[Ads-l] Antedating by Barry Popik of "Supermodel"

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Peter Reitan wrote:
> An earlier possible influence is the use of "Super Model"
> as an advertising term.

When you search for "super model" / "super models"you encounter
endless matches for consumer products.

Andy Bach wrote:
> I wonder if the “super-“ has anything to do with “Superman”?

Barry Popik's webpage discusses superman, superstar, and supermodel.

https://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/superman_superstar_supermodel

[Begin excerpt from barrypoik.com]
SUPERMAN

"Superman" was born in Germany in the 1890s, when Friedrich Nietzsche
wrote about his "Uebermensch." In 1903, George Bernard Shaw produced
his Man and Superman, a comedy and a philosophy.

The June 1938 Action Comics contained the debut of Superman, by Jerry
Siegel (writer) and Joseph Shuster (artist). Superman fought for
truth, justice, and the American way, all in a town called Metropolis,
where he would leap tall buildings in a single bound. Metropolis could
be nowhere but New York.
[End excerpt from barrypoik.com]

[Begin excerpt from barrypoik.com]
Here are some superstars, both pre- and post-Warhol.

2 August 1936, Los Angeles Times, pg. C2:
News and Gossip of Stage and Screen: Super Stars to Appear in County Fair

5 December 1936, Washington Post, pg. X19:
The All-American Football Team of 1936 - Chosen From the Nation's Super-Stars
[End excerpt from barrypoik.com]

Garson

On Tue, Mar 2, 2021 at 10:38 PM Peter Reitan <pjreitan at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> An earlier possible influence is the use of "Super Model" as an advertising term.
>
> The Media History Project's Lantern database has a couple dozen examples before 1940 for vacuum cleaners, film projectors, cameras, radios, snow cone makers and cars. The earliest is from the late 1920s.
> ________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> Sent: Tuesday, March 2, 2021 7:23:20 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Subject: Re: Antedating by Barry Popik of "Supermodel"
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Antedating by Barry Popik of "Supermodel"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Interesting topic, Fred. It looks like Helen Fraser, director Barbizon
> Studio of Fashion Modeling in New York, helped to popularize
> "super-model".
>
> Date: December 31, 1945
> Newspaper: Daily News
> Newspaper Location: New York, New York
> Article: CHATTER!
> Author: A.D.
> Quote Page 10, Column 5
> Database: Newspapers.com
>
> https://www.newspapers.com/clip/72515837/super-model/
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> A brand new type of fashion model is predicted by Helen Fraser,
> director Barbizon Studio of Fashion Modeling, account television
> demands . . . "She will no longer be a manikin in one or two
> dimensions, but an actress and woman of the world . . . She will not
> be merely beautiful and attractive, but a living, speaking, acting,
> charming woman of fashion and international society; in other words, a
> super-model"
> [End excerpt]
>
> In 2010 Max Cryer's "Common Phrases: And the Amazing Stories Behind
> Them" mentioned that super-model was in the 1953 edition of "So you
> want to be a model!" Has anyone accessed the 1943 edition of "So you
> want to be a model!" to determine whether "super-model" was present?
>
> Garson
>
> On Tue, Mar 2, 2021 at 8:41 PM Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu> wrote:
> >
> > I see that barry.popik at yale.edu has antedatings of _supermodel_ (OED 1967):
> >
> > 6 October 1942, Chicago Daily Tribune, pg. 21:
> > "Super" Models Are Signed for Fashion Show
> >
> > So you want to be a model!
> > by Clyde Matthews (Dressner -- ed.)
> > Garden City, NY: Halcyon House
> > Revised edition 1948 (original edition 1943)
> > Pg. 256:
> > She will be a super-model, but the girl in her will be like the girl in you -- quite ordinary, but ambitious and eager for personal development.
> > (In another edition, this second-to-last page is Page 237. The "model of tomorrow" is discussed -- ed.)
> >
> > Fred Shapiro
> >
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