[Ads-l] New to me: 'kayfabe'

Wed Jan 6 23:45:32 UTC 2021

Excellent work, Bill. Thanks for your thoroughness in accessing and
searching "Fall Guys" (1937) in the past.

It seems that Google does not completely traverse and index any large
websites. Also, the results generated by a single query to Google or
Google Books are often incomplete even when the data has been
traversed and indexed. It has been that way for many years now.

Interestingly, while querying for variant spellings of "Kay Fabian" I
also found variants for "Boris K. Fabian" in newspapers.com.

1958 Nov 18: Boris K. Fabian
1959 Feb 17: Boris Kafabian
1960 Sep 04: Boris Kay Fabian

The 1958 citation is in my previous message. Below are the 1959 and
1960 citations.

Date: February 17, 1959
Newspaper: Minneapolis Morning Tribune (Star Tribune)
Newspaper Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota
Article: Russians, Plus New Manager, Face Freemans
Quote Page 15, Column 2
Database: Newspapers.com

[Begin excerpt]
Wrestling fans will learn tonight what proficiency a third Russian can
add to the tag-team of Ivan and Karol Kalmikoff.
Boris Kafabian, newly-appointed manager, won't confront Herb and
Seymour Freeman in the Auditorium ring, but he'll be in the
Kalmikoffs' corner directing strategy.
[End excerpt]

Date: September 4, 1960
Newspaper: The Boston Sunday Globe
Newspaper Location: Boston, Massachusetts
Advertisement Title: Monday Is a Family Fun Day
Advertiser: J. M. Fields
Quote Page 8, Column 3
Database: Newspapers.com

[Begin excerpt]
Monday Natick Only
BORIS KAY FABIAN, 240 lb. Mystery Man from WBZ-TV vs.
IRISH PAT SULLIVAN, 220 lb. Fighting Irishman
TV WRESTLING IN PERSON
[End excerpt]

Garson

On Wed, Jan 6, 2021 at 5:57 PM Bill Mullins <amcombill at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> I'm pretty sure I've also looked at "kayfabe" on this list, but I can't find anything I've posted about the term here with Google.
>
> (aside -- 3-1/2 years ago, I looked at the wrestling terms "heel" and "face":
> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2017-June/148519.html
>
> I can't find them with the list search [Google] by searching for "Heel  face", or for "wrestling", or with any other
> reasonable search string I can think of.  I don't know if Google fails to index all posts, or what, but I don't find searches to be reliable.)
>
> I have looked through the 1937 book "Fall Guys", and did not find "kayfabe" in there (I acquired it with the specific intention of looking for the term - it is a seminal work on 20th century Pro Wrestling).
>
> OED has 1988 for the term.
>
> 1958 _Bangor [ME] Daily News_ 18 Nov 14/2
>
> "And the Masked Marvel and his manager, Boris K. Fabian, have been handed indefinite suspensions."
>
> (Boris K. Fabian not only managed, but was also a wrestler.  His real name was Robert M. Russell.)
>
>
> 1964 Albany OR _Greater Oregon_ 4 Dec 8/1
> "In other action, bald Pat Patterson won the battle royal, Ricky Hunter won on a disqualification from Tony Borne, Freddy Baron whipped Larry Williams, and Dean Higuchi stopped Kay Fabian."
>
>
> 1971 _Chicago Tribune_ 4 May sec 3 p 3 col 4
> has a letter to the editor of the sports section about wrestling, signed
> "Mark Kayfabe".
>
> 1974 Portland OR _Oregonian_ 15 Feb sec m p 5 col 8
> "Then there is the expression "Kay Fabian," used by wrestlers as a signal to clam up."
>
>
>

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