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

[Shapiro, Fred]

After sending my previous email, I re-read Ronald Butters' fine 1998 article on "Cary Grant and the Emergence of Gay 'Homosexual.'"  I see that Butters does discuss the "42nd Street" line and argues that 42nd Street was well-known throughout the U.S. as a place where people were "carefree, colorful, energetically frivolous, hedonistic, fun."  Thus, in Butters' view, that line does not need to be interpreted as a reference to homosexuality.

Fred Shapiro


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From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
Sent: Sunday, September 25, 2022 9:14 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Subject: The "Gay" Line in "Bringing Up Baby"

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://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.imdb.com%2Fname%2Fnm0733480%2F%3Fref_%3Dtt_ch&data=05%7C01%7Cfred.shapiro%40YALE.EDU%7C0320c746e1a64f5de82c08da9ef7d523%7Cdd8cbebb21394df8b4114e3e87abeb5c%7C0%7C0%7C637997084516017325%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=%2BWqcU198Xa1L8RVMkMPc%2F5v8PoZXyhmIuTatmX5Adqs%3D&reserved=0> : But why are you wearing *these* clothes?

David Huxley <https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.imdb.com%2Fname%2Fnm0000026%2F%3Fref_%3Dtt_ch&data=05%7C01%7Cfred.shapiro%40YALE.EDU%7C0320c746e1a64f5de82c08da9ef7d523%7Cdd8cbebb21394df8b4114e3e87abeb5c%7C0%7C0%7C637997084516017325%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=xSE%2F7WsWn77l1NYumN3q7veq29b8XNFuWXpXSj1EXOQ%3D&reserved=0> : Because I just went *GAY* all of a sudden!

Mrs. Random <https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.imdb.com%2Fname%2Fnm0733480%2F%3Fref_%3Dtt_ch&data=05%7C01%7Cfred.shapiro%40YALE.EDU%7C0320c746e1a64f5de82c08da9ef7d523%7Cdd8cbebb21394df8b4114e3e87abeb5c%7C0%7C0%7C637997084516017325%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=%2BWqcU198Xa1L8RVMkMPc%2F5v8PoZXyhmIuTatmX5Adqs%3D&reserved=0> : Now see here young man, stop this nonsense. What are you doing?

David Huxley <https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.imdb.com%2Fname%2Fnm0000026%2F%3Fref_%3Dtt_ch&data=05%7C01%7Cfred.shapiro%40YALE.EDU%7C0320c746e1a64f5de82c08da9ef7d523%7Cdd8cbebb21394df8b4114e3e87abeb5c%7C0%7C0%7C637997084516017325%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=xSE%2F7WsWn77l1NYumN3q7veq29b8XNFuWXpXSj1EXOQ%3D&reserved=0> : 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


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