"hoke" noun 1930 (not in OED Online)

[Joel S. Berson]

[No, I am not reading Variety through the ages from cover to
cover.  These miscellaneous sightings all derive from just two pages
related to Garson's two, OCR-garbled, 1930 findings of "cliff-hanging".]

Variety, 1930 Sep. 3, p. 2, col. 1.  Microfilm.

"If Customers Don't Cry, Producers Must; Hoke's Fancy Coast Revival /
Hokum as a word is despised here, but it's well under the wire for
revival. Like the rose which smells just as sweet otherwise, hoke is
being spread in current films under such fancy identification as
'strengthening the heart interest,' 'emphasizing emotion qualities'
and 'specializing in human treatment.' /
After a period of musicals and pictures tinged with sophistication
the execs took stock to find that the outstanders of the last few
months have been plentifully supplied with the garden variety of
old-fashioned hoke---the prop on which the whole business was built."

"hoke" noun (= "hokum") not in OED Online.

["hoke", verb, = "to overplay (a part), to act (a part) in an
insincere, sentimental, or melodramatic manner", dates from 1935 (OED2).]

Joel

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