[Ads-l] Antedating of "Geronimo"
James Eric Lawson
jel at NVENTURE.COM
Tue Jan 10 08:25:32 UTC 2023
The following citations, etc., are part of the missing
historical evidence of the origin of the 'Geronimo!'
exclamation, as yet unacknowledged (to date) by OEDO et al.
These may constitute part of what John Simpson called an
"unrecognized prehistory" (_The Word Detective_, 2016, p 121)
of the word.
POMP MARKS PAGEANT
Type: Newspaper Article
Author: Scripps-McRae Press Associates
URL: https://www.newspapers.com/clip/116113476/pomp-marks-pageant/
Place: Cincinnati, Ohio
Pages: 3/1-2
Publication: The Cincinnati Post
Date: 1905-03-04
Archive: newspapers.com
Extract: LO, GERONIMO! (headline)
[Geronimo's story of his life
Type: Book
Author: Geronimo
Author: S. M. (Stephen Melvil) Barrett
Contributor: University of California Libraries
URL: https://archive.org/details/geronimosstoryof00gerorich/page/54/mode/2up
Place: New York
Publisher: New York : Duffield & Co.
Date: 1906
Accessed: 1/9/2023, 11:19:17 AM
# of Pages: 310
Archive: Internet Archive
Extract: Geronimo’s Indian name was Go khlä yeh, but the
Mexicans at this battle called him Geronimo, a name he has
borne ever since both among the Indians and white men. [p
54]
Term: Geronimo! [Exclamation not used; background
information regarding Geronimo’s name supplied by S.M.
Barrett.]]
Apache agent: the story of John P. Clum
Type: Book
Author: Woodworth Clum
Contributor: Internet Archive
URL:
https://archive.org/details/apacheagentstory0000clum/page/28/mode/2up?q=cry
Place: Lincoln, Nebraska
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 978-0-8032-0967-1 978-0-8032-5886-0
Date: 1936 (1978 printing)
Accessed: 1/9/2023, 11:26:24 AM
Abstract: [8] leaves of plates; "A Bison book"; 1978 reprint of the 1936
ed. published by Houghton Mifflin, New York.
# of Pages: 342
Archive: Internet Archive
Extract: When dawn came and the battle was resumed,
Gokliya was not content to fight according to Apache
custom, from behind rocks and greasewood bushes. Instead,
he rushed into the open many times, running zigzag and
dodging so that bullets from the rurales’ rifles did not
hit him. Each time he ran out this way, he killed a rurale
with his hunting knife, took the rurale’s rifle and
cartridges, and ran zigzag back again to his people.
Gokliya did not know how to use the rifles, so he gave
them to other Apache warriors, who had served with
Cochise, chief of the Chiricahuas, and had learned how to
use them. So fearlessly did Gokliya fight that the Mexican
rurales became more cautious, and when they saw Goklya
come out into the open, with only his hunting knife as a
weapon, they would shout, ‘Cuidado! Cuidado! Geronimo!’
(‘Look out! Be careful! Here comes Geronimo!’) [p 28-9]
The Apaches were quick to see that the rurales were afraid
of Gokliya. They did not know why they called him
‘Geronimo’; thought it might be the name of some god who
did not like the rurales. So when Gokliya would jump out
from be- hind a rock or tree and run swiftly toward a
Mexican, the Apaches also shouted ‘Geronimo,’ until it
became the common battle-cry. Toward evening, when
sun-tints on the mountains changed to purple, the Mexicans
ceased to fight, and went back on the trail from which
they had come. The Chiricahuas rejoiced in their victory.
Three of the rurales’ ponies had been killed in the
fighting, and Apache women made them into meat for eating.
At the feast, Gokliya was made much of, but all of his
people now called him Geronimo, and not Gokliya.
Always thereafter, Geronimo was his name. [p 29]
Extract: As this unusual and somewhat historical
procession stepped down off the porch, led by Sergeant Rip
and Nachee, followed by Geronimo and his sub-chiefs, with
a rear guard of Beauford and half a dozen Apache police,
the rank and file of the renegades were dumbfounded.
Geronimo always had claimed a charmed life, and his people
had believed him. He had often boasted that he never would
be captured or killed. At many campfires for many years,
he had retold the story of the battle of Kiskayah, against
the Mexicans, when his name was changed from ‘Gokliya’ to
‘Geronimo.’ And when he would repeat that battle-cry of
the Mexicans, ‘Cuidado, Geronimo; Cuidado, Geronimo,’ his
listeners in unison would echo, ‘Cuidado, Geronimo; enju.’
