"cliff-hanger"

[Jonathan Lighter]

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
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> 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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