[Ads-l] the gift that keeps on giving

[Peter Reitan]

Reading (Pennsylvania) Times, December 20, 1906, page 4 - advertisement for giving the gift of a savings account for Christmas. "A Gift that Keeps on Giving."


San Francisco Chronicle, December 23, 1909, page 16.  Advertisement with picture of Santa Claus pointing at a a player piano.  "The Autopiano, The Gift that Keeps on Giving."


Many people could have learned the VD association in school.  There was an educational film, VD: The Gift that Keeps on Giving, Copely Productions, Released by Oxford Films 1973, 21 minute running time.  Appears in catalogue, Films and Other Materials for Projection, 1973-1978, Volume 5, on HathiTrust.


An undated article on yourdictionary.com (with comments dated "four years ago") lists a series of companies that used the slogan from the 1920s, 1940s, 1960s, and the one I remember from the 1970s, Kodak (1977).


http://quotes.yourdictionary.com/articles/what-commercial-said-the-gift-that-keeps-on-giving.html


________________________________
From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
Sent: Tuesday, December 12, 2017 8:49:06 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: the gift that keeps on giving

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Similar advertisements ran in November. The same notion was
communicated with the matching vocabulary, but the phrasing was less
compressed.

Date: November 12, 1924
Newspaper: Pittston Gazette
Newspaper Location: Pittston, Pennsylvania
Article: Advertisement for a player piano from Landau's
Quote Page 2

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/15745736/player_piano_gift_that_keeps_on_giving/

[Begin excerpt]
A Player-Piano
For This Christmas

This is one Christmas Gift that gives equally to
all, and keeps on giving through every month of
the year. New pleasures are derived with each new
Player Roll.
[End excerpt]


Date: November 25, 1924
Newspaper: The News
Newspaper Location: Frederick, Maryland
Article: Advertisement for a Victrola from Storm and Shipley
Quote Page 12

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/15745884/victrola_ad/

[Begin excerpt]
Place Your Order Now
For Xmas Delivery

There is one Christmas Gift that gives equal-
ly to all and keeps on giving through every
month of the year--
IT IS A VICTROLA
[End excerpt]

Garson


On Mon, Dec 11, 2017 at 11:12 AM, Jonathan Lighter
<wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Earliest?:
>
> 1924 _Seattle Daily Times_ (Dec. 10) 4: The Christmas gift that keeps on
> giving through every month of the year.  A VICTROLA.
>
> 1924 _Trenton Evening Times_ (Dec. 18) 2: The gift that keeps on giving is
> the best gift of all. The Christmas Victrola will give you entertainment
> for every day in the year!
>
> 1924 _Times-Picayune_ (N.O.) (Dec. 17) 12: "The Gift That Keeps on Giving"
> [Victrolas are illustrated.]
>
>
> By the 1970s, the cliche' had become a sardonic descriptor of chronic
> venereal disease. (Oops! I must mean "STDs"! "Venereal" involves love!).
>
> JL
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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

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