But now the great Geronimo, humiliated and a prisoner, was
being marched past the very noses of his followers. Much
as they had come to believe in his omnipotence, they now
had to believe their eyes. [p 226]
Extract: ‘Geronimo! Geronimo!!’ the crowd yells
frantically. Hats are tossed in the air.
‘Geronimo! Hooray for Geronimo!’ [p 291]
Comment: Account of battle in which Geronimo! became the
battle-cry and Gokliya’s name. Book by Woodward Clum, John
P. Clum’s son.
'Geronimo' Is Yell of the 'Chute Boys
Type: Newspaper Article
Author: Henry M'Lemore
URL:
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/116152654/geronimo-is-yell-of-the-chute-boys/
Place: Hammond, Indiana
Pages: 1/1
Publication: The Hammond Times
Date: 1941-06-22
Accessed: 1/9/2023, 8:37:17 PM
Short Title: Observer Hears Battalion Cheer on Way to Earth
Archive: newspapers.com
Extract: ‘Geronimo’ Is Yell of the ‘Chute Boys (headline)
Extract: I’ve no business writing this story because it’s
not down my alley, but somehow I feel this country needs
to know about the battle cry “Geronimo, Geronimo.”
Extract: As they fell they yelled “Geronimo, Geronimo” and
they were still yelling it when they pounded to earth.
Extract: No one knows just how the cry was adopted. One of
the early chutists yelled the famed chieftain’s name, and
they’ve all been yelling it ever since.
Look Out Below! (Geronimo!) (Song Of The Paratroops)
Type: Audio Recording
Performer: Fred Waring and His Pennsylvanians
Performer: Fred Waring
Performer: Jack Dolph
Contributor: Internet Archive
URL:
http://archive.org/details/78_look-out-below-geronimo-song-of-the-paratroops_fred-waring-and-his-pennsylvan_gbia0071899f
Date: 1942
Accessed: 1/7/2023, 12:28:06 AM
Label: Decca
Performer: Fred Waring and His Pennsylvanians
Writer: Fred Waring; Jack Dolph
Archive: Internet Archive
Extract: [song title on record label:] Look Out Below!
(Geronimo!) (Song Of The Paratroops)
Comment: Possibly the song referred to by Winters in
_Beyond Band of Brothers_ (2006). Not related to Charles
Thatcher’s 19th century Australian ballad “Look out
below”. Relationship to Larry E. Johnson’s 1924 copyright
“Look out below” not discoverable by me at this time.
[Catalog of copyright entries. Part 3: Musical compositions.
Type: Catalog
Author: Library of Congress
URL:
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiug.30112042370772&view=1up&seq=700&q1=look%20out%20below
Pages: 1794/2
Publication: Catalogue of copyright entries. Part 3, Musical compositions
Date: 1942 Nov 9 [entry copyright date]
Publisher: Library of Congress, Copyright Office.
Accessed: 1/7/2023, 12:37:04 AM
Archive: HathiTrust
Extract: “Look out below”; w & m Fred Waring and Jack
Dolph c Nov. 9, 1942.
Comment: Informational citation regarding 1942 song
elsewhere parenthetically titled (Geronimo!) and (Song of
the Paratroops).]
Geronimo: the man, his time, his place
Type: Book
Author: Angie Debo
Contributor: Internet Archive
URL:
https://archive.org/details/geronimomanhisti00debo/page/12/mode/2up?q=cry
Place: Norman, Oklahoma
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
ISBN: 978-0-8061-1333-3
Date: 1976
Accessed: 1/9/2023, 8:53:28 PM
# of Pages: 512
Archive: Internet Archive
Extract: Into this setting Geronimo was born. He was given
the name Goyahkla, with the generally accepted meaning
“One Who Yawns,” why or under what circumstances is not
known One can guess that yawning was the habit of a sleepy
baby, but no characterization could have been more
inappropriate to the energetic spitir that marked his
personality. Some aged Fort Sill Apaches suggest a name
slightly different in pronunciation, with the meaning
“intelligent, shrewd, clever.” As an adult, he became
known by the Mexicans as Geronimo, and this name was
adopted even by his own people. The Spanish-Apache feud
had been inherited by the Mexicans after their
independence; and according to one story, in a battle with
them he was fighting like a fiend, charging out repeatedly
from cover, killing an enemy with every sally and
returning with the dead man’s rifle. Each time he
emerged, the Mexicans began to cry out in terror,
“Cuidado! Watch out! Geronimo!” (Perhaps this was as close
as they could come to the choking sounds that composed his
name, or perhaps they were calling on St. Jerome.) The
Apaches took it up as their battle cry, and Goyahkla
became Geronimo. [p 13] [Cross-referenced by Debo to
_Apache Agent_ (op. cit. Clum) and _Geronimo_ (op. cit.
