[Ads-l] The "Gay" Line in "Bringing Up Baby"

[Andy Bach]

I tried to find a clip of the scene but failed. I did find a couple of
posts that make the same argument
https://moviechat.org/tt0029947/Bringing-Up-Baby/58c701c14e1cf308b932fb12/More-on-the-gay-joke-WITH-EVIDENCE

https://worldofwonder.net/the-historical-significance-of-cary-grant-suddenly-going-gay-in-bringing-up-baby/

But no mention of the 42nd street line for an exhaustive and entertaining
review and backstory
http://back-to-golden-days.blogspot.com/2016/05/the-animals-in-film-blogathon-bringing.html?m=1

Which says a great deal of the dialogue was ad-libbed by Hepburn and Grant
and “ Oddly enough, the PCA paid no attention whatsoever to the film's two
most outrageous: Grant's proclamation of going gay and Hepburn's reference
to George's "bodily functions." When David asks Susan where George is apt
to go, she responds that he is apt to "go" anywhere, a remark that she
follows with a giggle, surely to underline the double entendre.
Similarly, all the bone jokes got through undetected, including the one in
the opening scene in which David, pondering the erect-looking dinosaur bone
he holds in his hand, innocently remarks, "This must belong in the tail."



On Sun, Sep 25, 2022 at 8:14 AM Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu> wrote:

> I am thinking of writing an article about my discoveries of early uses of
> the term "gay" meaning "homosexual."  There is one point I am puzzling
> over, and perhaps people on this list can help me.
>
> Cary Grant's line (in the 1938 movie "Bringing Up Baby") about going "gay"
> all of a sudden, ad-libbed for a scene in which he is asked why he is
> wearing women's clothing, is often said to be an early, or the earliest,
> use of "gay" to mean "homosexual."  Some commentators, including the
> linguist Ronald Butters, have denied that this ad-lib could, as an
> "in-group" reference, have made it into a mainstream film and been uttered
> by someone Butters describes as a deeply closeted homosexual who might have
> been endangering his career with the utterance.
>
> My puzzlement has to do with character David Huxley's second line in the
> film dialogue:
>
>
> Mrs. Random <https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0733480/?ref_=tt_ch> : But why
> are you wearing *these* clothes?
>
> David Huxley <https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000026/?ref_=tt_ch> : Because
> I just went *GAY* all of a sudden!
>
> Mrs. Random <https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0733480/?ref_=tt_ch> : Now see
> here young man, stop this nonsense. What are you doing?
>
> David Huxley <https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000026/?ref_=tt_ch> : I'm
> sitting in the middle of 42nd Street waiting for a bus.
>
>
> 42nd Street was a well-known locale for homosexual assignations.  I
> understand how commentators who deny this as a usage of the modern sense of
> "gay" might regard it instead as an example of an older usage of "to go
> gay" meaning "uninhibited, wild, crazy, flamboyant."  But how do such
> commentators deny the implications of the "42nd Street waiting for a bus"
> line?
>
>
> Fred Shapiro
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
-- 
Andy Bach
Afbach at gmail.com
Not at my desk

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