[Ads-l] "prostitute/whore with a heart of gold"

[Wilson Gray]

Well, there is the distinct possibility that the practice of referring to
random, beneath-a-man's-serious-notice women as "whores" - whether they
were in fact selling it, were merely giving it away, or were nice girls
being annoying by refusing to get up off it, even after exacting the
promise not to tell - was completely unknown in the English-speaking world,
until dekkids after the first rap album went platinum.

Am I right, fellas?

On Tue, Apr 28, 2015 at 9:21 AM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "prostitute/whore with a heart of gold"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Probably not, though in reality there was some overlap, which was widely
> understood or suspected. Chorus girls showed their legs for the interest of
> males, danced in skimpy costumes ditto, wore lots of makeup, etc. Hmm.....
> Stereotypically they had "sugar daddies," which was just one step away from
> prostitution - if that much.
>
> The streetwalker in Sherwood's "Waterloo Bridge" (1929) was an out-of work
> chorus girl.
>
> JL
>
>
>
> On Tue, Apr 28, 2015 at 12:59 AM, Bill Mullins <amcombill at hotmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Bill Mullins <amcombill at HOTMAIL.COM>
> > Subject:      "prostitute/whore with a heart of gold"
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > _Picture-Play Magazine_  July 1925 p. 105"However=2C Hope unties her
> > blindf=
> > old and twangs her little lyre=2C for I understand her next picture will
> > al=
> > low her to play a =96 it must be said =96 vamp with a heart of gold."
> > _Variety_ 1/12/1932 p 50 col 5"Mary Nolan is more restrained as a
> > racketeer=
> > ing lady with a heart of gold."
> > _Modern Screen_ June 1933 p 87"Sizzling story of the good old days of New
> > Y=
> > ork with Mae West as the wicked woman a heart of gold."
> > _Independent Exhibitors Film Bulletin_ 3/13/1937 p 10"It deals in a dull
> > an=
> > d ponderous manner with one of those "ladies of the evening" with a heart
> > o=
> > f gold=2C who allows herself to be talked into posting for a famous
> artist=
> > =2C and under his guidance learns to loathe the life she has been
> living."
> > =
> >  [quoted from NY World Telegram]
> >
> > "Chorus girl with a heart of gold" shows up regularly starting in the
> late
> > =
> > 1920s.  Was "chorus girl" understood to be a euphemism for prostitute?
> >               =
> >                   =
> >
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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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-- 
-Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain

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