of Pauline."
>
>But then there's:
>
>1908 _Staunton [Va.] Spectator and Vindicator_ (Jan. 17) 3: Mr.
>Cliff Hanger is spending a few days with his aunt.
>
>Word to wise: just because Pearl White dangled from a cliff around
>1915 doesn't mean the phrase was coined at that time. Now if she'd
>dangled frequently, that might suggest a new idiom: but if she only
>did it in one episode, among other perils, why should anyone care?
>If the term existed in publicity-hungry Hollywood way back when, why
>are the earliest discovered cites so late and so slow to catch on?
>
>Apparently the term arose (perhaps in the offices of _Variety_)
>about 1934 (Note 1935 mention of a recent "boom" in cliff-hangers.)
>
>JL
>
>
>On Tue, Jan 21, 2014 at 12:33 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> > Subject:      Re: "cliff-hanger"
> >
> > ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> > ---------
> >
> > At 1/20/2014 04:34 PM, W Brewer wrote:
> > ><<The tales themselves trace their roots back to ancient and medieval
> > >Arabic, Persian, Indian, Egyptian and Mesopotamian folklore and
> > literature>>
> > >
> > >Arabic 9th c; . . . Antoine Galland, first European translator, Les
> > >mille et une nuits) 1704-1717; first English edition, anonymous 1706;
> > >Edward Lane 1840, 1859; John Payne 1882; Richard Burton 1885; Lyons &
> > >Lyons 2008.
> > >http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Thousand_and_One_Nights
> >
> > The earliest English-language edition that WorldCat or Harvard holds
> > is 1712.  There were at least 11 editions by 1736 (the date of my
> > newspaper article), and perhaps more: Harvard lists 17, with some
> > having identical years.  Many are in ECCO -- the 1712 and most of the
> > others.
> >
> > Thus I would guess the tales were popular in England in the 1710s and
> > 1720s.  :-)  So, restricting myself to English publications --
> >
> > 1)  One has to decide whether or not the Arabian Nights qualify as
> > "cliff-hangers", since a reader can continue immediately.  I'll also
> > look at a couple of these early English editions to see how they
> > present the tales, and whether the break points qualify as
> > "tenterhooks";  and
> >
> > 2)  The claim for 1736 may have to be diminished to "earliest known
> > 'cliff-hanger' in an English-language *periodical*".
> >
> > Joel
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
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> >
>
>
>
>--
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