Barrett).]
Comment: This work is cited as the standard biography of
Geronimo by later authors, for example Utley in _Geronimo_
(below), 2012, pp x, 278.
Paratrooper!: the saga of U.S. Army and Marine parachute and glider
combat troops during World War II
Type: Book
Author: Gerard M. Devlin
Contributor: Internet Archive
URL:
https://archive.org/details/paratrooper00stma/page/n15/mode/2up?q=geronimo
Place: New York
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
ISBN: 978-0-312-59654-5
Date: 1979
Accessed: 1/9/2023, 9:19:28 PM
Library Catalog: Internet Archive
# of Pages: 746
Archive: Internet Archive
Extract: In the last analysis, it was a proper decision to
reject all of the above and, instead to inscribe on the
silver shield below the Ojibway Thunderbird, the cry of
triumph which had issued so explosively from Sergeant
Aubrey Eberhardt’s lips on that eventful day in the fall
of 1940: GERONIMO! And thus it came to pass. [p xiii]
Extract: “To prove to you that I’m not scared out of my
wits when I jump, I’m gonna yell ‘Geronimo’ loud as hell
when I go out that door tomorrow!”
See that Eberhardt was fighting mad, and not wanting to
anger the big man further (when Eberhardt got a little
angry it was most unwise, and unhealthy, to make him
angrier), everone agreed that his idea of yelling
“Geronimo” when he jumped was excellent.
… By this time, word had spread throughout the test
platoon concerning Eberhardt’s plan to yell “Geronimo!”
when he made his jumpt that day. Everyone wondered if he
would really be able to do it.
… With jumpers continuing to spill from the plane, a loud
“Geronimo” shout, accompanied by an Indian war wheep,
could be clearly heard like a clap of thunder. Without
knowing it at the time, Private Aubrey Eberhradt had just
originated what was to become the jumping yell of the
American paratroopers. [p 70]
Extract: The entire test platoon picked up the yell,
shouting “Geronimo!” each time they went out the door on
practice jumps. [p 71]
Extract: All circumstances and events surrounding the
origination of the Geronimo yell were related personally
to the author during a June 1973 interview with Eberhardt
at his home in Roberta, Georgia. [p 673]
From Benning to Shanks
Type: Book Section
Book Title: Beyond band of brothers
Author: Richard D. Winters
URL:
https://archive.org/details/beyondbandofbrot00wint/page/41/mode/2up?q=Geronimo
Publisher: Berkley Caliber
Pages: 304
ISBN: 978-0-425-20813-7
Date: 2006 Feb
Accessed: 1/7/2023, 12:47:53 AM
Archive: Internet Archive
Extract: By this time, Easy Company had emerged as the
strongest company in the regiment and the 506th PIR had
become a source of pride to every soldier who wore its
regimental patch. One of the popular songs on the radio
was called “Geronimo,” and it was rapidly adopted as the
paratroopers’ song. “Geronimo” became the password that
paratroopers were supposed to holler when they jumped, but
Sink would have none of it in the 506th. [p 41]
On 1/2/23 17:26, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> Maybe she shouted because the sudden appearance of Geronimo
> in person made her want to jump out of her seat?
Or, like the Mexicans in the battle when Geronimo got his
name, she shouted in fear? or, like the Apaches in the same
battle, she shouted to frighten the stranger accosting her in
the theater? So many possibilities exist, some admittedly more
likely than others.
>
> In any case, it's hard to connect this incident, reported in
> December, 1939, with the various Ft. Benning Geronimos more
> than a year later.
>
> JL
>
> On Mon, Jan 2, 2023 at 7:34 PM James Eric Lawson
> <jel at nventure.com> wrote:
>
>> The movie promoted the shout. So (at least, pending better
>> evidence):
>>
>> [1939 _Arizona Daily Star_ (Tucson) Geronimo...the red
>> savage whose name was a battle-cry of vengeance...is headed
>> this way! 24 Nov 12/6-7]
>>
>> And the article doesn't say (although it might *seem* to
>> imply) the woman "shouted because she suddenly recognized
>> the actor". The ambivalence is nicely managed.
