[Ads-l] Etymology of Flack (Corrected Posting)

Wed Jan 17 01:24:20 UTC 2024

"John B. Flack" and "Gene Flack" were real people, with nationwide profiles in sales and advertising.

John Brooks Flack (Syracuse), founded and ran an advertising firm located in Syracuse.  Advertisements and references to his firm can be found in entertainment periodicals, primarily radio and television periodicals (on LANTERN media history website), from as early as 1931.  I believe one reference to his company in Variety.  He and his firm were reported to have won national advertising awards, and John B. Flack spoke at some national conventions of advertisers.  In business as early as 1922 in Syracuse, said to have formed his advertising agency in 1931.  He died in 1952.

Eugene ("Gene") W. Flack (Bronxville, New York), was a long-time sales and advertising chief for Sunshine crackers (and associated companies).  He was a very well known, and high-demand speaker on the after-dinner circuit, and on the sales and advertising force inspirational speaking circuit.  He was known for being a frequent flier and an early advocate for using psychology in sales.  Sometimes described as a "humorist."  He does not appear to have had his principle office in Chicago, but he was from Chicago, and attended Northwestern University (1915), where he played water basketball - it was a thing.  His association with Sunshine Crackers (or Loose-Wiles Inc, parent company) began in early 1920s.  An announcement of one of his speaking engagements in 1937 referred to him as, "a combination of entertainer, speaker and merchandiser."  There are quite a few references to talks by him in entertainment industry periodicals on LANTERN media history website.  He spoke, for example, to broadcasters, and to the Film Council of America.  He died in 1961.

It is possible, that either one or both of them, as well known "flacks," were presumed after the fact to be the source of the word, similarly to how an actual tool-maker named Charles Monk was said to have been the origin of "Monkey Wrench," even though he made different types of tools, and was born after the first use of the expression.

Or perhaps one of them was, in fact, the origin of the word?
________________________________
From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
Sent: Tuesday, January 16, 2024 1:27 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Subject: Re: Etymology of Flack (Corrected Posting)

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Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
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Subject:      Re: Etymology of Flack (Corrected Posting)
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Garson does it again. The  "John B. Flack" ad agency seems a more likely
allusive origin than Gene Flack. Ad agencies are composed of flacks and
flack-like individuals.

How prominent was the Flack agency?

JL

JL

On Tue, Jan 16, 2024 at 3:58=E2=80=AFPM ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole@=
gmail.com>
wrote:

