[Ads-l] cliffhanger (UNCLASSIFIED)

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Back in March 2014 Joel did look for the two "cliff hanging" matches
on microfilm. He found the Sept 3 1930 match with "cliff-hanging
heroines". (Bill has now kindly shared a link to a page image
accessible to everyone.)

Joel was unable to confirm the Nov 15, 1930 match because the
microfilm did not have images of the "wrapper" pages with the Nov. 15
date. Joel did find the rewritten extracts in the Nov 19 issue under
the title "Hollywood Bulletin". He specifically found the rewritten
item about Grace Cunard.

Kudos to Joel. Sorry, I forgot about this. I did not see the old
messages from Joel because I was searching the ADS messages, and the
communication was off list.

The Nov 15 material was not even available in the ProQuest database
(back in 2014). Apparently, Variety Ultimate and ProQuest Variety
differ.

Garson

On Fri, Apr 15, 2016 at 12:12 PM, ADSGarson O'Toole
<adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
> Great work, Bill! The 1919 cite is excellent.
>
> Following your lead and searching thru Lantern, I found a possible
> explanation for the November 15, 1930 Variety date (which was a
> Saturday). A wrapper was regularly placed around the Weekly edition of
> Variety, and the wrapper was generated on Saturdays.
>
> Some of the content from Nov 15. was also summarized and placed in the
> Nov 19 issue. I downloaded page 4 of the November 19, 1930 issue of
> Variety that was accessible through Lantern and found the following
> column titled "Hollywood Bulletins" that contained a pertinent
> description in its first paragraph:
>
> http://lantern.mediahist.org/catalog/variety100-1930-11_0155
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> Briefly rewritten extracts from "Variety's" Hollywood Bulletin,
> printed each Saturday in Hollywood, and placed as a wrapper upon the
> regular weekly "Variety".
> [End excerpt]
>
> The Nov. 15 item containing the phrase "when cliff hanging was an art"
> was probably about Grace Cunard based on the raw match data. The Nov
> 19 issue does have a "rewritten extract" mentioning Grace Cunard, but
> it does not use the key phrase.
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> Grace Cunard queen of serials long ago, is back in 'em, doing a mother
> part in U's "Heroes of the Flame."
> [End excerpt]
>
> For completeness: Below is the raw match information supplied by the
> ProQuest Variety database for the Nov. 5 match.
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> Keywords:
> 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 mat ter 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 excerpt]
>
> Garson
>
>
> On Fri, Apr 15, 2016 at 10:05 AM, Mullins, Bill CIV (US)
> <william.d.mullins18.civ at mail.mil> wrote:
>> CLASSIFICATION: UNCLASSIFIED
>>
>>> ----
>>> I found matches in the Variety database for related terms that occurred a bit earlier. Follow the link to see more contextual details. These
>>> matches should be verified by examining the scanned pages before being used in publications. I have not seen the scanned pages.
>>>
>>> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2014-March/131546.html
>>>
>>> {Begin excerpt]
>>> "cliff-hanging heroines" Sept 3 1930
>>> "when cliff hanging was an art" Nov 15, 1930 [End excerpt]
>>>
>>
>> Sept 3 1930 cite (see col 1):
>> http://ia902509.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/2/items/variety100-1930-09/variety100-1930-09_jp2.zip&file=variety100-1930-09_jp2/variety100-1930-09_0001.jp2
>>
>> I am not able to find the Nov 15 1930 cite in the Lantern database (front end search for Variety in Internet Archive), and suspect it may be in error, as the closest-dated issue of Variety it holds is Nov 19, 1930, not Nov 15, 1930.  But possibly Lantern only holds the weekly edition, and Garson's cite is from a Daily edition.
>>
>> An earlier relevant citation, from the first two stanzas of "Chasing the Serial", a poem by Harry J. Smalley:
>>
>> _Film Fun_ Oct 1919 p 7
>>
>> "I am a trav'ling-man —with fervor undiminished
>> The motion-pictures daily I do see.
>> But hereafter I shall view a play that's finished
>> Right then and there—no serials for me!
>>
>> In Kalamazoo I saw the op'ning spasm,
>> It ended with the Hero on a cliff
>> Hanging by his finger-tips above a chasm—
>> The Villain sneaking up to land a biff!"
>> CLASSIFICATION: UNCLASSIFIED
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org