[Ads-l] Antedating of "Ham" (Telegraphy / Radio Meaning)

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

On the theme of publicity, Fred’s “The New Yale Book of Quotations”
(2021) has the following  entry. Currently, this seems to be the
earliest item in the dual family: "All publicity is good publicity"
"No such thing as bad publicity"

[Begin excerpt]
All publicity is good publicity.
San Francisco Call, 25 June 1910
[End excerpt]

Barry Popik has a pertinent entry:
“All publicity is good publicity” ("There is no such thing as bad publicity")

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

The QI website has a famous thematically related saying from 1888:

Say anything you like about me, but spell my name right — P. T.
B-a-r-n-u-m, P. T. Barnum
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2020/01/20/spell-name/

Garson

On Mon, Dec 26, 2022 at 11:36 AM ADSGarson O'Toole
<adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Interesting saying, GAT and JL. In 1894 the saying "a knock is a
> boost"  was described as an “old adage”.
>
> Date: August 16, 1894
> Newspaper: The Deadwood Weekly Pioneer
> Newspaper Location: Deadwood, South Dakota
> Article: The City (From Sunday's Daily)
> Quote Page 2, Column 2
> Database: Newspapers.com
>
> [Begin excerpt - double check for OCR errors]
> The Lead City Tribune of Friday last makes the truth of the old adage
> that "a knock is a boost," to be plainly seen, and the way in which it
> lauds the steadfastness of purpose and strength of will power of Judge
> G. C. Moody of Deadwood is a pleasure to read. Verily, the truth of
> the saying that was used in the tournament by Leadites is coming true,
> so far as it relates to the newspapers of Lead, that they have the
> muscle but Deadwood has the brains," and it was never more forcibly
> brought to light than in the Tribune's article on surprises.
> [End excerpt]
>
> Garson
>
> On Mon, Dec 26, 2022 at 9:40 AM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > 1898 Buffalo [N.Y.] Times (Sept. 10) 6: Every knock is not a boost in all
> > cases.
> >
> > JL
> >
> > On Sun, Dec 25, 2022 at 9:14 PM George Thompson <george.thompson at nyu.edu>
> > wrote:
> >
> > > I notice that the poem Fred sent us to document "ham" opens with the lines
> > > I am the wandering Ham.
> > > I know no home, I know no roost.
> > > To me each knock is one more boost.
> > >
> > > This seems to be an instance of another way of expressing the thought
> > > "there's no such thing as bad publicity".
> > >
> > > In 2001, it seems, I took part in a discussion here of that expression.  At
> > > that time, I wrote
> > > "This is one of those expressions that are so highly variable in form that
> > > they
> > > are very difficult to trace.  I associate it with show business, and in
> > > that
> > > racket, publicity is always good.  The expression can be phrased either as
> > > an
> > > affirmative or a negative: "there's no such thing as bad publicity" (or a
> > > variant) as opposed to "all publicity is good publicity" / "every knock is
> > > a
> > > boost" (or other variants).
> > >
> > > I remember, c. 1970, Sam Silverman, a boxing promoter based in Boston,
> > > being quoted as saying "every knock is a boost", and I rather doubt that he
> > > was coining the phrase.
> > >
> > > GAT

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