[Ads-l] antedating totem pole (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Mullins, Bill CIV (US)]

CLASSIFICATION: UNCLASSIFIED

Well, just delete that cite then.  I usually check for such and neglected to this time.

The H. Allen Smith book was going to be the cite, until I ran across the Naugatuck one.

_Richmond [VA] Times Dispatch_ 22 Feb 1941 p 9 col 6 [genealogybank]
"H. Allen Smith's new book, "Low Man on the Totem Pole" (Doubleday-Doran), has
Already inspired the Hollywood talent scouts."
From a Walter Winchell "On Broadway" column.  Note that Winchell said "the Totem Pole";
the actual title is "a Totem Pole", as John said below.



> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Baker, John" <JBAKER at STRADLEY.COM>
> Subject:      Re: antedating totem pole (UNCLASSIFIED)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> That is a Newspapers.com error.  The quoted article is actually from the Na= ugatuck Evening News, August 16, 1949.  Articles from the
> Hagerstown Mornin= g Herald on Newspapers.com generally should be regarded with suspicion. =20
> 
> The phrase's origin, or at least its popularization, seems to be the humor = book Low Man on a Totem Pole, by H. Allen Smith, 1941.
> 
> 
> John Baker
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPad
> 
> > On Mar 24, 2016, at 1:08 PM, Mullins, Bill CIV (US)
> > <william.d.mullins18.=
> civ at MAIL.MIL> wrote:
> >=20
> >=20
> >=20
> > OED has 1945 for "Low man on the totem pole"
> >=20
> >=20
> > Hagerstown MD _Morning Herald_ 18 Apr 1939 p 4 col 4 [Newspapers.com]
> >"Bob started a few months ago as low man on the totem pole."
> >=20
> >=20
CLASSIFICATION: UNCLASSIFIED

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