>>
>> On 1/2/23 15:10, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>>> But the only individual actually uttering the name
>>> "Geronimo" in any of these exx. seems to be the film-going
>>> lady mentioned on Dec. 17, 1939.
>>>
>>> And she shouted because she suddenly recognized the actor
>>> "Chief Thundercloud" (Victor Daniels), who played
>>> Geronimo, sitting in front of her at a showing of that
>>> very film.
>>>
>>> JL
>>>
>>> On Mon, Jan 2, 2023 at 3:58 PM James Eric Lawson
>>> <jel at nventure.com>
>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> As for other US idioms, OEDO has failed us on "Geronimo!"
>>>> The rumored yell was rumored well in advance of the
>>>> 501st's adoption and the 1939 movie, although the 1939
>>>> clip following may partly explain the 501st's adoption:
>>>>
>>>> 1901 _The Intelligencer_ (Anderson, South Carolina) 30
>>>> Jan 7/3 "What a death to die!" said Sieve to the major,
>>>> and In reply, while Mike Grimes and Steve stood with
>>>> uncovered heads, the major lifted his face to the stars
>>>> and uttered Geronimo's yell.
>>>>
>>>> https://www.newspapers.com/clip/115659442/geronimo/
>>>>
>>>> 1927 _Arizona Republic_ (Phoenix) 23 Apr 4/3 At the
>>>> conclusion of her talk, Mrs. Greenway was greeted with
>>>> the Camp Geronimo yell of the
>> Scouts.
>>>>
>>>> https://www.newspapers.com/clip/115659946/geronimo/
>>>>
>>>> 1939 _Star Tribune_ (Minneapolis, Minnesota) 17 Dec 47/8
>>>> "Geronimo!" she yelled.
>>>>
>>>> https://www.newspapers.com/clip/115660275/geronimo/
>>>>
>>>> On 1/2/23 10:35, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>>>>> I think I'm the first educator/ lexicographer to seek
>>>>> out _Geronimo!_ (1939) [note exclamation point] to gain
>>>>> insight into the adoption of
>> the
>>>>> Apache chief's name as the war cry of the 501st
>>>>> Parachute Battalion.
>> Just
>>>>> by the way, it may be the only film in Hollywood history
>>>>> in which Andy Devine turns out tbe the real hero.
>>>>>
>>>>> In any case, I was hoping I'd see somebody jump off a
>>>>> cliff, if not out
>>>> of
>>>>> an airplane, shouting "Geronimo!" Just as good would be
>>>>> 2,000 mounted Apache warriors yelling "Geronimo!" in
>>>>> unison as they attack the
>>>> seemingly
>>>>> helpless patrol of 16 cavalrymen. (The official numbers
>>>>> mentioned in
>> the
>>>>> script: guess who wins?)
>>>>>
>>>>> But no. The only actual shouting of "Geronimo!" comes at
>>>>> the start when
>>>> an
>>>>> anonymous horseman gallops into a settlement and cries
>>>>> "Geronimo!" to
>>>> warn
>>>>> that the Apache is again on the warpath.
>>>>>
>>>>> Since Fred's source reports that "Geronimo, Geromimo"
>>>>> was being shouted
>>>> all
>>>>> over the 501st's area at Ft. Benning "a thousand times a
>>>>> day," it may
>> not
>>>>> have been specifically jump-related at all. It may have
>>>>> started simply
>> as
>>>>> an encouragement to any kind of urgent action.
>>>>>
>>>>> JL
>>>>>
>>>>> On Sun, Jan 1, 2023 at 10:36 AM Jonathan Lighter <
>> wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com
>>>>>
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> You're correct. I need stronger glasses.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> JL
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Sun, Jan 1, 2023 at 10:34 AM ADSGarson O'Toole <
>>>>>> adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Here is a link to the article which credits Private
>>>>>>> Aubrey Eberhardt with first using the term during a
>>>>>>> parachute jump.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Article title: Paramount's 1939 western GERONIMO ... a
>>>>>>> forgotten
>> movie
>>>>>>> with a giant legacy Author: Ed Howard
>>>>>>> https://www.b-westerns.com/geronimo.htm
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> The above link was posted by Peter Reitan back in
>>>>>>> January 2017.
>>>>>>>
>>>>
>> https://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2017-January/146001.html
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Bill Mullins posted a citation dated April 29, 1941
>>>>>>> for Geronimo back in October 2016. I cannot find a
>>>>>>> citation dated April 19, 1941 from Bill for Geronimo.
>>>>
>> https://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2016-October/144693.html
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Garson
>>>>>>>
--
James Eric Lawson
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