> Fascinating topic. The Walter Winchell discussion of "flack" in
> January 1939 is intriguing. Here is a link to my message containing
> that citation back in 2013.
>
> https://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2013-March/125973.html
>
> The OED has an entry for the verb form of flack.
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> flack VERB 2
> North American colloquial.
> 1. intransitive. To act as a press agent or promoter (for a person);
> hence, in extended use, to disseminate favourable publicity or
> information; to proselytize.
> 2. transitive. To promote or speak in favour of (a person or thing),
> to =E2=80=98sell=E2=80=99; to retail or disseminate (information, etc.) t=
o this end.
> [End excerpt]
>
> The first OED citation given for the intransitive sense is dated 1966,
> and the first OED citation for the transitive sense is dated 1975.
>
> Here is a 1934 citation for the transitive sense.
>
> Date: November 20, 1934
> Periodical: Variety, Los Angeles, California
> Section: Times Square: CHATTER; Article: Hollywood
> Quote Page 61, Column 5
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> Fox has reaped Jack Mulcahy, ex-advance man for George White, from his
> orange grove to flack the 'Scandals' unit at the Sheehan lot.
> [End excerpt]
>
> Here is a 1935 citation for the intransitive sense.
>
> Date: September 4, 1935
> Periodical: Variety, Los Angeles, California
> Section: Times Square: CHATTER; Article: Hollywood
> Quote Page 61, Column 1
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> Jack Lewis, former Hays office p. a., flacking for ad agency.
> [End excerpt]
>
> I decided to explore the verb form because of the following claim
> about the origin of "flack".
>
> Date: Summer 2006
> Journal: Public Relations Quarterly; Volume 51 Number 2
> Article: PR's 'Implausible Deniabilities'
> Author: Wes Pederson
> Start Page 3, Quote Page 4, Column 2
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> You probably think "flack" derives from the word "flak," short for a
> German antiaircraft gun (and the shrapnel it dispensed in air in World
> War II.). Not so. It originated in the early years of the last century
> when Variety magazine, recognizing the outstanding ability of Gene
> Flack in promoting films, began saluting his skills by using
> "flacking" instead of "publicizing."
> [End excerpt]
>
> Yet, it appears that the noun form preceded the verb form. The
> snippets posted by Fred appeared in 1933, and they look great, but it
> would be nice to see the full context to make certain that they are
> not using Flack as a last name. Snippets can be garbled and can skip
> words.
>
> Apparently, the snippets appeared in Daily Variety instead of Weekly
> Variety because I have not been able to find the corresponding
> citations within the limited databases I can access. The database at
> variety.com contains Daily Variety, but it is expensive, and I do not
> have access to it.
>
> Here are some later citations for "flack" as a noun in 1934.
>
> Date: June 19, 1934
> Periodical: Variety
> Periodical Location: Los Angeles, California
> Section: Pictures
> Article: Debs With Pic Yen Tilt Horn Of Plenty for Blurb Buildups
> Article Continuation Title: Deb's Pic Yen
> Start Page 3, Quote Page 36, Column 6
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> Flacks at Radio studio will tell you that Hazel Forbes has so many
> potatoes that her weekly stipend is donated to worthy charities. And
> that's what sizzles the Hollywood mob. They feel that she's taking
> some poor kid's job away from her and that it ain't right.
> [End excerpt]
>
> Date: September 11, 1934
> Periodical: Variety, Los Angeles, California
> Section: Literati
> Article: Bang Up Newspaper Rivalry
> Quote Page 57, Column 1
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> Francis Lauffer of the Citizen and Joe Mills for the State Journal
> were the competitors. Both had come in on the same plane with the
> singing actress. They had the studio flacks in a sweat getting stills,
> and in a Solomon spot as to how to divide them.
> [End excerpt]
>
> There are instances of the name Flack in Variety between 1930 and
> 1933. Here are three examples.
>
> Date: January 26, 1932
> Periodical: Variety, Los Angeles, California
> Section: Times Square: CHATTER
> Article: New Haven
> Quote Page 47, Column 2
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> Looked like old times with Leo Flack's bald conk around the Paramount.
> [End excerpt]
>
> Date: June 13, 1933
> Periodical: Variety, Los Angeles, California
> Section: RADIO CHATTER
> Article: East
> Quote Page 36, Column 4
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> Thomas B. Robinson, merchandizing visualizer for WSYR, Syracuse. N.
> Y., since its affiliation with NBC, has resigned to join the John B.
> Flack general advertising agency here.
> [End excerpt]
>
> Date: July 4, 1933
> Periodical: Variety
> Periodical Location: Los Angeles, California
> Section: Variety House Reviews
> Article: Million Dollar, L. A.
> Quote Page 15, Column 5
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> Alvarado and Jean, ballroom dancers, follow, revealing class. During a
> costume change Julita Conin, Spanish warbler, fills in with a combo
> Spanish-American song that fits in oke. Flack Bros., xylophonists,
> play classical and pop numbers with precision and have no trouble
> registering.
> [End excerpt]
>
> Here is an excerpt from a 1970 book presenting an attempt to trace flack.
>
> Date: 1970 Copyright
> Book: The Language of Journalism: A Glossary of Print-Communications Term=
s
> Author: Ruth Kimball Kent
> Quote Page 14
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> The origin of FLACK, for press agent, seems impossible to track down.
> The American dictionaries have only a question mark for etymology, and
> the slang dictionaries give no clue. The only one to make an attempt
> is Mencken, who says.
>
> Variety calls press agents flacks, a World War II term for
> antiaircraft fire . . .
>
> The connection seems tenuous, and etymologists apparently steer clear
> of this hypothesis. It could just as likely have come from the
> dialectal English flack, (perhaps now archaic) meaning "to flap or
> flutter," as given in the Oxford English and Century dictionaries.
> [End excerpt]
>
> Garson
>
> On Mon, Jan 15, 2024 at 4:18=E2=80=AFPM Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.=
edu>
> wrote:
> >
> > I see a column in the Cincinnati Enquirer, 22 Jan. 1939, by some guy
> named Walter Winchell, who I think was somewhat knowledgeable about the
> entertainment world and the media.  Winchell wrote: "Variety, which is
> trying to coin 'Flack' as a synonym for press agent (without much luck)
> might like to know it was born in the Chicago offices of Gene Flack, a fi=
lm
> publicist."
> >
> > Fred Shapiro
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
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>

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