"cliff-hanger"

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

"cliff-hanging heroines" Sept 3 1930
"when cliff hanging was an art" Nov 15, 1930

Perhaps the term "cliff hanger" was crafted by someone based on a
composite memory of multiple serials. The Sept 3 cite mentions both
"Perils of Pauline" and "Exploits of Elaine."

[Begin match information in Variety archive; unverified cite]

for the hoke and pull the parents into the neighborhood houses.
Pitting also Into the pattern Is the revival of the serial, with
Universal and Pa the leading the precession toward cliff-hanging
heroines. Paths Is even reviving the original Installment Alms,
"Peril* of Pauline" and "Exploits of Elaine." America

Published Date: September 3rd, 1930

[End match information]

[Begin match information in Variety archive; unverified cite]

the municipal court, say merchants Delegations of Hollywood mer chants
and business men have asked the municipal jurists for it and that body
will vote on the matter this week. Queen of Serials Does Comeback, But
as Mother Grace Cunard. known as the queen of serials when cliff
hanging was an art, is in em again. She's playing

Published Date: November 15th, 1930

[End match information]

Garson

On Mon, Feb 10, 2014 at 4:38 PM, Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "cliff-hanger"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Tue, Jan 21, 2014 at 8:52 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>>
>> At 1/21/2014 02:25 PM, Baker, John wrote:
>> >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.
>>
>> Thus earlier than the 1933 Perils, which Wikipedia says is a
>> cliff-hanger.  It says the 1914 silent, with Pearl White, did not.
>
> Indeed -- when Variety reported that Universal was planning to remake
> "The Perils of Pauline," the news came in an article headlined "U
> Programs 5 Cliff Hangers" (June 6, 1933, p. 6). So it was already a
> known expression.
>
> A bit more on cliff-hanging (though nothing to antedate the 1931
> Variety cite, previously found by Fred)...
>
> This 1916 article credits D.W. Griffith with pioneering the
> cliff-hanging trope to build suspense within a film, rather than from
> one episode of a serial to the next:
>
> ===
> http://books.google.com/books?id=JbYaAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA150
> "Motion Pictures and Advertising Pictures" by Don Herold
> The Photographic Journal of America, April 1916, Volume 53, p. 150
> One way in which he [D.W. Griffith] put _interest_ into moving
> pictures was to leave his hero hanging to a cliff. Previous to David
> Griffith there was a precept that moving-picture scenes should follow
> each other consecutively. Griffith borrowed from the novelist the
> device of suspended interest, and left his hero hanging on a cliff
> while he took up some other phase of the story. Then, later, he came
> back and got his hero off the cliff.
> ===
>
> Pearl White was definitely associated with cliff-hanging in the public
> imagination when the "Pauline" serials were popular (though again, no
> mention of cliff-hanging at the end of an episode):
>
> ===
> Balitmore Sun, Jan. 21, 1917, p. 5
> She [Pearl White] is equal to any emergency and has a special talent
> for looking attractive, even while hanging by her toes from a cliff or
> in other perilous situations.
> ===
>
> Here's a mention of what typically happened to Pauline at the end of
> an episode -- leaping from a cliff, rather than hanging on to one:
>
> ===
> New York Times, May 20, 1928, p. X4
> Filming Poor Pauline in the days when all movie serials ended with a
> leap from a cliff or a balloon could have held no more thrills than
> did Africa for Mr. Patterson.
> ===
>
> --bgz
>
> --
> Ben Zimmer
> http://benzimmer.com/
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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