[Ads-l] Zilch

[Dan Goncharoff]

Question: Did Joe Zilch become a "convention" on Broadway because Frank
Tinney used it when he came to Broadway in 1922?

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9906EFD61039E133A25754C2A96E9C946395D6CF
Second Thoughts on First NightsAugust 27, 1922,By ALEXANDER WOOLLCOTT. ,
Section Arts & Leisure, Page 75




DanG

On Tue, Feb 9, 2016 at 5:05 PM, ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com
> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Zilch
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Excellent citation, Bill. O. O. McIntyre also helped popularize
> "Minnie Zilch" with his widely-syndicated column, apparently. Here is
> a column in 1927 from O. O. McIntyre stating that the character name
> "Joe Zilch" was used as a convention on Broadway.
>
> Date: September 10, 1927
> Newspaper: Charleston Gazette
> Newspaper Location: Charleston, West Virginia
> Column: New York Day by Day
> Columnist: O. O. McIntyre (McNaught syndicate)
> Quote Page 4, Column 3
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> Broadway has two mythical characters--Joe Zilch and Joe Doakes. They
> are blamed for many things and accredited with great wonders. Then
> there is George Spelvin. the program name used by an actor for one of
> two roles he portrays.
> [End excerpt]
>
> Michael Quinion's article suggested a link to college slang.
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> This name may have come from college slang of the 1920s, in which Joe
> Zilsch was the archetypal average student. . .
> [End excerpt]
>
> Garson
>
>
> On Tue, Feb 9, 2016 at 1:43 PM, Mullins, Bill CIV (US)
> <william.d.mullins18.civ at mail.mil> wrote:
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> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       "Mullins, Bill CIV (US)" <william.d.mullins18.civ at MAIL.MIL
> >
> > Subject:      Re: Zilch
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Slightly earlier for "Joe Zilch"
> >
> > Mt Carmel PA _Daily News_ 16 Jun 1925 p 2 col 3 (from O. O. McIntyre
> syndic=
> > ated column "New York Day by Day") (Newspapers.com)
> > "Frank Tinney used to have a comedy name which brought many chortles.
> He u=
> > sed it as a peg upon which to hang an occasional wheeze.  It was Joe
> Zilch.=
> >   This was real -- the name of a husband of a girl in the show.  She
> recent=
> > ly divorced him and said among other things she was tired of the comedy
> nam=
> > e."
> >
> > _Variety_ 10/7/1925 p 9 col 3
> > "We have been an ardent Vreeland fan ever since he first started his
> theatr=
> > ical comment column in the "Herald," yet if we met him on the street we
> wou=
> > ldn't know him from Joe Zilch."=
> >
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