[Ads-l] Dating of First Use of "Oscar"

[Shapiro, Fred]

One of the greatest of Barry Popik's many fabulous discoveries about the origins of important words and phrases is "Oscar" meaning Academy Award.  Some years ago he found a solid citation (New York Daily News, Mar. 19, 1934) supporting columnist Sidney Skolsky's claim of having originated the name.  This is the earliest citation any researcher has nailed down, I believe.  But I have a question: There are a number of claims in Fulton History and other places on the Web that Skolsky used "Oscar" in a column of Mar. 16 or 17.  If Barry is reading this, could he please let me know whether he looked at Skolsky's columns of the days immediately preceding Mar. 19?


Fred Shapiro

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