[Ads-l] antedating of to "gaslight."

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Great citation, JL.
I watched the episode on YouTube and at The Film Detective. The dialog
was slightly different. The timestamp is specified below.

I Married Joan S01E19 Draft Board
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfOV0Y9EDNs
Timestamp 15 minutes 24 seconds of 23 minutes 15 seconds

[Begin excerpt]
"Now, here's the plan. We'll gaslight 'em!"
"Gaslight 'em!"
"Yeah."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, you saw that picture Gaslight, remember? Where they made the
woman think that she was crazy, and she really wasn't?"
"Yeah."
"Well, we'll make the people who rented the place think they're crazy ..."
[End excerpt]

The episode is also available at The Film Detective website with a
different introduction. The timestamp is shifted by a few seconds.

1953 _I Married Joan_ (CBS TV)  (Season 1, Episode 19 "Draft Board"):
https://thefilmdetective.tv/video/i-married-joan-s1-ep19-draftboard-1953/60b86297be87d50001b535ff/

Another copy on YouTube displays the following at 33 seconds:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2zrd2ajQIw

[Begin excerpt]
"DRAFTBOARD"
Season One, Episode #19
Airdate: 12/18/1953
Director: Marc Daniels
Writers: Arthur Stander
Frank Tarloff
Ben Starr
[End excerpt]

Garson

On Wed, May 18, 2022 at 10:01 AM Jonathan Lighter
<wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> 1953 _I Married Joan_ (CBS TV)  (Season 1, Episode 19 "Draft Board"):
> "Here's the plan. We'll gaslight 'em!" "Gaslight? What do you mean?" "Well,
> you saw that picture _Gaslight_, remember? Where they made the woman think
> she was crazy, and she really wasn't?"
>
> According to Wikipedia, the episode first aired on February 18, 1953.
>
> As best I can see from the print shown on the Film Detective stream, it
> appears to have a copyright date of "MCMLII," though "MCMLIII" is certainly
> possible.
>
> You can see the pertinent part of the episode on YouTube beginning at about
> 1:00.
>
> Persons of a certain age may recall that star Joan Davis (the one with the
> plan) was very much the comedic equal of Lucille Ball.
>
> Odds are my mother picked up the word from this show.
>
> JL
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org