[Ads-l] mysterious antedatings of "foo fighter"

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Early instances of “foo fighters” might be from the comic strip Smokey
Stover which is mentioned in the article linked by LH.

Date: March 11, 1939
Publication: The Limelight
Location: Palm Springs, California
Article: The Week At The Racquet Club (Exclusive to the Limelight by BOGEARS)
Quote Page 7, Column 2
https://www.newspapers.com/image/749126778/

[Begin excerpt = double check for typos]
Highlight of the evening — Priscilla and John dressed up like Smoky
Stover & Chief Cashew Nut — the Foo Fighters — in two of the cleverest
getups yet seen in Palm Springs. It takes nerve or sumthing to walk
into the Racquet Club at one A.M. with red underwear and a fireman's
hat. on And Priscilla's must have been stolen from the fire department
'cause it was real.
[End excerpt]

Here is a claim from Toonpedia about "foo fighter".
https://www.toonopedia.com/smokey.htm
Topic: SMOKEY STOVER

[Begin excerpt]
. . . Smokey drove around in a two-wheeled firetruck known (to
readers, at least) as The Foomobile . . .
The expression "foo fighter", a term used by UFO enthusiasts, is
traced to Smokey Stover, who often called himself a foo fighter when
anyone else would have said "firefighter".
[End excerpt]

Garson

On Wed, Apr 12, 2023 at 8:25 PM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I first heard about WW2 foo fighters in 1960 or so
>
> They were "explained" as cockpit reflections, the moon, Venus, and St.
> Elmo's fire.
>
> So obvious....
>
> JL
>
> On Wed, Apr 12, 2023 at 8:11 PM Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
> wrote:
>
> > Apparently a WWII (or, the above suggests, a slightly pre-WWII) designation
> > for what we now call UFOs.  Who knew?  (Well, probably some of you, but not
> > me.)
> >
> >
> >
> > https://www.sandboxx.us/blog/lets-talk-about-foo-fighters-no-not-dave-grohls-band/
> >
> > (There's also a wikipedia page, but nothing that would predict occurrences
> > as early as 1939, much less in Texas and Indiana. But typos seems unlikely.
> > Maybe time-travelers--there are a lot of time-travel scenarios set during
> > that period.)
> >
> > LH
> >
> > On Wed, Apr 12, 2023 at 4:33 PM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
> > wrote:
> >
> > > OED: 1945
> > >
> > > 1939  _Tyler [Tex.] Morning Telegraph_ (July 15) 6: Standings in the
> > Peewee
> > > baseball league...Dead End Kids...Junior
> > > Trojans...Wildcats...Dooflunkies...Foo Fighters.
> > >
> > > 1939 _Franklin [Ind.] Evening Star_ (Sept. 22) 4: Volley ball..."Black
> > > Panthers," "Golden Panthers," "Foo Fighters," and "Sterling Flashes."
> > >
> > > Weird typos?  Or just weird?
> > >
> > > 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
> >
>
>
> --
> "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