[Ads-l] Did Mae West invent it?

[MULLINS, WILLIAM D (Bill) CIV USARMY RDECOM AMRDEC (US)]

Brooklyn Daily Eagle 13 Dec 1936 p 6C (fultonhistory.com)


"For instance, the line, "Peel me a grape," which Mae introduced In "She Done Him Wrong," came about in this way. Miss West had a pet monkey who would not eat grapes unless the skins were removed. Miss West thought this amusing, and in a spot where the script called for her to look bored and nothing else, she injected the line—and it stuck."



> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of ADSGarson O'Toole
> Sent: Friday, March 03, 2017 12:12 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: Did Mae West invent it?
> 
> 
> The accompanying illustration depicts a buxom woman on a chaise lounge talking to a servant. I wonder if the woman is supposed to
> represent Mae West. Maybe the line was used by West during an earlier stage production.
> 
> The illustration is in several newspapers including the August 18, 1929, The San Bernardino County Sun, San Bernardino, California.
> 
> Garson
> 
> 
> On Fri, Mar 3, 2017 at 12:37 PM, Michael Quinion <michael.quinion at worldwidewords.org> wrote:
> > It is universally said that Mae West originated the line "Beulah, peel
> > me a grape" in the movie "She's No Angel" of 1933. But casting about
> > in idleness (I'm recuperating from an operation) I found the variant
> > "Meadows, peel me a grape" in a cartoon in the Laredo Times of Texas
> > on 18 Aug 1929, attributing it to the "N.Y Medley". Is there more to
> > this than commonly thought? Did Mae West borrow it, or was it already circulating?
> >
> > See
> > https://newspaperarchive.com/us/texas/laredo/laredo-times/1929
> > /08-18/page-1
> > 3?tag=peel+me+a+grape&rtserp=tags/?pep=peel-me-a-grape&psb=dateasc/--
> > Michael Quinion
> > michael.quinion at worldwidewords.org
> > http://www.worldwidewords.org
> >
> 
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